I’m lazy. Really. I love cooking and I’m really picky about what I eat but it’s at odds with my innate laziness. I don’t wanna chop things and have a million different foods for a meal. I don’t wanna meal-prep things a week in advance cause I hate reheating the same shit over and over, I want variety. I don’t wanna wait for 2 hours for those long braised dishes because the impatient child in me refuses to wait more than 30 minutes.

My lovely friends who I definitely do not deserve gifted me The Wok by Kenji recently (Like anything by Kenji, you should absolutely give it a read) and it got me thinking about some of my favourite dishes to cook also use this magical little piece of kitchen magic.

So here’s some of my favourite things to make in a wok that take less than 30 minutes start to finish, including prep:

Pad Ka-Prow (Basil Beef)

Ingredients

• Ground meat (anything will work, beef, chicken, pork, etc. If you wanna be extra you can mince it with two cleavers for a superior texture) : 0.5lb (500g)
• Garlic: 3 cloves
• Chillies: As much as you can handle (Use thai bird’s eye for maximum authenticity)
• Fish sauce: To taste (this will be the main source of salt)
• Oyster sauce: 1 tbsp
• Dark Soy Sauce: 1 tsp (Optional, purely for color)
• Brown Sugar, Molasses, Palm Sugar: To taste (Optional, but lots of people like their pad ka-prow a little sweet. I personally don’t add any. Arranged in ascending order of authenticity)
• Thai Holy Basil: 0.5 cup (I like to buy a bunch from an Thai grocer and freeze them. You can also use regular basil but then it would be Pad Bai Horapha. Still tastes good though. )
• Egg: 1 (to top)

Instructions

1. Grind the garlic and chillies in a mortar. If you don’t have one, chop them finely as you can.
2. Heat up your wok on medium, add vegetable oil. Add your paste and fry till fragrant.
3. Up the flame to high and add your ground meat, breaking it up as much as you can.
4. Add the sauces and toss to incorporate.
5. Once meat is cooked through, add water or stock if the dish is too dry.
6. Turn off heat, add basil leaves, toss and transfer to serving dish.
7. Fry an egg (bonus points if you baste it ) and top off the beef.
8. Serve with rice and dig in.

Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice)

Ingredients

• Meat (anything, shrimp, beef, chicken, etc. Leftover is ideal, you can also season and stir fry raw meat for a few minutes before the rest of this recipe)
• Veggies (same as the meat, use leftovers or quickly prepare raw ones)
• Leftover Rice
• Kecap Manis: To taste (This is the main seasoning. If you don’t have it, sub it with soy sauce + palm sugar/molasses/brown sugar)
• Garlic: To taste (I use 2 cloves per cup of rice)
• Chillies: To taste (You can also sub with Sambal if you don’t have fresh chillies)
• Shallots: 1 per cup of rice (I skip this if I’m lazy or sub it with red onion or scallions)
• Shrimp Paste: 0.5 tsp per cup of rice (Optional but not really, this really packs an umami punch and I never skip it)
• Fried Egg (To top)

Instructions

1. Grind up your aromatics (garlic, chilli, shallots) or finely chop them.
2. Wok on medium, fry the aromatics till fragrant. Add the shrimp paste and fry till light brown.
3. Add the rice and fry with the spice mix.
4. Heat to high, add the meat and veggies and get everything warmed up.
5. Drizzle in the Kecap Manis and toss till everything’s a beautiful brown color. I never bother measuring my kecap, it’s too viscous and gets stuck to whatever you’re measuring it with.
6. Transfer to plate and top with a fried egg.
7. Stuff your face and marvel about how that only took 20 minutes.

Kadai Chicken

Ingredients

• Chicken Thighs: 1lb (500g)
• Tomato Sauce: Two 8oz cans (I use Hunt’s cause I’m cheap)
• Onion: 1 medium
• Ginger Garlic paste: 2 tbsp (You can also finely mince equal amounts of ginger and garlic)
• Garam Masala: 1 tbsp
• Chilli Powder: 1 tbsp
• Coriander powder: 1 tsp
• Cumin powder: 1 tsp
• Black Pepper (freshly ground): 0.5 tsp
• Chillies: To Taste
• Cilantro Leaves (garnish)

Instructions

1. Chop the chicken and chillies and keep ready.
2. High Heat on the work. Season chicken with salt and fry till light brown.
3. Add onions, saute till light brown.
4. Add the ginger-garlic paste. Sauce for 30 sec.
5. Add in the spices, saute till fragrant, then add in the chillies and fry briefly.
6. Add in the tomatoe sauce with 0.25 cup of water and reduce until thick.
7. Turn off the heat, salt to taste and serve with rice or chapati.