This is my blog on cooking for two- hopefully I will inspire some people out there to stop going out every night and save some cash by staying in and cooking something simple, easy, and affordable!
A little about me... I used to be a cook at an italian restauraunt about 10 years ago when in highschool. I hated it. We did have some good times there, but in general it was hot, smelly, and really hard work. Some nights I had over 100 orders to make- these weren't gourmet meals, but more like you general pizza/italian place you find on most corners - but still thats a hell of a lot of mozzarella sticks, chicken parms, meatball subs, etc. to make in one night!
But as annoying as it was, I have to say it really set me straight when it came to cooking for myself.
Knowing how to time 10 plates of food so they come out in order took quite a bit of practice, and something you can't really get the hang of unless you actually work at it! I would also get bored eating the same thing night after night, so I used to make my own receipes up and make them for myself.
When I went to college, I used to make pretty elaborate meals for myself in our kitchen- and started to realize that I actually enjoyed cooking, and that other people were pretty impressed by it!
I also started to realize another reason I enjoyed cooking - it lets me relax and sort of zone out while still doing something productive. I am also not the worlds most outgoing person- not that I am a wallflower, but I don't usually like being the center of attention- so cooking not only give you something to do other than socialize, it is something that needs to be done that most people hate to do - so you end up looking like a hero, don't have to make small talk all night, and have fun knowing that what you are doing will be something that everyone will appreciate (Plus you usually get a pass from much of the cleanup aftewards- which I hate to do)!
Basically I am a pretty good cook now because I had so much practice. I think a lot of people never become 'good' at cooking because they don't feel like it, or are too worried about messing up, to actually get the practice you need to know what works and why!
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As my fiancee and I are basically poor New Yorkers, most of the receipes here will be done on a tight budget. I might sometimes splurge on something like Lobster once in a while, but in general we try to save money as much as possible. By the way, cooking for yourself is a great way to save your cash - I often can feed us for at least two meals in a row for under $20 if not less when I have most of the ingredients...try eating out in the city 4 meals for less than that! This is also going by the NYC prices, so if you don't live here you will be able to stretch your $$$ further.
My fiancee is also a 'semi-vegetarian', which means she won't eat cute things. This includes cows, pigs, lamb, etc. So not only do I have to try and cook for only two, but have to to pretty much stick to chicken or fish when I cook for both of us. A lot of time I will cook myself a steak or something and make her a baked potato, etc. It is annoying, but it is what it is... I sometimes will make myself a huge pot of beef stew and just eat that for lunch and dinner a couple of days myself and make her something that goes w/ my side dish each night.
We really enjoy throwing parties, so there will be some things written here on what we did as a group, what we cooked, etc.
All amounts of ingrediants are approximate, as I rarely measure when not following a receipe. When you cook like I do, simple quick receipes with ingredients that taste good together, you do not have to be precise!
When I get a receipe from online, or some other source - I will provide the link if I can, or at least quote the source.
Anyway, enjoy my blog- feel free to use any of the receipes printed within, though I would appreciate some credit if you post them anywhere!
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Easy Baked Whole Chicken:
This was for two people, makes about 4 servings. All ingredients are approximate!
So last night I wanted to cook a chicken and went out and bought:
1 Boiler Chicken. Don't get a chicken that is too large, as it will be hard to cook evenly without drying out the white meat.
1 Head of Fennel
1 Bunch of Carrots
1 Onion
(optional) Terriaki marinade, inserted with 'flavor injector' (basically a needle that allows you to stick the food and plunge the marinade deep into the flesh - makes the flavor get deep into the food quickly.
I also used: about 1/3 cup of brown sugar, 1/2 cup Kosher salt, an orange, some freshly ground pepper. A 1 gallon ziplock bag.
Steps:
1) Brine Chicken in ziplock bag w/ brown sugar, salt, half the orange, and pepper. Fill water to top, close up, and stick in fridge. Anywhere from 3 hours - overnight. Then remove chicken, rinse well and pat dry.
I like to brine a lot of my food before cooking it. Brining is basically putting the food in very salty water and letting it sit. Preferably overnight, but this time I only had about 2-3 hours and it worked fine as well. Brining allows the food to stay moist (I forget the scientific reason for it - you can look it up online). It also allows the other flavors that were in the brine (the pepper, sugar, and orange) to infuse the chicken. The chicken does NOT come out extra salty or anything! Make sure to rinse afterwards however.
2) Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
3) Cut up and peel carrots, cut off top of fennal head and cut base into wedges. Coat with some olive oil and Kosher salt on a tray.
Always use Kosher salt for things like this, the texture makes it coat nicely without oversalting.
4) Stuff Chicken with 2nd half of orange, and onion cut into wedges. Coat chicken in canola or vegtable oil, and salt with Kosher salt and ground black pepper. If you have the teriaki and the injector, inject into breast areas, and leg and thigh areas now.
5) Stick chicken and vegtables in 450 degree oven for 15 mins. This is to get a good crisp to the skin. Then reduce heat to 350 degrees and cook chicken until meat reads 160 degrees or juices run clear, about 30-45 mins(?) I don't usually time, I use a temperature probe to make sure things are done perfectly. Remove vegtables whenever they look nicely brown and crisp- the goal is to have nicely caramalized carrots and nicely browned fennel. They can take lot of cooking and still taste good, so don't worry too much about them.
Let sit for 5-10 mins, loosely covered with aluminum foil, then cut up and serve.
Tips: If the chicken skin looks like it is starting to get too brown (check every 15 mins or so) simply take some aluminum foil and place it over the top of the chicken. This will prevent it from burning, but still allow the chicken to cook.
Thats it! Looks like a lot when I read it over, but its actually a very simple receipe. Once you get the brining down, start thinking of other things that like to dry out when you cook them- pork and turkey lend themselves particularly well to brining, and an overnight brine will really make a huge difference to you Thanksgiving day turkey!
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Easy Beef Stew:
For this one you NEED a crockpot- if you dont have one, get one- simple meals are easily done in crockpost because you just dump everything in and leave it!
Ingredients:
1) Beef - you can either buy cubed beef, or get a eye round or something. About a pound.
2) Vegtables - I like carrots, potatoes, onions, celery. You can even buy one or two bags of 'frozen stew vegtables' in the frozen aisle. Works just as well.
3) Tomato juice - 24oz or so bottle.
4) Crushed Tomatoes - 32 oz can or thereabouts.
5) Salt, pepper.
Just cube the beef into 1" cubes, season w/ kosher salt. Chop up vegtables into bite size cubes (peel potatoes and carrots 1st...)
Then dump vegtables into crock pot, dump beef on top (so juices from meat soak into vegtables), pour in tomato juice and crushed tomatos, add freshly ground black pepper.
Optional- add some oregano and parsley flakes.
Turn crock pot up to high- leave for at least 8 hours, but try for 12 - turn down to low after to simmer until you eat.
Thats it!
If you like easy to prepare receipes I highly recommend these books- I thought it was stupid at first, but I actually make about half of these receipes on a regular basis now! They actually taste really good, are cheap to make, and don't cost much...
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My favorite sandwich growing up --> Peanut butter and cream cheese on white toast!
Still great, use light cream cheese though...
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I have no idea what I'm making tonight, have to work late and my fiancee has a grad school class. Oh well, I'll think of something...
Labels: baked chicken, beef, beef stew, chicken
