Eat: Cooking for one

I have learned more about cooking since I went solo - about five years ago when I first moved out of my family's home to live and work in Saudi Arabia. Over the years, it has been all sorts of things to me: exciting, boring, rejuvenating, humbling, frustrating, and more. Over and above all this, though, I have learned so much. And not just about cooking, but about staying healthy, about nutrition in general, about worldwide cuisine, about sharing, about conserving resources, (and about optimising them as well), about natural food photography vs. blogging photography vs. advertising food photography, about recipes and how to write them, about translating the names of ingredients from one language to another, about storage of food, about how to purchase fresh ingredients and how to recognise when food has gone bad - and so much more. Eventually, it emboldened me to start this blog!

Here are a few moments from my experiences:

• I was busy surfing the net, having kept some lamb meat in a pressure cooker. I never heard the whistles of this cooker as this was a different kind where the weight simply rotates above the lid without making any noise. The lamb got burned completely as I forgot about it for over an hour. When I opened the lid, the pieces were burnt into black, coal-like bits! (Learned to pay more attention to the kitchen when food is cooking, and bought a kitchen timer on my next visit to India - which I still use!)
• Learned to dice and half-fry onions in a large batch to save time. I would store those half-cooked onions in a large box and take as much as I needed to make food till that supply got over. I don't do that any more, though, as I have a very small fridge in my Blackpool quarters).
• Learned to use an oven to cook some dishes like fish and chicken. I had never used an oven either in India or in Saudi Arabia. And here, I am talking of the big oven that comes below the hob, not a microwave or a simple OTG that I HAVE used in the past.
• Learned how to differentiate between different European vegetables. These are available at greatly hiked prices in India, where they are sold as exotic foods. To give you an example, while a small piece of Broccoli is sold for 40-60 rupees in Mumbai, the same is available for a few pence in the U.K. Well, the prices are comparable because a U.K. pound is still over 80 INR, but in comparison to U.K. prices, broccoli is as cheap as cauliflower.
• Started taking pictures and shared them on social media. Everyone has been appreciative, not the least my own daughters who now wait for me to visit India so that they can ask me to cook all those delicious things I make when I am abroad.
• Learned how to store stuff in a small fridge and freezer. In the accommodation where I live, I barely have 100 litres of space between the small fridge and the freezer. I have to really optimise how I use that space in the best possible way. I end up cutting long things like drumsticks, ridge gourd, long cucumbers, etc. I turn the large tomatoes into a tomato puree. I squeeze out the water from the lamb and meats to shrink the bags of raw meats. I buy and store only as much as I know the space I have left. (The other half of the 200 litre space is shared with a flat-mate.)

Here are a few of the best things I have made over the years. You can see more in my Facebook albums.

Molokhia soup

Prawns curry with rice

Masoor pulao and kadhi

Chicken masala

Batata wada

Lamb burgers

Pav bhaji

Lamb curry

Cluster beans and potato - the humble guvar with aloo

Spinach, Punjabi style

Dal-chaval palidu

Bhajia kadhi

Masala dosa

Bombay potato

Shirkhurma

Paya - trotters

And so, it has been a pleasant experience for me. Do share your own experiences as cooks - whether you are with your family or alone somewhere on Planet Earth. Thank you for reading.