How to use this ebook

Select one of the chapters from the main contents list and you will be taken to a list of all the recipes covered in that chapter.

Alternatively, jump to the index to browse recipes by ingredient.

Look out for linked text (which is underlined and/or in a different colour) throughout the ebook that you can select to help you navigate between related recipes.

Have you ever totted up how much time and energy you waste washing up the sinkful of saucepans which seem to be required for every meal? Well, neither had I until my cooking life was turned upside down for three months while I had my kitchen ripped out and replaced. Cooking on two burners and using a maximum of two pans for each meal had such a useful effect on my cooking and eliminated so much tedious washing up that I decided to turn the recipes into a book. After all, it seemed to me, if a book will help you provide interesting food for yourself, your family and friends without a load of the worst kind of washing up, who could resist? All the recipes here can be cooked in one, occasionally two, pans (and the second is usually just for preparing vegetables). Some dishes, such as the stews and curries, could be cooked in the oven, but an oven is not essential for any recipe. Occasionally dishes are finished under the grill, but it’s rare and never essential to the goodness of the dish.

Most recipes are simple, requiring minimal preparation, and all are made with easily attainable, seasonal ingredients. There are no fiddly, restaurant-style dishes, but there are plenty of tricks of the trade that will upgrade your daily meals. This is after-work food, the daily meal that shouldn’t be too demanding to make or take too long to cook. Equally, these dishes are never boring: there are big soups, piled with fresh, seasonal vegetables, sometimes with fish or meat, which are interesting and satisfying enough to be a complete meal. There are numerous ways of turning the staples of life, such as pasta, potatoes, rice and dried beans, into meals to remember. Chicken, which is what most of us turn to repeatedly for quick, after-work meals, makes up one of the biggest chapters with dishes as diverse as Scottish Cock-a-leekie, Thai Chicken tom yam and French After-work coq au vin. Seafood, which is often overlooked as a healthy, fast food, is another big section, with favourites from all around the world including Spanish Cod with white beans, After-work bouillabaisse and Prawn laksa with green beans. Pork, bacon and ham is possibly my favourite section, with hearty dishes such as Cocktail sausage and lentil stew and Dublin coddle. Red meats – Lamb and Beef, veal and venison – are the smallest chapters because, like so many people, I eat less red meat than I used to and I’m fussy about its heritage. That’s not to say I could ever resist a properly made Irish stew, or less familiar meaty dishes such as Greek lemon lamb with new potatoes, Frito mallorquin (who would have thought liver could taste so good?) and Smoked chili con carne with cherry tomatoes. The Vegetarian section grew so large that I considered devoting the whole book to one-pan vegetarian dishes; the possibilities, it seems to me, are endless. Malaysian Gado gado and Macaroni cheese with melting tomatoes is the kind of food I‘m talking about. Puddings, too, get a major look in. Chocolate rice pudding, Scottish Cranachan, Eton mess and Apple cream with banana passion fruit sauce is my kind of pudding in a bowl.

A word or two about ingredients: stock is key to many of these one-pot dishes. While home-made is always desirable, shop-bought stock is fine for convenience – quick-dissolving granules, cubes or even a can of consommé will all do the trick. I peel stringy vegetables like celery with a potato peeler, but potatoes I usually cook first, as the skins are then so much easier to remove. When making a garlic paste, check cloves for the little green growing stem, and remove it first – but don’t bother if you are chopping or slicing it. Always choose unwaxed lemons if the zest is to be used in a recipe.

My time of self-inflicted kitchen denial also proved that you need very little equipment to cook well with comfort and efficiency. I limited myself to a couple of sharp knives and a knife sharpener to keep them perfect; a chopping board; a few wooden spoons; a whisk; a frying pan and a wok; a large heavy-bottomed saucepan and a small one for milk and eggs; a kettle and a toaster. I also relied on a good, swivel-head potato peeler, a colander and a sieve, and my trusty Magimix food processor.

The book reflects the pleasure I found in the challenge of cooking on two burners, but translates perfectly to all of us, all the time. These dishes prove, simply and tastefully, that cooking in one pan makes a lot of sense.

Lindsey Bareham