Much more often it’s about coming back late from work and needing to get dinner on the table quickly, and that calls for a whole different set of skills. It’s easy to be motivated when you’ve got the promise of an appreciative audience who will make all the right noises, but when you are cooking just for yourself or perhaps a partner, you can quickly lose heart and see the whole process as a chore. That’s when the temptation to fall back on ready-meals is the strongest.
Don’t be ashamed if that sounds like you – I’ll let you into every chef’s dirty little secret. When they get home after evening service, what is the thing they are most likely to whip up before going to bed? A home-made burger? A cheese soufflé? I wish. No. Baked beans on toast. Half of them don’t even bother warming them up, they just spoon them out of the tin. I know, I know: it’s late, they’ve spent all day in the kitchen and they just want to collapse into bed. But it does show that it isn’t skill or know-how that gets in the way of proper cooking, it’s convenience.
So the solution to cooking for small numbers is to make it as easy as possible – so simple, in fact, that picking up the phone and waiting for the pizza boy to deliver will seem like too much of a hassle in comparison. That’s my aim here. We think of fast food as being what comes in cardboard boxes from the takeaway, but in this chapter you’ll find a bolognese sauce that will be ready before the pasta’s even had time to boil (see here), fishcakes you can assemble from a few tins and jars (see here), and a chilli hotdog that’s in another league to anything you’ve had before (see here). When everyday food is this fast and tastes this good, it soon becomes a pleasure. If you want cooking to be hassle-free, you’ve got to start at first principles, and make the shopping as uncomplicated as possible.
Dishes should focus around two or three key flavours on the plate, maximum, as in Mushroom and Leek Pasta (see here). Any more and you’re not only making extra work for yourself but you’ll be confusing your palate.
In my years of filming Kitchen Nightmares, in which I go around restaurants trying to sort out failing businesses, this has been by far the most common mistake. Young chefs, in particular, feel they have to put their all into every plate, and tend to overcomplicate their cooking to show what accomplished cooks they are. In fact the opposite is true. The best cooks know not to hide behind lots of competing flavours and are happy to let their main ingredients shine. Mushroom and leek pasta, for example, should taste of
mushrooms and leeks. You might like to add some tarragon, perhaps, which marries the two ingredients together, or some bacon, but there really is no need to start throwing in lots of other strong flavours. It doesn’t need them. Respect your main ingredients and they won’t let you down.
A happy side effect of this is that the shopping is much easier too – even more so if you keep a well-stocked store cupboard. Think of this as the springboard for your cooking, so you need only pick up a couple of main ingredients – some sausages, say, or some eggs – to then take your cooking in whichever direction you choose when you get home.
BASICS
I’ve listed opposite the kind of basics you might like to keep. The list by no means
exhaustive, but the main thing is to build it up as you go. I wouldn’t recommend you go out and buy everything in one massive shop. You’ll soon see the kind of things that crop up in
the recipes you like, and before you know it you’ll have built up an arsenal of ingredients that arm you for happy evenings of cooking.
BEANS AND PULSES
I use a lot of haricot beans, cannellini beans, chickpeas and lentils. It is always better to soak and cook your beans from dried as the flavour and texture will be better (you can add flavourings, such as thyme, bay and smoked bacon, to the water when you boil them, but never salt as this will make their skins tough). That said, tinned beans and pulses are very useful standbys, especially when you are cooking on the spur of the moment.
CHOCOLAT E
By using good-quality dark chocolate, with a minimum of 70 per cent cocoa solids, you have much more control as you can always let it down with more sugar and/or milk if you find it too bitter. Valrhona is my favourite brand.
OILS
As a minimum, you need a good extra virgin olive oil for drizzling over finished dishes and making vinaigrettes, light olive oil for frying, and a neutral-flavoured oil for when you want a less discernible flavour. Groundnut oil is ideal, but rapeseed oil is increasingly popular and has a very high smoking point, meaning you can cook at higher temperatures without it burning. Hazelnut, sesame and truffle oils are useful for drizzling.
POMEGRANAT E MOLASSES
Pomegranate juice that has been boiled down to a dark brown, sweetly tart liquid.
Essential to much Middle Eastern cooking and available from Persian or Asian grocery shops, or online.
RICE
Long-grained basmati, which cooks and tastes better than other varieties; short-grained for puddings; bomba and calasparra rice for paellas; and risotto rice, which contains more starch and maintains the bite you need. I prefer carnaroli, but arborio is also good.
SAUCES
Naturally fermented soy sauce and fish sauce are essential in Asian cooking for delivering a salty kick. Other store-cupboard essentials include Tabasco, tamarind extract, English and seeded mustards, Worcestershire sauce, and good old tomato ketchup.
SPICES
I cover these in more detail here, but remember, they lose their flavour quickly, so buy little and often. Asian shops tend to be cheaper than supermarkets, and because of the higher turnover their spices are likely to be fresher.
T INS
Italian tomatoes (preferably whole, as the quality tends to be better); cannellini beans;
anchovies; sardines; and mackerel.
VANILLA PODS
Fresh vanilla pods impart much more sweet, perfumed flavour than vanilla extract. Look for plump, oily pods from Madagascar. Once you have used the seeds, place the empty pod into a bag of sugar, which will take on the vanilla aroma and be ideal for baking.
VINEGARS
Essential not just for vinaigrettes and dressings but also to deglaze pans. Sherry, balsamic, white wine, cider and red wine vinegars all have distinctive flavours. Rice vinegar is slightly milder and sweeter, and much used in Chinese and Vietnamese cooking. Malt vinegar is best left for your fish and chips.
Other staples I never like to be without are: flours (plain, strong bread flour, and self-raising); pasta; maple syrup, leaf gelatine (easier to use than granules); instant (dried)
yeast; capers; and nuts (like spices, they go stale very quickly, so buy in small quantities).
COOKING FOR ONE OR TWO
Bruschette with garlic, tomatoes, caper berries and pecorino Cannellini bean crostini with anchovy and olives
Farfalle with ricotta, pancetta and peas Flatbreads with fennel and feta Sweetcorn fritters and yoghurt dip Mushroom and leek pasta
Tagliatelle with quick sausage-meat bolognese Spicy tuna fishcakes
Chilli dogs
Beef tacos with wasabi mayo
Griddled pineapple with spiced caramel
Blueberry and ricotta pancakes with yoghurt and honey