The COVID-19 Cookbook

This is a survival guide written by a 77-year-old scientist who is currently living alone in his house in Fort Lauderdale and who normally eats dinner in local restaurants every evening. After restaurants were restricted by the City of Fort Lauderdale from serving meals or drinks indoors or on terraces outside on March 17, 2020, he picked up take-out dinners from the same restaurants offering this service. When the Governor of Florida agreed to allow restaurants in Broward County to reopen on May 18 before there had been any sustained reduction in daily new identified cases of coronavirus, following pressure from the Mayor of Fort Lauderdale and local businesses, it became too dangerous to continue with take-out dinners. He was left with no alternative other than cooking his dinners at home.He did not achieve this on his own. He inherited a kitchen already extensively equipped with the assistance of an ex-wife and an ex-fiancée, both excellent cooks. He drew on recipes on the internet, and received recipes and constant advice from his friends, including expert cooks. This book provides recipes for dinners similar to those that he used to eat in restaurants for each day of the week, including an alternate for Thursdays depending on the availability of the fish. These recipes have been recipe tested for up to 20 weeks and updated each time an improvement was identified in order to achieve dinners at the same standard as served in the restaurants. They were selected to provide a balanced diet, including a good mix of seafood and meats, and a wide range of vegetables, pastas, and rice. They also draw on a variety of international cuisines.For those like the author who are relatively unfamiliar with cooking dinners the recipes are extensively illustrated so that it is easy to remember what to do and which cooking utensils are required. The recipes are preceded with illustrations of the equipment and ingredients used in cooking these eight dinners.