cooking for one

cooking for one is hard! This blog is dedicated to our friend S, who recently moved to the bog ol' london town.

principles of cooking for one *according to me*
1. shop wisely - only buy what you need and think carefully abt how you can use up everything.
2. one pot cooking is best, oven is good, too. Lined oven trays with layers of aluminium foil, I think foil is a miracle to men. this means less washing up.
3. think abt food prep, stir fry might sound easy and fast but who has time after school/work to peel vegetables!?
4. use what you have in pantry! no point buying some dried spices you will never use again
5. cook big batch of soups and curries over the weekend and store in freezer, so you have weekday dinners ready, too. (good tip from my sis)

I made this lamb dish last night and all I did was marinade the lamb, peel carrots, chopped potatoes and carrots, bung everything in the oven!

1. marinade 500g organic lamb rump (rump is cheaper than chops): mince ginger and garlic; one tablespoon each of ground coriander and cumin, salt and pepper to taste, drizzle olive oil and mix. set aside best to leave it for 20 mins, while it is marinading, move on to your veg

2. peeled 4 carrots. get potatoes (x4) that doesnt require peeling and scrubbing (kipfler, desiree and nicola is good). chop them into small bite size pieces and keep them in the same size to speed up cooking time.

3. drizzle olive oil, add salt and pepper on veg, put in two cloves of garlic (skin on, so you get soft and sweet garlic later on), bung in oven for 30 mins at 200 degress

4. in 20 mins, check how the veg is doing, taste it!

5. bung in the lamb, on a separate tray, but on top of veg, crank the oven up to 250. cook for 5 mins, turn the lamb. take the veg out. cook the lamb for another 2-3 mins.

I hope this is easy for everyone! the meat and veg can always be substituted. happy cooking!

D.