Funny how when you’re cooking for other people, you don’t mind going all out, preparing an overabundance of food and making a big old mess in the kitchen, but when you cook for yourself, you cut corners, skimp on ingredients and effort, do your best not to dirty too many dishes.
Here’s where most food writers would tell you to loosen up, that cooking for yourself should merit time, attention and the luxury of making a big old mess in the kitchen.
I say forget it. When you’ve got a night alone, you want to spend that time in front of the television, not scouring a messy kitchen. Solution: Cook and eat dinner out of the same pan, and eat with the same spoon you stirred with.
There are two rules for cooking and eating out of the same pan.
Rule No. 1: Make it a good-quality skillet with a loose-fitting lid — a cast- iron pan, for instance. Mine doesn’t have a lid, but there’s a saucepan in my collection with a lid that fits snugly enough.
Rule No. 2: Cook something simple, like the recipe below.
Oh, and just because you’re eating alone doesn’t mean you can’t open a bottle of wine. Choose a lively beaujolais for this dish.
Lentils With Summer Vegetables, Bacon and Egg
Serves 1 with leftover potential, depending on your appetite.
Ingredients
3 slices bacon, snipped with scissors into very small pieces
1 small shallot, diced
1 small zucchini, seeded and cubed
1 baby eggplant, cubed (peeled if desired)
Salt
1 cup chicken stock
3/4 cup green or red lentils
1/4 cup red wine
1 handful corn nibs, scraped from 1 ear corn
1 handful fresh spinach leaves, rinsed and torn
1 egg (optional)
Crushed red-pepper flakes
Spritz lemon juice
Directions
In a medium-sized skillet over medium-low heat, slowly cook diced bacon until rendered. Remove bacon bits to a paper towel to crisp, leaving fat in the pan. Place pan over medium-high heat and cook shallot, zucchini and eggplant with a pinch of salt until soft and browned, about 4 minutes. Remove to paper towel.
Place pan over high heat, add chicken stock and bring to boil. Stir in lentils with another pinch of salt, reduce heat to medium- low, cover pan and cook until lentils are soft, about 15 minutes, stirring frequently and adding more chicken stock if necessary. Lentils should be soft but not soupy.
Add corn nibs and spinach leaves and stir through. Return shallot, zucchini and eggplant to pan, stir.
Crack egg to center of pan, cover pan and cook 2-3 minutes, or until egg white is opaque and yolk has just begun to set. Remove from heat.
Sprinkle bacon bits and red-pepper flakes over the top, spritz with lemon juice, turn on television, pour wine and eat straight from the pan with the same wooden spoon you used to stir.
