Microwave cooking (not reheating)

[Fire Me Boy!]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/di...ur-coffee.html

Creating a Dish, Not Just Reheating One

ALLOW me to introduce you to your microwave. I met mine just the other week.

This mysterious, stigmatized box has acquired a reputation as a mere popcorn popper and leftover heater-upper. But it can do so much more. It can fry. It can dry. It can produce a perfectly steamed whole bass with ginger and scallions, topped with fried parsley. Just give it four minutes.

Game-changing new uses like that were brought to my attention with the release of “Modernist Cuisine at Home,” a home-cook-friendly iteration of “Modernist Cuisine,” the six-volume megabook on the science of contemporary cooking that routinely calls for tools like a centrifuge. The “At Home” recipes can still be quite demanding (a 45-minute scrambled egg, a 29-hour roast chicken), but when I got to the chapter on the microwave, my world flipped on its axis.

“The microwave tends to be an underappreciated thing in the kitchen,” the author Nathan Myhrvold told me over the phone. “It’s overused for one set of tasks and underused for another.”

Microwave cooking — not reheating, but cooking — can be particularly healthful, something to keep in mind in the wake of the holiday cookie overload. Steaming involves no added fat, and frying requires just a swipe of oil.

Read the rest: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/09/di...l?pagewanted=2

[Fire Me Boy!]

I'll be flipping ahead in Modernist Cuisine at Home tonight.

[listopencil]

My microwave has a heating element built into the top of it it. Kind of cool. I can bake and microwave food at the same time, or choose either at any time.

[scott free]

Originally Posted by listopencil

My microwave has a heating element built into the top of it it. Kind of cool. I can bake and microwave food at the same time, or choose either at any time.

Same here, its a pretty nifty little gadget from Emerson.

[listopencil]

Originally Posted by scott free

Same here, its a pretty nifty little gadget from Emerson.

Mine is Emerson also. I don't know if it's unique to the company, but it was priced nicely and works well.

[Fire Me Boy!]

The NYTimes article is pretty interesting... I rarely use my microwave, but I'll have to try some of this stuff. Very interested to the read the chapter in Modernist.

[Graystoke]

meh..I think my Mom was the first woman in the Nation to get a microwave. She never cooked on the stove again...just a terrible terrible cook.
So just based on that I don't think I could cook with a microwave

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by Graystoke

meh..I think my Mom was the first woman in the Nation to get a microwave. She never cooked on the stove again...just a terrible terrible cook.
So just based on that I don't think I could cook with a microwave

It's about doing the right kind of things with it, not just nuking the shit out of everything. I'm interested to try.

[mlyonsd]

Microwave is the only way I cook bacon now.

[tooge]

Originally Posted by mlyonsd

Microwave is the only way I cook bacon now.

I use it for that as well, but prefer the oven if I have the time

[tooge]

I think it's cool when you leave a spoon in a bowl of soup you're warming up

[bevischief]

I used to do a lot growing up but prefer the stove or grill.

[Fish]

When boiling your ribs is just too much work........

[FAX]

I'm not buying this idea. At all. Nope. Not buying it.

How many Michelin Star meals have been cooked in a microwave, I ask you? None, I'd wager.

Food needs fire. Real fire. Not some sort of bizarre, magical device that blasts invisible rays inside a box in order to agitate the cellular structure of a foodstuff.

As Mr. Iowanian would say, "If you want to excite a molecule, play with your pecker."

FAX

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by FAX

I'm not buying this idea. At all. Nope. Not buying it.

How many Michelin Star meals have been cooked in a microwave, I ask you? None, I'd wager.

Food needs fire. Real fire. Not some sort of bizarre, magical device that blasts invisible rays inside a box in order to agitate the cellular structure of a foodstuff.

As Mr. Iowanian would say, "If you want to excite a molecule, play with your pecker."

FAX

I'd wager you might be surprised. Certainly not 100 percent of the meal, but components - wouldn't surprise me at all, depending on the chef.

Wylie Dufresne is a pretty well-known chef.

"Wylie Dufresne has four commercial microwaves at his restaurant, WD-50, that he has used for various applications, including cooking foie gras (“beautiful results in terms of texture”) and vegetables. He likes the machine’s “hands-free element” and its consistency."