Healthy Lifestyle: Cooking meals quickly

Heather Little-White, Contributor

Nobody wants to spend a long time in the kitchen preparing a meal, whether it is for your family or friends coming over to dinner.

In a restaurant, speedy cooking is a given when recipes are done as quickly as possible over high heat. It is the same principle that makes home cooking easy. The punchline is that you can forget fast food by cooking meals quickly at home with high-heat methods.

According to Speedcooking.net, you will need useful appliances to jump-start your cooking. These include:

Rice cooker.

Grill - indoor, stovetop or outdoor.

Wok or large skillet.

Steamer

Food processor or blender

Broiling

Some persons are no aware that their stoves may have a broiler below the oven and that it contributes to easy preparation of foods in a healthy way.

Tips for broiling

Broil thick food farther away from the heat; thin foods are placed closer to the flame. For rare products, it is best to broil them farther from the flame.

Measure the surface of the food when recipes call for broiling 4 inches away from the flame. Measurements should not be taken from the bottom of the pan.

To prevent food from sticking and burning, it will be easy to clean up if you heat the rack and pan before adding the food.

Steaming

Add herbs, spices and other flavourings to the liquid used for steaming to improve the flavour of the food. Liquids could include beef, chicken, fish or vegetable stock to further add flavour.

Rice cooker

Steaming rice still creates a headache for some people who cannot get 'shelly' rice by Jamaican standards but, instead get wet, sticky rice.

A rice cooker eliminates the hassle and it is a staple in many Asian households. The rice cooker is handy because it frees up space on the burners, cooks rice without burning it and it is easy to clean. Today, there are non-stick varieties. A key point of the rice cooker is that it keeps the rice warm while you are preparing the rest of the meal.

The rice cooker will adjust automatically to the different types of rice, and cooking time will be according to stove-cooking, except you don't have to worry about it. Once cooked, the rice cooker automatically adjusts to 'keep warm'. These stir-fry dishes are often almost always best with rice.

One to two

If a rice cooker is not available, a medium to large pot will do. The traditional measurement of one part to rice to two parts water is still reliable if rice is left to steam over low heat after water comes to a boil. Rice can be flavoured by adding stock, herbs, spices and vegetables. Curried rice adds variety to a menu.

Vegetables are easy to steam, and it is best to use a basket instead of drowning them in water, even when the water is to be used in cooking.

Stir-frying

For best results, use a flat-bottomed wok, as these get hotter than electric or round-bottom woks. You will need a flat shovel-like spatula instead of a wooden spoon to toss food to cook and then lift it from the wok.

Tips for stir-frying

Place individual ingredients in small dishes and arrange them by the stove in the order in which they are to be used

Cook large pieces of meat in small portions to prevent meat from steaming or braising.

Cooking by microwave

Microwaves were designed to reduce cooking time. For even cooking, it is advised to cook in round containers rather than square ones.

Tips for microwave cooking

Save time and energy by cooking root vegetables, potatoes, large cuts of meat or whole chicken in the microwave before finishing in the oven or grill.

Apply salt after cooking to prevent removal of moisture. Salt withdraws the natural moisture in foods.

Cook foods to prevent them drying out when reheating.

As you grapple with managing your time, cooking speedily is one of the ways to ensure that you have a good balance of nutrients in your diet.

GINGERED CURRIED RICE

2 cups uncooked rice

2 cups chicken stock, salt added

1/2 cup fresh ginger, thinly sliced

5 cloves of garlic, crushed

Pinch black pepper

2 tbsps curry powder

Method:

1. In a bowl, mix well curry powder and chicken stock.

2. In a medium-size cooking pot, add chicken stock mixture, black pepper, ginger, and garlic, bring to boil. When done, set to cool.

3. In a rice-cooking pot, wash and rinse the rice.

4. When done rinsing, add and measure the stock into rice for even amount before cooking. Ginger and garlic may be added to your rice for better taste.

5. When cooked, place rice on to serving plate, top with scallion curls. Serve with barbecued or roasted chicken, with a side of cucumber.

- Source: www.grouprecipes.com

Grilling

An indoor, stovetop or outdoor will work for quick cooking, as the principle is the same. You can create your own grill with a piece of cast-iron grid in bricks in the backyard. It is helpful to have racks on which you can cook corn and roast peppers to save time and space.

A fairly new addition to the range of grills is the George Foreman grill for quick steam grilling. As part of a quick clean-up, it is best to leave the grill on for 5 minutes after cooking to allow the burned-on food to carbonise so that it can be easily removed with a long-handled metal grill scraper and brush.

Tips for grilling

Do not crowd the grill. Place food 3/4 to 1-inch apart so that the food can cook faster.

When using a sauce, heat it up so that it does not slow down the cooking.

Add a small amount of water to the bottom of the grill pan below the rack to prevent grease flare-ups

Sautéing

To sauté means to fry lightly in little fat. It is best to heat the pan for about 3 minutes before adding the fat. This prevents food from sticking and will ensure even cooking.

Tips for sautéing:

Use a non-stick pan. Lightly brush fish or chicken with a coating of oil before adding to a preheated pan.

To prevent fish fillet from curling when cooked with the skin on, make 1 1/2 inch slashes in the skin. When cooking the skin side, flatten the fish with a spatula for about 20 seconds until the fish lies flat.

Heather Little-White, PhD, is a nutrition and lifestyle consultant in the Corporate Area. Email comments to saturdaylife@gleanerjm.com.