#Week night Meals | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

voroxpete · 1 year ago

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Oh boy @girlmuppet, this is my jam. I'm someone who loves to cook, but I also find that I'm often trying to put dinner on the table in a very short time, so I've become obsessed with quick and easy recipes. Here are some of my favourites;

Pasta Aglio e Oglio - Literally "oil and garlic pasta." What you need for this is some dry spaghetti (or similar), olive oil, garlic, parsley, lemon, and optionally some black pepper, and maybe some chili flakes or cayenne pepper.

Peel eight cloves of garlic and chop them. Traditionally you cut them into fine slices, but you can just run them through a garlic press if you want. Pick leaves from parsley (neat trick; get a collander and pull the parsley through one of the holes, stem first, from the inside out; the leaves will all stay in the collander if you do it fast) until you have about a cup worth. Give them a rough chop, doesn't need to be super fine or anything. Cut the lemon in half, save one half for later. Squeeze the juice out of the other half, strain any seeds.

Get your pasta in boiling water (quick note; the way you keep pasta from sticking in the pan is just to stir the crap out of it when you first put it in. It's really that simple) with enough salt added that the water tastes noticeably salty, but not unpleasant. Like, if you take a little sip of the hot water (blow on it first) your impression should be "That's a nice salty taste that I can definitely notice." The Italians say "Salty like the sea" but they all live by the coast and actually know what seawater tastes like, the bastards. Set a timer for 2 minutes less than the time on the packet. BTW, don't put too much water in with the pasta; just enough to cover and let it move around.

While that action is happening, put a big old glug of olive oil in a saute pan / skillet. Enough to thoroughly cover the bottom of the pan. Get it on a low heat, and put in the garlic. You want some very slight bubbling around the garlic, but not actually turning brown or drying out. Get some black pepper and some chili flakes in here as well if you want to kick it up a little. When the pasta is nearly done, take about half a cup of the pasta water and add it to the olive oil, along with the lemon juice. Stir it around vigorously to emulsify. Confirm the pasta is ready with a taste test; it should still be slightly firm in the middle; you're looking for a slightly whiter spot in the centre if you look at a cross section. This means it's almost ready, which is when we transfer all the pasta into the oil. Move it around a lot, keep that sauce emulsified. Do this for about a minute or two to finish cooking the pasta. Add the parsley, cover and let it all steam for about 30 seconds. Serve. This recipe assumes you're making enough for two people (I haven't specified pasta measurements, go by weight or use one of those pasta measuring thingies), so it's good for guests / date night, or it microwaves beautifully.

Stir Fry - This isn't a recipe so much as a method. You can stir fry basically anything. Generally you want a protein, one or two veg, plus aromatics. The main trick to stir fry is that you prep all the ingredients first, then the actual cooking takes, like, a minute tops.

For aromatics, take a clove or two of garlic, and maybe a half inch of ginger. Finely mince both. Add some finely slice scallions/green onions if you have them.

For protein, chicken and pork are both affordable and easy to work with. Slice up your meat into bite-size chunks, like something you'd hold with chopsticks. Generally you want meat to be sliced pretty thin; about an eighth of an inch or less. If you're doing beef you can go a bit thicker. You want it to cook through quickly and be easy to bite through. Always cut your meat across the grain, or it'll be chewy. Toss with a sprinkle of flour and a teaspoon of baking soda; this will help browning. Add some salt and pepper too, why not?

For veg, cabbage, either chinese (nappa) or regular is amazing in stir fry, and keeps basically forever in the fridge. Like, it might go a little brown but it's still very edible. Carrots (sliced thin) are also really good, as are onions; cut off the head and root, quarter, and separate into layers. Snow peas are great, just chuck em in whole. Broccoli is also good; separate into florets, halve or quarter those, and sit them in all boiling water (from the kettle, in a bowl) for a couple of minutes to soften before cooking.

Finally, you'll want some kind of sauce. You can do a basic stir fry by just adding a little light soy sauce during cooking, and that'll taste delicious. A slightly more advanced sauce can be made by taking a couple of tablespoons of oyster sauce, adding 3 teaspoons of sugar, a tablespoon of light soy, and a tablespoon of water. Mix all that up together until the sugar dissolves.

Your cooking process is simple. Put a small splash of oil into a pan or wok over maximum heat. Get the oil hot (the tip of a wooden chopstick should bubble when put into the oil), throw in the veg. Move it around vigorously for a few minutes, until tender. Remove to a plate or bowl. Add the meat (add more oil if needed), move around until cooked through. Add the veg back, add the aromatics. Stir a bit more (only 30 seconds at most). Add the sauce. Coat everything. Remove from heat. Serve with rice or noodles (tip for noodles; add salt and a sprinkle of MSG to the cooking water, just like with the pasta).

Tacos - Tacos are so quick and so easy. They're a perfect cheat meal. This one isn't going to be a very involved recipe, just get yourself a tub of that Old El Paso taco sauce mix and follow the directions (yes, I hear all the Mexicans shuddering, I'm white and I'm lazy. I save the carefully toasting and grinding six different kinds of dried peppers for when I'm making chili con carne). All you need is mince (pork, beef, chicken, whatever), some soft or hard shells, and some shredded lettuce. You can make the toppings even better with the addition of some finely diced tomato mixed with a sprinkle of salt (ALWAYS salt your tomato), and some quick pickled red onions.

Quick pickled onions are super easy; bring about half a cup each of water and plain white vinegar to a boil. Add 1.5 tablespoons each of sugar and salt. Pour over some sliced red onion. Let steep for 10-20 minutes. This will keep in a jar or tupperware for a week or two. They're super delicious. You can also make proper pickles (google a recipe, it's soooo easy) and keep them for longer.

Fried Chicken - Basic fried chicken is the easiest thing in the world, and it's such a fucking comfort food. Like, this is just straight up fast food at home, but it's healthy too. The key is to have a good temperature probe for the oil, and you'll want a really basic bitch cheap cast iron pan for the frying.

Get chicken drums and thighs (you can get a whole leg and split it). Skin on. One drum and one thigh is a good meal for one person. If you have time, salt the chicken all over and sit it in the fridge for 1-4 hours. If you don't, that's fine, it'll still be great.

Get a shallow bowl or plate, put a cup of flour on there. If you can, add salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and paprika. A tablespoon of each is good, but play with the amounts until you find a version you like best. In a deeper bowl put a cup of milk and two eggs. Beat together, with a few dashes of hot sauce, something vinegary like a Louisiana style (Franks totally works).

Chicken goes into the flour, into the milk, back into the flour. Coat thoroughly at each step in this process. Lift handfuls of flour and pour into every crack and crevice.

Plain oil (vegetable, canola, whatevs) in cast iron. Halfway up the side. Heat to about 370F. We're going to cook at 350F, but the temperature will drop when the chicken goes in. Add no more than two pieces of chicken to the pan. Hold the chicken so that it's partially immersed in the oil for a few seconds before letting it drop in; this reduces splash and crisps up the part at the bottom so it doesn't smush. Always lay away from yourself (so the splash goes away from you). Turn the chicken every minute, for about 8-10 minutes total cooking time (use your temperature probe if you're not sure; internal temperature at the thickest part should be 155F for dark meat, 165F for light). While you're cooking play with the temperature of the element as needed to keep things around 350F, more or less. It won't be exact, don't panic about that.

I know frying like this gives people the heeby-jeebies, but it's safe as long as you're not an idiot. Have a fire blanket or a dampened tea-towel on standby in case of epic fuck up. If there's a fire, cover the pan with the blanket; DO NOT THROW WATER ON THERE. Then just let it choke out. The main thing is to not step away from the oil once you have the heat on. You never ever leave it unattended at any point. Do that and you'll be fine. Also, once you've heated the oil, do not move the pan for any reason. Leave it where it is until thoroughly cooled. I deep fry at home all the time and have never had a grease fire in my life because I follow simple, basic safety precautions.

After removing the chicken, put it on a wire rack for about a minute to crisp up (have a paper towel underneath for oil drip). Serve with plain white bread, or some oven cooked frozen fries, and plain vegetables; carrots, celery, pickles, whatever. Get a little ranch or blue-cheese sauce for dipping the veg if you like. This so quick and easy, and it's delicious. Oh, and add hot sauce. Lots of hot sauce. Fried chicken is a hot sauce delivery system.

Do any of u have decent recipes that are like 5 ingredients (not including spices) and take 45 mins or less to prepare i gotta stop eating sandwiches for dinner

#cooking #cooking advice #quick meals #week night meals #quick and easy cooking

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