Twenty or 30 years ago, the average daily time spent preparing food and cooking in an Irish kitchen, by the cook of the house, was three hours. Today, the time spent preparing food and cooking in an Irish kitchen is, on average, 20 to 30 minutes.
Is this a problem? I don't really think so, for a fairly simple reason. Time spent cooking need only be brief, if we are reasonably organised and know what we want to achieve. Of course, we are not going to make fresh pasta in 20 minutes, or a cream sponge for dessert, but we can save those for the weekend, when there is some time to lavish on something special.
But what if you want something special on Tuesday night, or after an exhausting Thursday's work? You can, of course, opt for the sad route of packaged food, and sit at the table feeling forlorn, because all your hard work and all your money are delivering the sort of lifestyle where you wind up eating microwaved mush.
No, we need a little something for the week, and the answer is simple. Choose dishes that need little preparation, and little time spent looking after them. If you have time to have a drink and sit back while everything is bubbling, simmering and roasting away, then cooking will feel relaxed.
Fish, of course, is the most obvious answer, and it was this recipe for Baked Brill with Creme Fraiche, Cherry Tomatoes and Parmesan, from Sophie Grigson and William Black's new book, Fish, which set me thinking about the ability to produce something tasty in no time at all.
This is a classic example of how to conjure delicious food out of the contents of the fridge. As Grigson explains, the recipe came about as a direct result of having little time to cook once you have finally managed to get the kids to bed. "Supper had to be quick; we had to use up the rather choice fillets of brill left in the fridge . . . and whatever else was to be found. This is the `what-else-is-in-the-fridge' recipe that emerged, and it has become a household favourite. It's absolutely brilliant for dinner parties but easily adapted to a midweek treat for two."
Of course, we won't all have fillets of brill in the fridge, so note that cod, hake, pollack, turbot, bass, sole and John Dory all respond well to this treatment. I did cook it with brill, and I left the skin on, and it was brill all round.
One tip I would give is to check the fish after 10 minutes, as your fillet may not need the full 15 minutes.