A Simple Cooking Guide for When You're Down in the Dumps · 5:58pm Apr 27th, 2019
Look at those cute dorks.
I'm not here to tell you about nice plating techniques, how to make a pretty dish or even how to arrange your food so it doesn't look like it came out of a blender. God invented Pinterest for that. No, I want to give you a basic and adaptable recipe for you to make when you arrive tired at home and have just a few hours before you've got to go to sleep because you've got to wake up early for your next shift/class.
The only thing you need to keep in mind is to have an equal ratio of carbohidrates, protein, and vegetables. You can do small rations if you're on a diet, or serve family style if you want to gorge yourself and forget about how horrible life is. Let's get started!
First off, buy as many fresh vegetables as you can over the weekend. I don't care if the ones in a tin last longer, just buy peas, carrots, green beans, corn, broad beans, edamame, or whichever available vegetables you can acquire. Just chop them, mix them all together, put them in a covered bowl in your fridge, and take out a cup or so every time you're going to cook. Just throw them in a small pot with water and a pinch of salt until they're as tender as you like. Also, if you're going to add things like broccoli, cauliflower, or asparagus, remember those have to be added at the last couple of minutes or they'll become mush.
Second, keep a considerable amount of the following: tomato, onions, and garlic. These are the basic ingredients for a simple sofrito (also, I only now find out that the aderezo I've always known is apparently just a thing in Peruvian cuisine). Again, you're probably wondering why I'm insisting on fresh and not just the tinned version. Honey, if your life has reched the point where you can only eat tomatoes out of a tin, then you need help. Talk with friends, family, or anyone willing to lend a shoulder for you to lean on, you need support and there are people who are willing to help you. Also, you probably shouldn't be cooking in the first place.
Anyway. Whenever you're going to cook, pick one tomato, one medium sized onion, and a few cloves of garlic and give them a rough chop. Just get them into small pieces, we want to cook, not win Master Chef. You could do this with a food processor or a blender, but I've found it actually changes the flavour profile of the end result. More importantly, however, it will mean more work for you. What would you rather wash? A knife and a cutting board that get clean after a few strong scrubs, or a machine you'll have to disassemble and then wash? That's what I thought.
Allergies aside, there are a few people who don't like garlic. Don't worry, I've found an easy solution for this. You just need a piece of clean wood about the size of a pen. You just have to sharpen it and jam it in their heart, because they are a vampire.
Third! Your source of protein. You can use any sort of meat. If by a series of life decisions you're a vegan, I'm sorry. Still, you can change the meat with roasted nuts. Pecans, almonds, peanuts. A couple hundred grams have the same amount of protein as a small steak. Sans the flavour, of course, but I'm not here to judge, I'm here so you don't starve.
If you have chicken, pork, or beef, I recommend keeping them sliced in your fridge and taking one at a time every day. You could cook them like that, but that would require you to use more pans and what not. I recommend cutting them into thin strips. You could dice them, but that would take more time, besides it actually looks a bit nice to see the long strips of meat.
Now, if you want to use fish, there is actually one upside to using things like canned tuna, and that is the oil that comes inside. Here's what I did for about a whole month. Buy two dozen cans of tuna, leave them in the pantry, and then open one every day. You pour all the oil in a pan, put it in medium heat, wait until it's hot, and use that to make your sofrito. Just chuck the chopped tomato, onion, and garlic in there with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Once the onions are translucent and the tomatoes have gone all soft, chuck the tuna in there and stir until you no longer see big chunks.
Of course, if you are using any other type of meat, it's preferable to fry those first and then add the tomato, onion, garlic mixture to make sure they cook properly and the sofrito doesn't burn. I never did that, but better safe than sorry. I'll leave this up to how pink you like your meat and how warm you like your salmonella.
While you do all of this, you'll also need a source of carbohidrates. The easiest three are: Noodles, rice, and potatoes. Consider what's more readily available to you and cook accordingly.
Potatoes are great mashed, fried, baked, and so on. If you don't care and just want to be done with this so you can eat while watching stuff on YouTube before you go to bed, just boil them in the same pot as your vegetables. Depending on the size of your potatoes it may take longer for them to cook. I recommend quartering them and throwing them in water. Remember that they're done when you can poke a knife through the middle and there's no resistence. Leave them longer than that and they'll start disintegrating, so it's recommendable to put them first and then put the rest of the veggies. Remember: Potatoes --> Vegetables --> Soft veggies.
The good thing about noodles is that they're done relatively quick. Just fill a pot with water, add salt and pour the pasta in. Also, it took nearly eighteen years for me to find out that you're supposed to put the pasta in when the water is boiling. I used to just put them with cold water, salt, turn on the stove and wait 15 or so minutes until they were al dente. Sidenote. If you don't eat your pasta al dente, meaning that it's cooked but still firm when you bite it, you're a creep. Nevertheless, cook your pasta, it doesn't take much attention.
Rice is also nice, because if you have a rice cooker, you don't have to do much thinking. Most bags of rice will include cooking instructions, but if you have a rice cooker and white rice (which is apparently the most common kind in some parts of the world), then this is all you have to do: Put some oil in the rice cooker alongside whatever else you want. I usually just add chopped garlic, salt, and pepper, but it's okay to just use salt. Wash your rice while things get hot, and then add the rice to the cooker. Let it fry for a while, stirring so it gets an even coat of oil and warms up all the way through. After a couple of minutes (three to five) add the water. The amount of water depends on several factors, like the type of rice you're cooking to the altitude you're living in. So, if you're cooking white rice at a low altitude, just add the same amount of water as you've added rice (I usually make two cups and keep the rest in the fridge, it lasts for a couple of days). If you're cooking, say, brown rice and you live in the highlands, you'll have to add two cups of water for every cup of rice you make. Ask your mother or grandmother. I'm sure they'll be able to shed some light on this.
If you don't have a rice cooker, just use any normal pot, but you'll have to keep a constant eye on it.
So! You now have your portion of carbohidrates (potatoes, noodles, or rice), your source of protein (meat or nuts), and your vegetables (just about everything). Your meat and sofrito should be done about now, and here comes the easiest part of all. Drain your vegetables and throw them in the same pan or pot you're using for the meat, then stir them together until they're evenly coated. At this point, taste to adjust for seasoning. Add salt, pepper, any herb you may have lying around too if you want, just keep it simple.
Once your meat and veggie mixture is done, you have a few options. If you were cooking potatoes, then they're already in the mix. Just plate them and eat (or eat straight from the pot, I'm not judging). If you have noodles or rice, you can serve them on a dish and put your mixture on top, or throw them in the same pot and mix it all together. Do as you wish.
And that is it! You now have a dish that took a little over fifteen minutes to make, will give you enough energy for the day, it's healthy enough that your body won't complain, but still tasty enough to leave you satisfied.
Remember that this isn't so much a recipe as a way to make a balanced meal with no other pretense. You can tweak this any way you'd like. Throw an egg at the last second and give it a stir fry, add cheese and pop it in the oven, put a bit of pickles or raw onion to give it a variety of texture and temperature, throw caution to the wind and douse it with mayo, mustard, and ketchup. Do as you like, I'm only trying to give you a simple guideline for the way I managed to live for several months on my own while in college and not die or rely on fast food.
Cheers!
Huh, even in the restaurants I've worked in, they never did pasta that way. I'll have to try that.
Love the foody blog, and I can't wait to see how your story wraps up! It's been fantastic so far
Cheers
Good to know my family isn't the only one that boils the water first! This is much appreciated, as someone soon going to that stage of his life (I realize that I am luckier than most, as my parents are willing to provide shelter during this time) but even so it's good to be able to give back, even if it's fifteen minutes of time and a warm meal.
I follow your progress eagerly, my friend, Take your time. (I need to try all the recipes anyways and with 2 weeks between updates I have an even shot)
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Blame a mix of my laziness plus lack of a formal culinary education. I've always been the sort of person to throw everything on a pot and see what happens, then try better the next time.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't it take longer for the water to boil and then put the noodles than put the noodles alongside the water? It takes about 15 minutes for a pot full of water to boil, and then another 7 to 8 minutes for the pasta to cook. That makes roughly 23 minutes of constant gas/electricity consumption. However, the method I use leaves you with perfectly al dente pasta in just over fifteen minutes. I'll have to run more tests to see which is more energy efficient.
Thanks for reading, and for putting up with the new schedule!
Imagine actually waiting for the water to boil... what kind of chef are you if you cant tell your noodles/pasta is done just by looking?