Cooking Recipes: Make A Three Course Meal In Less Than An Hour
January 29th, 2009
Ever wonder why you promise your friends and family home cooked meals when they end up in your spending all your free time in the kitchen? Or do you wonder how people manage to feed guests who drop in just when they are all out of pre cooked meals? These and other similar questions make us wish we were one of those people who could just wave a wand and the food would be there on the table, Harry Potter style. Unfortunately for us muggles, cooking food is never going to be that easy. The best we can do is learn cooking recipes for fast meals, and what better place to start than right here, where we tell you how to put together a three course meal in less than an hour.
Chinese food is not only like by most people, it is extremely fast and easy to cook once you get the hang of the various sauces. If you have an hour or even less to prepare a home cooked meal, then why not try a menu of tomato soup, chili garlic noodles and stir fry vegetables? You are wondering whether we can do all this in just 45 minutes? You bet we can! Just follow the instructions below:
Tomato Soup: Put a pressure cooker on the burner and pour in a tablespoon of vegetable oil. While the oil gets hot, chop a medium sized onion, then pop into the oil to fry till tender and translucent. While the onions are getting fried, you chop two medium sized tomatoes. Drop these in the cooker; add a cup and half of water, salt to taste and a pinch of black pepper. Cover and cook for five minutes. Put the whole thing in the blender and churn for a few seconds when done. Pour into soup bowls, garnish with cilantro and serve with soup sticks. Serves 2. Note: Be careful when you put the hot soup mix into the blender. Splashes can cause serious burns.
Chili Garlic Noodles: Put a pack of quick cooking noodles in a pan of boiling water. While the noodles boil, chop some pods of garlic into small pieces and break a few dry red chilies into pieces (decide on the quantity of chilies based upon how hot you want your noodles to be). Heat oil in a wok, drop in garlic and red chilies, add a tablespoon of vinegar, one and a half tbsp of tomato ketchup and salt to taste to the wok. Once the oil starts coming to the top of the ketchup mix, put in cooked, washed and drained noodles and mix it all up. Garnish with more chopped garlic and your chili garlic wonder is ready to serve 2.
Vegetable Stir Fry: To make your vegetables in record time, I assume that you will have chopped and ready to cook carrots, capsicum, broccoli, corn and peas in your freezer. Take a wok or a frying pan, put in a tbsp of vegetable oil and add the chopped veggies. Fry for two minutes, then add salt and fry for a couple of more minutes on low heat. Once the vegetables are tender enough for your taste, add one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, a dash of white vinegar and some pepper. Serve as a side dish with your noodles and you will definitely have people asking for second helpings. What’s more is that you have cooked a three course Chinese meal for two in record time!
(Note: If you are cooking for more people, just add to the recipes, without varying the given proportions. Time taken will more or less be the same.)