Sometimes the cutoff between making dinner on a weeknight and ordering in is just 10 or 15 minutes. Whip up a dish in 30 minutes — no problem. But that 45 minute recipe suddenly seems like too much time when you're working late. Ever think that you could be saving time just by following a few tips? Read on for 6 kitchen obstacles to overcome — it will save you time!
1. Slow, painstaking prep: Chopping and peeling take up a significant amount of time and, while these tasks can't be avoided, it helps to know how to speed things up. Take peeling garlic, for example. Even with the smash method, peeling more than a few cloves starts eating up time. Try this method and peel an entire head of garlic in seconds! When possible, prep ingredients assembly line style, peeling each one before chopping. Or buy already prepped ingredients when doing so will save major time (like buying already peeled and cubed squash, for example).
2. Choosing the wrong knife Do you always find yourself using a paring knife? Knowing when to break out the big knife, as well as methods for using it efficiently are invaluable skills in the kitchen. And keep them sharp -- sawing away at a tomato just to break the skin is not how properly sharpened knives should perform.
3. Discarding leftovers unnecessarily: It can be a little heartbreaking to clean out the refrigerator and discover food that could have been great with last night's dinner. Start planning dinner from your refrigerator and swap already cooked ingredients for others on your list.
4. Misunderstanding how your appliances work: Ever try to cook pancakes on a pan that's not quite hot enough? Not only does to take forever for the pancakes to show any sign of browning, they don't end up tasting quite as good. Learn your stove's quirks and when a hot pan is an ingredient's best friend (searing meats, caramelizing onions, and reducing liquids). And of course, when to simmer down (melting chocolate, cooking scrambled eggs, and making rice).
5. Mistreating pots and pans: More of a long-haul tip, scraping your teflon pan with a metal spatula is guaranteed to shorten the life and functionality of your cookware. Few cookware items are made to be cleaned in the dishwasher, and it's helpful to read up on the proper care to help keep your pots and pans performing at their best.
6. Laboring too long over cleanup: We know, it's a challenge, but the best method to a speedy clean up is cleaning as you go. Also high on the list is rinsing plates, pots, and pans before food has a chance to adhere to them after a meal.
Read more: The Stupid Things You Do in the Kitchen and How to Fix Them at Lifehacker
Related: Save Time Later! Make Ahead Tips for Weeknight Meals
(Image: Flickr user numb3r licensed for use under Creative Commons)
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This saves me a lot of time: wash and trim carrots and celery, other root veg into sticks all at once. I usually do it after grocery shopping. Then I can take and eat raw for lunch or cut up further for cooked dinners.
I love #3. Leftovers are such a great time-saver, I'm always happy to have them.
Weighing ingedients (or eyeballing measurements when possible) is faster than measuring them out by volume. I'm also convinced that setting up a mise en place before you start cooking helps speed up the overall process. A pressure cooker saves a lot of time when cooking rice and beans, and the toaster oven preheats a lot faster than the oven if you're baking a small quantity of something.
"sawing away at a tomato just to break the skin is not how properly sharpened knives should perform." Guilty as charged....
We eat a lot of vegetables and have found a good food processor with slicing and grating blades to be a great time saver. The results aren't always perfectly uniform, but for everyday cooking, it's not a big deal. Also, most stainless steel cookware can go in the dishwasher with no ill effects. We've been cleaning our stainless set in the dishwasher for the past 8 years or so.
I chop/prep veggies assembly line style and I use the correct knife. I clean while I go when I have those free moments (like while not needing to attend to something that is cooking). But it still takes me longer to cook a meal than what the recipe states. I usually double what the time says to give me an idea of how long it will take me.
We belong to a CSA; every week when the veggies arrive I quickly jot down what I'm going to make with each, and then clean and prep them. If I'm really ambitious, I will blanch the ones which need it. It sounds overly-organized, I know, but it helps tremendously in getting dinner on the table before 7. I never used to plan meals but once we had a kid I found it was totally necessary for keeping on schedule.
One of the biggest time-wasting mistakes is doing things one after another (sequentially) that could be done at the same time (in parallel). Two simple examples of avoiding this are:
* if the dish requires boiling, fill the pot and get it over heat before doing anything else
* if baking/broiling, turn the oven on before doing anything else
* if frying in a pan, get the pan on the stove over low-to-low-medium heat before doing anything else. When you need to cook, you then increase the temperature and the pan will get to cooking temperature much faster and be more evenly heated
A similar approach applies to how you sequence the preparation of multiple dishes in a meal: start with the ones that take the longest time, and once those are baking/simmering/whatever, move on to the quicker ones.
The more you do in parallel, the more things you need to keep track of at the same time, but it can easily cut your kitchen time by half or more. To avoid mistakes and make the process less crazy-making, it can really help to use a multi-timer. I set one for each concurrent step, and when it goes off I just check everything to make sure it's not burning/boiling over/whatever.
I strive to be as organized as @scraps, and when I come close it pays off. After grocery shopping on Sunday, I ty to spend a few hours in the kitchen making yogurt (in small jars) and a few salads that will last for lunches all week. Raw kale and cabbage hold up well, so something including those and whatever is left over from the week before — bell pepper, quinoa, feta. If I know we'll be making pizza or soup, I'll make sauce or stock. Or I might cook a pot of beans or make hummus. Tomato sauce, stock, beans, and legumes are always made in big quantities so I can stash part in the freezer.
It's a pretty catastrophic mess while it's happening, but then I sweep, wipe down the kitchen, take out the compost, etc. etc. These Sunday afternoons end up saving a ton of both prep and cleaning time on weeknights, and allow me to help my husband since he's usually the one who gets dinner on the table during the week. Pour a glass of wine, put on a podcast or a good record, and it ends up being fun.
Yes to @manjar's point about sequencing. Order of operations is not just for math.
I blow in the door with my 1st grader between 6:15-6:30, and we've got to eat, do homework, and get her clean/ready for bed by 8 p.m. Dinner prep cannot be leisurely. I do most of my cooking on the weekend, but there's always one or two meals I need to put together stat. Frozen vegetables are great for this. Dump in bowl, toss with olive oil, garlic, and salt; add a TBsp of water or so, microwave. Those few minutes I save NOT washing/peeling/chopping are so important sometimes!
I like to chop up certain veggies right when I get home from the market. Few recipes call for a whole onion, and prechopped onion is easy to use in everything. Also I love the clean as you go advise. I was amazed how easy it was to keep the kitchen fairly clean if I did things as I went instead of after it was all said and done.
I do the Sunday shop and prep too. I wash and prep all fruit and veggies, cutting and blanching if required. I marinate and brine meat for a few days. Also, I like to cook a large piece of protein on Sundays so that we have those leftovers for lunches and additional dinners. Also, when I cook grains or legumes (pressure cooker) I always double and freeze. If I make baked potatoes I make a few extra for weekend breakfast.
KNife skills knife skills knife skills. If you chop like Nigella Lawson, go to classes and learn how to get faster with your knife and use the right one.
And one I learned from Madhur Jaffrey. Instead of blanching and peeling tomatoes, cut the top off and grate, everything but the skin gets grated and it's super fast! It's revolutionized my tomato pasta sauce making.
I always use left overs - my make over meals. I don't necessarily buy into the 30 minute meal thing (not mentioning any names here). The best way to have a meal ready in a short amount of time is to prep in advance if you can. Plan the meals for 7 days and make a shopping list after you inspect pantry, frig, and freezer. Take one weekend day to make some meals ahead.
Always, mis en place!
Yikes at #5 - if your Teflon coating is scratched, it will flake off into your food and it is a health hazard. I don't have any "nonstick" pans because of that. There's really no need for them, and it's better for the environment too. Stainless steel and cast iron are more than adequate.