Where did the simplicity go?

I read something on the web the other day.  I was looking for some inspiration for recipes - we all need a little inspiration - and saw something that kinda made me stop.  It read something along the line of the art of simplicity fading...Read the whole thing and what it was pretty much about, was how we have lost our sense of taste and unless we add just about a ton of sugar or mayo to our food, we find it tasteless.  I came to thinking that this is actually true...don't get me wrong I don't mean that we don't know what is good from what is bad, or that your taste would be the same as mine.  After all, taste is very subjective and what I find nasty some people grow up to love it and vice versa.  That is different though from what I mean.  What I mean and what the writer of the article I read meant, is that in order to put taste to food that is mass produced and pretty much tasteless they add sugar or too much salt or anything that will make it palatable.  
Let's say you bought a tomato from your local farmer's market.  This tomato had that chance to become ripe while it was on the plant, acquire the smell from it, and when you buy it the sweetness of it is strong on your tongue.  Now, buy a tomato from your grocery store, one that flew 10 hours to get to you (yes I am exaggerating but you get the point) and tell me that you can eat it as is without hiding it in some fatty sauce or adding lot's of salt.  Unfortunately, we have forgotten what it is to eat simply and having the full taste.  What I mean by simply, is letting the ingredients speak for themselves.  Choose local, organic, fresh ingredients that need little additions of flavour enhancers to make them delicious.  And to tell you the truth, that is what greek food is all about.  What people today are promoting (buying locally, sustainably etc) my mom did ever since I can remember when she would go to the farmer's market and ask where this and that was from.  If it was coming from more than 5 hours away by car it would not go on our table, unless it was of course banana or avocado or something "fancy".  
So today we decided to promote simplicity and let the ingredients do the talking, by cooking a dish that has pretty much not many spices and one ingredients that is characteristic to the greek cuisine which is lemon of course.  We decided to combine salmon with a pea puree made the greek way.  In Greece peas are usually eaten as a main course by themselves, cooked with onions, dill, potatoes and lemon, finished with a little butter.  We made a puree of this, sort of like a bedding, where our poached salmon would go accompanied by the lemon and leek sauce that was left after the poaching finished.  Very simple meal and very healthy.  Please try to buy sustainably raised or caught salmon with local ingredients.  Even the peas can be organic frozen peas.  For us here, it is difficult to find many locally grown products - we live in a dessert after all - but when we find them we don't pass the chance!
Try this dish and let us know what you think.  Enjoy the simplicity!
Kali Oreksi!
Kostas, Dia and of course Tony :) 

Poached salmon with peas

Ingredients:

• 450g salmon skin on
  
• 400g frozen peas
  
• 150g potatoes chopped in small cubes
  
• 100g baby leeks sliced in an angle 4cm thick
  
• 2 small onions finely chopped + one small onion finely chopped
• 20ml + 10ml extra virgin olive oil
  
• 40ml white wine
  
• 40g butter
  
• 1 1/2 + 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 1/4 + 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
  
• juice of one lemon
  
• 1 tbs dill
  
• 350ml water
  
• Seaweed chilli caviar (optional)

for more information on how to make the poached salmon with peas please click here