* Good quality dried noodles or 'wet' noodles in vacuum packs (expensive, but makes stir fries quicker by 5 minutes or so).
* Garlic paste (much quicker than 'real' garlic, fairly cheap and almost as good no matter what certain snobs say).
* Chickpeas, black eyed beans etc. in cans. Unlike most vegetables, these are best out of cans anyway and keep forever.
* At least 3 types of curry paste. I use the Patak's stuff, typically Korma, Balti, Tikka, Madras and Garam Masala.
* Jar or two of white sauce (sometimes misleading labeled as being for lasagna). Useful for those days when you're not in the mood for yet another tomato-based sauce.
Do I need to fill in the blanks ? Grab a random selection of vegetables from your collection, stir fry them, chuck in the sauce ingredients du-jour and the whole lot's ready in 5-10 minutes (depending on the vegatables).
Oh, and in case you haven't got into the microwave trick yet: Microwave mushrooms, brocolli, carrots, babycorn and anything else which doesn't need to be crispy in a big jug with a bit of water. Much faster than other cooking methods and doesn't require supervision of any kind, meaning you can do the rest of your prep at the same time.
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timeasmymeasure
Noodles !
Date: 2003-05-28 03:46 am (UTC)Useful things:
* Good quality dried noodles or 'wet' noodles in vacuum packs (expensive, but makes stir fries quicker by 5 minutes or so).
* Garlic paste (much quicker than 'real' garlic, fairly cheap and almost as good no matter what certain snobs say).
* Chickpeas, black eyed beans etc. in cans. Unlike most vegetables, these are best out of cans anyway and keep forever.
* At least 3 types of curry paste. I use the Patak's stuff, typically Korma, Balti, Tikka, Madras and Garam Masala.
* Jar or two of white sauce (sometimes misleading labeled as being for lasagna). Useful for those days when you're not in the mood for yet another tomato-based sauce.
Do I need to fill in the blanks ? Grab a random selection of vegetables from your collection, stir fry them, chuck in the sauce ingredients du-jour and the whole lot's ready in 5-10 minutes (depending on the vegatables).
Oh, and in case you haven't got into the microwave trick yet: Microwave mushrooms, brocolli, carrots, babycorn and anything else which doesn't need to be crispy in a big jug with a bit of water. Much faster than other cooking methods and doesn't require supervision of any kind, meaning you can do the rest of your prep at the same time.