Years ago, fast food meant bread ago, fast food meant bread and cheese and a bottle of beer or wine. Then, fast food became burgers and chicken nuggets, bought from takeaways. Then, fast food got somewhat posh, and became pricey boxes of completely-cooked dishes which we bought from chill cabinets and shoved into microwave ovens for eight minutes and served at torch-mouth temperature.
Throughout all these changes, one problem is constant: how can you get quality food, whose provenance you can trust, which is also simple to prepare?
This is food which doesn't require a degree in the culinary arts to prepare, is not stuffed with chemicals to prolong its shelf-life, and isn't too expensive - and food which, above all, tastes fresh and vital. It can be done. It takes smart shopping and a considered store cupboard, but if you put those two things together then there is no reason why the pressures of work, and the stresses of family life, should mean you can't eat well, quickly, every night. Let's look at what you might cook in an average week:
Monday
Salad leaves with Robson's salad dressing; 10-minute chilli; fruit.
Tuesday
Antipasto of Sheridan's fennel salami and Real Olive Co olives; Fifth-sense southern fried chicken; mature farmhouse cheese.
Wednesday
Cape Clear Seafood marinated salmon with vodka and mustard sauce; lamb chops with instant couscous; fruit and cheeses.
Thursday
Salad of Serrano ham with melon; Crescenzi's 15-minute risotto with red rice; praline ice cream with hot fruit sauce.
Friday
Trader Joe's spinach sauce and cauliflower curry with naan bread and yogurt, pickles and chutneys; tomato and onion salad.
Saturday
Rasta rubbed grilled pork chops, with noodles; Chinese cabbage with chillies and coconut milk; yogurt brulee.
Sunday
Smoked-food platter with horseradish sauce; roast chicken, salad leaves and good bread; farmhouse cheese; ice cream and instant chocolate sauce.
ALL this requires little time and expertise to prepare, doesn't take too much shopping, and doesn't involve spending a fortune in a deli. But it does give variety and goodness.
Such fret-free cooking comes thanks to smart foods made and sourced by companies such as Sheridans, Fifthsense, AYA and Corte dei Crescenzi, and the many other specialists who sell high-quality food which can be prepared quickly.
I have, for example, just finished cooking Thursday's splendid Riso Carena ostigliato risotto, sourced from Corte dei Crescenzi, which cooks in 15 minutes and which uses a partly-cooked red rice, mixed in the packet with tomatoes, mushrooms and peas. With a litre of stock from the freezer, all I had to do was stir from time to time and a meal was ready - had I made a risotto from scratch, I would still be in the kitchen stirring the pot. The Riso Carena risotto was delicious - well balanced, true-flavoured and rustic, and with some Parmesan stirred in and a gloop of good olive oil on top, you are eating well with the minimum of time and effort.
From www.fifthsense.com I have bought Tuesday's Southern Fried spice mix, which coats and cooks chicken deliciously as well as making spicy potato wedges for the kids. This company also specialise in marinades, tins of Thai soups, and wonderful sauces, including the splendid Marinara sauce from Trader Joe.
Or take Saturday's dish of grilled pork chops, which are spiced up by a fiery rasta rub (mine came from Feasts in Belfast) and which could be served with sesame noodles. And if you love noodles then look out for any of the Yutaka range of pre-packed fresh noodles which are sold by the AYA food shop, behind Brown Thomas in Dublin. You can choose Yakisoba - fresh egg noodles with Japanese stir fry sauce; Udon Noodles Stir-fry - fresh wheat noodles with Japanese stir fry sauce and soy sauce; or Udon Noodles with soup - fresh wheat noodles with Japanese soy flavour soup. The noodles cook in two minutes, and there are many other stir fry sauces sold in the shop which make life easy.
The lamb chops marry well with couscous and good varieties of instant couscous can be found in Tesco and in the Trader Joe selection from fifthsense.com. Tescos and other supermarkets also sell Indian naan bread, which we always store in the deep freeze to make instant pizzas and to accompany curries.
Clever starters of marinated salmon make it easy to prepare a meal which is lavish, but lazy. These are widely available. My local favourite is the seafood prepared by Cape Clear Seafoods - look out also for their excellent herrings marinated in honey, mustard and wine, and their fine mousses and pates.
Folk who shop in Cork's Covered market and in the Temple Bar market can buy Frank Hederman's amazing smoked mackerel, eel and salmon for Sunday's smoked food starter, or contact Anthony Cresswell's Ummera Smoked salmon company on ummera@ummera.com and get his fabulous smoked fish through the post. IDAS smoked trout from Superquinn is also consistently good.
Starting the meal with salads and antipasto plates, and finishing with fruits, farmhouse cheeses and simple quick desserts, also makes the meal seem luxurious, rather that just a quick bite grabbed at the end of an exhausting day.
If you use good proprietory brands of salad dressing such as Sarah Robson's, (available in the Temple Bar market, and other outlets), source the superlative Italian salamis imported by the Sheridan brothers of Dublin and Galway and the multifarious olives of Toby Simmonds Real Olive Co, then you can be at the table with a starter and a glass of wine within minutes of walking in the door, relaxing while the main course is under way.
And if Sunday's roast chicken looks like too much work, just cook it in the simplest way: season the inside of the bird, prick a lemon all over with a cocktail stick, place it in the bird, tie the legs up, rub all over with olive oil, and roast. The juices from the bird and the lemon will give you the most delicious gravy, which is just the best thing to drizzle over some salad leaves, and to mop up with bread.
Ice cream with chocolate sauce marries some good Irish ice cream - Collins from Cork or the widely available Darina Allen range - with a do-nothing sauce that will have you licking your fingers.
The chicken carcass, meanwhile, goes in a pot with celery, carrot, onion and bay leaf, is covered with water, to make the stock to make your risotto.
Next week we will give you the recipes, but for now, the essential addresses where you can stock up are listed at the top of this column.