In the kitchen, as well as in life, I like to do things as quickly as possible. I mean I run for exercise because I find walking way too slow.
I’m always on the lookout for shortcuts that will get me where I want to go quicker without sacrificing the things that are important to me, like flavour.
plan your meals
I know it sounds a bit boring but having a rough idea of what you’re going to need and doing a weekly shop is so much faster than going to the supermarket every night on the way home. There’s nothing worse than having to fight for a park when you really just want to get home. Be kind to yourself.
determine your critical path
OK this isn’t as scary as it sounds. In project management, the critical path is the list of tasks that depend on another critical task being completed before they are. It can be really helpful to take a moment to think through your recipe and figure out which element is going to take the longest to cook and any things that depend on each other. Then prioritise getting those critical elements cooking asap.
For example if you’re cooking fresh pasta with boccincini, basil & red peppers, the pasta is going to take the longest to cook (the other ingredients just get stirred through) so immediately you should be boiling water to cook the pasta and getting that happening first. Then in the mean time you can cut your peppers and pick the basil leaves.
don’t be afraid to change the technique
If there’s something you normally bake in the oven, think about whether you could pan fry it, or cook it under the grill. For a great example, see the recipe for my [almost] instant apple crumble where I’ve taken a dish that normally needs at least 1/2hour in the oven, and turned it into a 10 minute dessert.
plan to have leftovers
I’m always a big fan of leftovers if I can rework them into a different type of meal. Sometimes I make extra and freeze for future use. Other times I reinvent the leftovers as another meal. So Sunday night’s extra lambshanks that were originally served with good old mash, get shredded and mixed with their rich tomatoey onion sauce for a lamb ragu with pasta on Monday.
think about actual active cooking time
A tray of roast mushrooms may take 1/2 hour in the oven, or a slow roast leg of lamb may take 5 hours. But if it only takes a few minutes to pop them in the oven to begin with, and don’t require much supervision, they can free up a lot more of your time than something like a stir-fry which cooks in minutes but takes a heap of chopping prep time.
question your habits
Just because you normally cook something in a certain way, or just because you cook something full stop, doesn’t mean it always needs to be cooked. Case in point the broccoli in our broccoli, bacon & avocado salad.
use simple recipes
OK. We all know where I stand on this one. But before you even choose to cook a particular dish, it’s a great habit to question whether this is as simple as it could be. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried out an idea thinking it wouldn’t work because it would be too simple and would be lacking in some way, and been blown away by the results (in a good way).
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