Cooking for one

[cjsmith]

I just realized that one of the reasons I struggle so much with cooking for one is that I'm making completely different stuff than I know how to do.

I make a meatloaf I happen to love and I can do a lasagne I find absolutely scrumptious, but c'mon, raise your hand if you make one-person versions of those! If I have a quarter pound of ground beef it's a BURGER. Conversely, who makes omelets for thirty? I sure haven't.

The feed-a-dormitory or feed-a-family recipes can be broken down into neat little piles of Tupperware, but multiply helpings by desirable variety and I'm out of freezer space. Thus my main storage facility is the freezer aisle at Safeway. Shrinking the recipes, on the other hand, multiplies the labor and prep time and also increases waste (ingredients are much more perishable before they get frozen as meals). No wonder a restaurant is such an easy choice for me.

What's your favorite thing to make for one person? Preferably quick. (Bonus points for no leftover ingredients.)

Comments

[jtidwell.livejournal.com]

Stir-fry. With vegetables just bought at the farmstand or wherever -- you buy enough just for the one dish. The meat can be bought in advance and frozen (you thaw just enough), or you could use half a small package of already-frozen shrimp, or bypass the meat altogether and just throw in some cashews or peanuts.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Do you do that in a wok? I don't have a wok, but I do have skillets.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

(I think I do something that's a lot like stir-fry, but since it's in a skillet I think I must be making something else...)

[jtidwell.livejournal.com]

All depends on how hot you get the skillet, and how big the skillet is. :-) The relevant functional feature of a wok is that you get a LOT of very hot surface area. That gets the food out of the oil/liquid/goo in the bottom, and up onto the sides, where it can cook quickly.

I dunno. If it uses sesame oil and ginger and soy sauce and such, it's a stir-fry, as far as I'm concerned!

That said, there is an infinite variety of sauteed veggie and protein combinations that can be done in a skillet. An utterly non-stirfryish version is broccoli rabe, garlic, and pine nuts, sauteed in olive oil and put over pasta. Another is spinach, onion, and feta cheese over pasta.

Hmm, there's an abstraction forming here... try mixing and matching these:

Category 1: Oils. Olive, peanut, canola, butter, etc. Put in pan first.

Category 2: Aromatics. Onion, garlic, ginger, celery, peppers, etc. Put into hot oil and cook fast.

Category 3: Vegetables. Carrot, broccoli, spinach, kale, snow peas, etc. Put in after aromatics.

Category 4: Protein. Meat, seafood, nuts, cookable cheeses like feta. Put in last, though most meats needs to be cooked a bit first in a separate step.

Category 5: Starch. Rice or pasta. Goes under the rest of the food.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I like that! An abstraction!

I've always put the meat in first (after the oil) so's it would cook longer. I suppose another alternative is to chop it up smaller.