Cooking for one: keeping it practical, flexible and fun - The Keene Sentinel |
- Cooking for one: keeping it practical, flexible and fun - The Keene Sentinel
- Cooking with CBD - KOIN.com
- What to Cook This Weekend - The New York Times
- For the love of cooking and dogs: Wakefield teen whips up the perfect paperback - WPRI.com
- A local musician is making ends meet by cooking Persian and Armenian meals - Time Out Chicago
|
Cooking for one: keeping it practical, flexible and fun - The Keene Sentinel Posted: 23 Jan 2021 03:00 AM PST  Many of us have been spending more time at home over the past 10 months, and a lot more of that time has been spent alone. With the coronavirus pandemic cutting off access to friends and social circles, and all the places we used to gather, that's no surprise. And if you're by yourself, you've most likely been cooking for one. "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. Shop and stock smart. Be sure to have a list, Miller says. That helps you not only plan and spend no more than you intend, but these days it also means you can get in and out of the store more quickly — important in a pandemic. She recommends keeping ingredients on hand that keep 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. For ingredients that are hard to buy in smaller quantities, find ways to preserve them, such as herb pastes or sauces that can be frozen with some olive oil. Quick pickles and blanching then freezing produce are two other ways to buy yourself more time. 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. 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, soups 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. 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. 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 — 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 four. "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). Miller says she rarely bothers scaling down baked goods, preferring to give away extras to friends. 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."  |
|
Posted: 22 Jan 2021 09:11 AM PST   PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — CBD has been growing in popularity as advocates say its a natural remedy for some common ailments. Superfood Chef and best-selling cookbook author Julie Morris joined AM Extra to share some ideas to try. Recipe for Blood Orange Quinoa Salad with Roasted Beets & Almonds This well-balanced, CBD-inclusive dish takes advantage of the beautiful flavor of blood orange to effectively turn "simple" into "special." Adjust the amount of CBD you include in the dressing based on the number of servings you'd like to enjoy of the salad. (Recipe serves 2 as a main dish, or 4 as a side dish.) Ingredients:
First, toast the almonds: In a small pan, toast the nuts over medium-low heat for several minutes until lightly golden and fragrant, stirring to prevent burning. Transfer the nuts to a bowl to cool and set aside. Next, make the quinoa: Combine the quinoa and water in a saucepan over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer until all the water has evaporated – about 15 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and let it sit for 5 minutes, then fluff with a fork. Transfer the quinoa to a bowl, and let cool to room temperature. Finally, assemble the salad: In a large mixing bowl, combine the olive oil, vinegar, maple syrup, Lazarus Naturals Blood Orange High Potency CBD Isolate Tincture, and sea salt. Whisk together until emulsified. Add the roasted beets, oranges, and chives and mix well. Add the cooked quinoa and arugula. Set aside a small amount of almonds for garnish, and pour the remaining almonds into the salad. Fold the salad together gently to distribute the dressing, using as few strokes as possible to allow some of the quinoa and almonds to retain their light color. Transfer the salad to a serving dish, and top with reserved almonds and a sprinkle of flaked sea salt. Serve cool or at room temperature. Covered and refrigerated, salad will keep for up to 3 days. *Roasted beets can be purchased readymade (use a fresh vacuum-packed variety as opposed to jarred for best flavor). Alternatively, roast the beets yourself: scrub the beets well, toss with a little oil, and place in a pan covered with foil. Roast at 400° F for about 1 hour, or until beets are soft when pierced with a fork. Let the beets cool completely, then remove the skins and proceed with the recipe.  |
|
What to Cook This Weekend - The New York Times Posted: 22 Jan 2021 07:30 AM PST  Good morning. When our Tejal Rao fell ill with Covid-19 a while back, she lost her sense of smell. It's a common neurological side effect of the virus, but troublesome for a journalist who writes about food. "Without smells to guide me," she wrote for The Times this week, "my sense of taste faded and food flattened out, going gray and muted, dull and lifeless. Cheese became rubber and paste. Popcorn turned into thorny foam." Tejal was isolated and scared, worried that it would be a permanent condition, that she wouldn't be able to do the work she loves. But then she ordered a no-contact delivery of mapo tofu and delighted in the numbing, spicy mala flavor of it and suddenly felt hopeful. "I could taste with some dimension," she wrote, "in color, with exhilaration. Or at least, despite the anosmia, I could feel as if I were tasting." And this, in turn, led her back to cooking, and in particular to cooking a mala beef braise (above) that she learned from Jason Wang, of the Xi'an Famous Foods restaurants in New York. She's since made it with mushrooms in place of meat. She's used the sauce to poach eggs, to drizzle over rice and to simmer tofu. "His simple recipe is a gift," Tejal wrote, "and a way to keep my appetite up while I'm still recovering." I'm thinking there may be some in your circle in similar circumstances — you might well be in similar circumstances yourself. So I pass Wang's gift along to them, to you. But I also encourage everyone else to make the dish, and to delight in its tingly, sweat-bringing intensity. It's a thrill at a time that needs it, euphoria against the backdrop of the same-old stuff you've been making for weeks. To which end, you should also take a look at this immensely flavorful Earl Grey tea cake with dark chocolate and orange zest, and while you're at it, at this cover-band rendition of chicken shawarma, made in the oven and not on a spit. How about a creamy spinach-artichoke chicken stew? (You can make it in a slow cooker if you like: Here's how.) Or some fried eggs with garlicky green rice? A one-pan pasta with harissa Bolognese? And I'd definitely like to make some baked goods, to nibble after dinner, to eat for breakfast, to drop off with neighbors: fudgy Nutella brownies, for instance, or salted chocolate chunk shortbread cookies. Maybe this carrot loaf cake with tangy lemon glaze. There are many thousands more recipes to delight in waiting for you on NYT Cooking. Go look through them and see what piques your interest. Save the recipes you like. Rate the recipes you've cooked. And leave notes on them, either for yourself or for your fellow subscribers, if you've come up with a hack or a substitution. Yes, your fellow subscribers. Subscriptions allow NYT Cooking to continue. They're our life blood. I hope if you haven't already that you will subscribe to NYT Cooking today. In the meantime, we are standing by at cookingcare@nytimes.com should anything go awry while you're cooking or using the site. It won't happen in real time, but someone will get back to you, I promise. Now, it's a long distance from chickpeas and chile crisp, but here's new fiction from Allegra Goodman in The New Yorker, "A Challenge You Have Overcome." Today is the home cook and television personality Graham Kerr's birthday. He is 87. My colleague Kirk Johnson caught up with the former "Galloping Gourmet" at home in Washington a few years ago, and it's a delightful read. In case you missed it, here is the Times obituary for Sylvain Sylvain of the New York Dolls, who died last week at 69. And here he is with the Teardrops, "Formidable," live in 1981. Finally, I don't know if you want to read William Feaver's "The Lives of Lucian Freud: Fame, 1968-2011." But you definitely want to read Dwight Garner's review of the volume, in The Times. So do that and I'll see you on Sunday.  |
|
For the love of cooking and dogs: Wakefield teen whips up the perfect paperback - WPRI.com Posted: 22 Jan 2021 03:00 PM PST  WAKEFIELD R.I. (WPRI) — Imagine being asked to combine a hobby with one of your passions — What would you choose? Maddie Wilkinson, 13, was asked to do just that as part of her religion project at Monsignor Clarke Regional School. "I wanted to combine my love of cooking and how I want to help animals," she said. With that idea in mind, the eighth grader cooked up something special designed to benefit the Stand Up for Animals shelter in Westerly. She wrote a cook book, which she appropriately titled "Just Me and My Dog." The book is full of recipes, not only for humans, but man's best friend as well. "The recipes are for dogs and people," she said. "You can cook and your dog can also have a similar recipe." Maddie wrote and designed the entire book. She even made sure the dog on the front cover looked just like her four-legged friend, a rescue named Max.  One of her specialties is meatballs. "I wanted to put meatballs in because it was a family recipe," she said. "But then I needed to find another recipe for dogs. So I thought of meat patties — kind of like hamburgers but meatballs. My dog loves those too." When asked whether her meatball recipe was a family secret, she said "sort of." "I kind of made it a little bit different," she said. It took Maddie five months to complete the cook book, which includes recipes ranging from breakfast, lunch and dinner to snacks and desserts. It's a proud moment for Maddie's family. Tia Priolo Wilkinson, her mother, said she pleasantly surprised by her daughter's creativity. "Every once in a while she would say 'How do you make meatballs? and 'How do you make mac and cheese?'" Tia recalled. "I knew she was putting a recipe book together but we were blown away. We really were." Maddie credits her mother, grandfather and aunt for her love of both cooking and baking. There's more than 40 pages worth of recipes in Maddie's cook book. Anyone who would like to purchase a copy can do so on her website for $15, with all of the proceeds going to Stand Up For Animals.  |
|
A local musician is making ends meet by cooking Persian and Armenian meals - Time Out Chicago Posted: 22 Jan 2021 10:41 AM PST The ongoing pandemic has been hard for many people, but it's been particularly difficult for individuals working in the music and service industries, where businesses have been forced to close their doors or entirely rethink how they operate. For Chicago native Liam Kazar, it's meant finding new ways to make a living—he's best known for playing in Jeff Tweedy's backing band and working behind the bar at Roscoe Village jazz club the Hungry Brain, two gigs that virtually disappeared overnight back in March. "Mostly, it's been a nightmare. It really breaks your heart a million times," Kazar says, reflecting on the past 10 months. Splitting his time between Chicago and Kansas City, Kazar was one day into a new job at a Kansas City bar when the pandemic shut down businesses nationwide. Throughout the rest of 2020, he released a few singles (his debut full-length album is due to be released this year) and played a couple of drive-in shows with Tweedy and Whitney. But without any touring on the horizon, Kazar is hoping to make ends meet by embracing his talents in the kitchen. 
Kazar launched Isfahan earlier this month, selling meals comprised of Armenian and Persian dishes—including recipes passed down by his Armenian mother—that he cooks and delivers in Chicago and Kansas City. While it's become commonplace for chefs to fire up their home stoves or turn to ghost kitchens to test new delivery concepts, Kazar is quick to admit that he's never worked in a restaurant before. Calling cooking his "first love," his interest was fostered by watching the Food Network in place of cartoons as a kid, and his skills have developed by learning to replicate the various cuisines he's sampled while touring as a musician. "I fell in love with food because I grew up in a house where both my parents cooked and we'd sit down and have a nice meal everyday," Kazar says. Kazar began developing the menu for Isfahan by learning recipes through YouTube videos, noticing that many of the dishes he was interested in were "Persian food being cooked by Armenian people." He did further research by making his way through cookbooks and was able to consult with his mother to perfect his take on dolmas (stuffed pickled grape leaves), cucumber salad and paklava (filo dough layered with honey and nuts)—dishes that he grew up eating. Since he began assembling his menu, Kazar has learned how to roast a trout and fine-tuned his stove to make the perfect sabzi polo with tahdig, a crispy Persian rice dish that requires precise temperature control. The biggest challenge has been sourcing the various herbs that his recipes call for and then devoting afternoons to chopping up the pounds of fragrant ingredients ("It's a really labor-intensive cuisine," Kazar notes.) 
Scheduling deliveries in Kansas City and Chicago in the coming months, Kazar cooks meals for two to 10 people, with prices starting at $50 per person. He asks diners to read through the Isfahan menu and choose a few appetizers, a main dish, a carb and a dessert before emailing him to secure a reservation (he's currently booking Chicago meals through the end of January and throughout March). With plenty of plant-based dishes on the menu and main courses that range from lamb kebab to a spicy eggplant stew, it's relatively easy to put together a spread that adheres to any dietary restrictions. Isfahan is delivery-only for now, but Kazar is hoping to host some outdoor pop-ups once the weather warms, giving him the opportunity to safely serve his food to larger groups of people. "If I could do this and music, I'd keep doing it," Kazar says, anticipating a future in which he can once again work as a touring musician and run Isfahan in his spare time. "I think I'll just see how long I can go back and forth between the two job and keep living." Most popular on Time Out- 13 romantic Airbnb homes you can rent near Chicago  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from "cooking" - Google News. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. |
Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
from What to Cook https://ift.tt/365YchS