I do my low and slow cooks over water trays to keep the moisture in and it helps on such beef cooks, etc.
Thx @JB! I definitely take more time and effort to make meals than I ever have before. Though I still find it reasonable to fit these cooks with every day typical life and work. Everyone has their own balance. Also, part of my character pushes me in my interests, goals and hobbies. It's taken a lot of years and experience to get to this point on my meals. FWIW, my focus is on great meals that don't take a lot of effort.
It's also easy for me to defer to some members here and many posts where I see some very impressive cooks, dishes and meals with tons of effort compared to what I tend to do. Many of my meals don't need very much time or work investment.
I also enjoy good food enough to make the effort for every meal I can now, and far more than I used to. I visit the grocer more often and now have better quality ingredients and food around me all the time to use. I'm good at planning and almost always have a plan for cooks for the next week or two. Many of my meals work well as batch cooks with leftovers making subsequent meals easy. I have become more patient as well. I used to shortcut meals to eat sooner, now I don't. I no longer mind delaying a meal 30-60 minutes to eat better. I can always have an appetizer.
All of these considerations have led to a cumulative effect on my cooks, in a very positive way.
Take a look at my last cook, a stir fry; it's simple, relatively quick and excellent. Having expanded the foods and meals in my cooking repertoire I now have many more ingredients on hand; that gives me the ability to do better as well as riff in a great way. I change my stir fry cooks depending on what I want and have. Shrimp is an easy and fast thaw and cook. Chicken can be done in the fridge the night before or in water for a fast thaw. The veg prep is the longest part of the cook taking 15 min or so if I have a bunch. 5 min to gather ingredients. The dried fungus and mushrooms need to sit 20-30 min in hot water before use, but that's quite easy and can be done first. A 3-4 min preheat and a 2-5 min cook for the meat separate from the wok cook on another stove element (often concurrently), which takes about 5-10 minutes depending on size. I can boil noodles concurrently on another stove element and it tends to be 3-5 min. Combine all the ingredients in the wok, season, finishing cooking and enjoy. Total time around 30-35 min or so.
I'm here to share and read about great food and meals and I enjoy the discussions. We all learn and I enjoy paying it forward. Many people and places have inspired me.
Cheers
