Planning is key to being efficient in anything you do in life. and the No 1 rule, especially when cooking – BE ORGANISED!
The fancier or bigger the occasion, the more organised you have to be. If you’ve ever worked in or seen how a professional kitchen works successfully, everything is in its place and everyone has their duties. It doesn’t have to be that precise at home, but it will help your sanity if you have some rules around preparation.
Organise your kitchen and pantry to work for you, label jars and storage containers. Depending on just how organised works for you, alphabetise products, or, at a minimum, group ‘like’ ingredients together. For example, I have a shelf for flours, sugars, the next shelf is rice, pastas and legumes, I have a baking goods shelf, etc.
Arrange your work area, according to space, and keep your most used accessories in an easy to access place.
Plan ahead! Do up a weekly/fortnightly menu to work out your shopping list, you’ll be less likely to buy things you don’t really need. The longer you plan, the more likely you are to stray, so keep it to a week or two, and think about how often you’re going to want to dine out or entertain and include those meals! Leave a gap or two for ‘surprises’ (‘you’ve had a bad day at work and don’t feel like cooking’ or ‘someone isn’t well’).
When preparing a meal, read through the recipe beforehand to gauge timings, when its time to cook, put all the ingredients you’ll require on your work bench, together with the utensils you’ll need, fill the jug and put it on to boil so it’s ready to go if you need it. Everything is at your finger-tips ready to go, and you won’t forget any ingredients, which happens to the best of us. Sometimes if everything is a different amount, I even measure them out or weigh them, but you’ll need lots of little tubs or bowls to do this.
Keep ingredients you often use on hand, good ones for easy to prepare meals are canned tomatoes, stock (cubes, powder or liquid), plain flour, your favourite dry pasta, jelly mix, a variety of canned and frozen fruit and vegetables, your favourite sauces, soup mixes.
Prepare any vegetables and meat ahead of time, make sure you cover it with a lid or cling film to protect it. Think what you can do ahead of time to make it all run smoother.
Clear things away or clean as you go, stack the dishwasher, wipe the bench regularly, etc, so you’re not left with a mess to clean up afterwards. And it means your workspace is clutter free.
Get the family or your guests involved, it can be a bit of fun!
