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May 31, 2005 Here is my second attempt at “good” cooking advice, the first is about how to fix a super quick meal on a budget, more or less, and can be found here. One note about that – I've gotten some email about my comment regarding MSG. Folks, it was a joke; when I called MSG “our friend”, I put a smilie face behind it to denote sarcasm... You can do just about anything in your microwave. Why? Maybe your stove is broken, maybe your gas is cut, maybe you are cooking a big meal and all of your burners are in use – there are many reasons. I lived in a small apartment during my college days and had just a cheap plug in burner sitting on my counter for a “stove” - I learned many of these tricks then. Convenience is another reason; take rice for example – the first tip. Rice is wonderful: it's cheap, healthy, but not fast, and not always easy. Cooking rice on the stove means really learning your burners and their oddities. You need to simmer the stuff for 20 minutes or so, with enough heat to cook it, but not so much that it burns. I've never had a stove good enough to allow me to make rice in a consistent, predictable way. The bottom is dry, the top is still wet, it boils over, has to be adjusted often, and so on. Most bleached white rice and friends use a two to one ratio of water to rice, and using the the microwave is no different. First we must boil the water. Put the water into a safe container, cover, and nuke. My microwave brings two cups of winter-cold tap water to a rolling boil in eight minutes (enough for one cup of rice); four cups takes twelve minutes. Once boiling, add the rice, give a quick stir, cover, and nuke at 50% power for 20 minutes. No, it's not faster – as we learned from, “My Cousin Vinny” about grits, we can't make non-instant food instant. The advantage is that you get perfect rice every time – the rice at the bottom is as done as the rice on top. And best of all, no worries about leaking on the stove or a smoky kitchen if you forget about the meal or don't hear the timer go off. These days I have a better kitchen, but I still always make rice this way. Who not use instant rice? Well, we use that stuff sometimes, but large sacks of real rice are the absolute cheapest way to get an unlimited supply of side dishes. Rice can replace any potato or pasta dish – we put spaghetti sauce on rice, for example, and use cooled rice in tuna salad, and sometimes, we add jelly, butter and/or sugar/brown sugar and use it as an oatmeal-like breakfast replacement (good when you run out of cereal and bread at the same time). It also makes great home-made burrito filler, and goes with beans of all kind. The trick is to cook it until it's pasta-soft, which is what the above does. You can cook meat in your microwave as well. Sometimes, we buy chicken in bulk, and we often cook it all up at the same time. I cook some on the stove, and some in the microwave. I first wash it, take the skin off, and then season. If you like, you can make a fake skin by using crumpled non-sweetened corn flakes and stick to the chicken with egg (or just use breadcrumbs). Cover and simply cook on high until done. You can also use this technique to half-cook the chicken and get it ready for the grill. Browning ground beef/turkey is perfect in the microwave! Better use a non-plastic bowl - the grease can get much hotter than boiling water which steams away – I've melted microwave “safe” plastic bowls this way. Just toss the ground meat, even frozen, into a container and nuke on high. This is easier than doing the same on the stove, especially if you are multitasking. If it's already defrosted, crumple it into the container, if not, you will need to break it apart once or twice as it's cooking. Hamburgers work great in the microwave too. Either frozen patties or homemade concoctions, simply lay them on a plate – usually about four will fit; cover with a damp paper towel. The paper towel helps to keep the splatter down, and the dampness prevents it from catching on fire and weighs it down so it stays on the burgers. Normally, I take the plate out half-way through to check the burgers and dump the grease. Five to ten minutes usually works, even right from the freezer. There is no turning required, just nuke for five minutes and leave the room and come back and check when you hear the beep. When the first batch is done, take that plate out and top with cheese while you cook the second batch. They are more than hot enough to melt any kind of cheese. In my last food article, I mentioned the wonders of Ramen “noodles”. While Cup-A-Soups, which are similar to Ramen noodles, come with microwave instructions, Ramen noodles as a starch side dish do not, not in the energy and seasoning saving way I described. Take a deep, safe, non-plastic bowl and add one package with one cup of water and nuke for five minutes. When done, add half a packet of seasoning mix. This makes a perfect, quick, pleasant little starch side-dish or snack. The advantage is that you have no boiling pot of water to watch or prevent from flowing over, etc. And, with this method, you can eat out of the same container, saving dishes. Bacon works well too. Lay the strips on a plate and just nuke them; put folds into the stripes to make them shorter, this allows you to cram more per plate. Dump the grease in between it you need too, and don't use a plastic plate. Lay them on paper towels when they come out. Bacon has so much fat, that it really will fry in the grease that builds up around the strips. This is the cleanest and fastest way to make super crispy bacon perfect for putting in salad. I don't eat pork, but this works just as well with beef bacon or turkey bacon. Eggs are easy in the microwave – you don't need a special contraption either. Crack some eggs into a safe dish and season, scramble and nuke two minutes. Take it out, stir, and do it again until done. These are not as good as on the stove, but they are healthier since you don't need grease. This is kid tested – make sure to season it a bit, and they will eat it. Fresh veggies work perfectly in the microwave – just add a bit of water and seasoning, cover, and nuke until tender. They keep more flavor than boiling, and are healthier than frying when cooked this way. Potatoes are easy too – wash and cut (do not remove the skin) in half (or thirds if really thick), put on a plate and season. Nuke until soft - a few minutes depending on how many you have. When they come out, you can top them with cheese or butter, etc., or mash them and make a quick and healthy mashed potato dish. You can bake in the microwave too. Most cake mixes work just fine, even if they don't have microwave instructions. Use a square-ish, deep, microwave safe non-plastic dish. Line the inside with paper towel (this is the reason for the square dish, it makes this easier), make sure it hangs out a bit – you want the entire container to be covered in the paper. Mix per the directions. Pour into the container and simply nuke on high. Use a toothpick to check it – if the toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle, then it's done. The cake on the outside will tend to be dryer – if this becomes a real problem, then take it out when the middle is still a touch sticky and let it sit to finish cooking. Take it out, turn it upside down onto a plate, and peel the paper off. Not much sticks to the paper, and you can fix any “damage” with frosting. I've made birthday cakes, corn bread and muffin loafs (muffin mix, just not in muffin cups) this way in the microwave. Greasing the container doesn't work because a microwave doesn't heat from the out-side in, like an oven. Experiment – yeah, I've had a few potatoes come out that are as light and black as charcoal, but that's all part of the fun. Most microwave-ready food that you buy is either pre-processed or more expensive due to special packaging – ordinary food works just fine. Microwaves are less temperamental than ovens – once you figure out the right times, you can reproduce a dish almost perfectly – it's the closest most of us have to the replicators from Star Trek. ------------ About the author Frederick Smith: I enjoy writing about the positive virtues of humanism - humanists are the good guys. Email: dahlek65@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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