Chef Klancy Miller says keeping it simple and adding a few flavour hacks can produce delicious meals for one in less than half an hour.
Klancy Miller Photo: supplied
The New York-based writer and pastry chef wants to inspire more people to enjoy cooking for themselves, as the number of one- and two-person households rises.
“I cook for myself for fun. Not every night – New York has really great restaurants and I like to go to them with my friends - but I often cook for myself, at least three or four times a week.
“It’s an opportunity to relax, and even if you’re making something very, very simple … you can make it really special.”
Klancy Miller earned a Diplôme de Pâtisserie at Le Cordon Bleu Paris and was hired to join their recipe development team.
But the recipes she developed for her book Cooking Solo don’t need a chef’s culinary skills and most take just a short time to prepare.
In fact, she says, it's best not to cook when you’re totally tired because it’s not going to be any fun.
“I like to think 'how can I make this meal as simple as possible so I don’t have to do a lot of prep'.
“Maybe I want to roast some carrots and have a balsamic glaze on them with a rib-eye and a salad.
“That’s the beauty of vegetables and doing things like sautés and roasting them. Likewise, for things like fish and different kinds of meat – just popping them in the oven.
“If you’re low on energy, putting something in the oven to roast is much more efficient than setting yourself up for a meal that requires a lot of prep.”
She suggests cooking one thing in advance and using it in lots of different ways. A roast chicken can be used for a dinner, sandwiches, tacos or soup.
“Once you have a cooked protein you can do a lot of things with it”.
Though supermarkets often sell portions that aren’t ideal for one person, you can use one piece of a pack of chicken, meat or fish and individually wrap and freeze the other portions.
“The freezer truly becomes your best friend in the kitchen,” she says.
Chopped parsley, mixed with olive oil and garlic, and frozen in ice cube containers can be put on a dish as it goes into the oven, and sauces can be preserved the same way.
Klancy’s tip for the best flavour hacks is to practise using salt, acidity and fresh herbs.
Sauces like soy sauce give a lift to stir fries, she says, though it’s good to avoid making things overly salty.
“Lemons and limes add an instant pop of flavour to something like seafood or vinaigrette”, she says - and fresh herbs enhance many dishes.
Klancy has shared her recipes for polenta with shiitake mushrooms and second-day salmon with linguine.
