Tips and Guide in The Kitchen

Some people just don’t enjoy cooking because they think cooking and preparing foods demands us a lot of time. Well, it is true if we don’t plan but if only we had a simple plan and preparation earlier, it’s not as hard as we think. . I’d like to share some tips and some way to ‘cheat’ that can cut your cooking time thus making cooking is not a complicated task anymore.

1) Blend your onions few days ahead. :I find out that we tend to only get the onions ready when we want to cook, So we would spend our time just doing the onions, peeling, chopping. What I do is I peel like half kilo of onions and garlic, blend them and keep them in a covered container and keep it in the fridge. So whenever I want to cook I don’t have spend time peeling and chopping the onions. Tinggal amik ngan sudu jer.

2) Keep your poultry (chiken, meat ), seafood in batches. :It is much easier if you keep your chicken, meat or seafood in small batches . Each small batches is for one meal. So whenever you’re ready to cook just take one batch and thaw them. Jadi tak payah la nak thaw kan ayam/daging/ikan pastu simpan balik dalam peti ais.

3) Slice or cut your chicken/meat/fish ahead : If you’re planning of preparing meal that need you to cut or slice your chicken/meat it is better if you cut or slice them right after you buy it from the market. Cth macam nak goreng mee and nak campur ayam or udang, potong isi ayam siap2,masukkan dalam plastic kecil dan simpan,begitu juga dgn udang, buang kulit siap2 dan simpan di dalam plastic atau bekas kecil. Untuk ikan plak minta la penjual itu tolong siangkan ikan siap2, manakala ikan yg besar boleh jer suruh dia potong slice2, ayam pon boleh suruh dia potong kecik2. Balik rumah tinggal cuci bersih2 jer.

4) Season your fried chicken/fish ahead : Fried fish or chicken is a must in our menu, so what you can do to make things easier is that you can prepare your fried chicken/fish earlier. Ikan tu siap2 dah lumur dengan garam kunyit pahtu simpan dalam plastic or small container dan simpan la di dalam freezer, begitu juga dengan ayam, lumurla siap2 dgn garam,kunyit dan serbuk kari dan barula simpan di dalam freezer. Sangat la sesuai bila waktu nak cepat, keluarkan dari peti ais dan ikan/ayam dah sedia utk di goreng.

5) Recycle your leftover creatively: What do I mean by that? Well, sometimes we do have leftovers like curries, sambals, fried chicken/fish, roast chicken right? Some people would keep it in the fridge and have it again for their next meal the next day or even worse some just tossed it into the bin. What a waste. This is what I do with my leftovers. :

- Fish/chicken curries : put it in a container and keep it in the freezer and heat it again whenever I’m in hurry kira mcm lauk segera la or; if your serve the curry with rice for lunch you can substitute the rice with chapattis, naan, bread or roti jala for dinner or the day after.

- Chicken/meat roast: slice them thinly and eat it with slice bread as sandwich with mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato.

- Fried fish/chicken : you can use them to make Ikan/Ayam Masak Sambal, or you can put it in nasi goreng, amik isi ikan,tumbuk bersama bawang utk di jadikan perencah nasi goreng.

- Sambal nasi lemak : keep it in the fridge and you can use it as perencah mee goreng . Sedap.

6) Cheaters are a great help : What is cheaters? Cheaters are things like instant sauce, soup, instant stock (cubes,granules or liquid). One of my favourite cheater is Jarred/Tinned Spaghetti Sauce. I use it as pizza sauce and preparing lasagna or baked pastas . It saves time and energy and it is tasty!