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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Heaven: I am a Nazi. Apparently.
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RuthW
liberal "peace first" hankie squeezer
# 13
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Laura:
Would you believe I don't own a microwave? We're very old-fashioned. I don't like the flavor of things cooked in the microwave.
Now I'm back your side again. [Laura rolls her eyes, but is otherwise patient. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif) ] If you can't cook and eat nothing but Cup o' Noodles and Box o' Dinner, a microwave must be a godsend, but if you can cook, I don't see the point of having a microwave.
Posts: 24453 | From: La La Land | Registered: Apr 2001
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Laura
General nuisance
# 10
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Posted
See how Ruth flip-flops!
People ask: how do you do leftovers??? Hint: people ate heated leftovers before there were microwaves.
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Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence. - Erich Fromm
Posts: 16883 | From: East Coast, USA | Registered: Apr 2001
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
Microwaves are great for cooking rice. They're also great for making sauces and gravies thickened with flour; it's much easier to make the finished product lump-free.
I also like salmon and fresh vegetables microwaved.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Rossweisse
High Church Valkyrie
# 2349
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Posted
Microwaves are good for leftovers (like heating up just ONE CUP of that delicious mulled wine) and popcorn. Scrubbing a popcorn popper is a truly tedious task. But I agree that meat heated in a microwwave tastes pretty poor.
I have come to appreciate my Japanese rice cooker, although the hoppin' john came out a little al dente for my taste on New Year's Day.
Rossweisse // "Zojirushi, I choose you! Sticky rice ball attack!"
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I'm not dead yet.
Posts: 15117 | From: Valhalla | Registered: Feb 2002
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Fool of a Took
chock full o' nuts
# 7412
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Posted
The newest Tooklet (on loan to me, new at age 12) looked up from his spaghetti long enough to ask why we never have pasta at our house. "Pasta" is apparantly only the orange-ish pre-packaged mac&cheese.
He had his teacher write a note in his homework book that I put too many carrots in his lunch.
His complaint to the children's aid worker was that we served vegetables (I leave you to imagine his facial expression) at every evening meal. Oh! The Humanity!
He's a pretty amazing kid, though. While his little heart thrills at the thought of pizza (real pizza, not that stuff we make at home with dough on the bottom and tomato sauce and pick-your-own toppings and cheese) he's pretty willing to eat something if everyone else is. And we're doubly blessed that Tooklet the Elder enjoys his veggies, and is prepared to set a good example.
"Too many carrots"! ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif) as if he could taste them for all the dip!
Posts: 1205 | From: Toronto-ish | Registered: Jun 2004
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by RuthW:
if you can cook, I don't see the point of having a microwave.
Microwaves have their place in the Great Scheme of Things. Firstly, for recipes where any ingredients require previous cooking - 'saute the onions' translates fine into putting them in the microwave with a little oil for 1 minute.
Secondly, for preparing stock - 40 or 50 minutes is the equivalent of several hours, and without worrying whether it is going to boil over/dry.
Thirdly, for all green or tender vegetables. Cabbage - dab of butter, no water, and no more than 3 minutes. Perfect.
I cannot understand why anyone wants a cookerful of saucepans all boiling away for 10 or 20 minutes to do veggies, when the microwave will do it all in 4 or 5, and no pots to wash.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Suze
Ship's Barmaid
# 5639
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Posted
I'm in the "no microwave" camp. I think if I'm cooking all the other parts of the meal, one more pot/steamer for veggies isn't going to make much difference in the scheme of things and I can time things to be ready together more easily.
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' You stay here and I'll go look for God, that won't be hard cos I know where he's not, and I will bring him back with me , then he'll listen , then he'll see' Richard Shindell
Posts: 2603 | From: where the angels sleep | Registered: Mar 2004
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I first bought the microwave when I was living in a shared flat and a new flatmate moved in. On her first day she proceeded to spend 4 hours in our kitchen cooking herself lunch. As said kitchen was just big enough to fit the appliances and a dwarf to operate them, had a cooker with only three rings on it, and counter space 1.5' long, sharing a kitchen wasn't really an option.
The microwave came in handy over the years that followed. I can cook, but as Firenze says you can use it for shortcuts: defrosting is a particularly good one. It's still useful now, when some evenings I get in at around 7pm after a busy day and time-consuming journey home and have neither the energy or enthusiasm for spending the best part of an hour cooking. I don't want dinner at 8 or later, I want it pretty much when I get in.
On a practical note, it saves on electricity bills as well as time. Instead of having the oven on warming up and then on for a while, or pans bubbling away for half an hour, I can do whatever it is in about 5 minutes.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Janine
The Endless Simmer
# 3337
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Posted
When the ice storms took our power out Christmas Day, I did some of the veggies for dinner in my microwave, having powered it and a lamp with a cord stretched across the street to my sister's house. I've a blog entry that tells about how weird that day was (see sig. link).
And before I got my hot & cold springwater dispenser, I used the mic for a quick cup of hot water for tea. A microwave is a Good Thing.
Of course nothing will ever replace an old-fashioned oven for some things. Such as threatening to truss up and bake unruly little children. They know perfectly well they'd never fit in the mic, so the threat loses a lot of its punch.
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I'm a Fundagelical Evangimentalist. What are you?
Take Me Home * My Heart * An hour with Rich Mullins *
Posts: 13788 | From: Below the Bible Belt | Registered: Sep 2002
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Gracious rebel
Rainbow warrior
# 3523
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Posted
I never thought I wanted a microwave (it was a surprise Christmas present about 15 years ago, and is still going strong!) - but now wouldn't be without it.
As well as reheating and defrosting, its also great for making sauces, custard, scrambled eggs, (superior to a saucepan for all these three - no lumps!!), sponge puddings, melting chocolate or butter, and making porridge.
One thing I don't use it for is jacket potatoes - to me they taste awful done in the microwave (I like the crunchy skins you get when cooked in a proper oven) so would rather wait an hour or so and cook a potato properly.
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Fancy a break beside the sea in Suffolk? Visit my website
Posts: 4413 | From: Suffolk UK | Registered: Nov 2002
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
True, I'd forgotten the Christmas Pudding In Moments.
It depends on the kind of cooking. It does moist cooking as well as/better - and certainly faster - than boiling or steaming.
But I would never use it as a substitute for dry cooking methods like roasting, frying or grilling. However, it can get foods ready for these processes - my roast potatoes are always microwaved first (in their skins if reds), then finished in pre-heated oil (with sea salt and rosemary).
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Rat
Ship's Rat
# 3373
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Posted
For some reason I am incapable of making rice, either in a pot or in the microwave, which is supposed to be easier. Rice and I just don't get on.
I didn't know you could make sauces in the microwave - I'll have to try that. I usually have to take a potato masher to mine, no matter how careful I am with the stirring and the adding of the milk a bit at a time. Yet other people seem to be able to just fling the ingredients in a pot and produce perfect, smooth sauce. Another mystery.
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It's a matter of food and available blood. If motherhood is sacred, put your money where your mouth is. Only then can you expect the coming down to the wrecked & shimmering earth of that miracle you sing about. [Margaret Atwood]
Posts: 5285 | From: A dour region for dour folk | Registered: Oct 2002
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
I agree about the roast potatoes. I've never been able to cook them successfully by the traditional method, but I also prepare them in the microwave and now, they work.
I also like jacket potatoes from the microwave - it only takes 10 minutes and I don't eat the skins anyway, so it's fine with me if they're soft. If you're cooking just for yourself it seems a bit excessive to heat up an entire oven for a single potato.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Laura
General nuisance
# 10
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Posted
I don't like microwaved "baked" potatoes either. I have to have that wonderful crackly skin you get with a proper hour (or even longer) baking. Plus, baked potatoes are no bother at all, as long as you throw them in the oven the moment you walk in from work; then you can go about the other parts of the dinner with one major piece out of the way.
Just remember to poke 'em a bit, or ... you know. Mount Potatubo!
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Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence. - Erich Fromm
Posts: 16883 | From: East Coast, USA | Registered: Apr 2001
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
When I make a beef stew in my slow cooker, I always microwave the carrots for a few minutes first to make sure they end up nice and tender.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Ronja
Shipmate
# 4693
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Posted
Inspired by this thread, I tried making risotto in the microwave... took half the time and tasted twice as nice as my usual attempts.
Perhaps this says more about the low quality of my "ordinary" risotto... ![[Paranoid]](graemlins/paranoid.gif)
Recipe found by googling.
Posts: 742 | From: Up North | Registered: Jul 2003
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Beethoven
Ship's deaf genius
# 114
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Posted
Small victory in the Beets household tonight! ![[Smile]](smile.gif) Opus 1, now 3 and a bit has not eaten broccoli for something over a year. I've not even put any on her plate for most of that time, even being sad enough to pick it out of the frozen mixed veg, since if she saw it on her plate she wouldn't eat anything else on the plate, no matter if it wasn't anywhere near. Tonight, we were all having some, so I offered her some from the serving bowl, expecting a 'no thank you', but got a 'yes please'. OK, victory no. 1. Next, getting her to try it... Took a small nibble, then another one. Decided she 'liked it a little bit but not a lot'. Didn't want to eat any more, but didn't push it, being stunned that we'd got that far!
My 2 major issues at mealtimes with Opus 1 are a) basic manners - you use your fork, not your fingers, you sit (relatively) still, you don't wave your fork wildly in the air, or stab it into other people, you don't take food off other people's plates etc. and b) as long as you say you've finished, that's fine, regardless of how much you've eaten. It remains my prerogative, as mummy, to decide whether you've eaten enough to get a pudding. Oh yes, and c) you must drink your drink all up. Without this last, she'd dehydrate herself.
Posts: 1309 | From: Here (and occasionally there) | Registered: May 2001
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Miffy
Ship's elephant
# 1438
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Posted
Ah yes, the Broccoli Battle. Happy days!
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"I don't feel like smiling." "You're English dear; fake it!" (Colin Firth "Easy Virtue")
Growing Greenpatches
Posts: 4739 | From: The Kitchen | Registered: Oct 2001
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Amazing Grace*
Shipmate
# 4754
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Posted
The microwave, besides being essential for reheating the Healthy Work Lunches, is an important part of my batterie de cuisine at home, and not just for heating up frozen dinners.
Besides leftovers (including the all important leftover coffee ...) I do a lot of veggies in it.
I also melt chocolate and scald cream for truffles in mine. I know I can do this on the stove, but this way the whole thing stays in my trusty quart Pyrex measure, the better to refrigerate (because fewer dishes).
I just saw a recipe for pecan brittle a la micro on LiveJournal. I'm going to try that one when I'm back to eating candy .
Charlotte
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.sig on vacation
Posts: 2594 | From: Sittin' by the dock of the [SF] bay | Registered: Jul 2003
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Gill H
Shipmate
# 68
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Posted
Never had a microwave, and never wanted one. Quickly heated Christmas Pudding is yucky. It took us hours to make it and hours to do the initial steaming, so why skip the final few hours and ruin the taste?
For the last few years we've eaten our Christmas meal at lunchtime, then steamed the pudding and eaten it about 5pm when our appetites have returned.
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*sigh* We can’t all be Alan Cresswell.
- Lyda Rose
Posts: 9313 | From: London | Registered: May 2001
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babybear
Bear faced and cheeky with it
# 34
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Posted
I use my microwave mostly for melting, re-heating or for cooking veggies.
One of the things that is best done in the microwave is porridge oats. Steaming hot porridge, made in the bowl it will be eaten from - fantastic. It tastes good, and there is no washing of horrible porridge pots.
For baked potatoes, with non-moist, but not crisp skins: cook in the microwave for 5-10 mins, so the potato is cooked, then pop in the oven for 30 mins to vastly improve the taste.
Posts: 13287 | From: Cottage of the 3 Bears (and The Gremlin) | Registered: May 2001
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
Can confirm the AS/picky eating link. As a kid, I couldn't cope with a different brand of beefburgers from the normal - they tasted different, which was Just Wrong, which causes anxiety. That's how a kid with AS' brain works.
School dinners were therefore pretty much inedible, because everything was done differently, and was therefore Just Wrong.
Did I get the impression further up there that some people consider cheese on top of shepherd's pie to be an optional extra? Heresy!
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Amorya
Ship's tame galoot
# 2652
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Gracious rebel:
OK we're a smallish family (2 adults and 2 teens), but I do find myself often having to cook different meals for different people. But worse than that, there are days like today when you are not even sure who will be here at mealtime, let alone what they prefer to eat!
My family traditionally refused to cook different meals. One meal was made - if you didn't like it, you sat at the table until it was over and then you could make yourself something more to your taste. (No opening the freezer for that, though - you couldn't go and fill up on junk food.)
That, I reckon, was fair. In fact, I wish they'd been slightly more forceful in making us eat stuff.
They weren't horrible about it. I hate mushrooms, as I've mentioned, so if the dish contained them then wherever possible I would get served a portion with fewer mushrooms. If I still got some, I'd just leave them on the side of my plate or donate them to another family member. They wouldn't usually cook something based entirely on mushrooms. However, I used to dislike onions - and since they formed a base of a lot of foods, I had to either sit there picking them out or just put up with them.
If/when I have kids, I definitely don't plan to make multiple meals for them. I reckon I'll go down roughly the same route as my parents - you sit with food in front of you until everyone has finished, then you can make yourself something out of the healthy stuff in the cupboards. I don't think I'll put up with faddiness though - if someone liked something multiple times in the past, then they can't just not fancy it one day and then go and make something else. But hey - I'm not a parent yet, so what do I know?
quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
However, it can get foods ready for these processes - my roast potatoes are always microwaved first (in their skins if reds), then finished in pre-heated oil (with sea salt and rosemary).
Heretic! Everyone knows the potatoes have to be parboiled first, then shaken about a bit to make the outsides slightly mushy, THEN put in the roasting pan!
On the subject of microwaves, I guess they have a place. I don't think I've used one for anything but ready meals and hot chocolate for ages - and the ready meals are when I'm eating on campus and don't want to cook or get an expensive take-away.
The microwave at our uni house broke last term. I never noticed until it was pointed out... although that may say more about the amount of time I spend cooking there
Amorya
Posts: 2383 | From: Coventry | Registered: Apr 2002
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Beethoven
Ship's deaf genius
# 114
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by babybear:
One of the things that is best done in the microwave is porridge oats. Steaming hot porridge, made in the bowl it will be eaten from - fantastic. It tastes good, and there is no washing of horrible porridge pots.
Except that I have the gift of always trying to do just a teensy bit too much, so it boils over and makes a lovely mess. Result: having to clean the microwave, plus the original bowl used as the porridge has to be decanted into a clean one prior to being given to Opus 1...
Posts: 1309 | From: Here (and occasionally there) | Registered: May 2001
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Red Star Bethlehem
Shipmate
# 8897
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Me:
quote:
Originally posted by Laura:
Gort: you are aware that there are children starving in Africa?
"You WILL eat up all your food, son. There are many poor kids in Africa who would be happy if they had only half as much as you do."
"So would I."
Posts: 179 | Registered: Dec 2004
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by babybear:
cook in the microwave for 5-10 mins, so the potato is cooked, then pop in the oven for 30 mins to vastly improve the taste.
If you are using the oven at all, why bother to use the microwave?
Permit me to quote from
my own previous rant on a related topic
quote:
They are baked in an oven and they are baked potatoes. And it has got to be a real oven. Every now and then some food illiterate claims to make great baked potatoes in a microwave oven. You can't bake anything in a microwave, they aren't baked potatoes they are badly-cooked boiled potatoes, overdone and dry in the middle and surrounded by a half-centimetre thick layer of dusty, grainy yellowing stuff that peels off the outside and won't absorb the butter. Even with the heater attachment they aren't remotely like baked potatoes. Maybe microradio-oveners (as a German might put it) don't actually like baked potatoes, and are quite glad to get away from the chore of eating all that crispy skin and the yellow chewy bits that form under it and the little air pockets that your butter and cheese soaks into.
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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ken
Ship's Roundhead
# 2460
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Rat:
For some reason I am incapable of making rice, either in a pot or in the microwave, which is supposed to be easier. Rice and I just don't get on.
Seriously, do it this way:
Measure the rice in a cup. It doesn't matter how big the cup is. One ordinary tea mug of dry rice is enough for two people as a side dish.
For each cup of rice you want 2 cups of water. (or just a little less - roughtly speaking the more you paid for the rice the less water it wants - but the amount isn't exactly critical)
Put rice and water together cold in a pan (with a little butter and salt if you want. Or even chopped onion, but that's getting posh)
Bring it to the boil, stirring occasionally to stop it sticking. Use a wooden spoon or spatula.
When it is boiling, turn it down to very low simmer, give one last stir, put a lid on the pot (the tighter the better) and resist all temptation to look at it for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, take it off the heat, remove the lid, stir again, fluff it up with the spoon (i.e turn it over so rice from the bottom of the pan is exposed to the air & the grains have a chance to separate) and replace the lid. Leave it on the side while you get on with something else. 5 minutes minimum, 10 minutes is better. It can last 15 minutes withoug cooling too much unless youare cooking outdoors in the arctic. Cooked rice is a very good insulator!
It will sit there absorbing any excess water. This time gap is actually very useful because you can get on with preparing the rest of the meal. At the end, fluff it up with the spoon again.
THIS WILL WORK.
REALLY
IT IS VERY EASY.
IT IS EASIER THAN COOKING PASTA OR BOILED POTATOES.
To recap:
- 2:1 water:rice (or a little less water)
- bring to boil from cold
- stir
- simmer 5 mins with lid on tight
- stir
- leave 10 mins with lid on tight
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Ken
L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.
Posts: 39579 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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babybear
Bear faced and cheeky with it
# 34
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by ken:
If you are using the oven at all, why bother to use the microwave?
Time! It cuts 50 mins off the cooking time.
Coming in from work and having to wait 1h 30 for dinner is a bit much, but 35-40 mins is far more realistic.
At 40 mins you can start off dinner, check email, deal with the day's post, sort out a load of laundry, make a cup of tea, then make a nice filling for the potato.
Posts: 13287 | From: Cottage of the 3 Bears (and The Gremlin) | Registered: May 2001
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Laura
General nuisance
# 10
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Posted
I guess that's why we mostly have baked potatoes on weekends -- I throw them in circa five o'clock, then get about the other meal bits. I agree with ken about the inferior flavor and texture of a microradiowaved potato to the mmmmmmmmmm crusty loveliness of a properly baked potato, but this is, I realize, a matter of taste.
But as to other things, I find there are very few things a microwave speeds up significantly. And whenever I have in the past used one for something sensible, like defrosting meat a bit, it screws it up by actually cooking a portion of the meat. So when we still had a microwave, I stopped using it even for that. Now I just pull meat from the freezer the night before and toss it in the fridge and by dinner the next day, it's ready to cook.
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Love is the only sane and satisfactory answer to the problem of human existence. - Erich Fromm
Posts: 16883 | From: East Coast, USA | Registered: Apr 2001
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