Everyone is focused on the cooking time and not the punchline, which is still needing to do the dishes.
Well yeah. Unless you're using disposable plates, you're going to still have to do dishes. Fewer, but still.
But you can reduce that with things like a slow cooker, and one pot meals.
The only time I need to do dishes after cooking is when I am cooking something that needs constant attention, too many things at once, orI’m just lazy
Usually I just have the skillet I cooked in and the plate/silverware I used
I know the standard advice is to wash dishes as you cook, but I never know when the cooking is passive enough to warrant doing dishes. If I stop staring at the thing I’m doing I get distracted and it burns.
What you're supposed to do is get your MISE EN PLACE, that means get your shit ready, prep all the ingredients, mince and dice whatever and get them into prep bowls, and then start cooking when everything is actually ready to be cooked.
If you want to do dishes while you're cooking,
the cooking is passive
adjust the heat, dawg, nothing should be burning in the 2-3 minutes it takes between stirring to wash something. If it is, you're cooking it too hot
When I say I get distracted, I don’t mean that I do something for 2-3 minutes and then come back. I completely forget I was cooking for sometimes long periods of time. Even if I’m still in the kitchen.
Timers dawg, timers, if shits on heat set a timer. At least in the 2-3 minutes you're trying to multi task if it goes off you'll have the chance to be like "what the fuck was that for OH MY GOD MY ONIONS"
It's cause you didn't think about it and you're not in the habit of doing it, but that's what we're here for
Maybe leave a note for yourself reminding you to use timers next time you cook so you get into the habit
I completely forget I was cooking
i cannot understand how this is possible
Death to America
I've heard of people setting themselves really short-term alarms, like 2 minutes or such. If you get one of those mechanical kitchen timers, you can set it up real quick and extend it, if you get back to the stove before it goes off.
Hang on, if you're washing dishes before you are done cooking and long before you even set the table or start eating anything, what exactly is it that you are washing? One big knife and a chopping board? How did this become the standard advice?
smh my head, amateurs not even dirtying up a few bowls with prep
My god you’re right. I’ve been wasting years of my life by leaving that one bowl with a bit of juice from some tomatoes at the bottom until later when I did the rest of the dishes. Think of how much I could have achieved in that time!
You’ve heard of the slow food movement? Sarcasm aside, I am advocating for the slow dishwashing movement. I am 100% serious about this. Well, maybe 75%. Or 45%. I am somewhat serious about this.
Rinse as you go, especially for things you know will stick (cheese, eggs, sauces, etc.). You can still use the tool if needed, but it's a lot easier to clean later on if there's no dried food on it, and stuff rinses off really easily while still fresh (usually).
I can't manage to clean as I go either, but this has saved me a mountain of effort.
I always cook as much of whatever I'm making as I can, then put it in containers in the fridge or freezer (depending on the dish and how much).
And I have some base recipes that I cook that are easy to quickly make other things with. One thing I've done for almost two decades now is make a basic kinda "half-bolognese" (can't think of a better English description right now). Just onion, garlic, meat (or in my case vegan alternative), salt, pepper and some stock of your choice. Then freeze that divided into a couple of portions per bag or container. Very easy to use for a lot of recipes.
I also buy bags of dried beans (way cheaper than undried or pre-soaked) and soak those then freeze them like above, same thing there with being good bases for many things.
One of my current favourite recipe that's quick, cheap and filling without any of the above prep is falafel in tomato sauce. A local brand here in Sweden makes almost weirdly nice falafel that's $5 for 800g (28oz), which is like 50 falafel balls. I put the falafel in my air-fryer (oven or frying pan works just as well) and while those cook I sauté some onion and garlic in olive oil then add spices (the current version I love is with some smoked paprika, cumin, oregano, thyme, black pepper, lots of turmeric, a bit of soy sauce, a stock cube and either MSG or other umami base). Then add the falafel once done and crushed tomatoes and let cook for a few minutes. Works great with rice, pasta, potatoes in whatever variation you like, couscous, and my current fav which is coarse bulgur with vermicelli (roasted noodles). I wouldn't have guessed it before trying but the falafel is so good in the sauce!
I'm gonna have to try that falafel sauce recipe sometime - sounds delish
You're cooking the wrong recipes if its taking 2 hours every time.
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Eat slower than 10 minutes. My God have some company over. If you're spending 2 hours cooking there's no way doubling the recipe takes much longer.
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Make the company or your significant other do the dishes. If you're in a situation where you're cooking for two hours then doing the dishes yourself, something is wrong.
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it's absolutely wild to me how some people cook, if i cook something for 2 hours i'm going to end up with like 50 fucking portions that taste really good.
A normal meal should take like 30 minutes if you're feeling fancy, and oftentimes way less than that.
Just fuckin boil some pasta, fry some protein, and make some sauce..Don't even get me started. Cooking is my love language. I'll work from 9-5, the start cooking at 5:30 to have dinner on at 7:30 for my family.
It's fun and enjoyable. It's a form of meditation. I like to drink while I do it. Its a way to practice skill mastery outside of my normal job. I'm a foodie myself who can't quite afford to eat at Michelin star restaurants every night but appreciate that level of cuisine.
I'm mastering the French sauces, the Asian stir fries, the curries, American BBQ. I'm my biggest critic and my greatest benefactor. Nothing reminds me that life is good quite like setting down a meal that I'm pretty sure could get a Michelin star to my family and enjoying it together.
2 hours of cooking is when you are feeding other people or food prepping for the rest of the week, you spend the same time scrolling some predatory food delivery app and waiting for the food as you would spend making the tacos or wings yourself
man people here really just don't want cooking to be easy huh?
