Step inside a restaurant kitchen and it won’t take long to figure out how chefs manage to whip up complex orders in minutes, no matter how busy they are. The magic lies behind the door of that walk-in cooler, where labeled containers of pre-made, flavor-packed components stand stacked and ready to do the heavy lifting.
If only our home refrigerator could be so accommodating.
It can be — if you’ve got a strategy in place. Kathryn Pauline has a practical one to offer in “Piecemeal: A Meal-Planning Repertoire with 120 Recipes to Make in 5+, 15+, or 30+ Minutes” (Chronicle, $32.50).
Pauline, a Chicago native who currently lives in Melbourne, Australia, is the creator of the Saveur award-winning blog, Cardamom and Tea, and author of “A Dish for All Seasons,” her debut book published in 2022 also premised on improvisation. Her latest builds on that concept by focusing on 30 simple, flavor-packed components that can be made in advance. Each component is accompanied by multiple distinctly different recipes that use it, as well as storage and reheating instructions.
To test the process, I made a batch of Gochuchang Sauce by whisking together the Korean smoky-sweet fermented red pepper paste with rice wine vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil and crushed garlic. One night, it glazed Gochuchang Meatloaf, and the next, it paired with Coconut Shrimp as a dipping sauce, both fantastic. I’ve got more for drizzling over Gochujang Clams or the party-size recipe for Bibimbap, the multi-component Korean classic made of beef, rice and eggs.
Other combos I’m anxious to try: Turkey Spinach Meatballs paired with mashed potatoes and gravy or incorporated into Italian Wedding Soup; Za’atar Cauliflower wrapped in a burrito or added to a lentil salad; Roasted Grapes smeared with cashew butter on toast or baked in a poppy seed cake.
Unlike other meal-prep routines that require significant organizational skills to pull off, Pauline sticks to one simple philosophy: “When you amass a trove of flavorful bits and pieces, dinner cooks itself.”
Susan Puckett is a cookbook author and former food editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Follow her at susanpuckett.com.
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