Food - A Quick and Affordable Pork strips, Stir-fry veg and Mash!

Good day everyone! Zak here from Cape Town, South Africa.

Two things really mess with cooking and meal prep time in South Africa at the moment: Load-shedding (when the power is switched off on a schedule because the country is not producing enough kW of power for our consumption) and inflation (where the price of goods go up week to week especially after the fuel prices go up).

There are many reasons for both, but most of them stem from a government that is full of ineptitude and corruption with zero moral compass.

So when I prepare a meal, I am usually racing against the clock, to complete the food before the power goes out. Last night was one of these nights. I finish work at 4:30, I get to the shops at 5:00, I go home and shower and change and start cooking while checking kid's homework at around 5:30.

Power goes off at 8:00 so I have 2.5 hours to cook and the pork was still frozen!

So this was my process:

The pork goes into the over, on bake and grill at 50C and then 100C to start defrosting fast but evenly and then precook. Halfway in this process the pork is taken out to season with spices.

Then I peel and chop potatoes. In this time, I have a full kettle on the boil while the pot with a bit of salt and a little bit of water is on the stove on full blast. This means that the one-knuckle deep bit of water will heat up and the stove plate will be hot by the time the kettle is finished boiling.

The boiled water is added to the pot along with a little more water depending on how deep it needs to be. The lid of the pot is put on to speed up boiling and energy efficiency.

In the meantime I have to peel enough potatoes to feed a family of 5... I do this peeling while the kettle boils and work fast. Then when the water is in the pot, I chop and add the potato and leave that at a hard boil.

The moment I add the potatoes it breaks the boil but everything is super hot and will boil in a few seconds once I put the lid back on.

The time is ticking!

Meanwhile, the meat is fully defrosted, seasoned and taken out of the oven to cool.

Next is the frozen veggies, Stir-fry mix. Yes, its cheap stuff but it is effective and come with a lot of different ingredients.

This goes into the electric frying pan and on a high heat to assist the water to melt off the chunks. I return to stir periodically.

Meanwhile I season the pan... I throw in a few things from the spice cupboard and this is where the magic happens as I throw in what inspires me... I think this was oil, chili flakes, nutmeg, soy sauce, vinegar and mirin.

I then peel and chop an onion. Not too fine though, this is to be braised and then the meat is to be added to give it all good flavour!

The onion is browned and braized by my daughter (@aimeludick) while I chop the meat into strips. I don't have pictures of this part as my hands were dirty.

The potatoes are drained and mashed, I add margarine, milk and more nutmeg because plain mash is sad.

I then combine the cooked up veggies and the braized up pork and onion and serve!

Done! 5 plates of this food and as it is served and we sit down to eat... the power goes off... 8 o'clock... I made it! And this was quite delicious!

Now it is time to watch a bit of Star Trek with the kids on laptop power (we are busy going through it from the beginning!)

Power came back on at 10pm but by that time the kids were already in bed as this is a school night!

And that was my meal prep and my evening last night! Tonight the power goes off again at 8:00pm so... I am going to get the chicken out of the freezer now...

Thank you for reading this post!

Cheers!
@zakludick

Hive South Africa