The time spent preparing for cooking is indeed time well spent: Get all the ingredients ready before you start so the battle is half-won already.
Pictured above are the ingredients for my Biryani recipe, using Chicken Tikka as the protein component. This photo is from when I cooked this dish live on YouTube recently, so that’s why everything looks organised. Trust me it doesn’t happen like that off camera!
Once you’ve got your ‘duck’s in a row the whole process of cooking is made easier and calmer.
Ramekins and small bowls are very handy for storing ingredients. I avoid plastic ones because they are a bit harder to clean, and let’s face it, every little helps when trying to reduce the amount of clearing up after cooking.
Another way to be organised is having a separate large bowl for putting in onion peelings, garlic skin, veg offcuts, and indeed any unwanted leftovers. Empty easily and quickly into a bin while keeping your worktop tidy.
If you’re going to be cooking more than one curry it makes sense to combine the quantities of common ingredients, for example tomato paste, ginger/garlic paste, mix powder, chilli powder, and so on.. Take care to remember to only put what is required into each dish when cooking it – it’s easy to forget and (for example) put a whole load of extra unwanted chilli powder in. Having measuring spoons to hand is a way of reminding yourself to be careful.
Ingredients for South Indian Tamarind Chicken
Ingredients for Chicken Dhansak
Books by Richard Sayce
Great info 👍🏻