Batch cooking for real family life

Cook properly once. Eat well all week.

A practical batch-cooking system from a stay-at-home dad in France: Asian-inspired meals, freezer-friendly methods, and reheating upgrades that make dinner easier without making it boring.

Start with the recipes See the system

Why this exists

This is not fantasy cooking. This is household survival cooking.

After leaving work to join my wife and toddler in France, I became the main household caretaker. The biggest recurring job was obvious: food.

I still wanted proper meals. I just didn’t want every dinner to become a full cooking session. So the system became simple: cook in bulk, portion properly, freeze, defrost, reheat, and add the right fresh extras at the end.

The Batch & Wok method

Build a freezer that actually helps you.

1. Cook the base properly

Brown the meat, use rendered fat, cook the aromatics, and build flavour before anything gets packed away.

2. Portion with sauce

Meals freeze and reheat better when they have enough gravy, braising liquid, or curry base to protect texture and carry flavour.

3. Finish fresh

Rice, eggs, greens, kimchi, pickles, chilli oil, cabbage, or potatoes can be added later so leftovers don’t feel dead.

The real trick

Recipes that feed into each other.

Lu rou fan → soy eggs, greens, pickles, Lao Gan Ma
Japanese curry → kimchi, cabbage, fresh potatoes
Homemade kimchi → fried rice, jjigae, quick sides
Bulk protein prep → fried rice without starting from zero

Recipe collection

Core batch recipes

Lu rou fan braised pork rice bowl 🥢

Lu Rou Fan

Braised pork rice built as a freezer-friendly base: pork belly and neck, shallots, garlic, ginger, soy, Shaoxing wine, and a rich cohesive sauce.

  • ~3kg pork batch
  • Slow cook low for ~5 hours
  • Serve with rice, greens, soy eggs, or pickled vegetables
Read recipe → Japanese pork curry rice 🍛

Japanese Pork Curry

A better curry-block method: cook the pork properly first, then build the curry around it for better texture and control.

  • Pork neck recommended
  • Slow cook base for ~8–10 hours
  • Add potatoes fresh during reheating
Read recipe → Ayam kecap sweet soy chicken 🍗

Ayam Kecap

Indonesian sweet soy chicken adapted for bulk cooking: marinate, roast, build sauce separately, then freeze portions in gravy.

  • ~5kg chicken batch
  • Kecap manis, shallots, garlic, ginger, tomato
  • Rice, fried egg, and greens to serve
Read recipe →

Upgrades and fast meals

Soy marinated eggs 🥚

Soy Eggs

The upgrade that makes braised dishes feel complete. Boil, chill properly, peel gently, then soak in soy marinade.

Read recipe → Homemade napa cabbage kimchi 🥬

Kimchi

Spicy, savoury homemade kimchi — less aggressively sour than store-bought and useful across multiple meals.

Read recipe → Kimchi fried rice with egg 🍳

Kimchi Fried Rice

Fast, simple, and built around one important rule: cook the kimchi first so the flavour deepens.

Read recipe → Family fried rice with vegetables 🍚

Real-Life Fried Rice

Day-old rice, frozen pre-cooked protein, eggs, vegetables, soy, oyster sauce, pepper, and MSG. Built for speed.

Read recipe →

Positioning

Batch & Wok is about making good food repeatable.

The site should feel practical, honest, and lived-in. Not glossy influencer cooking. Not chef theatre. More like: here is the system I built because family life demanded it, and here is how you can steal it.

Next step: turn each recipe into a full page with ingredients, method, storage, reheating notes, and “what to add when serving”.