Introduction
From the past a number years I have gathered a few means of fast cooking without lower nutrition standards. I am planning to write them out a little bit at a time. I will start with a three parts overview.
Part I. Evolutionary Strategy
One way to improve your cooking speed is to modify existing ways of cooking. For example you can usually derive a similar but faster recipe from a traditional one by cutting some corners. I usually take out the ingredients that are hard to get or take a long time to prepare from the original recipe. Traditional recipes often require you to the measure the exact weight or volume of each ingredient. This usually takes a long time and chances are you don't have to be very exact. The tastes of the food might be offer but they can still be edible. This is why there is not much quantification of each ingredient in my recipes on this site.
The downside is that it could take a couple tries to figure out what ingredient can be comfortably cut and what ingredients can't. Once a while, you might have cooked something really awful to eat but still edible.
Part II. Innovative Solution
Another way to improve your cooking speed is to try different way of cooking. For example, I cut down a lot of my cooking time by using different cooking gadgets. My most favorite cooking tool is the Gorge Forman's grill. It is so simple to use that all you need to know is to plug-in. There is not even a button on this thing. Besides the usual microwave oven, I also have a electrical fondue, a food processor, a electrical plate, a water cattle, a rice cooker. I am looking into getting a breakfaster maker, a slow cook pod, deep fry pan, etc.
I also use Corelle plates and bowls made by Corning when cooking or dining. They are a little expensive but they are extremely durable and very easy to clean. My father used a set for 10 years almost everyday and they still look new. Corning uses a special material, combination of plastic and glass, so the plates do not stick to oil. They are harder to chip, difficult to break and hard to leave scratches. They are really good investment.
Better cooking gadgets is one way to improve your cooking speed. Today, you can also buy pre-made spices to help you cook faster. For example, McCormick makes a lot good ones. One type of spices the company makes comes with a big oven bag. All you have to do is to put the meat and the spice in the bag then leave the bad in over for 1 hour. Very simple.
The down side of using innovative solution is that not all solution work for everyone in every situation. You might end up extra cooking gadgets or spices you don't like lying around. The trick is to borrow if you can or buy them cheap. I will try to review some of the gadgets I have later.
Part III. Indirect Improvements
This section including everything else you can do to improve your cooking speed. For example, instead of cook everyday you can try to prepare you meal once a week. This way you just combined several individual setups and cleanings into one bigger setup and cleaning.
Also cooking several things at once give you a chance to pipeline your cooking. For example, I usually start with my rice cooker. After that I will make my soup and while waiting for the soup and the rice I can fry my pork. After I done frying my pork, everything will be cooked. Anther way of pipelining is plan to make dishes that share similar ingredients. This way you only need to prepare the ingredients once. Also make sure you have plenty of space when you cooking. You will need the extra space for pipelining.
You can also think of other ways to improve your shopping speed and clean up speed. But I am not going to talk about them right now.
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