Alll-purpose Cooking Elixir: seven quick family meals from one easy mixture

It's tedious crushing garlic, chopping herbs and squeezing lemons every night, when you're tired and grumpy, right? I have a solution: make a big quantity of this all-purpose flavouring elixir at the beginning of the week, put it in a jar in the fridge and use it to add zip, zing and ka-pow to your next seven meals. Over the next seven days, I'll be posting simple, tasty family-meal recipes that use The Elixir.

The Elixir, admittedly, contains a lot of garlic, but please don't be put off by this. The garlic's pungency will fade to almost nothing when you add it to a hot dish. Please don't use pre-crushed or bottled garlic, which has a horrible oxidised tasted. Buy your own fat, firm cloves, and peel and crush them yourself.

The Elixir

5 -7 cloves of fresh garlic, finely crushed
1 tsp salt
1 cup (250 ml) freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice
1 cup (250 ml) good olive oil
1 cup (250 ml) sunflower oil (or other flavourless oil)
1 tablespoon (15 ml) white or red wine vinegar (avoid the Balsamic!)
2 tsp (10 ml) Dijon Mustard
3 tsp (15 ml) good soy sauce (Kikkoman brand is the best)
1 tsp (5 ml) runny honey, or 1 tsp sugar
4 teaspoons (20 ml) tahina (a sesame-seed paste, available at health shops and most Spars)
2 tsp (10 ml) good-quality dried herbs (or a handful, finely chopped, of parsley, thyme and oreganum)
milled black pepper

Put all the ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake well to combine. Open lid, taste, and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Store in the fridge. Shake well before using.

Makes about 800 ml.

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