The options are endless... My wife and I both work, I do 99% of the cooking, often late at night with a less-than-stocked selection of ingredients.
A couple of ideas... soak a cedar plank for 3 minutes. Heat on grill on one side for 2 minutes, flip over and pour a good amount of rum on the now warmed side, salmon fillet on top of that, more rum on the salmon, season to taste. Cook for another 5-6 minutes. Grill some asparagus alongside the salmon directly on the grill, seasoned with oil and balsamic vinegar.
Thin porks chops cook quickly, and can be flavored with a mixture of apple cider vinegar, sugar and peppercorns for a sweet/peppery sauce. Cook the sauce along with the 'chops.
Chop up some raw chicken breasts and saute light butter. Cook batch of egg noodles at the same time, and heat some french-cut green beans in the micro. Make a sauce of sourcream, onion soup mix and herbs. Once the chicken and noodles are done, combine all the ingredients as an impromptu casserole. If you're not limited to 10 minutes, add some bread crumbs on top and bake in the oven for a bit to heat everything all the way through and let the flavors combine.
Ev's Improv: Heat olive oil, throw in a can of white beans, a small can of green chiles, half a can of chopped tomatoes (minus the liquid), a vegetable bouillon cube, curry powder, and black pepper.
(So named because I had to whip this up for Evan Williams when he spoke at YC and we discovered at the last minute he was a vegan. It was better than the official vegetarian dish I'd spent all afternoon cooking. http://www.paulmckellar.com/things/1684-?context=album_42)
What about real ramen, starting with chuka soba and making your own broth (this part would take much longer than 10 minutes, but bear with me), adding in your own choice of meats, vegetables, egg, bamboo shoots, negi, etc...
Edit: I realize I made it sound like you put the chuka soba into the broth at the beginning, which would make for soggy noodles! You generally cook the noodles separately, later, and put them in, still firm and chewy, toward the end...
Remember, ramen is a real food (and really, really good), that's served in real restaurants (there are several good ramen restaurants in the Bay Area).
"Instant noodles" is the caricature that most Americans are exposed to (I, too, was a victim of this ignorance for many years!), but for the sake of the deliciousness that is Ramen, please stop calling instant noodles "ramen", even if it says so on the package.
It would be like an entire country being exposed to the concept of "steak" through frozen dinners, and developing a prejudice against "steak" as some crappy packaged frozen food.
> Extra-fancy buckwheat soba is a bit pricier, but insanely delicious. A complex and rich taste all by itself, so you don't have to add much to it.
My favorite local ramen shop (Ramen Halu in San Jose, near Saratoga Ave and 280) uses it to make Tsukemen (sort of a dipping ramen, with cold soba noodles and hot broth and dipping sauce). Amazingly good. :D
Somewhat off topic (this is certainly not cooking in ten minutes or less) but the English chef Heston Blumenthal is something of a cooking hacker whose work some of you might find interesting.
Take any fish fillet about 1/2-3/4 inch thick. Sprinkle with the seasoning of your choice. Stick it in a toaster over set to 400 degrees. (Put a sheet of tinfoil in the baking tray and you won't even have any cleanup.) It will be done in ten minutes. While you are waiting, boil 1 cup of water. Turn off the heat and throw in 2/3 cup of couscous. This should put you at about the five minute mark. Throw a veggie of your choice in the microwave. Everything will be done, hot, tasty and nutritious at ten minutes. It's pretty foolproof and east-cleanup too. This is pretty much our standard dinner most nights. (And I'm not even doing a startup right now!)
I like to broil whitefish, it's a similar effect. I tend to grill red fishes (Tuna, salmon, etc) because the grill heats up hotter quicker. The cook-in-bag vegetables are super easy and quick with no cleanup.
Oh! and this dish freezes well, you can make enough for a week in just a few minutes and reheat a nice dinner all week.
My "quick" meals are complicated by having an aversion to microwaves (I don't even own one...they make food taste like crap, and I love food more than most things in life, so I would never use it if I had one).
A rice cooker is a godsend. I finally broke down and bought one of the fuzzy logic ones when I moved to California a little over a year ago. Many wonderful things are possible with trouble-free rice. Takes only a couple of minutes of prep time, though the cooking time is 20-45 minutes (depending on quantity and type of rice).
My quick meals:
Fried rice - Scramble an egg, set it aside; dump in frozen vegetables (or fresh, if you have an extra five minutes for washing and chopping) saute in hot oil (as hot as your stove will go) until bright and slightly tender; dump in the rice and some mushroom flavored soy sauce (the good kind from an Asian market); stir it up; dump the egg back in and mix it up. Serve with a handful of cashews, for an interesting texture and flavor.
Black bean burritos - Heat up a can of refried black beans with about a quarter of a jar of good salsa mixed in. Roll it up in flour tortillas with shredded cheddar and/or pepper jack, lettuce, and tomatoes (the veggies are optional, as the salsa adds some tomatoes and onions and peppers). Optionally add sour cream and/or guacamole. Also makes a great dip for tortilla chips.
But usually, meals take me longer than ten minutes, and I'm OK with that. I like to cook most of the time.
Like you, I have an aversion to microwaves but recently I found a use for them (thanks to culinary hacker Heston Blumenthal): use them to "cook" vegetables of which the aromatics dissolve in water, like fennel, asparagus and broccoli.
What you do is you rub butter and salt and pepper on the vegetable of your choice and wrap it tightly in two or three layers of microwave foil. Then you zap it three times in one mine bursts at the highest setting.
Best fennel / asparagus / broccoli you've ever tasted.
Hmmm...I have a nice stovetop steamer for vegetables which seems to work fine. But maybe I'm missing something. Will have to try it next time I'm cooking at a location that is microwave-enabled.
With a steamer you're still working with water so some aromatics will probably get lost. A better alternative to microwaving would be stir-frying as you coat your vegetables in oil so no aromatics would leak out.
1. Start in a large pot 3cm of water to boil.
2. in a fry pan, holding it tilted, at very low heat, drop in well-chopped anchovies and garlic, in a bath of enough olive oil that they are swimming.
3. When the pool of stuff is bubbling rapidly, dump in a 200g of ground beef.
4. spread the beef around.
5. Put 3 minute pasta in the boiling water.
6. when the beef is brown, dump in a can of diced tomatoes.
7. kill the heat on the sauce when it starts bubbling again.
I routinely do variations on this in roughly 10 minutes. It is satisfying and vaguely healthy.
In 20 minutes though, you can have nirvana:
1. Cut a pumpkin into 2cm square chunks.
2. Steam for 10 minutes or so, until mushy.
3. in a fry pan mix a chunk of S&B dry curry and a can of diced tomatoes with some water along with the pumpkin.
4. smash everything together until it is a puree.
5. kill heat, add plain yoghurt.
I won't cook if it takes more than 10 minutes so this will be great for me :) Anyway, my current favorite is..
Ingredients: 1) 1/2 jar of sweet and sour cooking sauce that has vegetables in it (Uncle Ben's!) 2) Packet of microwaveable whole-grain rice (the healthy stuff!)
Directions: 1. Microwave the rice for 90 seconds. 2. Put the sauce and vegetables into a bowl and microwave for 90 seconds. 3. Blend the rice into the hot sauce / vegetables.
This is what I eat for dinner every day my girlfriend isn't working the evening shift. Takes 3 minutes. This can also be varied by using frozen vegetables which you defrost first with the microwave on Low for 5 - 10 minutes. You can then blend in tomato ketchup, pickle, onions, and all sorts of stuff to just get a rice + lotsa goodies type meal.
ny strip (bout half an inch thick)
Salt, pepper, garlic, shallots, butter
potatoes (cut into chunks)
turn broiler to highest setting. put all ingredients in a ziplock bag and shake, then put onto the broiler plate and broil. 8 mins late you have medium steak and potatoes!
Actually, Spaghetti can be pretty quick if you have enough people to eat it all.
Put some noodles in water over the stove. Grab a can of sauce and put it in another pot on medium.
It really depends on the size, but it could be ready in about 10-15 minutes for a small amount.
If you're entertaining on short notice or limited prep. time it works too. Give yourself about 20 minutes and then you're set for serving yourself and guests!
(Note: Spaghetti done right will take significantly longer. This does not include preparing meat or adding any spices)
Spaghetti is always an option as my cuppoards rarely have anything else, including sauce. Quick and dirty alfredo is always a good substitute. melt a tablespoon of butter in a sauce pan, add flower and stir till it becomes a thickish wad of dough, add milk (At this point it looks real thin but it will thicken) add garlic (salt or powder if you have no cloves), parmigan cheese, and cracked black pepper.
You are overcooking it. Six to eight minutes is enough. If you ever go to Italy, you will see what I mean. Their normal cooked pasta is 'al dente' for non-Italians, and their 'al dente' is ... soaked in warm water. But good anyway. And do salt the water generously.
Pasta in general can be done quite nicely in the time it takes to cook the pasta (which should never be more than ten minutes). As the pasta cooks, chop up some vegetables and fry it. Maybe with some cream or some minced meat or something else.
Boil water, cook pasta (not spaghetti but something like rotini). Cook Campbell's soup (Chicken with dumplings) on separate burner. Drain pasta, toss soup over. It's not a healthy meal but it will do in a pinch.
Out-of-the-can salad: chickpeas, black beans, maize, lettuce, cottage cheese, sunflower seeds and a diced avocado. Sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil and eat with bread
Mix canned tuna, diced celery and/or onion, and mayonnaise in a bowl. Serve with sliced bread. You can store the filling in a jar in the fridge for about a week.
Corn soup:
Boil canned corns in water with your favorite broth/bouillon and diced scallion. Peas optional. Whip up an egg and mix it into the soup when almost done. Turn off the stove and mix in a tea spoon of starch powder for a thickened texture.
Eggs, chicken breakfast sausage in 2" pieces, some salt, some cheese, frozen stir fry vegetables (everything organic). Pre-heat a pan, mix everything (break the yolks), pour it in the pan and start mixing with a plastic spatula. Takes about 5 minutes, comes down to $2 for a hearty portion and has all basic food types, sans dairy.
Nature's fast food (aka fruit)
i like the no-wash needed like banana, oranges - easy clean up too
considered as vegan food too :D
for cooking:
rice, water, meat, garlic put together in a small rice cooker
use the rice cooker's bowl - no need to transfer food to plates
clean everything in one swoop
oh yeah, you can put raw egg+shell too and peel later ;)
Chop vegetables into small chunks, fry them for a little while (add apices at will), then add some water (just enough to make them not burn and allow steam to develop) and cover with lid. Let stew for a couple of minutes.
Add tomato sauce or soy sauce or coconut cream or...
Combine with rice or noodles or...
Can of black-eyed peas, pat of butter, frozen hamburger patty (read, bubba burger.) Boil. Not fancy but good eating. And it keeps well.
Realistically though, we all owe it to ourselves to eat well. I've lost 10-20 lbs this year (depending on the day) by avoiding carbs and eating my vegetables. Who knew?
Quick and fairly good: some Turkish or Italian bread with a stew made of canned tomatoes, canned tuna and lima beans (also canned). Add some fresh basil and maybe some grated cheese.
Ok, this is the best one right here!! Take those biscuits that come in the roll,, pop em in a toaster oven with pasta sauce and mozzarella cheese on em: instant mini pizzas!
I much prefer the somewhat healthier alternatives of pita bread or thick slices of fresh sour dough bread. Have you read what's in those canned biscuits?
I also get pretty picky with my mozzarella. I've gotten hooked on mozzarella fresca--the really soft, whole milk, kind. It makes me like pizza (which I've never been a huge fan of).
1. Can of chick peas + balsamic vinegar
2. Huge pile of spinach or kale wilted in a frying pan with a bit of oil, salt, and pepper.
3. Cereal & milk
4. PB&J
Scramble 2 eggs (teflon pan). Chop jalapanos. Put eggs, jalapenos and cheese on large flour tortilla. Zap in microwave 33 seconds. Serve with beer and hot sauce.
Cooking eggs can take 10 minutes (start from cold water, then at 10 minutes the yolk is semi-solid), but to do it properly you need 20 minutes to half an hour at least.
At 62 - 68 degrees centrigrade, that is.
If the temperature gets any higher, the egg white gets rubbery and the yolk grainy. We think of this as the way eggs should be, but if you've ever tasted a properly cooked egg you'll know those are much, much better.
(oh, and salmonella bacteria die at around 60 degrees so that's not something you should be worried about with this technique).
Agreed. Cooking up something inventive in the kitchen, chopping ingredients as pans fry minced onions and garlic, throwing new spices together; it's a whole lot of fun. Whenever I have the time, this is something I love to do.
Same. And I don't even have a fully-stocked cabinet, yet. Need to hit up the japanese and indian supermarkets. And any others that I can find.
I prefer to shop at places like that than places with an 'international' section. You get better quality ingredients, at cheaper prices. And a wider variety!
If 10 minutes is prep time, you can do a whole lot with a crock pot. I also like rice alot, so I include a rice cooker. But, prep only takes 5 minutes, if that. Throw the meat, sauce, and veggies into the crock pot, and rice into the cooker. A couple hours later when I get back home, I have a delicious, warm meal waiting.
A couple of ideas... soak a cedar plank for 3 minutes. Heat on grill on one side for 2 minutes, flip over and pour a good amount of rum on the now warmed side, salmon fillet on top of that, more rum on the salmon, season to taste. Cook for another 5-6 minutes. Grill some asparagus alongside the salmon directly on the grill, seasoned with oil and balsamic vinegar.
Thin porks chops cook quickly, and can be flavored with a mixture of apple cider vinegar, sugar and peppercorns for a sweet/peppery sauce. Cook the sauce along with the 'chops.
Chop up some raw chicken breasts and saute light butter. Cook batch of egg noodles at the same time, and heat some french-cut green beans in the micro. Make a sauce of sourcream, onion soup mix and herbs. Once the chicken and noodles are done, combine all the ingredients as an impromptu casserole. If you're not limited to 10 minutes, add some bread crumbs on top and bake in the oven for a bit to heat everything all the way through and let the flavors combine.