Cooking For One Food Marketing, Eating Habits, And Also Appliances Have Made Solo Cooking Much Easier

Solo cooks have the best of all possible culinary worlds. They cook whatever they please, whenever they feel like eating. And there are only a few dishes to wash afterward.

Food costs are minimal, and marketing is a breeze - no overladen carts to push, no squadron of bursting grocery bags to tote and unload. Most of the time, singles shoot through the express line. If their cart is stuffed, they’re probably giving a party.

Single cooks aren’t necessarily single, though. Travel or a work schedule may split up a couple temporarily. And singlehood is transitory. One leaves it, then re-enters when a relationship breaks up, the children leave home, or a roommate moves out. A single cook can be any age, from a recent high school graduate to a 90-year-old widower.

Long ago, when big roasts and heaps of potatoes were in fashion for Sunday dinner, the lone cook didn’t have a chance. Today, food marketing, cooking methods, eating patterns and appliances have changed considerably, to the benefit of singles.

Supermarket salad bars and deli takeouts provide accompaniments sold by weight. Meat counters offer steaks and chops packaged for one or two servings.

Pasta, ideal for quick meals, occupies lots of store shelf space. Pasta sauces and salad dressings come in mind-boggling variety, and they store well.

Rolls sold in bulk allow a shopper to buy a single hamburger bun rather than a package of eight. Herbs and spices are packed in small jars as well as larger sizes.

Contemporary cooking methods such as range-top grilling, stir-frying and microwaving are perfect for small quantities of food. The smaller the portion cooked in a microwave, the shorter the cooking time. A single medium potato “bakes” in only six minutes, four Brussels sprouts in four minutes.

Ridged range-top grills are small and easier to work with than an oven-broiler. They’re ideal for single steaks, chops and sausages. And to retain the high heat of a wok, food must be cooked in small batches, making it preferable to stir-fry for one or two rather than for a dinner party.

That’s not to say single people always cook for one. Life without leftovers would be, well, more difficult than it needs to be. A stew can be great for a couple of nights and freezes well for quick dinners later. A roast chicken could be eaten hot one night, cold another and in salad a third time.

Nor must lone cooks buy only minimal quantities of food. Some supermarket meat bargains are simply too good to pass up.

A two-pound hunk of London broil bought on sale can be cut into individual steaks. These can be wrapped separately, bundled together and frozen. It takes only a few minutes to thaw one steak in a microwave and five to seven minutes to cook it on a range-top grill.

Chicken thighs and legs, also frequently on sale, are perfect for single cooks. Divide them into dinner-size portions and freeze.

Buying eggs by the half-dozen may seem practical, but a dozen on sale can be cheaper, and a good buy if you have a repertoire of puddings and frittatas.

A microwave scrambled egg is one solution when there’s no incentive to get out a pan. Break the egg into a one-cup measure (easier to clean than a skillet). Add two teaspoons water, a dash of salt and a sprinkle of dried tarragon. Beat well with a fork.

Microwave on medium, uncovered, 1 minute and 20 to 30 seconds, stopping occasionally to beat the egg as it rises and starts to solidify. When the egg is no longer liquid, it is ready to eat.

Vegetables that keep in the refrigerator for a week (or even longer, if you forget about them) include carrots, Brussels sprouts, cabbage and artichokes. A medium artichoke cooks in about 10 minutes in the microwave.

Spinach may seem fragile, but it keeps well in a crisper. Use half the bunch for spinach salads (it will make three), then stir-fry the rest with chopped garlic and a dash of oyster sauce or soy sauce.

A 10-pound bag of potatoes is not a bargain no matter how low the price. But it’s a good idea to keep a few russets or small golden yams on hand.

Rinse a potato, pierce it a few times with a knife, wrap it in a paper towel, place it on the bottom of the microwave oven and cook on high six minutes. If the potato is quite small, it may require less time. Squeeze it gently; if soft, it is done. Let it stand, wrapped in the towel, a few minutes before serving.

One-cup electric rice cookers are handy for single people who eat rice frequently. But it’s also easy to cook rice on top of the stove.

Rinse one-half cup long grain rice and place it in a small, heavy saucepan. Add one cup of water. Cover, bring to a boil and simmer until the liquid is absorbed, about five minutes. Then place over very low heat to steam while assembling the remainder of the dinner. The rice will be done in about 20 minutes total.

Lettuce is problematic. A single person may not be able to consume a hefty head of romaine before it wilts. One alternative is the composed salad, a combination of less perishable ingredients such as an avocado wedge, a few carrot slices, one or two sliced mushrooms and a couple of cherry tomatoes.

Growing lettuce is another alternative. This may sound like a bother, but it is amazingly easy. Buy a 24-inch plastic window-box planter, fill it with potting soil and plant a row of seeds. They’ll sprout in a few days, need almost no care and will provide baby lettuce leaves for weeks.

Baking a cake that will stand for several days and slowly dry out is not practical for a single cook. Better alternatives are seasonal fruits, like fresh strawberries sliced and topped with plain yogurt and honey, or raspberries with “creme fraiche” and coarse sugar.

One or two large pears, halved, peeled and poached in syrup, wine or fruit juice, can be stored in the refrigerator for several days.

When there’s a two-for-one sale on canned fruits, buy pineapple chunks. If the juice is unsweetened, drain it into a saucepan, add sugar to taste and simmer to make a syrup. Flavor the syrup with chopped candied ginger, shredded orange peel or liqueur, pour it over the pineapple and chill. For dessert, spoon a few chunks with syrup into a dish and add seedless grapes, berries or other fresh fruit.

Each week, Rose Dosti, a Los Angeles Times food writer, buys lots of vegetables to use in salads or Asian-style noodle and rice bowls.

Fresh Japanese udon, available in some supermarkets, is the foundation for one such dish. Dosti steams an assortment of vegetables in the microwave, adds the noodles and their seasoning packet, an egg and perhaps some cooked meat. Ramen noodles can be treated the same way, “It’s healthy, nutritious food,” she says.

For an Italian-Japanese rice bowl, she cooks arborio rice with canned broth to make risotto. Then she adds julienned vegetables seasoned with soy sauce and mirin and steamed in the microwave.

Rose’s Noodle Soup

3 broccoli florets

3 cauliflower florets

1 carrot, sliced

1 to 2 Brussels sprouts, halved

3 to 4 green beans, cut up, optional

2 cups water

1 (7-ounce) package fresh udon noodles, with seasoning packet

Few leaves spinach, nappa cabbage, bok choy, head cabbage or other green leaves, sliced

1 raw egg or 1 hard-boiled egg, sliced, or any leftover cooked meat, seafood or poultry pieces or slices

Chives or dried seaweed flakes or slices

Chili oil or other spicy seasoning, optional

Microwave method: Place broccoli and cauliflower florets, carrot, Brussels sprouts and green beans in large bowl. Add water. Cover and microwave on HIGH (100 percent) until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes.

Remove cover and add seasonings from noodle package and noodles, broken to easily incorporate into soup. Top with spinach. Drop raw egg into liquid or add hard-boiled egg.

Cover and microwave on high about 4 minutes, until noodles are heated and raw egg is cooked. Garnish with chives or seaweed. Serve with chili oil, chili paste, hot pepper sauce or other seasonings

Conventional cooking method: Cook broccoli and cauliflower florets, carrot, Brussels sprouts and green beans in water in saucepan over medium heat 10 to 12 minutes, or until tender.

Add noodles, seasonings from noodle package and spinach. Drop raw egg into liquid or add hard-boiled egg. Cover and simmer over medium heat until noodles and egg are cooked, about 5 minutes. Ladle into soup bowls. Add garnish.

Yield: 1 serving.

Nutrition information per serving: 442 calories, 218 milligrams cholesterol, 2,494 milligrams sodium, 7 grams fat (14 percent fat calories), 77 grams carbohydrate, 26 grams protein, 5.52 grams fiber.

Asian-Style Baked Chicken Legs When one dish requires long baking, it makes sense to bake other dishes alongside. Golden yams, a corn or squash casserole and a fruit crisp would go well with this chicken.

2-1/2 tablespoons molasses

1-1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon lime juice

1-1/2 teaspoons sugar

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 teaspoon peppercorns, crushed

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 chicken drumsticks

Combine molasses, soy sauce, lime juice, sugar, garlic, peppercorns and salt in bowl. Pour marinade over drumsticks and mix well.

Cover and refrigerate several hours to overnight. Line pan with foil. Place drumsticks on rack in pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Baste half way through with any remaining marinade.

Yield: 2 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 362 calories, 138 milligrams cholesterol, 1,201 milligrams sodium, 15 grams fat (37 percent fat calories), 21 grams carbohydrate, 35 grams protein.