Cooking in:Good food need not take hours
When I was growing up, my mother started to cook our dinner at about 5pm. Two hours later we would sit down to liver and bacon, cod baked with anchovies and cream, or beef stew.
In the summer she might also make a starter: a tomato salad, or some pâté on toasted home-made bread. In the winter she'd bake no end of pies and crumbles. Two hours, I hear you say. Who has two hours to cook dinner?
But half that time is still enough to cook good food - and I'm not talking about a jar of sauce to go on some pasta. There's nothing wrong with the pasta, but all you need is 25 minutes to put together, say, sauteed pumpkin and goat's cheese to go with it. Or grill a piece of fish with herb butter or olive oil.
Aubergines take minutes to fry; then combine them with an onion-rich tomato sauce, perhaps laced with pine nuts, or partner them with mozzarella.
Lots of meat is quick, too: steaks, chops, even offal. And there's always a chicken breast - infused with thyme, perhaps - with a salad and the juices from the pan. It's all good food. And it's all fast.
Recipes serve four
FISH FINGERS
1 halved small red onion, thinly sliced
1 stick celery, finely diced
half seeded red pepper, finely diced
bunch coriander, leaves picked and stalks chopped
olive oil
zest and juice of 1 lime
4 slices of sourdough bread
1 garlic clove
1 mackerel, filleted and cut into strips
Combine the onion, celery, red pepper and coriander stems with two tablespoons of olive oil, the lime zest and juice and a seasoning of salt and pepper. Toss everything and set aside. Heat the grill. Toast the bread, rub with garlic, cut into fingers and set aside. Lightly oil the mackerel and sit in a roasting pan, skin side up. Season with salt and grill until the skin crisps up (about four minutes). Spoon the onion mixture on to the fingers, top with the fish, sprinkle with the coriander leaves and serve.
NASI GORENG
vegetable oil
2 mugs basmati rice
4 mugs hot chicken stock
2 halved onions, peeled and sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2cm piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 red chillies, seeded and finely chopped (or to taste)
2 skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
12 prawns, peeled
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp light brown sugar
bunch coriander, leaves picked and stalks chopped
4 eggs
½ cucumber, seeds removed and cut into matchstick slices
handful of bean sprouts
Heat two tablespoons of oil in a saucepan and add the rice. Stir over a moderate heat for two minutes. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Stir to ensure nothing is sticking. Cover with a lid and remove from the heat. Leave for 15 minutes, fluff with a fork and set aside to cool. Fry the onions over a moderate heat until they just start to colour. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for two more minutes. Remove and set aside. Turn the heat up, add another teaspoon of oil and add the chicken and prawns. Stir-fry for three minutes, then add the fish sauce, brown sugar and coriander stalks. Add the rice and onion mixture and continue to cook until the rice is fully warmed through. Transfer to four plates, sharing out the prawns. Fry the eggs in the remaining oil. Scatter the coriander leaves over the rice, top with an egg, and serve with the cucumber and bean sprouts on the side.