Stove Top

Quick meals are usually produced in a frying pan or in a wok. Unfortunately the best results require the use of oil (a light oil in Asian dishes and olive oil in Mediterranean-style cooking). This means that a ‘George-friendly’ cook should avoid this technique. Alternatively, use extra virgin olive oil mixed with some water. However, the use of water usually defeats the purpose because the oil is required to allow high temperature cooking. Thus, it is better to cook in water without the oil. Just add the oil later. You can soften onions and garlic in a tiny amount of stock. If you do not like the look of white onions in your dish, just add a very small amount of turmeric. Remember that it is not advisable to use olive oil when cooking Asian recipes, even if this is mixed with water (use cold-pressed sunflower oil). I prefer to use the grill or steamer to cook food and, after it is ready, I transfer it to the serving bowl where I mix in cold-pressed oil).


Here are onions and garlic after cooking in a tiny amount of stock:

You can add turmeric.


You can also soften onion, garlic and chili in a steamer and add these ingredients mixed with oil to a dish later in the cooking process. For most dishes the rice cooker is a very good substitute for the stove and it allows you to keep cooking juices because you can steam in the baskets above the pot where you are boiling the liquid or cooking the rice. To steam finely chopped garlic, ginger or chilli you may need to use a little tea stainer to hold the ingredients together to prevent it from dropping into the liquid. A small tray in the steamer allows food to be cooked in the juices and spices you choose. When cooking Asian food, you will often add a little chopped ginger that has been steamed and, certainly, put a few drops of soy sauce into the water you use. Do not cook with sesame oil. Try not to cook with olive oil.

Cooking on the stove/rice cooker comes into its own once there is a stock base. This can be a vegetable, tomato or fish stock. (Fish stock can be bought at Japanese grocery shops.) You cannot brown food once it is in the stock. The stove/rice cooker is also good for stewing, so long as you have a thick-based saucepan or frying pan and enough liquid. Keep the heat low when stewing. A wok can also be used for stewing foods but only for a short time - it allows the fluids to collect in the bottom so that the food is covered. But a wok is not a good utensil for slow cooking. Remember the wok is usually used for reaching high temperatures very quickly. Much better is the rice cooker that can allow easy and quick food preparation with very little follow-up at the time of dishwashing.

A ‘George-friendly’ family meal will often include soup. This can be cooked on the stove/rice cooker and should be a regular part of the diet. Soup is almost always popular, and it is easy to prepare.  It can also be kept for a few days and even stored in the freezer.  If you like soup and make it often, you will find that the Rice Cooker offers an excellent alternative to the stove for daily cooking. You can cook most meals using the versatile rice cooker. Preparing vegetables for using in soup is very easy and convenient. Most Asians cooks produce brilliant meals using only a single pot and a wok.