Food on the table

A quick meal

Often the best meal of the week is when I get exasperated by all the half full tupperware containers in my fridge and realise they need emptying before I do any more shopping. Often these are the evenings when I am going out and don’t have the time to follow a recipe and don’t want the hassle of peeling vegetables or proper cooking. Tonight I find a chicken and rice stir fry (of dubious age but still smelling fresh), a half eaten bag of baby salad leaves, a half way good avocado, a few tinned dolmades a small block of Danish blue cheese and an unopened packet of cherry truss tomatoes.

I reheat the rice in the wok while arranging the other ingredients on the plate. The rice is liberally sprinkled with Ketjap Manis #1, a delightfully sweet, almost toffee like soy sauce that is one of the hidden delights of Dutch cuisine (but one that you are more likely to find in your local toko than a supermarket). Bob’s your uncle - a superb flavoursome and healthy meal in five minutes and hardly any washing up.

With thanks to Nigel Slater for inspiration from his hands-on style to cooking and writing about food.