Cooking for one: 6 tips to keep things practical, flexible and fun - Washington Post

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Cooking for one: 6 tips to keep things practical, flexible and fun - Washington Post

Cooking for one: 6 tips to keep things practical, flexible and fun - Washington Post

Posted: 18 Jan 2021 07:00 AM PST

"You might have roommates, you might be partnered, but we're all spending way more time at home, and we're all having to kind of do everything, and that includes cooking," says cookbook author Klancy Miller, who has seen a resurgence of interest in her 2016 book, "Cooking Solo: The Fun of Cooking for Yourself."

In addition to stay-at-home efforts intended to limit contact with other people, Miller sees the solo-cooking boom prompted by the closure of restaurants and the financial pinch experienced by people who may be less able to afford eating out (or, more likely, in via takeout).

Chef and cookbook author Anita Lo, who published "Solo: A Modern Cookbook for a Party of One" in 2018, sees another important angle to mounting the effort to cook for yourself. "Because our mental health is at risk at this point, it's really important" to take care of your body. "Cooking a meal is something you can control."

Here's some advice from the two experienced solo cooks to help you eat well and feel more confident and relaxed, too.

What have been your go-to meals and strategies for solo cooking during the pandemic? Share in the comments below.

Shop and stock smart. Be sure to have a list, Miller says. That helps you plan and not spend more than you intend, but these days it means you can get in and out of the store quicker — important in a pandemic. She recommends keeping ingredients on hand that last well and lend themselves to using as much or as little as you need, which is key for a single cook. Shelf-stable options such as rice, beans and lentils fall into both categories. Eggs and some produce (carrots, potatoes, onions, cabbage) are good standbys.

Still, larger quantities can be an issue for solo cooks. "I think it's a problem that everything in the grocery store is packaged for a family of four," Lo says. "I think it's a little oppressive, in my opinion." Lo suggests two strategies. One is to go to places where you can buy exactly what you need — straight to the butcher, fishmonger and farmers market. The other is to break down larger packages into smaller amounts. This is easy to do with something like chicken thighs, ground meat or even slices of bread. "I think you need to get comfortable with your freezer," Lo advises, adding that a vacuum sealer can be especially helpful here.

Prepare ingredients that can be used in a variety of ways. This is where Miller leans in heavily on something like a batch of lentils, which she'll combine with rice or vegetables and incorporate into a soup. Food editor Joe Yonan offered this blueprint for a pot of beans last year, which included a tortilla salad, tacos and toast. Cookbook author Katie Workman devised a plan for intentional leftovers with ways to reinvent sheet pan roast chicken and grilled sausages. Miller says the classic roast — or store-bought rotisserie — chicken is always a possibility, ready to be used in sandwiches, soup and more.

Make meals you can stash away for later. Plenty of solo — and other — cooks are not interested in days and days of the same leftovers. That doesn't mean never making a larger-scale recipe. Consider dishes that are easy to freeze, portion and defrost and that you'll thank yourself for later. The additional effort spent up front will pay off in the long run. Lo recommends dumplings as one option, as well as lasagna and spanakopita. I almost always have a stash of cooked meatballs in the freezer, which save the day fairly often when feeding a kid. Stews and soups are other freezer-friendly meals. Even if you don't want to eat the same thing every day, "you don't have to cook every day," Lo says.

Keep flavorful staples on hands to help you dress up or improvise a meal. Miller says that as pandemic cooking fatigue set in, she started relying on prepared sauces to zest up her meals, citing Haven's Kitchen and Brooklyn Delhi as two of her favorites. She also recommends Basbaas Somali Foods, whose coconut cilantro chutney is a favorite of my colleague, G. Daniela Galarza. When Miller feels like making something from scratch, she turns to a lemon garlic tahini sauce. These condiments are the types of things that can be added to those premade staples — rice, beans, roasted vegetables, etc. — for a quick meal without a lot of effort.

But you don't even have to commit to a full-blown sauce. Lo endorses keeping ingredients such as lemongrass and ginger in the freezer, which add instant flavor to an improvised soup or stir-fry.

Scale down recipes with care. Not surprisingly, given that they both wrote cookbooks about cooking for one, Lo and Miller generally favor seeking out recipes already designed for one rather than trying to scale down recipes with more servings. "It's a lot easier to multiply than to divide," Lo says.

That's not to say it can't be done, at least for some recipes. To make the math easier, Miller says try to stick to halving a recipe that was developed to serve 4. "Maybe you're really hungry or if you like it, maybe you'll be excited about leftovers," she says. Once you start, say, quartering a recipe, you may veer too far away from how it was originally developed, which is always a gamble.

Reducing the quantity of ingredients is not the only step. You will probably need to cut back the cooking time and possibly the size of your equipment — a saucy curry for four originally designed to be cooked in a 12-inch skillet, for example, will not necessarily work as well when scaled down and kept in that same pan. Lo recommends investing in some smaller kitchen hardware. Consider an 8- or 10-inch skillet, a 2-quart saucepan and an immersion/hand blender. Rather than a larger food processor, Lo often uses the chopper attachment to her immersion blender (which you've probably seen in action if you're a regular viewer of "The Great British Baking Show"). Lo strongly recommends a scale, which can be handy for portioning out smaller amounts of proteins and dry goods (pasta, rice, beans, etc.).

Cut yourself some slack. Miller recalls that at the beginning of the pandemic, she dove headfirst into eagerness to cook for herself. In March, April and May 2020, "it was still a pleasurable activity … I was a little more adventurous." Then, "sometime over the summer, it became a chore." She has shifted to trying to keep things simple. "Now in the burnout phase, I don't judge myself. Period."

So manage your expectations. "There's always another meal if you mess up," Miller says. If it's within your budget, get takeout when you need or want to, which has the added advantage of supporting the many restaurants that are suffering these days. Plus, you can always dress up your leftovers, which Miller does.

Just go easy on yourself, regardless of what you decide. "We're all living through an extremely crazy time," Miller says. "That's my pep talk. We can only do so much."

What to Cook This Week - The New York Times

Posted: 24 Jan 2021 07:30 AM PST

Good morning. I love a good bagel debate, love arguing chewiness, size, the slickness of a crust. I love someone explaining the logic behind a cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese and lox, discussing the merits of toasting or not toasting, making a passionate case for flagels, asking, "New York or Montreal?" (I grew up with New York bagels, watched them grow slack and airy and over-large. Now, I prefer what you get in Montreal.) Bagel consideration is important work.

So is making your own (above). Claire Saffitz, working with the incredible team at NYT Cooking, has put together this invaluable guide to making bagels (and an accompanying YouTube video) that not only demystifies the process but makes it possible for home cooks, even beginning home cooks, to master the craft. Today's a good day to lose yourself in that activity, and to bake off a dozen or so shiny rounds for breakfast tomorrow and throughout the week. (Slice and freeze for later use!)

And for dinner? If there's time, give Melissa Clark's new recipe for polenta lasagna a spin. But if there isn't because you got in the weeds with the bagels, ate up the clock, feel too tired to make a proper meal? Fish out that instant ramen I'm always telling you to stock in the pantry, and then scour the refrigerator for stuff to make it perfect instant ramen.

On Monday, how about this awesome creamy leek pasta? And sheet-pan sausage and apples on Tuesday night?

For Wednesday, I'm thinking you could put together this kale salad with cranberries, pecans and blue cheese, although, of course, you don't need to use those ingredients. Some sturdy greens, some dried fruit, some nuts, some cheese, some acidity: you're good. Sometimes I add bread crumbs. Other times, a roast chicken.

Thursday night, you should consider these pork chops with Dijon sauce, which I like with these roasted potatoes.

And on Friday, you can run out the week with a pizza party. How about this cheesy pan pizza to start?

Thousands and thousands more recipes to cook this week are waiting for you on NYT Cooking. Go browse our virtual aisles and see what strikes your fancy. You can save the recipes you like. You should rate the recipes you've cooked. And if you've come up with a recipe hack or ingredient substitution, feel free to leave notes on the recipe, either for yourself or for your fellow subscribers.

Yes, you need a subscription to enjoy all the benefits of NYT Cooking. Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. I hope, if you haven't already, that you will subscribe to NYT Cooking today.

In the meantime, we will be standing by at cookingcare@nytimes.com in case you need or want to get in touch with us. Someone will get back to you, I promise. (No? You can always reach out to me directly: foodeditor@nytimes.com. I read every letter sent.)

Now, it's a long sail from persimmons and Stilton, but I can't get this haunting book review by Andrew O'Hagan in the London Review of Books out of my head. It's about "Sea State," by Tabitha Lasley, an accounting of her time spent amid North Sea oil riggers as a reporter in way too deep.

On a more uplifting note, the poet Amanda Gorman had quite a week, reading at the inauguration of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President Kamala Harris. Do read another of her poems, "In This Place (An American Lyric)," from 2017.

And here's an amazing yarn by Eddy Portnoy in Smithsonian Magazine, on the life and death of a Yiddish puppet theater.

Finally, listen to (and watch!) Otis Rush, "I Can't Quit You Baby." That's how I'd like to make bagels. I'll be back on Monday.

HU Presents set for ‘Just a Taste’ benefit cooking show Tuesday - pennlive.com

Posted: 24 Jan 2021 02:04 PM PST

Harrisburg University Presents will host a live virtual cooking show featuring four renowned Pennsylvania chefs and celebrity chef Roy Choi to benefit hospitality employees across the state adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

"Just a Taste, The Great Pennsylvania Cooking Show," presented in partnership with Dauphin County, will be broadcast live online at Harrisburg University presents' website, www.HUConcertSeries.com, and at HU Presents' Facebook page @HUPresents, according to a release.

Viewers can tune into the show for free and donate to the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association's Hospitality Assistance Response of PA (HARP) fund during the event.

"The hospitality industry is hurting desperately and financial support from the government is lacking, leaving hundreds of businesses and thousands of employees without a safety net," John Longstreet, president and CEO of the PRLA, said in the release. "We are grateful to the organizers of 'Just a Taste' for contributing event proceeds to HARP so we can continue providing relief to frontline hospitality workers who have been impacted by COVID-19, through no fault of their own."

Roy Choi, co-host of the popular Netflix series, "The Chef," will share his talent from California and will participate in a question-and-answer session during the show, the release said.

Other participating chefs include:

To donate, text 'HARP' to 717.220.5661.

The Migrant Kitchen is cooking up opportunities for immigrants - amNY

Posted: 24 Jan 2021 03:05 PM PST

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The restaurant industry has always been a booming one. As human beings we must eat to survive, so starting a food serving location has always been a safe bet for small-business owners—until 2020.

This once prosperous trade has been ravaged and left in shambles thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. While many brick and mortar eateries have either shut their doors or are struggling to stay open, one small kitchen is not only carving out a space for itself in this treacherous food market, but they are also attempting to give back to the community while doing it.

The Migrant Kitchen is a pop-up catering company that began in October 2019 when two close friends—Dan Dorado and Nas Jab—founded their own business that focuses on employing immigrants. Dan Dorado is himself the son of immigrants and a chef in New York City for over 20 years. With this knowledge under his belt, Dorado is aiming to provide immigrant frontline workers who struggle to live off minimum wage a more secure working position, while also making donations to those suffering from food insecurity, serving about 60,000 meals a week to communities in need.

The Migrant Kitchen's menu is a blend of Latin and Arab cuisine. Photo by Dean Moses

Although the Migrant Kitchen does not currently possess a location of their own, they are operating out of what they call a "ghost kitchen." This means they are functioning from another business's unused space, in this case the Dubliner Pub located on 45 Stone Street. Dan Dorado provided amNewYork with a tour of their latest pop-up site. 

"We started off as a catering company that was trying to do a lot of work with immigrants and refugees and offer people more than the minimum wage to start. The hospitality industry here in New York is pretty cutthroat and pretty tough," Dorado said as he deep-fried chicken.

No matter how profitable the food industry was for business owners, Dorado acknowledges that workers at the bottom of the totem pole—especially immigrant employees—did not benefit from that income during the best of times. By empowering immigrants, especially those who specialize in Arab and Latin Food to create a unique cuisine, this kitchen hopes they will begin to get the recognition they deserve. 

Dan Dorado is the co-founder of the Migrant Kitchen. Photo by Dean Moses

"Immigrants are what make this city so great. We want to always make sure that we empower people who would otherwise not be seen in the restaurant industry," Dorado said, who describes his staff as individuals who hail from all around the world. 

Since the Migrant Kitchen has not held a permanent location since its inception in 2019, they have been moving from place to place, from kitchen to kitchen. To Dorado and his team, this has become a running joke, telling amNewYork Metro that "the Migrant Kitchen is migrating again." Still despite this, they founded the roving business on a principle that intends to aid those without access to food.

Through the "No one goes hungry on our watch" initiative, the Migrant Kitchen donates a meal to someone in need with every meal that is purchased. The "Buy a meal, give a meal" program has worked with several council members, food pantries, shelters, and NYCHA sites to offer a helping hand. Some of the elected supporters include Bronx Council Member Ritchie Torres, Manhattan Council Member Carlina Rivera, and Queens Council Member Daniel Dromm.

"There was always a hunger issue, but it has become so much more prominent," Dorado said, poignantly.

The Migrant Kitchen primarily serves delivery through their website. Photo by Dean Moses

The Migrant Kitchen will be serving meals out of the Dubliner Pub for at least the next six months. As much as they yearn for things to return to normal for the good of the industry as a whole, those who currently cook, fry, bake, chop, and season out of the small cookhouse on 45 Stone Street have come to terms with the fact they will to be forced to migrate once more. Dorado told amNewYork Metro that they are on the lookout for a building to call their own, but until that happens, they will be serving deliveries from their website.

You can support The Migrant Kitchen by ordering from their website,  or picking up your meal at the Dubliner Pub at 45 Stone Street. If you want to eat in rather than take out, stop by The Cauldron Magical Pub next door to dine inside of an outdoor bubble designated for The Migrant Kitchen customers.

Dan Dorado shows amNewYork Metro how he prepares biscuits. Photo by Dean Moses


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