I would say I’m sorry if you now have this stuck in your head… but I’m really not.
There’s a lot of chat around ‘Sad Meals For One’, but if you live alone, at the moment, as I do, all your meals are For One. And I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not have sad meals. That said, I kinda love the idea of the wine-and-cookies duo package I saw on this Glamour magazine round-up of solo meals. It’s so wrong, it’s almost right. No?
The best bit about cooking for one is that I get to indulge all my idiosyncrasies - if dinner’s not on the table until 9, or I decide that tonight is a cheeseboard or salad night, so be it. The worst bit? The one who cooks, also has to wash up. And I always have to figure out what to eat. In a few weeks, I’m going to chat through how I do that - over the course of the Inside I have gone from deciding what to eat each day or two (having a well-stocked larder and just picking up fresh ingredients when needed from the mini Sainsbury’s on the corner) to writing a weekly meal plan and doing only one shop a week, supplemented by veg box deliveries.
In each of my veg boxes lately, I’ve had a superfluity of potatoes, and the way I like to deal with these is to cook them all at the same time, in whatever way one particular dish calls for, and then use them as a base for lunches over the coming week. I got this idea from Alison Roman’s Dining In (Waterstones - although read this Eater article about the stupid stuff she said about Chrissy Teigen first) in which she refers to the bowl of boiled potatoes she almost always has in the fridge.
This week’s strategy: ¡patatas bravas!
Recipe: Patatas Bravas
I’ll level with you: these aren’t quite as good as sitting on a terrace by the Med with a cold beer. But they’re the closest I’m likely to get for quite some time. So they’ll do just fine.
Whenever I have an idea of the dish I’m aiming for, but I’m not sure of the best way to achieve it, I turn to Felicity Cloake’s Cook The Perfect column on The Guardian. By the looks of her Instagram, she’s testing knickerbocker glories at the moment. I for one am extremely interested in the results. Her patatas bravas piece, from 2011, goes through lots of options and ends up with a recipe to serve 4-6 as tapas. I made this to serve just me as my main meal, and did the following:
Roast 2cm chunks of potato in a 200C oven for 45 minutes with 2ish tbsp olive oil.
Chop a small onion and fry for 5-10 minutes in olive oil until it’s soft, then add a can of chopped tomatoes, half a teaspoon each of salt and sugar, a generous teaspoon of smoked paprika and of white wine vinegar, and a pinch of chili flakes (I’m a wimp where it comes to spice). Bring that to a boil and then let it simmer away until the potatoes are done. Once it’s started simmering, chop a spring onion and throw the white parts into your tomato sauce. By the time the potatoes are done, it will be gorgeously jammy.
When the potatoes are done, scoop all your tomato sauce into the bottom of a nice chunky bowl, then put some potatoes on top , and open a tub of shop-bought aioli (sorry Felicity! Mine was vegan because that’s what the shop had - and that meant that the entire dish was #accidentallyvegan, which is always nice) and dollop that on top. Scatter the green bits of the spring onion on top and pour a cold lager/ white wine/ lemonade to accompany.
I can’t get enough of these jammy tomato sauces. Please learn from my errors, though, and wear an apron when cooking them…
Cookbook Hero: Solo by Signe Johansen
This week’s kitchen tool is actually a cookbook. You could use it as a tool, though, if you needed to smash biscuits for a cheesecake base…
Waterstones | Amazon affiliate | Amazon non-affiliate | Hive
I love this book. First rule of cookbooks: anything with a Diana Henry quote on the front is worth looking at. What’s not to like about a list of chapter titles which includes ‘Light Bites and Things On Toast’, ‘Lazy Weekends’, ‘Simple Pleasures’, and ‘Sweet Things’?
It’s not necessarily the kind of cookbook where every page-turn is accompanied with an “I would never have thought of that!” gasp (although the toast-topper of Stichelton, vanilla-and-acacia-honey-glazed-walnuts, mint, and pear certainly does that job), but rather one which reminds you of classics you love and provides you with simple, usually pretty quick, recipes that are already scaled for one serving and which have something extra to make them delicious. Take the Croque Madame with creamy spinach (I think that might be tomorrow’s dinner!) as an example, or the Galentine’s Day frittata.
Like many of us, now more than ever (can’t wait to consign that phrase to the dustbin), I’m doing a lot of batch cooking - but sometimes I just want to cook something up and eat it, without planning how to incorporate it into every meal for the next week. That’s where this book fits in - it’s also great when I have just one of something in my veg box, or the end of a bag of something, to use up. Last night, I made the courgette pasta from the cover, along with the tzatziki from the mezze chapter:
In terms of veggie-friendliness - this isn’t a vegetarian cookbook and it doesn’t pretend to be. There’s a lot of fish and seafood in here, and a few meaty dishes. Very few of them, though, revolve around the meat, and I certainly don’t page through this as a pescatarian (2020’s new year’s resolution - I don’t know if I’ll carry it into 2021) and feel frustrated.
Two further reasons to love this book: Johansen suggests serving her double chocolate loaf cake with milk, coffee, or a dram of whisky; and Alexandra Heminsley’s quote on the back cover, which reads “Turning cooking for one from a soul-destroying mathematical exercise to a self-loving luxury.”
Friday Night Takeaway: BRGR
The Central Belt’s answer to Five Guys, BRGR has two branches in Glasgow, one in Giffnock, and one in Edinburgh (The List). They have a fantastic range of burgers with beef, chicken, veggie, or vegan fillings. Until the new vegan range last year, I already rated their veggie range - the halloumi burger isn’t simply a slice of squeaky-cheese, but a patty made with halloumi and veg, for example. They now have a vegan range in partnership with Daring Foods, including moo-less burgers and cluck-less burgers and nuggets. Last Friday I took advantage of an Uber Eats discount code I had kicking around in my mailbox and ordered the Buffalo Fries and ‘cluckless’ vegan chicken burger. They were my first chips since early March - I’m never taking them for granted again after this pandemic!
The Edinburgh branch is right opposite the Festival Theatre and has become my automatic pre-theatre dinner. In fact, my birthday evening this year was dinner at BRGR followed by a seat to see Six. Girl knows how to treat herself!
Kaffeeklatsch: Pimm’s In A Tin
With pub gardens closed for a little while longer but another weekend of sunny weather coming up, I’d like to remind you that pre-mixed Pimm’s in a tin is a thing. Whether it’s legal where you are to sit out in the sunshine, or you’re hanging your legs out of the window (stay safe!), an ice-cold one can help capture some of that summer feeling.
Or perhaps a canned mojito in honour of Diane Abbott is more your style?
However you choose to spend the weekend, stay safe, eat well, and I’ll talk to you next week!
Find me on Instagram: @LilyMCooks
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