ONE POT DINNERS
A SALVE FOR THE SOUL
If there is a month that tests the soul, it’s January.
The holiday bills are arriving in the mail. The caloric over-indulgences of the season have sparked resolutions that, in the gray light of a winter day, are difficult to maintain. The adrenaline that kept us moving through November and December has been spent. We are tired.
It’s time for the one-dish dinner. Whether it is a soup or stew that simmers on the stovetop or a casserole that bakes low and slow in the oven, it emits aromas that perfume the house with the promise of tasty sustenance and the need to wash just one pot at dinner's end.
I’m not alone in my passion for one-pot meals. In 2014, 4.4 million Crock-Pots — the consummate “one-pot” — were sold compared with 3.2 million in 2005. The study (by the international consumer product market research firm Euromonitor) coincided with the 75th anniversary in 2015 of Crock-Pot’s invention. To boot, Food Technology magazine reported in an April 2015 article that over a five-year period, one-pot meals were up 29 percent nationally.
Andrea Chesman, a Vermont-based cookbook writer and editor, caught the wave. In late 2016, she updated her 2005 book titled “Mom’s Best One-Dish Suppers.” The new edition, released by Storey Publishing in September 2016, is titled “101 One Dish Dinners, Hearty Recipes for the Dutch Oven, Skillet & Casserole Pan.”
The book is well organized, written with no-fuss instructions like “just throw [the frozen veggies] into the pasta water” and begins each recipe with an introduction that ranges from cultural insight to opinions about the mix of spices in the recipe.
The three recipes that follow, as a package, work on several levels. The meals will hit wildly different palate-points. They are healthy. And they are, when taken in a threesome, particularly economical. Together, the cost of the ingredients — including spices — was less than $100. Note: Ms. Chesman’s recipes do not contain the usual number of servings, but each easily serves four hungry people, and the leftovers will stretch through most of a week.
The first recipe, Quick Black Bean Soup, is indeed quick and costs about $10 for a large pot. As is typical, the author suggests the no-fuss way: using canned black beans so the dish can be made at a moment’s notice. With the smoky spice of a chipotle chili and the warmth of ground cumin, this soup is perfect for a snowy day.
The second recipe features sauerkraut. Sauerkraut and January just seem to go together. (Sauerkraut on New Year’s Day is supposed to guarantee good luck for the new year.) Skillet Choucroute Garni (choucroute is French for sauerkraut) would feature, if being prepared the traditional Alsatian way, goose fat and juniper berries, and a considerable helping of goose meat, pork and ham. Ms. Chesman’s version goes lighter on the calorie count, and I went even lighter, using a “lite” version of kielbasa and ham. This meal is delightfully tasty, easy to make and costs about $15 for a huge skilletfull. A slice of pumpernickel bread with butter is a perfect complement.
I was sold on the third recipe as soon as I saw that it involved lamb and that the preparation was described as osso bucco-style. Usually made of a veal shank and braised in wine and stock, osso bucco is the definition of decadence. Using lamb, the meal was less expensive than veal shank but just as delicious. This dish is the most expensive of the three: The lamb, four onepound-plus-change shanks, cost about $30. Considering that only about $25 was spent on the other two meals, it seemed an acceptable splurge.