TodayTake the 5:30 Challenge! On what planet?
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Truffles? Fish sauce? Twenty-four jumbo shrimp? Sushi-grade tuna for burgers? Mahi mahi? Rose water? Fully ripe avocado bought the night before? Asian fresh chilis? Prosciutto di Parma? Star anise? Fresh ginger? Fresh mozzarella? Filet steak?
These are just some of the ingredients called for in “Take the 5:30 Challenge” column running in various newspapers in this area.
I want to know on what planet we are taking this challenge, because it is certainly not here in Central PA. The column purports to give easy-to-do dinner ideas for the working person and doesn’t specify male or female, but chances are it is the latter, who is also trying to do something with the children at the same time.
For most folks, a 5:30 challenge is Mom hurrying home to make a dinner which is healthy, relatively inexpensive, and kid-friendly. This column doesn’t seem to fit the bill.
The plan: Shop for needed ingredients (sometimes as many as 20) the night before and put together the meal when you get home from work. Ingredients generally seem to be exotic and expensive for the average family.
The items at the start of this article are only a small portion of what I could have used. I can’t imagine my granddaughters wolfing down a tuna-radish sandwich or a portion of chickpea/carrot tagine or roasted corn salsa on polenta or a rare tuna burger(made from the sushi-grade tuna mentioned above).
To be honest, I can’t imagine my husband liking any of this for dinner either.
So I went online to see where this idea originated and found out that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution initiated it in a column called “The 5:30 Challenge.” Two journalists working for AJC, Jeanne Besser and Susan Puckett, developed the column and then published a book based on it.
The basic idea is to plan meals which take no more than 5 ingredients and 30 minutes to make.
Well now, that makes sense! After working all day, being able to put together a simple recipe sounds wonderful. So I went to the library both in Carlisle and in my hometown of Goshen, Ind., to check out this book. It wasn’t available at either.
But while I was at the library in Goshen, I did a quick perusal of the catalogue under the topic of “Quick Cookery.” When I located the shelves, I took out three books at random: “Once a Month Cooking,” “The Short-Cut Cookbook” and “The Weeknight Survival Cookbook.”
The first, “Once a Month Cooking” (Mimi Wilson and Mary Beth Lagerborg, 1999 rev. ed), teaches the reader how to prepare an entire month’s worth of main dishes and some sides and freeze them. It also provides the organizationally challenged the option of a two-week cycle. It has great hints for both shopping and cooking, surprisingly tasty-sounding recipes and things I had never thought of doing -- like making marinades and taping the packages to the frozen meat/fish/chicken packages or chunking the protein and freezing it in the marinade.
However, it does require a nine-hour day of total concentration to do all the cooking for the month schedule and four to five hours for the two-week cycle. I admire the concept but think I am probably not enough of an A type to get that organized.
The next, “The Short-Cut Cookbook” (Jacques Pepin, 1990), also gives a good introduction, pantry list and utensil requirements but is organized as a normal cookbook, from appetizers to desserts. He advocates using pre-chopped and prepared items, to include buying from a supermarket salad bar. The recipes are simple and yummy-sounding.
Since he is a master chef, his hints are wonderful and his methods impeccable. One could copy the recipes and laminate them together for total meal ideas.
However, the last book, “The Weeknight Survival Cookbook: How to Make Healthy Meals in 10 Minutes” (Dena Irwin, a registered dietician, 1998), appealed the most to me, probably because of the 10-minute time frame and her use of a method that worked for me when I was teaching: The Head Start Meal–Sunday dinner. I would cook enough meat for that meal to provide at least two more meals that week.
The book provides 12 weeks of menus with a list for each week of staples needed, shopping list and preparation techniques. She gives a nutritionist’s take on best bet veggies, canned and bottled foods, breads, frozen items, dairy, meats, seasonings, and healthy take-out (Yes, it does exist!). She also realizes that children’s and adults’ tastes differ and gives hints on seasoning at the table to satisfy both. Finally, none of the items is exotic or expensive.
I still want to read “The 5:30 Challenge,” but it is nice to know that there are other cookbooks out there that really address the problems facing the average middle-class working cook in a sensible and economical way (Although none of them used Mrs. Beaver – Barbara Kingsolver’s name for a crockpot – probably my favorite kitchen utensil).
And, by the way, if you have a favorite recipe that uses only five ingredients (not counting neutral oil or salt and pepper) and can be prepared in 30 minutes, submit it to fivethirty@ajc.com, and win a prize!
Pam Barney is a retired secondary English/social studies teacher who has taught in Korea, Alabama and Germany and the spouse of a career Army Engineer, also retired. She is an active volunteer in the Carlisle area.
