| Hi, everyone. It's the weekend, which means I'm looking ahead to the next week — and what we'll be eating. Typically, I spend a decent portion of my Saturday morning clipping coupons in the grocery store app, picking recipes and writing up the shopping list. (Glamorous stuff, I tell you!) Then the cooking happens either later Saturday, or, more likely, Sunday, when my husband and I trade off kitchen shifts so that we can have food ready for most of the weeknight dinners. No matter how long I've been doing it, pulling those meals together is no small hurdle, so I'm interested in any ingredient, equipment or technique shortcut that can make the task quicker, easier or less messy (i.e. fewer dishes to wash). As a working mom and recipes editor, I'm always on the hunt for ways to cook smarter, not harder. Take Ellie Krieger's Shrimp in Tomato Curry Simmer Sauce. In the vein of those just-add-protein simmer sauces you can buy at the grocery store, she creates her own version with canned diced tomatoes (a wonderful ready-to-go ingredient!), light coconut milk and fragrant spices. Ellie tells you how to use it with shrimp, but the beauty of this recipe is that you can swap in another main ingredient of your choice, including pork tenderloin, chicken breast or tofu. I highly recommend making a double-batch of the sauce and freezing half of it, so you can have one meal now and one meal later. Twice the food without twice the work, I love it. The Instant Pot is another fantastic tool for speeding up your cooking, and much as he did with the air fryer, Aaron Hutcherson is coming around to its merits. Pressure cooking can shave precious time off dishes that would otherwise take much longer to finish. Aaron shows you how with his Instant Pot Short Ribs, which are braised in the appliance with onion, carrots, red wine and punches-above-its-weight tomato paste. (No Instant Pot? Right this way.) I'll never stop singing the praises of sheet-pan dinners for busy cooks. Daniela Galarza knows that, too, this week sharing a Roasted Feta Fattoush inspired by Yellow, one of my favorite places to eat in Washington. Slabs of feta and vegetables are drizzled with a za'atar dressing before they're roasted to crispy-edged delight and plated on a mix of greens with more of that delightful herby, lemony dressing. If all that efficiency carves out a bit more time for you to be able to rest for a spell and savor a hot beverage, all the better. Inspired by a recent trip with her sister, Carrie Allan concocted her own version of Khunjul (Moroccan Spiced Red Tea). While colloquially referred to as "tea," this drink is technically a tisane, brewed with bright, tart hibiscus and such spices as cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. Need more suggestions for how to streamline your cooking? Aaron and I will be standing by to help in our live weekly chat Wednesday at noon Eastern. Submit your questions now and then come back when we sit down together for what's always a fun hour. Until next time, happy cooking. |
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