The Joy of Cooking — for One!

Famed NYT food writer and restaurant critic Craig Claiborne said, “Cooking is at once child’s play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love.” Sreepathy Paliath puts love and care into all his meals, from shopping for ingredients and planning a menu to grinding his own spice pastes. We caught up with him in his Bengaluru apartment for a peek into his kitchen.

Asian Food for One

Since he lives alone, Sreepathy has the advantage of only cooking and eating what he really loves, which happens to be Asian cuisine. Growing up in the UAE, he was exposed to a variety of Asian flavours like Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Filipino, and Vietnamese, all widely available at food courts and malls. It became his favourite cuisine when eating out, and when he started cooking for himself, it became his comfort food: complex flavours, simple to execute.

He says, “When I moved to my own place in Bangalore in 2014, after a month of cooking South Indian food, I realised, it’s not something that I can possibly cook every day because of the sheer amount of prep it took. There was no one-bowl Indian meal I could think of!  With Asian food, a stir-fried noodle or fried rice was a meal in itself. You didn’t need anything else.”

Just the Essentials: Setting up a Kitchen

According to Sreepathy, you don’t need a lot of utensils, just the right ones. In other words, less is more! He suggests investing in five different utensils: a frying pan, a flat or round wok, a sauté pan, a stock pot, and a pressure cooker, which he considers a versatile multitasker: great for ramen broth, dal, meat, and even large-batch cooking.

Sreepathy’s personal favourites are chopsticks and noodle baskets, ideal for Asian cuisine. “I think learning to use chopsticks many moons ago has changed the way I cook. I use it for just about anything—from whisking eggs to scrambling them, cooking noodles, tossing, stirring, and of course, eating with them.”

Kitchen Management 101

Managing a kitchen starts with ingredient control and organising hacks. “My pantry is filled with just the essential Asian ingredients, and they are also arranged on racks and shelves, so it’s easier to cook with. Plus, I think, the fact that I do all my cooking on a single-burner stove is probably how I’ve been able to really control the variety of things I cook.”

Planning a Weekly Menu

Planning ahead is an important aspect of cooking for a single person, and that can look different for everyone. For Sreepathy, it’s knowing what he likes eating, and when. He says, “A lot of it depends on the grocery shopping I do because I tend to cook what I’m craving or what I enjoy eating more often. If I have to break down just my breakfast, lunch, and dinner, then breakfast is always rice-based South Indian food, like idli or dosa, and on the weekends, something bread-based, like a French Toast or sausages and the like.”

Grocery Shopping Tips for Solo Cooking

While you should buy groceries that fit your diet and cooking style, for a one-person household, it’s also important to really look into what you eat and how much you eat. Sreepathy says befriending a neighbourhood grocer and building a rapport with them is the ideal way to shop. “You can even buy a single tomato or cucumber!”

Waste Not, Want Not: Portion Control

Quantities can be tricky when you’re cooking for one, but Sreepathy has mastered it over the years. One thing he follows is “cook as per packet instructions,” so he goes by the measurements and servings advised on food labels. Weighing produce and protein helps, too. “My ingredients, whether it’s tofu or vegetables, are weighed and bought. It really is a no-brainer to manage the portions. For instance, most of my noodles are off-the-rack, but if I’m making my own, I know that I need about 150-200 g of noodles with about 100 g of tofu and 50 g of vegetables to make Chilli Soy Noodles. Or if I’m making Ayam Penyet, then one chicken leg, skin-on, with about 90 g of uncooked rice is enough for me to make lunch,” he says.

Sreepathy says that much of his portion management has evolved based on his eating habits and hunger levels, which is something you can figure out once you start cooking for yourself. The key is to start. And for all aspiring (and seasoned!) home cooks, here’s his recipe for single-serve Ayam Penyet, a spicy Indonesian fried chicken dish.