Mega Fast Meals
Mega Fast Meals
Modern living, especially in this economic climate, means that finding the time to cook a meal, or just a bite to eat, can prove to be quite difficult. With a little bit of planning, or just thinking ahead, it isn't as difficult or time-consuming as it seems.
The two main points to observe are, firstly, after a heavy day, you don't have the energy, or the inclination to prep and cook a meal. Especially if you live alone. Secondly, every-time you look in the cupboards or fridge, there seems to be nothing there.
Ok, its Friday night, you've just finished work, and after a quick shower and change of clothes, your out on the town. A meal in the pub, or a side trip to the chip shop is always on the cards. But on a Tuesday night, in the middle of the week, not going anywhere, and skint, it's a micro meal and crap tv. Unless you decide to make a few small changes.
So, sit down and write a list of the type of things you like to eat, then go online and find out how to make these dishes easily. In doing this, you set your frame of mind for making a shopping list.
Remember what I said earlier about the fridge being empty. Buy corned beef, bacon grill, cooked chicken, smoked sausage, turkey bacon, whichever you prefer. Buy simple mixed salad in a bag, a couple of tomatoes, half a cucumber, small red onions, a small bunch spring onion. Different types of bread, such as fajitas, ciabatta rolls or pittas.
Buy some plastic tubs and cook off a pack of bacon, bacon can be kept cold in the fridge for three days, and just a minute in the microwave and you have a bacon butty (sandwich).
Cook off some rice or pasta, keep it in the fridge in a sealed container for up to three days. Cooked rice, frozen peas, chopped bacon, chuck in some chopped spring onion and red pepper, done in ten minutes.
Sorted!
The problem with grocery shopping is that it pays homage to the reptilian part of the brain and it's need for needless repetition, thus making the function of grocery shopping repetitive and boring, same day/same time/same supermarket/ same products week after week.
By changing your attitude to food shopping, you change the event itself, such as trying a different supermarket on occasion, and you'll find that you'll come across products that you normally wouldn't notice, and you could save a lot of money. You may even enjoy yourself.
For example, I like Chicken curry with rice. I can cook this in the following ways.
Use a traditional recipe, with spices and fresh meat, aiming for great taste and authenticity. Takes about an hour and a half, costs about £5 per head
Use a standard recipe, cutting corners where possible, using cooked chicken, a packet of curry powder or a jar of curry sauce and frozen veg. Takes about 20 or 30 minutes, costs about £1 per head
Microwaved processed meal. Takes about 10 to 12 minutes, costs about £4.50 per head
Phone for a takeout, and take your chances on time and quality, costs about £7 per head
Make ya think, huh!
For example, Make a small batch of chilli to your own taste, cool at room temp and then tub up and pop in the fridge. Eat as a meal with rice, pour onto a burger or hot-dog. If you want to seperate and freeze half in a seperate tub, it can stay happily in the freezer for probably six months.
I'm going to throw out a few idea's for mega fast meals here, don't expect them to be healthy and vibrant, even though they will be better than most of the microwave meals I've ever eaten. These will focus on being speedy, filling and tasty, and I'm going to start with the unhealthiest of the bunch.
Souper Noodles
Didn't have a name for this when I was growing up, this name sort of caught on after I made it on a building site in the middle of nowhere once. It was pretty cold and the wind was icy, and the guy,s I was working with were in the back of a transit van eating cold sandwiches. I wanted a hot meal, so I pulled out my army mess tins boiled up some water and had my noodles, after which, I took pity and made everyone a hot cup of tea, of which they were very grateful of.
Dead simple this one. I class this one as Student food. A packet of instant chinese noodles, I use Koka for about 50 pence a packet, and a packet of cup-a-soup (chicken and sweetcorn, in this case).
Pour a mugful of boiling water into a bowl over the broken noodles, and microwave for two and a half minutes.
With a cloth (it will be hot!) remove the bowl, stir and add the cup-a-soup, then return to the microwave for another minute. Remove the bowl, and let it cool for a couple of minutes. As it cools, it will thicken. Tasty, very filling, and still less salt and sugar than a micro meal.
You could really pack this one out with anything you fancy. Chopped bacon, spring onion, peas, mushrooms, the list is endless.
Eggy in a Basket
I like eggs, but eggs don't like me that much. I usually eat toast with eggs, but I wont drink tea, as the eggs tend to briefly disagree with me if I do, to put it politely.
The absolute best way to eat eggs is either eggs benedict (which takes ages) or eggy in the basket.
Eggy in the basket is simple, quick and really tasty.
One egg, one small slice of brown bread, (tastes better than using white) and you'll need a cutter or tumbler.
Using the cutter, make a hole in the middle of the bread.
Melt a large knob of butter in a small frying pan, and when the butter starts to bubble or 'foam' it's ready for the bread.
Drop the bread in the pan, and crack the egg into the hole, and after a minute or two, drop the heat low. The heat cooking the bread will decrease allowing a slower heat to penetrate the egg.
When you have cooked the egg through, you can safely flip the bread and cook the top side. The finished product should be sealed together and golden brown.
The film V for Vendetta featured this breakfast snack, so if you have need, youtube has loads of videos for making this .
I have mine with a drop of ketchup, lovely.
Omelette
While I'm talking about eggs, I'll briefly mention omelettes. Different people cook them in different ways, just like many other dishes. Some say, eggs only, some say beat with cream, some say don't flip it, some say don't fold it. I say – what ever floats your boat, food is there to be enjoyed.
The main thing to remember is that omelettes are supposed to be fluffy, adding a liquid helps this by adding density to the mixture, allowing for air and water vapour to be caught in the rapidly cooking egg mixture.
I do omelettes in two ways depending on my mood.
Firstly, if I want an omelette on a plate with a filling, then I pour some olive oil into a small frying pan with a small knob of butter. Little note here, never use extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan, it will go slightly bitter if it burns. Mediterranean cooking, where with olive oil is used to fry, it is done at low temperatures, and with standard olive oil.
In a bowl I beat two whole eggs with a large splash of milk and a pinch of black pepper, giving me probably three eggs worth of mixture, then whisk vigorously.
The pan is ready when the butter start to foam, so pour it in, then lower the full heat to half for a minute or two, then down to low. This will seal the underside of the omelette, then cook it through without burning it.
Top the omelette with grated cheese, herbs, tomatoes, bacon, etc.
Test the omelette by giving the pan a gentle shake every few minutes. This will show when its cooked, and stop it from sticking. Flipping can be done like a pancake, if it's firm enough, or use a large fish slice or spatula. I don't both, I just pop the pan under a hot grill (broiler) and cook it from above. Be cautious of plastic handles if you do this.
The second (and quicker) way to cook an omelette, is if it is going on top of some bacon between two slices of bread. Whisk egg in a small bowl and microwave for 30 to 40 seconds. Done!
Fatboy Pitta's
In some of the kitchen's I have worked in over the years, quite a few had 'Fatboys'. These were the main line point of the kitchen, and they had a built in bain marie and pasta boiler, sometimes with hot drawers built in to store hot food. They held a lot of water and they held a lot of food, hence the name 'Fatboy'. At the end of the shift, we would grab a nan bread or a pitta bread, usually a pitta because it held more, stuff the bread with whatever was left over in the fatboy and dive-in.
Waste not, want not!
My personal favourite was the Asian Babe. My own version was Spicy chicken, Thai curry sauce, chopped mixed peppers, buttered mushrooms, yellow rice, chopped red onion, canadian bacon and a handfull of mixed cheese. All mixed together in a bowl, stuffed into the large pitta bread, and popped into the merrychef (or microwave) for one minute. Serve with sweet chilli sauce. These are to die for, but careful, it will be full of very hot melted cheese. Sexy or what
The Fatboy pitta, if made at home, is to mix anything you want together in a frying pan, or a microwaveable bowl, and then just heat and stuff.
Honestly, anything goes here. Sausage, bacon, pasta, mushrooms. Just remember that a fatboy has NO SALAD, ok.
Bacon and Corned Beef Pub Sandwich.
So everyone is familiar with, or has eaten a club sandwich, This is my take , which is the pub sandwich, because I was working in a pub kitchen when I came up with this.
Picture the scene, kitchen is closed, has been for sometime, and the chefs are getting drunk at the bar. Everyone piles back to my place, and when we get there, everyone is hungry. I've just spent thirteen hours cooking in the pub kitchen, the last thing I want to do is cook for myself, and like everyone else, I'm ravenous. The solution was to raid fridge and cupboards and bread bin for anything edible, and come up with something easy but very filling
In a flash the BCP was born
simply assemble as follows, changing what you dont want for things you do want.
Toast three rounds of bread
Butter the bread
Take one round of buttered toast as a base
spread a very thin layer of marmite onto toast
Place a layer of bacon onto this
Place a round of toast onto this
next is the corned beef, warm if you wish
then a layer of ripped or chopped lettuce
finish with the last piece of toast
Soup of the day
Ever fancied a bowl of soup, instead of a stodgy meal or a takeout.
Soup is fantastic, full of what the body needs without the heafty digestion process. An ideal diet food if your trying to lose a couple of pounds. I love a bowl of farmhouse veg or tomato with a crusty cob or half a baguette.
I have already spoken about keeping food in containers in the fridge. The general rule is three days then chuck it. If it comes from a tin, such as tuna, maybe only two, but no more than three days. This also goes for any excess veg you may have cooked. Put in a tub in the fridge, it becomes ideal for a soup base.
Lots of people who make soup, find that the taste or consistency can be lacking. Tastes too bland, or it's too thin. Like anything else, it needs a bit of planning, but not too much. Your soup needs a base, this is what the main of it will be. For instance, if you are doing a chicken soup, you would make a stock from the carcass and leftover meat. If you were making a veg or tomato soup, a base stock would be needed.
The problem is that soup takes a while, even though reheating is very quick. Here I will give you a quick soup from scratch. I have found that a tomato based soup can be the quickest.
Take a large pan, and add a small amount of olive oil, and a knob of butter, which you melt at a mid or low heat.
Add to the pan the various veg need to make a basic stock, I would recommend finely chopped red onion, celery, spring onion, baby leek, garlic and grated or finely diced carrot. Cook these for about ten minutes or so, until softened and then season with salt, cracked black pepper and a little bit of powdered ginger.
Now add to the pan a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes (or use fresh if you wish) and about 60ml of water. Bring the heat up to cook everything through, and when it is reaching the boil, turn the heat back down. Let everything simmer away for about another ten minutes, and add some mixed herbs. Fresh or dried herbs will work, it doesn't matter which, and let simmer for another five minutes. This is the basic tomato soup mix ready for you to puree down to a liquid. I would recommend a hand-held electric blender, but if you use a jug-blender, let the mix cool first.
I like to add a small amount of red wine to the mix, sometimes half a veggie stock cube or I will have some red peppers oiled up and roasting in the oven while I make the soup, and I'll add them before liquidising.
A couple of things to note. Always make sure that you use a sharp or serrated knife, especially when cutting tomatoes. If you don't want to use tomatoes, simply get that excess veg out of the fridge and use that instead. If you use a bay leaf when cooking the soup, remember to remove the leaf before you liquidise, It isn't recommended that you leave it in there.
The thickening of the soup can be done in a number of ways. A little cornflour (or even plain flour) mixed with a bit of cold water, can be poured in as you liquidise. I prefer to chuck in some boiled potatoes, or you could use potato flakes if you wish. Just don't over do it and make it too thick. I find that soup tastes better the day after its made, but this can be eaten straight away if you wish. Play with your condements and spice rack, improve your skills each time you make a soup, you might even come up with your own flavours.
Baked Potato
Your probably wondering why I'm listing baked potato, they take ages to cook. Not with a bit of planning they don't. You can go into a pub or restaurant and order a baked potato and it's in front of you within ten minutes. The reason is simply because they are pre-cooked, and you can do this at home also.
First, you cook from raw. Simply microwave your potatoes for about twelve minutes for one, and add two minutes per extra potato. I tend to do four in an 850watt microwave. I run them for four minutes then turn them over, as the starch tends to go to the bottom of the potato making the base rock hard. I run them for another four minutes, turn again and a last four minutes. I now have the heat in them, and the potato is cooked but still firm. You simply need to adjust times for your microwave.
Next, I coat them in olive oil, and you can pop them into a hot oven (180 C – Gas 6) until they crisp up. I personally use a halogen oven, which is a huge glass bowl, and I can see them cook. I love my halogen, it's better than my twin oven for quality, and I use it for allsorts. When they are done, they cool on a chopping board for at least an hour, then into an ice-cream tub and into the fridge. All they take when I want one is three or four minutes in the microwave. I like them buttered with black pepper and an 8oz medium-rare rump steak next to it
Lush!
Cheesy Nacho Platter
Last but not least, one of the quickest snack meals around, the nacho platter. A bunch of friends turn up by surprise, this will do the trick.
Basically, take a large plate or bowl, and make a nest of tortilla chips, some people use Doritos, mix up two bags of different flavours, works quite well. Grated cheese is now put on top of the nachos, put plenty on, especially if you are going to top with something wet, such as chilli, or a jalepeno salsa, stops the chips from getting soggy, this needs to be either microwaved for about forty seconds or put under the grill on a low heat, but dont burn the nachos, when the cheese is melted, go mad with what ever topping you want. I make my own salsa and use guacamole, sometimes three bean chilli, but just about anything goes.
If you want to make a salsa, I make mine as follows.
Chop and dice a red onion as small as you can
do the same to a red or yellow pepper (or both)
mix together the red onion and peppers in a bowl
the mix will give off a glorious smell as the two react with each other
chop and dice a piece of cucumber about two inches long
mix the cucumber into the bowl
chop and dice a tomato and add
chop and dice a tomato and add
add a pinch of cracked black pepper
chop some flat leaf parsley and add to bowl
squeeze half a lime over the mix and stir in
after a couple of minutes, pour in a liberal amount of sweet chilli sauce
mix together an put into a sealed tub and chill for at least twenty minutes before eating
Smells wonderful, tastes great!
Until next time – Adios!
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