I’ve usually puzzled what cooks eat for dinner on their night time off – I’m in want of straightforward, scrumptious meal concepts!
Sarah, Leeds
For Phil Wooden, head chef at Saltine in north London, cooking at house is “a little bit of a busman’s vacation”. That mentioned, good issues will be present in an “straightforward hen thigh scenario”, which you’ll bung within the oven whilst you gravitate in direction of a tracksuit. “Begin with a base of celery, onions and carrots, then make a roux and thicken it with tomato paste and inventory,” Wooden says, plus a splash of Worcestershire sauce for good measure. “Add hen thighs, brown them, then cowl and stick within the oven for 40 minutes. Uncover and cook dinner for one more half-hour,” then crack open some wine and eat with hunks of bread.
The enchantment of cooking from a single vessel grows immensely through the week, with pasta being a shining mild. “Certainly one of my go-tos is pasta with lentils,” Mitchell Damota of east London’s Dalla says. The tactic couldn’t be less complicated, both: saute no matter veg you fancy – “often onion, carrot, celery, a little bit of garlic” – and add tomato, brown lentils and water or inventory. “When you’ve got rosemary or parsley, add that, too – and, for those who’ve obtained one, a piece of parmesan rind is an absolute should.” As soon as the lentils are good and delicate, in goes the pasta – “soup-friendly shapes or just broken-up spaghetti” – and, “from begin to end, that’s prepared in 25 minutes”. Carb consolation can be present in broccoli pasta: “I chop the broccoli small, so you possibly can then mash it up and it goes creamy, however my accomplice prefers to maintain it in chunks for texture.” Both means, get the broccoli on to boil. In the meantime, saute garlic in olive oil “till it’s simply beginning to brown across the edges, then add chilli flakes and a splash of cooking water”. Scoop the boiled broccoli into the garlic pan and depart it cook dinner down whilst you cook dinner the pasta. Then, simply toss the 2 collectively.
Shuko Oda, head chef at Koya in London, eats “numerous noodles at dwelling in addition to at work”. Whereas the kind could change – udon, soba, ramen, rice – her technique stays a lot the identical: make a easy sauce that doesn’t require warmth, and pour excessive. “Chop chives, ginger and spring onions, then add soy sauce, sugar, a splash of rice vinegar and a little bit of honey; my favorite is chilli oil with a drizzle of soy and a few spring onions.”
The omelette, in the meantime, is an actual crowdpleaser spherical chef and restaurateur Tom Kerridge’s. They’re fast, certain, however they’re additionally extremely customisable: “Omelettes are an effective way to mix all these fine details within the fridge – leftover ham, a little bit of grated cheese, some pepper and tomato, or fairly merely closely seasoned eggs cooked excellent and completed with sizzling spicy sauce.” Alternatively, put an egg on nasi lemak (coconut rice), which Abby Lee (chef and founding father of Mambow, in Clapton, London) makes by placing Thai long-grain jasmine rice in a rice cooker with “50:50 coconut milk to water, pandan leaves and salt”. She leaves that to cook dinner for 25 minutes whereas she considers the toppings: fried garlic and/or anchovies, sambal, or “peanuts fried with makrut lime leaves and lemongrass”. Crown with a fried egg, as a result of, properly, the whole lot’s higher with an egg.
