Prepare cooking ingredients early this Ramadan, career women advised

Celebrity chef Datuk Ismail Ahmad, or popularly known as Chef Ismail, said this fasting month women need to plan well, not only their time but the types of dishes they want to make for the week.

"Time management is important, especially for those who work in the city because traffic jams can take hours as everyone rushes home to break fast," he told Bernama here today.

He advised women to do preparation ahead of time so that a wholesome meal can be achieved in little time without sacrificing the food's taste and quality.

This includes cleaning fish, chicken, meat, prawn or squid before storing them in single meal portions in the freezer for easy defrosting later, he said.

"Weekends should be used to cut onions and garlic, ginger and blending dry chili. Cooking is easy, its just the preparation of ingredients that takes time.

"Paste for dishes such as 'rendang', curry, 'asam pedas' and fried foods like fried noodles can also be made ahead of time and kept in the fridge for use when needed," he added.

For vegetable dishes, Chef Ismail does not recommend leafy vegetables and to choose pumpkin, legumes, cauliflower, broccoli, brinjal and carrots as they last longer.

"Some women may feel exhausted running around the kitchen to get the break fast meal done in a short period of time, but like they say, women will be rewarded for feeding the family and a home-cooked meal holds them together," he said.

Meanwhile, Siti Rahimah, a former culinary instructor at a private college, said career women can prepare dishes containing coconunt milk such as curry or rendang in large quantities before keeping them in smaller containers for the coming days.