5 Things You Can Do With A Frying Pan

Sometimes we have a lot of pots and we don’t know which ones to use, or we use a lot at once to cook ingredients separately. The fact is that with a single pan you can make a lot of dishes, without complicating your life and without the need for other accessories.

Here you can find 5 ideas to take advantage of the potential of your sartene s:

1. Defrost and cook

Frozen vegetables, vegetable burgers, stews, stir-fries, etc. Everything can be put directly into the pan, over low heat, covered, to defrost quickly and then turn up the heat to cook.

It works especially well with what is in small or flat pieces, which is not a very tall block, because this way the heat reaches everywhere more quickly and gradually melts the ice (from its own juice, broths or sauces). ).

We must be careful when we put hamburgers and foods with less water content, so that they do not burn. In that case, you have to keep an eye on it from time to time, turn it over when necessary and, if we see that it is getting too dry, add a pinch of water (very little, it doesn’t need to cover the entire bottom of the pan). It is covered for a cooking “to the steam” in the own pan.

2. Pasta and rice with vegetables

Instead of cooking the pasta apart and sautéing it with vegetables, we can brown the vegetables we want in a pan, then add the pasta and just enough water to cover it and cook it all together, covered (so that the broth that we do not want evaporates, it is enough to uncover).

We will have a pasta dish with vegetables faster and without having to use more stoves or scrub more things. You can do the same with rice, in fact it is like making a paella.

3. Express stews

If you have legumes already cooked (they also work from a boat) and a few vegetables, you can make a stew in a pan in less than half an hour.

Prepare a sauce with whatever you want, for example onion and pepper, and add the rest of the ingredients. At the end, add the legumes and a pinch of water and boil it all together over high heat for a couple of minutes, just long enough to heat up well. You can leave it longer for a thicker and more flavorful broth.

This works very well especially when you want to make soup for just 1 or 2 people, without having to make large quantities or use the pot. It is a quick dish for those moments when you don’t have much time but you want to eat well.

4. Tasty toasts

Instead of making them in the toaster, try the skillet. Put it over medium heat and wait for it to heat up before putting the bread. You can put a few drops of olive oil to make them brown better and with more aroma. In a minute or two they will be ready (remember that you have to turn them over).

The advantage of the skillet is that you can put thicker breads that normally do not fit in the toaster, such as whole grain bars or slices of round bread.

It also works if they are frozen slices. Just put the skillet on low heat at first to avoid browning while still frozen.

In the case of flat breads such as flatbreads, naan or similar, you can moisten them a little (passing them with a wet hand) before putting them in the pan. They will regain their elasticity and will not be dry. Also make them covered.

5. More aromatic spices

Although herbs such as chives, parsley, coriander or basil are more delicate, there are others that do benefit from a light previous roasting, as in general all those used for curries: coriander seeds, cardamom, mustard seeds, asafoetida, fennel, cumin, thyme, pepper (white, black, Jamaica, Sichuan, etc.) …

They can be browned for a minute in the pan and then used in the dish that we are going to prepare or let cool and grind with a spice grinder to store.

In some cases, such as fennel seeds, roasting makes them easier to grind because it removes what little moisture they may have.