There are a few things about cooking for one that are quite liberating. I get to liberate the scientist in me (even after work). Nobody is watching me pick up my plate and lick every molecule of food clean. But most importantly, nobody tells me I can’t have pancakes for dinner. I get to choose to cook, and eat, what I want, when I want and how I want. It’s like being my own boss.
There was a time when, thanks to sharing a 2 BHK with four others, I couldn’t cook for less than five people. Liquids were measured in cauldrons and solids in pallets. But two things in life taught me how to scale things down. The first was my incorrigible habit of having something sweet after every meal. After getting married, I realised that if I baked cakes in 9x11 Bundt pans every day, I’d be clogging my arteries faster than a regular at the Heart Attack Grill (it’s a real place in Arizona). So I figured out a way to bake just enough for two people. The second change happened when I had to live in Bangalore alone for about a year while my wife wrapped up her studies in the US. This is when I got creative and tried a lot of new things.
But you don’t need these crazy events (I sincerely hope my wife isn’t reading this) to happen in your life to get you into the kitchen and get cooking for yourself. You just need to plan your meal, have a rough idea of what perishes soon and what you can store in the fridge for a bit. Then, set aside about 30 to 40 minutes in hand every day. Trust me; cooking is genuinely therapeutic after a long stressful day.
I don’t measure things while cooking, let alone while cooking for myself. You can adapt to suit your taste by adding or subtracting ingredients. If you take a deep breath before you start and plan it out, you could have a three course meal for yourself every single day. But in case you’re not in the mood to clean up the gas stove, that’s fine too. There are things like marinara, veththa kuzhambu, pesto and Thai curry pastes that last at least two to three days in the fridge or up to two to three weeks in the freezer. In fact, they get better with age.
One strategy is to make these over the weekend so they take you through the next week. Give hummus and baba ghanouj a shot. All these come in handy with pastas, rice and go really well in sandwiches. You could store them in multiple bottles and thaw one to use it when you require. Roast the veggies you want or fix a quick fire salad while the bottle is thawing. I know it sounds like the Indian cricket team’s annual calendar plus the IPL season for just one hours work, but it is a really rewarding experience and is most certainly doable.
Quite often, one pot meals like khichdi, pulav, pot pies, sandwiches (a caprese sandwich with roasted bell peppers on a good baguette is one of my favourites) are quicker and require less effort. Change it up by using bulgur, foxtail and pearl millets for one pot meals instead of rice. Add 1/2 cup of coconut milk, throw in a few pieces of mushrooms, red bird chillies, tofu and some kaffir lime leaves, a dash of soy sauce and some chopped lemongrass to take your instant noodles up several notches. I have also come to love the idea of binding leftover stuff (roasted veggies, boiled grains like bulgur, millet, even rice) with bread crumbs or an egg to convert them into patties to eat with ketchup or as a burger. Cooking is often a freestyle affair. As they say, dance, or cook, like nobody’s watching.
Here’s a three course meal for one that takes exactly one hour to make.
Ingredients:
Watermelon, feta and basil salad
1/2 medium watermelon (have the remaining half as part of breakfast or a mid-morning snack on the following day. I personally consume it during cooking just for some innocuous sugar high)
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
Chopped basil leaves (you could also use mint)
Aglio olio pasta with garlic, lemon zest and basil
150-250 gm spaghetti
15-20 cloves of garlic (get the peeled ones, they are your best friends)
Salt to taste
3 tsp crushed pepper
1/2 tsp red chili flakes (if you’ve never flicked them from a pizza place, you can throw in 1/2 tsp red chilli powder instead)
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp Roasted almonds or pine nuts (optional)
2 tbsp chopped basil leaves
1/4 cup olive oil
Parmesan cheese shavings (optional, mainly for enhancing IQ: Instagram Quotient. Just kidding: parmesan tastes brilliant!)
Fruit crisp
1 ramekin, greased with butter
2 tbsp + 1 tbsp maida
2 tbsp oats
Sugar (or brown sugar) to taste
Minuscule pinch of salt
2-3 tbsp cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 tsp milk (or water)
Cut fruit of your choice (apples, pears, bananas or strawberries)
1 Preheat the oven (top and bottom heaters on) to 180 C. This takes about 20 to 25 minutes.
2 Take a large pot and put abut 3 litres of water with 2 to 3 tsp salt and let it boil. This will take about 10 to 12 minutes.
3 Chop the garlic into slivers, and the basil leaves. Zest the lemon. Set aside.
4 Take a bowl and toss the cut fruit with 1 tbsp maida and sugar. You could throw in a few drops of lemon juice and salt and toss the fruit to coat the pieces evenly. Cinnamon powder goes well with bananas and apples whereas strawberries will need some extra sugar.
5 Transfer this mixture into the ramekin.
6 In the same bowl, add the remaining maida, oats, a pinch of sugar and the pieces of butter. With your fingers (both hands), rub the butter into everything so you get a nice grainy mess. If it’s too dry, add water and keep going. It’s ok if it is not perfectly mixed. Remember, Gordon Ramsay is not judging you.
7 Sprinkle all this on top of the ramekin to cover the fruits and form a reasonably thick layer. When the oven is preheated, pop the ramekin in for 15 to 20 minutes.
8 The water must be boiling by now, so drop in the pasta.
9 Using a melon baller, scoop out balls of watermelon. Else, just cut it into pieces. Mix it with chopped basil/mint leaves. Sprinkle the feta on top. Done!
10 Check on the pasta. When it’s almost done, start heating the olive oil. When hot, drop in the garlic slivers and let them cook. When they start turning slightly brown, throw in half the chopped basil leaves, lemon zest, pepper and chilli flakes and switch off the heat.
11 Drain the pasta and pour the olive oil with garlic on top and mix well. Garnish with remaining basil leaves and nuts.
12 Check on the crisp. Remove it when the crust is nice and golden. If you feel like rewarding yourself, have it with some ice cream.
Ajit Bhaskar is a research scientist by day and experiments in kitchen by night. He also cooks up some PJs every now and then.
