Wyn Drabble: Recipe for simplicity

Wyn Drabble

Nobody has asked me what you can make from just one ingredient so I'm just going to have to tell you.

I'm not talking here of picking up a perfect pear and eating it. No, I'm talking about something which has to go through a cooking process.

I've just done it – I have done it many times before – and it was, as usual, a delicious success. And it reminded me of the USA.

You see, a few years back, we were driving from Memphis to Nashville and Mrs D wanted to add to the American experience by having a donut. She bought a mini-pack of six but only ate a minuscule bit of one. The rest later went to some scavenging birds on a river – possibly the Tallahatchie.

A scan of the ingredient list provides a reason. I have it here with me as I type. Yes, we brought the packaging home with us as proof of the experience.

The ingredient list appeared just below the ironically named table of "Nutrition Facts". I know the brackets in this list don't work but I wanted to present them to you exactly as they appeared on the pack. Are you ready?

Sugar, enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, malted barley flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin B2), folic acid), water, palm oil. 2% or less of each of the following: non-fat dry milk, egg yolks, soy flour, wheat and tapioca starches, wheat germ, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate,sodium aluminum phosphate), corn syrup solids ...

I promise I am only halfway through the list but you get the idea. I do, however, want to point out that another ingredient further down the list was titanium dioxide. I have not made that up.

So, back to my one ingredient. It was sugar and from sugar you can make (adds ellipsis for dramatic effect) ... caramel.

Making caramel from sugar alone is for experienced chefs, not for beginners. Beginners are allowed to cheat by adding a little water. This reduces the danger of burning.

The sugar is cooked until it turns golden brown and, once the first sign of browning occurs, you need to watch it very carefully. Once golden it will quickly darken and become bitter so will need to be thrown out.

Okay, that's the caramel made with one ingredient but it's also time to 'fess up and say that I then added another ingredient because I wanted to turn my caramel into creamy caramel sauce. Once the golden colour was achieved, I stirred in hot cream and my caramel sauce was made.

I was tempted to add titanium dioxide but, alas, I could find none in the kitchen cupboard.

I must say, I came away from the USA thinking that most American food must be created in a laboratory. If they wanted to make raspberry sauce, for example, they would eschew raspberries and head into the laboratory to start playing with test tubes, Bunsen burners and, I'm sure, titanium dioxide.

And, of course, some sort of red colouring. Finger paint, perhaps?

My theory about US food seemed to be borne out when we stopped once for a coffee. There was a whole wall of separate coffee dispensers and I could choose from hazelnut-flavoured coffee, caramel-flavoured coffee (may contain traces of sugar), peppermint-flavoured coffee, titanium dioxide-flavoured coffee and, no doubt, beaver-flavoured coffee.

But, get this! Coffee-flavoured coffee was not an option.

Must run now. I want to have my caramel sauce while it's still warm. I'm going to spoon it over vanilla icecream made from real ingredients.