*munch*

[venta]

Quite often I find myself in the situation of only having around half an hour to cook and eat my tea when I get in from work. So, realistically, I want to be able to cook whatever-it-is in 15 minutes or under.

I'm not really a huge fan of microwave meals - they're usually insubstantial and/or tasteless. I have no objection to instant-style things so long as they're nice (a current stand-by is Ainsley Harriott's instant cous-cous mix... the Moroccan one in particular. Takes around five minutes, and makes a reasonable snack meal).

However. I'd rather cook stuff. Quickly. And (here comes the crunch) I want to use moderately non-perishable ingredients, because I'm never together enough to have worked out what/where/with whom I'm eating in time to have done the requisite shopping. Our house is usually reasonably well off for standard vegetables so they're OK, but fresh meat/fish is right out. Tinned stuff is OK. So is dried. Things which live in jars full of olive oil and pretend to be fresh are very much approved of :)

So, last night was a mushroom and artichoke heart omelette. Took under 10 minutes to cook, and was made from things which were hanging about in the cupboard/fridge.

Anyone got any suggestions ?

Comments

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

Nigel Slater's "Real Fast Food" is the one you want. Really, really good recipes, and very fast. (And I *hate* celebrity cooks, so this is a strong recommendation.

Top tip: Buy whole chickens, joint them, and freeze each of the bits separately to be defrosted when required.

Risottos are quick and easy, as are soups, pasta dishes (although you need a good 2 hrs to make a proper red sauce, but), you've even got enough time to make mashed potatoes, or bake small things like saltimbocca.

[triskellian]

How are you cooking risotto if you have time to eat it as well as cook it in half an hour? It always takes me half an hour to make it!

Oh, and I'll second the Nigel Slater recommendation. In fact, I can lend venta a copy if she wants to assess it before committing herself.

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

I find I can do small quantities in 20 minutes, but you have to have quite heavy pans to prevent the rice sticking and burning, because you need to give it quite a lot of heat.

Course, the real crunch is the washing-up... :-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I'll second the Nigel Slater recommendation. In fact, I can lend venta a copy if she wants to assess it before committing herself.

Oooh, yes please. Dunno when I'll see you, though. Do you (and smiorgan) want to come round and be cooked for sometime ? I'll even cook something for longer than 10 minutes :)

[triskellian]

Hmm, let me see... I get to evangelise about my favourite cookery writer and have nice food cooked for me...? That's a tough one, but on balance, I think it sounds like a wonderful idea ;-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

have nice food cooked for me

You're making all kinds of assumptions there :)

[triskellian]

Oh, I don't know. In the course of this thread, I think you've given quite a lot of evidence that you cook yummy things!

[venta.livejournal.com]

saltimbocca

Who ?

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

Here

Although I typically make mine with supreme of chicken, since it's hard to get decent veal now I'm further from the Italian butcher in Holborn. And I roast, rather than saute, since it holds together better like that...

[venta.livejournal.com]

Oh aye. I do that sometimes, but I call it chicken-breast-with-prosciutto-round-it :)

Having read the recipe, it recommends using instant polenta. Can you get instant versions which are nice ? Last time we tried it, it came out somewhere between a bad roux and angry semolina.

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

:-) It's the sage thats the essential thing: everything else is variable. (I make mine with serrano ham rather than parma, since the former's darker and richer)

RecipeSource recipes are very variable: a lot of them are totall shit, and some of them contain bad elements. Like instant polenta...

But that might just be my feelings towards polenta: it's pretty nasty, unless you make it very thick, so that you can slice it and grill it with a ton of olive oil... Angry semolina is an accurate description of the wrong sort of polenta! :-)

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Last time we tried it, it came out somewhere between a bad roux and angry semolina.

But was it sexy, angry semolina ?

;-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

No.

Or not in my view, anyway. I'd hate to appear to be passing judgement on all the semolinaphiles out there.