30-minute meals

A few months ago, I was watching Chef’s Table: Legends and the first episode featured Jamie Oliver. He was talking about what brand of cooking show he intended to offer the world when he decided to be a TV chef. There was joy in cooking and bringing cooking into people’s lives, he said, he wanted people to join in but wondered what would stop them. His theories: “Long shopping lists, that’s a blocker. Long cooking times, you’ve got to be able to justify that, otherwise that’s a blocker. Multiple pans to washing up, that’s a blocker…”

I agree. Cooking is not easy but it can be made simpler, faster and enjoyable. If it weren’t, all the work — from prep to washing and cleaning — can be discouraging and overwhelming. And I thought about our old neighborhood (where our For Sale house is) where at least a dozen people sell cooked food everyday via a Facebook community page. A few offer real home-cooked dishes but most simply order from somewhere else and resell. These sellers and resellers accept reservations for the next day, deliver inexpensive ready-to-serve food in tubs, and there’s something for lunch, merienda and dinner. Business is brisk because it saves the buyers time and energy — no need to go to the market for ingredients, prep, cook and wash pots at least three times a day.

We tried these ready-to-eat meals on a few occasions. Some were okay; others were plain bad. There was greasy chicken empanada — the chicken in the filling was almost impossible to find amid the chunks of potatoes. The last time, it was kare-kare with crispy pork belly which my husband could not resist. But my younger daughter and I, well, a couple of hours after eating, we had digestion problems that I thought was going to land us in the ER.

So, never again. We’ll just be smarter with our home cooking. How? Follow Jamie Oliver’s template.

Main dishes that cook in under 30 minutes sounded like a good goal. If the cook time is 20 minutes or less, that’s even better.
Opt for shorter ingredient lists which translate to shorter prep time.
Choose dishes that can be cooked using one pan or pot only as much as possible so that post-cooking cleanup is less painful.

What main dishes can be cooked in 30 minutes or less?

Stir fries

In Asia, that would be the most obvious answer. Thirty minutes would be too long to cook a stir fry, in fact. Five to 10 minutes should be more like it. The downside is that most stir fries command a longer prep time. In numerous cases, twice as long or even longer than the cook time. There are exceptions though. For example:

10-minute pork and broccoli stir fry (Prep time: 10 mins | Cook time: 10 mins)
Shiitake and asparagus stir fry (Prep time: 10 mins | Cook time: 8 mins)
Chicken, shiitake and bok choy tips with Vietnamese mixed fish sauce (Prep time: 10 mins | Cook time: 10 mins)

Pasta

We’re not talking about lasagne or cannelloni or any of those pasta shapes that require special cooking methods. We’re talking long noodles — the thinner, the better. Spaghettini and capellini (angel hair pasta) are excellent choices.

Creamy shrimp and broccoli spaghetti (Prep time: 5 mins | Cook time: 15 mins)
Fettuccine aglio e olio with sun-dried tomatoes (Prep time: 5 mins | Cook time: 12 mins)
Spaghettini with chorizo, asparagus and cherry tomatoes (Prep time: 10 mins | Cook time: 10 mins)

Chicken fillet

Thigh and leg fillets are preferred in Asia. Skin-on. I understand that breast meat is the first choice in other parts of the world including North America. I have substituted on occasion but always with caution — while breast meat requires an even shorter cooking time than thigh or leg meat, it also dries out faster.