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My condo quarantine kitchen is a refrigerator, a range topped by a few cabinets and an island. From this kitchen, I have cranked out dozens and dozens of meals during my two months in lockdown. And I don’t mind one bit. In fact, I really enjoy the time I spend cooking and the challenge of making food that is tasty and healthy. Busy hands occupy my mind. When people reflect on life in quarantine and the importance of finding something to be grateful for, I have my answer. The “ONE.
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| Credit, obviously, The New York Times (but credit for not so great photo: Barbara Schoenfeld) |
I'm talking about a magazine insert from a newspaper three months ago. It’s called “One Pot/Pan/Skillet: 24 Brilliant Recipes for Everyone Who Hates Doing The Dishes.” I had set it aside and saved it from February 16 Sunday New York Times. I must have thought, “Oh, that would be good for some night when we stay home and want to have a good dinner.” Yes, it is good to have. Yes, it is for some night – make that EVERY night – when we stay home and want to have a good dinner. I look at that now-crumpled, oil-stained pull-out magazine as my “One Pot Opus”.
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| Credit: The New York Times (Photographer: David Malosh, Food Stylist: Simon Andrews). Credit for bad iPhone photo copy goes to me, Barbara Schoenfeld |
The first recipe I tried was Roasted Fish with Sweet Peppers. If every night of quarantine cooking was as good as that one, sign me up for the long haul. In a single pan (as is the theme for all of these recipes), I roasted thinly sliced bell peppers. I had been able to find at Stop & Shop a mix of red, yellow and orange as the recipe called for. Adding olive oil, sea salt and sprigs of time made them smell delicious and glisten as they heated up. Gorgeous, if I must say so. (Regrettably, I did not think to snap my own photo, so I have to rely on the professional version to remember the dish). After the peppers softened, I nestled the cod fillets into a clearing in the center of the pan, surrounded by the peppers and then roasted the whole thing. I can’t find a thing to improve on it. It was yummy.
Dinner the second night of quarantine was even more delicious than the first. Maybe because it was Saturday night? No, because it was Dijon and Cognac Beef Stew. How clairvoyant of the Times, one month before COVID-19 lockdown, to republish this soul-satisfying stay-at-home dish. According to the One Pot Opus, this stew first appeared in the New York Times in 2001, right after the 9/11 attacks. The recipe author Regina Schrambling wrote, “Long before there were antidepressants, there was stew.” Its aroma bubbling on the stove and wafting through the air brings comfort. It tamps down fears of what might lie ahead. The television blared images of eerily quiet Milan, anticipating the epidemic galloping toward it. The rich stew took three hours to make, most of the time bubbling on the stove. I had all the important ingredients – the beef chuck, mushrooms, mustard. And red wine, of course. However, I did not have any cognac. I used whiskey instead. Nor did I have the two cups of beef stock called for by the recipe. The best substitute I could find was water. Didn’t matter. I couldn’t imagine this food tasting any richer or more delicious than mine did.
Working right through the pages in order (admittedly, a lack of imagination on my part), the next dinner I made was Olive-Oil Roasted Chicken with Caramelized Carrots. After loading up the pan with chicken pieces snuggled together lying under a carpet of garlic, carrots and lemon (but not fresh oregano because I didn’t have any), I dutifully followed the advice to drown the whole mosaic in a cup of olive oil. To disarm doubters like me, the recipe even says, “Yes, you’re using all that oil!” I don’t know if it really needed all that oil, but man, that chicken was tasty. The comment I scribbled to myself in the margin of the recipe was that the 325 degree temp called for is a bit too low. Try 350 degrees next time.
In another stroke of brilliant convenience, there is a recipe for spaghetti where you don’t have to bother cooking the spaghetti first. To get going, almost everything in the meal gets dumped into a single pan – Spaghetti, Cherry Tomatoes and Lemon Zest. Pour boiling water over the mixture. After six minutes, add some chopped kale and voila! (or Ecco, the Italian equivalent). With some parmesan, salt and pepper, a delicious dinner emerges ten minutes later.
The Pork Chops with Feta, Snap Peas and Mint recipe is a creative alternative to a humdrum weeknight dinner. The pork chops are crispy on the outside and deliciously flavored of pepper. The cool combination of snap peas, mint and feta is a fresh countertaste. My only “beef” with preparing this yummy recipe is that it makes an oily mess on the stove top. I had to take off the grates and wipe down the surfaces with grease-cutter detergent to get rid of the slippery, shiny reminder of what happened there.
I have made Cheesy Baked Pasta with Sausage and Ricotta a couple of times. It has become one of my favorites. It does grease up the range top from when you brown the sausage in the open pan. But after you add the large can of whole tomatoes, the splashing of hot grease dies down. After the tomatoes simmer, the recipe reverts to the easy-peasy trick of adding dry pasta into the pan along with the rest of the dish. The recipe calls for small pasta. I used shells. The note I wrote in the margin next to this recipe: Delicious! Easy! Foolproof!
As the refrigerator thinned out after a long stretch without shopping or deliveries, I rifled through the freezer searching for ingredients. I found bone-in chicken thighs. They are perfect for Dijon Chicken with Shallots and White Wine. Well, actually, I didn’t have shallots. Onions were close enough and would have to do. The only fresh thing required was cherry tomatoes. Fortunately, I had them. (No toilet paper or disinfectant spray, but I had cherry tomatoes). The dish cooked slowly on the stove for over one hour and was juicy and delicious.
Another chicken recipe: Baked Chicken with Potatoes, Cherry Tomatoes and Herbs. Gosh, there are a lot of chicken recipes and cherry tomatoes in the One Pot Opus. Which is good, because I have more chicken in my freezer than anything else. And cherry tomatoes are plentiful in the grocery store, plus they keep for a long time in the fridge. This recipe cooks the chicken in a tight foil package. It was inspired by a technique from the Italian island of Ischia, where apparently the sand on the beach is so hot that it reaches 350 degrees. In retrofitting the recipe to a home stove, the instructions call for baking in a 450 degree oven for 30 minutes. That wasn’t enough time to cook my batch or maybe it wasn’t hot enough. I kept putting it back until 45 minutes had gone by. I scribbled in my Opus One Pot’s margin that about 15 minutes more are needed to cook the chicken and the potatoes through. Next time, I’ll also try running it under the broiler briefly to brown it just before serving.
Another night when food was running low, I made the roasted Sausage, Brussels Sprouts and Potatoes with Honey Mustard. Except I didn’t have sausage. I used bacon instead. And I didn’t have brussels sprouts, so I skipped them. I did have potatoes. And I had the goods for the sauce. And man, was it delicious.
Next was Spiced Chickpea Stew with Coconut and Turmeric. After eating the easy-to-make and absolutely delicious stew, I learned that I was a latecomer discovering this spicy, thick comfort-food soup. My friends who live in Greenwich Village and post instagram photos of their gorgeous dinners have made the chickpea stew a lot, I noticed. I scribbled a note to myself for next time --- don’t bother to set aside some chickpeas for garnish. I say that because I forgot to set them aside. After I mixed them all into the stew, I gasped at the horror of my mistake. (Not really. The chick pea garnish is irrelevant). Even if you are artistic, live in Greenwich Village and make beautifully styled meals, you don't need the chick pea garnish.
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| Dinner of Shrimp Scampi with Orzo, Kale, and Black Pepper Parmesan scone from Flour Fool Baking |
The Shrimp Scampi with Orzo is unbelievably easy to whip up. I dumped uncooked orzo right into the same pan with the shrimp and garlic butter, white wine and lemon. My two cents on the recipe is that it calls for too much liquid. After the orzo cooks and sucks up the juice, there’s still too much sloshing in the pan. Worse things could happen. All I needed to work around that problem was to serve with a slotted spoon. A great feature of this recipe is that if there are leftovers, they freeze well. Which means that neither the shrimp nor the orzo feel gummy the second time around.
Vegetarian Skillet Chili is spicy and tasty. Moreover, it is a really great idea for dinner when the fresh vegetable drawer is down to pathetic. I had all the live produce I needed to make this, which was onion and garlic. Since they were the only botanical things in my refrigerator, I was in business. The recipe calls for cranking open cans of black beans and diced tomatoes. When I make it again, I will skip the pickled red onions. It seemed appetizing to mix together thinly sliced red onion strands with lime juice, kosher salt and a pinch of sugar. But they didn’t live up to what I expected for them. Waste of time.
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| Salmon with Potatoes and Horseradish-Tarragon Sauce (The time I made it with frozen fish from China. Don't do that.) |
Early on, I made the Salmon with Potatoes and Horseradish-Tarragon Sauce. It was delicious the first time around. The second time, not so good. But I am pretty sure I know why. The first time, I used fresh salmon and I followed the recipe’s instructions carefully. It was moist, like buttery moist, and the horseradish Greek yogurt sauce was a smooth complement. The second time, I used frozen salmon fillets. They had the skin on them. The recipe calls for boneless, skinless fillets. I don’t think the problem was with the skin. I think the problem was with my shopping. The fish came frozen from China. Just that day, I had read about food quality, particularly food produced in China. As I tried to eat, I couldn’t shake the images of unsanitary, unhealthy fish farming practices. That ruined the dish for me. Nothing to do with the recipe. Note to self: don’t buy frozen fish from China again. It wrecks the recipe.
There are more recipes I haven’t tried yet. It’s looking like there will more time at home to finish the One Pot and probably to move on to tackle another opus. But for now, I’m grateful to have found the ONE.