I recently submitted some tips for Summer entertaining to kokoliving magazine, an online magazine, not too long ago, and I think I’m on a giving out tips kick. I realized that when it comes to cooking and food, I’m a forever student. I love learning from others, and then sharing what I’ve picked up along the way. I realized that most of our readers are those that are time-crunched… well, isn’t that just about everybody? So I figured it would be quite fitting to make a post about some time saving tips, namely how to cut down on cooking time. Here are some tips.
julie’s ten tips for cutting down cooking time:
#10. Roast whole chicken spatchcock or butterfly style. Cut out the backbone with kitchen shears and remove. Flatten the whole chicken, with the breast side facing up. Season as you wish, and pop into the oven. Cooks in way less time.
#9. Sugar snap peas are your quick cooking veggie friends. Put them in a hand strainer and pour boiling water from a kettle over them slowly. They’ll be perfectly blanched, but still a little crunchy.
#8. Keep instant couscous and chicken or veggie broth in your pantry. Put 1 part cous cous in a large bowl, add frozen peas or dried cranberries. Pour in 2 parts boiling broth over, cover tightly with saran wrap and let sit for 5 minutes until absorbed. Fluff with a fork. Instant flavorful side dish.
#7. Bake meatloaf, stuffing, or macaroni and cheese in muffin tins. They’ll be individually portioned and cook much quicker.
#6. When cooking something in the oven, start it out on the stove first, to get it going, either by pan-searing, steaming or boiling. For instance, par-boil ribs or chicken wings before popping them in the oven.
#5. Peel and dice sweet or regular potatoes into small 1” cubes before boiling for mashed potatoes.
#4. Place your chicken breasts, steaks or pork chops in between saran wrap and lightly pound with a meat mallet, rolling pin, or small pot before cooking. They will cook in half the time and more evenly.
#3. Use a lid. It traps in steam and heat, makes things more moist, and cooks everything faster.
#2. When cooking noodles or pasta with vegetables, boil your noodles, and in the last 2 minutes of cooking time, add your vegetables directly to them. Drain together. You’ll have perfectly blanched vegetables and cooked pasta in one. Add to sauce.
#1. Chop veggies into small pieces, and meat into thin slices before cooking. Then cook on higher heat for a shorter amount of time. This is a good stir-fry method. The same rule applies with baking, such as when baking smaller sized cookies for instance… higher temperature, for a shorter amount of time.
slice your steak thinly and you’ll have stir-fry in no time…
Well that’s it for now, but don’t fret my pet, I always have more tips. I originally started out writing time-saving tips in general, but then it got too long, and that wouldn’t be saving you any time to read that long nonsense. So I’ll have to post about other time saving methods, maybe regarding prep-work or menu-planning, in another entry. What are some of your time-saving tips, specifically for cutting down cooking time? I’d really like to know and I’m sure so would the other readers. In the meantime, hope you can put some of these tips to good use.
