Your best 3 ingredient dish

Cafe Society
1

Salt, pepper and water do not count as ingredients. Anything necessary to eat WITH the prepared dish DO.

Mine is Shiksa Matzo (cuz I don’t think it’s kosher for when kosher counts) It is ridiculously yummy for something so simple.

You have to work FAST and prepare to get hot. That’s why this is the perfect time of year. Making this in summer is just impossibly unpleasant, but it’s tits in the winter.

Turn your oven as high as it will go, let it thoroughly heat up. Mine won’t go higher than 500 degrees, so that’s what I turn it to.

AP flour
Sesame seeds
butter
salt
cracked pepper
water

I have no idea about amounts… start with 2 cups of flour, I guess.
Use warm water, salt it until it is pleasantly salty to your taste
add sesame seeds and cracked pepper to the flour, again, your taste. I go a little nuts

Slowly add the warm salted water to the flour, mixing thoroughly as you go. it shouldn’t be wet, it should be hydrated, but easy to work with. Knead it a few times to get the gluten going.

pull off a small piece of the dough and roll it out as thin as you possibly can. THIN THIN THIN THIN… shape doesn’t matter, rough and jagged is fine, just make sure it’s as uniformly thin as you can make it. (A small piece of dough will spread pretty wide)

Using a cookie sheet upside down (or two! to keep things moving) place the matzo on the back of the hot sheet. cook for one minute. Look at it. If it is still very pale and obviously not very cooked at all, you need a hotter oven, and you need to let it cook another minute. Or two. or whatever it takes until it’s cooked enough for you to turn it over and let it go another minute. Or two. You have to check it constantly, because it can go from seemingly not cooked at all to burned VERY fast.

The ideal degree of cooking is an individual thing, of course, but I recommend nicely browned.

Butter it.

Eat it.

Plotz.

(Cooking up all the dough will leave you with a nice stack of matzo, and if you are a stronger person than me, a nice cracker for soups and whatnot. Me, I find them totally addictive and they don’t last long. A carbohydrate extravaganza.)

So what’s yours?

2

Stadium Nachos: Tortilla chips, nacho cheese and sliced jalapenos.
Deviled eggs: Boiled eggs, mustard and mayo. (Mix the mustard and mayo with the yolks of course)
Chicken wings: Chicken, hot sauce, ranch dressing.

3

So many come to mind…

Lately I’ve been enjoying the hell out of:

  • toasted/grilled baguette rounds

  • country pate

  • horseradish sweet pickle rounds
    Another favourite is:

  • grilled baguette rounds

  • gogonzola (get the good kind)

  • drizzle of honey

4

Boil penne pasta. When almost done, add frozen veggies to the pot. (my favorite is the carrot plus green and yellow bean veg medley. Chop the frozen veggies to penne pasta size before adding!)

When it’s done strain and slather in garlic butter, add fresh ground pepper/salt, to taste!

Yummy vegetarian pasta! It’s quick, it’s easy, the ingredients are dried and frozen and it’s all done in a single pot on the stove top. (Add a salad and some garlic bread, and you’ve a whole meal, suitable for company!)

(Can be altered to include any meat leftovers that might be kicking around. Simply chop small, add cold to the hot pasta, and mix well before serving. A little Parmesan as a garnish, also a nice addition!)

5

Black beans, rice, salsa. With or without tortillas.

6

Scrambled eggs with basil and grated Parmesan cheese.

7

One bourbon, one scotch, one beer. :smiley:

8

Leftover cooked pasta, with spaghetti sauce, topped with shredded mozzarella and heated in the microwave is pretty darn good. (Reheated spaghetti and meatballs is an actual meal, of course, but if there’s just a little pasta and a little sauce for a snack, the mozzarella bumps it up a notch.) Add a little butter and some shredded cheddar and you have macaroni and cheese.

A tortilla or English muffin, spaghetti sauce, shredded mozzarella = pizza.

A tortilla or English muffin, fried egg, cheese. what could be easier?

9

Mac n Cheese

(I’m not real good at math)

10

Slice sweet potatoes, layer in deep dish.
Mix coconut milk and curry paste, pour over potatoes.
Bake at 375 until potatoes are done.
Nom.

11

Never thought about the salsa. Thank you!

Black or red beans - open the can, drain & rinse
Rice - put it in the rice cooker, add the beans and about a half cup more water (ie. 1 cup rice + 1.5 cups water)
Pampered Chef Southwest Seasoning - sprinkle a bunch into the rice cooker

Stir occassionally and wait for the “click.”

12

A little over 3 ingredients, but Sloppy Joes

Lean ground beef (or crumbled veggie burgers for vegetarian version)
finely chopped onions and peppers (can also add celery)
Tomato Paste and other additives

Saute chopped vegetables
Brown ground beef
Add sautéed vegetables and mix well. add tomato paste and seasonings (this can vary. examples are Teriyaki sauce, Bos sauce, Worcestershire sauce, hot oil, or some combination thereof), stir, reduce heat and let simmer. Serve on rolls

13

No brainer:
steak - potato - butter
Bake potato, grill steak, place both on plate and liberally apply butter, salt and pepper.

Close second:
scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, whipped chive cream cheese

14

Pan-fried whole tilapia: Any whole fish that will fit in a pan will do. Pour a 1/2" of vegetable oil in a skillet and put it on medium-high heat. Wash the gutted and scaled fish and pat it dry. Make 3 cuts on each side, then season with salt and pepper inside and out. Stuff the cavity with thin lemon and onion slices. (Carefully) drop the fish in the pan and cook 8 minutes per side. Serve on a bed of rice.

15

I’m trying some of these, they sound awesome! Thanks for this thread!

16

For breakfast:

can of crescent rolls
blueberries
cream cheese

Leave two rolls attached. Spread with cream cheese; place blueberries. Cover with another two-roll rectangle and seal edges together. Bake as directed on can.
(Makes two pastries per can).

17

Sounds like something which would delight the heart of my brother – an omnivorous foodie, also very keen on vegetables, including frozen ones. I’m something of a foodie, but a good deal less enthusiastic about vegetables – especially frozen ones, which I tend to find decidedly “meh”.

Is there any chance that vegetable / olive oil might be admitted as “not counting” (after all, to be pedantic, elbows’s garlic butter might be challenged as two ingredients :slight_smile: ) ?

If so: make a helping – whatever size – of boiled rice. Chop an onion, and fry in the oil. Grate, or chop finely, a hunk of mature cheddar cheese. Combine all, seasoning with salt and pepper.

18

One bunch of watercress
One leak
One potato

Chop it all up and everything in a pot and cover with bubbling water for 20-25 minutes.

Whirr with a stick blender, salt and pepper to your taste.

Awesome healthy cold weather soup!

19
  • Brown a pound of ground sausage, mild or hot, in a large skillet. Don’t drain.
  • Add two cans of dark red kidney beans with the liquid to the sausage and let heat while you~
  • Fix a box of Uncle Ben’s wild rice. When done, add to sausage & beans and mix.

Goes good with cornbread.

20

Pasta with bacon and onions:
Halfway cook bacon on low-ish heat to render fat.
Turn up heat to medium, add chopped onion to soften.
Turn up heat to med-high, add leftover cooked pasta until everything has golden-brown edges.

My version of nachos: tortilla chips, mozzarella cheese, minced onion.

Scrambled eggs: eggs, splash of milk, minced green onion or chive. (Plus salt.)

Chicken wings: place wings skin-side up on foil-lined sheet, salt skin, top with thin slices of butter. Bake at 400F (I use my trusty toaster oven) until skin is golden-brown and crispy, about half an hour. 3rd ingredient = beverage of choice while wings are cooking.

Quinoa salad: quinoa simmered in chicken broth with chopped {veg of choice} served chilled.