Recipes for one cook book

[Mercs Own]

Hey Guys and Girls, I am in the midst of writing my 3rd cook book coming out for fathers day next year. The theme for the first half of it is cooking for one (no left overs, no waste) Just thought I would ask here if there were any suggestions on what dish, recipe any of you would like to have in regards to cooking a meal for one person. Or what dish would you like to cook for yourself but never do because it seems too hard to make for one etc too scared to attempt it or just dont know how to scale it down to the perfect one sderve size.

For instance I have after several attempts got a one serve chocolate and rasberry souffle sorted, no left over sauce to throw out just one lovely serve.

Any thoughts throw em my way.

BTW The second half of the book will be cooking for the family, for romance, for dinner party

and yes the idea came from the fact that many recently divorced men were turning up to book shops looking to learn how to cook for themselves and their kids on visiting weekends!

 

[Mardoo]

Maybe an added section on cooking for your kids for the divorced Dads?

Mate, if you can come up with a simple lasagna-for-one you'll be the god of cookbooks.

 

[JDW81]

I've always been a fan of a serves one red or green curry. Good quality thai curry paste (I normally make my own, but when a quick meal for one is the order of the day, then store bought it is), a small tin of coconut milk, some veg of your choice (snow peas, asian greens, carrot etc) and a small piece of fish/chicken/handful of prawns. No waste or leftovers and bugger all washing up.

Goes down a treat with some steamed rice and a nice cold lager.

JD.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I do roast pumpkin and chicken fettucini for one.

I use

2 chicken thighs
1/4-1/2 butternut pumpkin depending on size
1 Brown onion
300ml cream
Egg fettucini

I grill the pumpkin (cut into 2cm cubes) rather than oven roast.Saute the onion in olive oil then add sliced chicken thighs then the roasted pumpkin cream and fettucini.

Really simple and not much cleaning up.

 

[poppa joe]

Mercs....
I bought a book at the recyclers last week it was a cooking for one.....
By DELIA SMITH....About 40 yrs old the book..Cost me 20 cents...
PJ

 

[Bribie G]

I regularly cook for one as I'm a curry freak and SWMBO hates chilli of any description, so I do his and hers dinners every night, being the chef of the family. I find that when cooking something for myself like a curry or osso bucco or Moroccan tagine it's far less work on a weekly basis to cook for four and save three portions in takeaway containers, freeze and end up with a "library" of dinners I can pick and choose from.

Hope the book does ok but for a lot of single guys the prospect of going through a cooking session to end up with just one serve is a bit of a chore and before you know it they are back to the drive throughs and the takeaways.

Edit: obviously you and I love cooking, as do a lot of brewers. Is the book intended to be a more basic "how to cook" for single people, with the focus on that, rather than a pure cook book - how to boil an egg, chop onions, etc. The level of culinary knowledge is often abysmal, particularly among young guys who have come from uni into a job, and are maybe living by themselves for the first time in their lives away from Mum as is the trend with gen Ys nowadays, or living alone after a divorce when SWMBO used to look after the kitchen.

 

[sp0rk]

A lot of the time when Mrs sp0rk is sick or has left me at home to fend for myself, I like to make myself a sort of Quesadilla
We've always got lebanese bread/wrap bread/lavash/tortillas/etc in the fridge and diced roast chicken breast in the freezer (steggles branded I think?)
Dice up some tomato, capsicum and onion and chuck then in a pan, add a little sweet chilli sauce and some of the frozen chicken
Cook through
put a tortilla down on a sandwich press, dollop your fried mixture on top and put some grated cheese on top of that, place another tortilla on top and close the sandwich press
once it's grilled to perfection cut into a few slices and serve with some salsa and sour cream if you are so inclined (I usually chuck some sriracha on top)
If you're not quite as hungry, make a little less filling and just fold a single tortilla in half
A nice hoppy pale ale usually matches well

 

[Dave70]

Mate, if you can come up with a simple lasagna-for-one you'll be the god of cookbooks.

Couldn't you just make a regular sized lasagna and only eat half?

 

[Bribie G]

Lasagna is like curry, tastes awesome the next day. If using the oven, split the recipe between two or three separate large ramekin type dishes to save oven energy.

 

[TSMill]

I think as well as the time factor and diminishing returns cooking for one, I'd also guess you will end up using strange denominations of ingredients, like 1/8th if an onion. I'd like to see recipes that you can cook side by side sharing common ingredients, or base recipes with pimped leftovers (eg lamb roast, then curry, then shepherds pie).

 

[tallie]

Not a recipe suggestion, but something that bugs me a little bit about the Cooking With Beer book is that not every dish has a corresponding photo of the end result. I think some of the brewery porn pics could have been sacrificed, or even better, had the missing dishes incorporated in them. Anyway, that's just my 2c.

 

[mwd]

I think as well as the time factor and diminishing returns cooking for one, I'd also guess you will end up using strange denominations of ingredients, like 1/8th if an onion. I'd like to see recipes that you can cook side by side sharing common ingredients, or base recipes with pimped leftovers (eg lamb roast, then curry, then shepherds pie).

I agree as a single bloke it is virtually impossible to cook for one. What I do is make a batch and freeze the leftovers.
I am quite enjoying the Channel 10 Saving with Jamie on Thursday night some good tips and decent sized portions.

 

[Pickaxe]

agreed the cooking less more often for one is not the way to go. Thing is balancing cooking one big dish and eating it for 4 days after, lunch and dinner. I used to cook 3 meals on my day off and freeze most. Like Bribie said, have a library of dishes to choose from, gave me more time to get out and about socialising at night.

its too much work cooking for one. I think a focus on single dads cooking for kids is a great idea. Not even just single dads, but all dads.

Cooking for romance is a great one.

I would have liked to see this when I was younger and learning to cook, or moreso, my flatmates were learning to cook:
Cook for ya mates, cook for family, cook for ya parents, easy party catering ideas, cooking for kids Dad's way is an awesome idea.

 

[Forever Wort]

Great meals for one that I regularly eat include pita bread pizzas, chilli bean tortillas, noodle soup (usually Chinese style but sometimes Vietnamese), stir fry and mini-roasts.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

noodle soup (usually Chinese style but sometimes Vietnamese).

Made by Maggie

 

[manticle]

Maggie Beer?
Or maggi & beer?

 

[tavas]

Cooking for romance is a great one.

Just being able to cook something for a date was usually enough. Didn't need to be fancy, rewarded for effort applied.

 

[DU99]

how about some slow cooker recipes..saw a very small model (1.5 l) in woolworth's..when i am home alone i make an omelette with 2minute noodles..boil the noodles..beat 2-3 eggs in a bowl with a splash of milk,add the packet of seasoning noodle mix,add what ever you like (cheese.ham,chorzio)drain the noodles and add to egg mix,pepper/salt to taste cook till ready on one side and flip it over and serve

 

[Mardoo]

Some dry rubs could be good. Easy to make ahead and keep around to rub on a piece of meat before you chuck it in the oven or on the grill.

 

[Pickaxe]

Pretty sure a single guy can..rub his meat without an.instruction manual.