Amongst the many secrets to cooking a delicious meal, prepping ingredients – for mis en place or otherwise can be an effective way to organise oneself even before actual processes begin transforming them. Right from cleaning, peeling, chopping and cleaning up on the go, meal prep isn’t just limited to those who have pronounced fitness goals or following a stringent routine. Like most people who would be short on patience when hungry, the tendency to skip essential steps or ingredients is much higher. However, streamlining cooking by having all the necessary elements on hand brings about a satisfaction in cooking as well as imbues a pattern of maintaining a certain standard in the kitchen.
Basic Knife Skills
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While working with ingredients – familiar or unfamiliar – having a foundational understanding of how to peel, chop, dice and back-slice can be rather helpful in ensuring that vegetables or meats cook evenly and enable maximum extraction of flavour. Brushing up on knife skills from time to time is a great way to initiate faster, safer and better meal prep while keeping the experience of cooking pleasant and approachable. With new ingredients that haven’t been cooked with before, it is always advisable to have a guide on how to process them before working with them, so as to avoid wastage.
Using Sharp Knives
As ironic as it might seem, a sharp knife is much safer and quicker to use while prepping ingredients ahead of time. For example, part of the reason why onions seem less pungent is because of using sharp knives to slice or chop them; Having a whetstone or knife sharpener can aid in maintaining their durability over a period of many years and stay in shape without deteriorating due to frequent usage.
Freeze In Usable Portions
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Whether it is marinated pieces of chicken to grill or add to curries, tomato puree or even cubes of minced garlic, dividing ingredients into single-use portions prevents wastage and also allows one to cook with precision. Besides, thawing larger portions takes longer in comparison while also disintegrating the texture when re-frozen repeatedly and compromising on freshness in the long run. Stacking individual-sized ziplocs with sauces, bhuna masala or ice trays with vinaigrettes, marinades, ginger-garlic paste amongst other things is a great way to defrost quickly and get cooking in a jiffy.
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Set-Up A Prep Station
Setting up within a limited kitchen space can seem a bit arduous but essential – specifically when tackling tasks like portioning a whole chicken, preparing stock or chopping up large batches of vegetables and fruit. However, a simple process which involves keeping the necessary cooking tools within reach, cleaning up as one goes and arranging things in the sequence that it needs to be processed becomes essential for fast-paced cooking techniques like stir frying or flash frying in a wok.
Prolong Herb Freshness
Although extending the shelf life of herbs isn’t necessarily counted as part of active meal prepping, having cleaned and organised mint leaves into tissue-lined boxes, placing stalks of parsley and coriander in jugs filled with some water and also picking sprigs of thyme or rosemary helps keep them fresh for longer while also not having to compromise on the minor but necessary flair that some dishes might require. Wrapping herbs in damp paper towels enables them to stay refrigerated with their vibrancy for longer instead of drying up or wilting quickly.