Be Prepared

Hello everybody. Today I’d like to talk to you about the most important philosophy of being a LazyCooK, preparedness. Just as my old friend Lord Baden-Powell use to say, “Dib dib dib”, being prepared when tackling the kitchen is as important.

Knowing what you are going to cook is one thing, knowing how to cook it and in which sequence is another.

This is when military precision is needed in planning. You have all you need spread out in front of you, the recipe, ingredients and your working implements. But where to start?

As an example we’ll look at cooking a stir-fry of mixed seasonal vegetables with pork and prawns. I find preparing the vegetables first works well. Remembering my basic cutting technique, wash and slice the more solid vegetables such as carrot, cauliflower and choko thinly. Set aside on a plate.

Cut your onion in half and slice lengthways and roughly dice some red capsicum, setting aside on a plate with crushed garlic and ginger spooned on top.

And now the meat. If your pork is pre-sliced, you can go on to preparing the green (uncooked) prawns. If not, slice the pork thinly. Fillet, schnitzel, loin; any cut is suitable really.

Take your pan or wok with a cup of water added and set on a medium heat with a lid.

Shell the prawns and de-vein if they’re the larger ones by cutting just into the back of the prawn with the tip of the knife. Don’t cut too deeply, just enough to expose the vein, removing by hand. I find it less cumbersome to shell all the prawns at once, make the slits and then de-vein. This saves having to put down and pick-up the knife repeatedly, which is such a bore.

If you don’t know how to shell a prawn; remove the head, then unwrap the shell from the legs and when you get down to the tail I find a little pinch on the shell loosens the flesh. Finally hold onto the tail and the body, pulling apart. If all goes well you have a perfect- looking prawn. If not, they’re still tasty.

By this time the water is boiling, add the vegetables, replace the lid and return to the boil, cooking for three minutes. Drain the vegetables and allow to sit.

On a high heat, add a small amount of oil to your pan or wok and add the onion, garlic etc. stirring to coat for a minute, then add the pork and prawns. Stir until sealed, turn the heat to medium and cover with the lid for three minutes.

Add the vegetables and any flavouring sauce you like, I’ve used little sachets of sour and hot sauce, stir through and add baby spinach leaves on top. Replace the lid, turn off the heat and allow the leaves to wilt for a few minutes while you prepare your plates.

Serve with steamed rice, noodles or if you have some leftover cooked rice, stir through when adding the vegetables for a “fried rice”. Bye for now.

James The Lazy Cook