I figured it wasn’t totally serious, but safety first, you know? And I actually have started a couple fires accidentally from things like sauteeing vegetables and meat, and accidentally pushing stuff outside of the pan.
Some of the easiest meals you can make are ‘stir-fry’ type of dishes. Chop up some garlic (or buy it pre-chopped), chop up some meat, chop up some broccoli, green beans, cauliflower, spinach, whatever. Put a few tablespoons of oil in the pan, turn it to medium or medium high… right before it starts smoking.
Throw the garlic in, stir it around for a bit to cook it, then throw the vegetables in and continue to stir that around until they cook down. When everything seems pretty much done, remove it and put it in a bowl. Put a bit more oil in the pan, throw the meat chunks in there, add salt and pepper, move around and turn it over until it’s cooked. With chicken, I cook it until it’s white on all sides and maybe a bit pink still in the middle.
Add the veggies back in, turn the heat down a bit and let everything warm back up. When it’s all nice and hot, remove it from the heat and eat it.
That’s a very basic template that works for cooking a lot of things.
A couple techniques ideas:
- adding garlic and onions before adding other stuff lets it cook a bit more and develop its flavor.
- after you’ve sauteed stuff a bit, you can add a bit of water (or, better, chicken broth), to the pan, and cover it and turn down the heat… basically you let it cook in the steam for a few minutes and soften and develop flavors
- you can experiment with flavors; a bit of lemon juice, white wine, or balsamic vinegar add some depth of flavor to things.
- trying to get everything cooked to the right amount… with the meat: tender but not overcooked, with the veggies: tender but still a bit of crunch… requires some practice, but you can pick it up really quickly
Cooking this way, you spend a lot of time prepping, and not much time cooking. I recommend using a good chef’s knife or santoku. You can pretty much do anything with either of those knives. I highly recommend a knife sharpener, since a sharp knife saves you a lot of time.
Plus, cooking stuff this way all goes well into tupperware containers to be reheated later. And there’s lots of flavor combinations worth trying out. Especially once you start experimenting with spices.
A couple ideas:
- cinnamon, salt, pepper
- basil, oregano, thyme
- rosemary
- cumin, coriander, curry powder, turmeric, black pepper
- mint, salt, pepper
- garlic powder, salt, black pepper, chile powder, paprika, oregano, sugar, cayenne
- anise, ginger
My spice rack, not including sauces:
