Minimalist Cooking

I hate most cookbooks. Especially most of the "celebrity" tomes. They're loaded with recipes containing mile long lists of ingredients and complicated preparation and cooking instructions.

Call me simple-minded. I don't give a damn. I believe simple is better. I guess that's why I'm drawn to barbecuing and grilling, because you don't need a dump truck load of ingredients to create wonderful tasting food that will have your friends and family swooning at the table.

One of the most important aspects of cooking-to me- is BALANCE! You want to balance the flavor of the meat with the spices, smoke and sauce you're using. It's ridiculous to purchase a bunch of meat, only to bury its flavor with spices, smoke and sauce. The whole idea of s-s-s is to compliment the flavor of the meat, not compete with it. Does that make sense? YES!

When it comes to making my own rubs, I try and keep my list of spices to no more than six or eight. Salt and sugar are the two foundations to all of my rubs. I've made rubs without salt and they just didn't have any juice to them.

In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with simplicty. Keeping it simple not only saves you time and money in the prep stage, it also allows you to more easily duplicate your recipe again and again. Keep it simple and savor the rewards of tasty eating!