One Pot or Pan dishes for dummies

[beanflying]

No real Rules here other than most of us hate to wash dishes and as the former owner of a Cafe I really have done way more and hate them much more than most

KISS, minimal prep and minimum ingredients that most of us should have in the cupboard and ONE pot or pan. Should at minimum be ingredients available most places on this rock without to much effort.

Should ideally be under 20-30 minutes from the time you start until the time you get to munching.

[beanflying]

Spaghetti Carbonara. 

** This is NOT Mac and Cheese! 

*** This Recipe NEVER should have cream added to it or be sloppy on the plate

Bit of oil in the bottom of the Pot and fry off the Bacon (should be Pancetta but KISS) but make sure it is a nice smoked one. Can add a little garlic toward the end so it doesn't burn but call it optional.

Put the Bacon when cooked onto some paper to drain a bit.

For the Pasta use Spirals or Tubular for the extra surface area over a typical long pasta noodle but use what you have. If you fail at boiling water and cooking Pasta using the instructions then likely you cant be helped

While the Pasta is cooking crack two - three eggs per serve (two is generally plenty) and whisk with a fork until the white and yolk are combined. Crack a good lot of Pepper into this mix.

Next up is the Cheese and DO NOT use soft flavorless plastic rubbish! In tonight's example I used some reasonable blended commercial Pizza cheese but some Parmesan and Mozzarella would be great too, this is where the Creamyness comes from so adjust to taste and texture. For a rough ratio for me about the same volume as the Egg mix works well and add some more Pepper if you like.

By now you have time to pour a Glass of something or open a Beer until the Pasta is ready to strain. Save the Strainer and learn to use the Pot Lid for one less bit of dirty kit.

With the Pasta and Pot as hot as you can stir in the Bacon and add the Egg and Cheese mix and stir. You can add a very very low heat under the pot but get it wrong and you get scrambled lumps of egg in the mix.

Add a bit of Parsley or Basil if you like and even a bit more Pepper if you think it needs it.

Eat and Enjoy or if you really want to save on the dishes eat it out of the pot 

[beanflying]

Not so much a recipe but a method and some flavour ideas.

Pan Fried Dumplings (Jaiozi - Chinese or Gyoza - Japanese) fairly widely available from either commercial food suppliers or supermarkets or specialty Asian Grocers or make your own (I have done in the past but not for this thread)

Available in Vegetarian (normally mushroom based of some sort), Prawn, Pork or Chicken. Tonight's are Chicken and Ginger.

Best cooked after taking them out of the freezer for 30 minutes or so or just start them a little slow to thaw in the Pan or BBQ hotplate. So a little oil and 10-15/serve depending on size and appetite . Turn regularly until you get them heated through and a bit of a crust on the outside.

Pick some stir-fry type veges you like or have around and chop them while the Dumplings get going. Add them to the pan hard or more woody ones (2-3 minutes cooktime) first then the leafy ones last (a minute maximum). As you are doing this I like to add a sauce of some sort and finish it by adding a glug of water to lightly steam everything and it also loosens the sauce if it is to sticky.

For the Sauce use whatever you like but Sriracha is a great staple to add to the stash. Go easy until you learn how much heat you like from it but some Soy and Ginger got added to tonight's as well. Sweet Chili, Plum Sauce, Hoisin or some Black Bean would also work if you like it more mild.

Total cook and prep time about 15 minutes.

[beanflying]

Nasi Goreng or Twisted Chinese Fried Rice if you like. All share similar themes and reuse precooked and COLD rice, veges and some meaty/mushroom extras.

Tonight I am cheating and using a sachet of precooked Brown Rice partly because it was 50% off making it under $1USD equivalent for two serves so I brought a few for the stash and cooking small quantities of Brown is so slow. White rice is fine too but I like the flavor of Brown in this sort of dish. If you are doing a more Chinese style then white I guess.

I was going to use two leftover Pork Rashers like here from two days ago https://www.eevblog.com/forum/cooking/char-siu-or-chinese-inspired-bbq-pork-recipes/msg3820286/#msg3820286 but they didn't get to the fridge  So Bacon here but roll with Chicken, Pork, Mushrooms or Seafood of some sort. Chop it Bacon thin for fast cooking.

Veges tonight was using the leftovers from the Pork Riblets but seriously whatever you have around apart from starchy types will be fine. Chop it fine as you want a cook time of a few minutes max.

For me I like to cook an Omelet first and rough chop or even tear it into small chunks add a little oil here, Nasi Goreng typically this is cooked on top or separately after but try it both ways and see what you like.

Next up get the bacon rolling (tonight's or add a little more oil depending on your protein choice) and add some finely sliced onion (shallots, green or brown) then in with the rice next along with some Garlic, Ginger and Kecap Manis or Light Soy (depending on SE Asian or Chinese style) and add some chopped or bottled chilies if it suits your taste buds or some Pepper (Sichuan or Black) here too. Also Shrimp Paste, Sesame oil or whatever else you feel like or have on hand.

After this starts to come together and get heated through add in your Veges and cook for maybe 3 minutes maximum. At the last minute add in the diced up Omelet to heat through. Maybe a small dash of light soy here too if you think it needs it.

Eat 

[beanflying]

Another easy Pasta meal. Same sort of topping would go great with a couple of Eggs and some good quality Toast or to top off a Baked Potato with some melted cheese on top.

Only a little good quality Salami which is fairly traditional to have with majority Veges in this sort of Italian mix. If you use Bacon maybe 1/2 a small red chili too.

The mix is not that important but what I used and maybe some eggplant or whatever else you feel like or have on hand.

I didn't have a lot of Tomatoes to use up so I will add a little Tomato Passata later on when I stir this through the Pasta tonight. Normally you would have more in the mix but even then some Passata helps make a more generous sauce. Olives, Red Peppers and a little Red Onion and cook in stages with a little garlic in the pot, also some dried herbs and cracked pepper. Set aside until the Pasta is cooked in the same pot.

Drain the Pasta and stir the Sauce through adding the Passata (notice the red finish to the pasta in the last shot) now if you like or have some. I do this on a very low heat for 3-4 minutes.

Top it off with some good Parmesan or a good quality hard cheese. Eat 

[Psi]

Does the one pot/pan rule include a pot with a steamer pot that sits on top, or would that be two pots? It only takes up 1 element.

If it's included then it opens up options to steam veggies while making rice or pasta in the water that's being used for steaming.


Typically, for one pot meals a crockpot/slowcooker is the go to appliance.

[beanflying]

It's cooking there are no rules 

That pasta dish would actually be faster to prep with a second small frypan and typically I would. Just trying to make a point I guess less gear can turnout quick simple tasty food. Adding a steamer insert to the pot here yeah sure why not 

Crockpot/Slowcooker dishes would be a good thing to add maybe in their own thread only because of the way different cooking speed?