Top Five Unusual Microwave Food Hacks

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Gotta Install Microwave Ovensphoto by Tahir Hashmi

So we all know that a microwave is awesome for reheating leftovers – and that’s what most microwaves are mostly used for. There are other popular hacks: cooking bacon or scrambled eggs, melting chocolate (I couldn’t live without that one!) and, of course, popping corn (don’t believe the marketing types who want to sell you a special bag).

On Wednesday night I was chatting to Peter Godfrey about using the microwave and in my research I came up with some much less well known uses.

I haven’t tried any of these out yet but as I do I’ll link from this page to the results of my experiments.

Drying fresh herbs

Pop the leaves between sheets of kitchen towel and microwave on high for a minute. If they’re not yet dry, repeat in 20-30 second bursts.

Homemade chips/crisps
Finely slice the potato (use a mandolin if you have one) and arrange on a microwave safe plate. Microwave for around 5 minutes – but keep an eye on them because this really depends on how thickly (or thinly!) they’re cut.

Again – using a piece of kitchen towel will help absorb the moisture.

Roasting garlic
Cut the top off a head of garlic, place in a deep microwave safe dish, drizzle with a little oil and add a couple of tablespoons of water to the dish. Cover (if using cling film ensure it’s microwave safe!) and microwave on mid power for 7-8 minutes.

A lot easier than the best part of an hour in the oven!

Proving bread dough
Place your dough in the microwave, with a cup of water (not in the same container, obviously!), and microwave on mid heat for 3 minutes. Rest for 3 minutes. Microwave for another 3 minutes and then cover and rest for 5-10 minutes.

If this really works (and I will definitely verify this one for you!) it will be a massive boon during the cold weather!

Cooking pappadums
Cooking pappadums in hot oil on the stove is hard, dirty work. And even though in theory it’s not too unhealthy (the oil is so hot it’s not absorbed) I’m not convinced.

You can microwave pappadums easily. Place a pappadum on a piece of kitchen towel and zap on high. You need to keep an eye on this and turn the pappadum over. The time required varies with size and thickness.

If you fancy a bit of grease, before microwaving brush the pappadum, on both sides, with a little oil or melted ghee.

So that’s my pick of the microwave hacks. Have you tried any of these? Or do you have a favourite that I’ve missed out?

Lemon Chicken Recipe

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photo

Sorry for the awful photo!  That’s what happens when you’re super hungry …

This is an absurdly easy (and quick to put together) roast chicken dinner recipe that was inspired by two recipes I found on The Good Food Channel’s website. The first, Mark Sargent’s lemon and herb roast chicken and the other, Rachel Allen’s leek and fennel roast chicken.

Naturally, my version of things doesn’t follow the script too closely and I wonder if I should really call it pot roast chicken … but no matter.

Preheat your oven to 200°C fan. In a roasting dish, which has a lid (this is quite important!), splosh a little light olive oil and arrange some chicken portions. I got the butcher to joint a chicken for us (by far the easiest way to buy chicken on the bone) and, for the two of us, I used the 2 drumsticks and the 2 thigh portions. You could buy marylands and halve them yourself.

Add 4 halved small new potatoes, 1 leek, cut into 1cm segments, 1 lemon or lime cut into quarters (we have an excess of limes to use thanks to my parents’ lime tree!) and a few sprigs of fresh thyme.

Sprinkle a little extra olive oil on top, cover with the lid (or tin foil) and place in the hot oven.

After about 20 minutes, give the meat and vegetables a bit of a poke and return to the oven for another 10 or so minutes, until the potatoes and chicken are cooked (that is, until you stick a knife into the thickest part of a chicken joint and the juices run clear – no blood!). The amount of time you actually need will depend on the size of the chicken joints, how tightly packed everything is in your roasting dish and, of course, how hot your oven actually is.

When the chicken is cooked, remove the lime quarters and thyme sprigs and return to the oven without the lid to crisp up the skin on the chicken. If you are not also trying to warm plates, you could pop things under the grill for a few moments.

Do try not to use too much olive oil because you want to be able to use the pan juices as an immediate gravy (rather than an oil slick!).

Serve on hot plates, with steamed vegetables.

No effort at all!

Chocolate Pudding Recipe

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Jamie Oliver's Chocolate Puddings

I was looking around for a chocolate pudding recipe and when I found this one by Jamie Oliver I thought I’d give it a go, because it has the bonus of being gluten free. As you may know, despite living a very gluten filled life myself, I’m always on the look out for gluten free recipes, because I have a few relatives who are either coeliac or avoid gluten.

This recipe has also been posted relatively recently over at Just as Delish. If you’re interested in gluten free recipes, or recipes with a healthy slant, check it out.

Jamie’s recipe, originally featured in Jamie’s Kitchen, serves 6. As we were just two (this was originally going to be made for Andy’s birthday, but it took me a while to get organised) I halved things, made three puddings and fed one to my mum for morning tea.

Begin by melting 60g of dark chocolate with 25mL (5 tsp) of strong black coffee (espresso, if you’re in my household!). I did this as usual in the microwave and a burst at 30 seconds on high was long enough to cause the chocolate to seize. As this is a tiny amount of chocolate, with liquid, be very careful if you’re using the microwave. Otherwise, just chop up the chocolate and pour over the piping hot coffee. Pour the mix into small ice cube trays and freeze.

I used 4″ ramekin dishes as my moulds. Jamie tells you to use 3″ pastry rings or dariole moulds. This makes me pretty sceptical about his quantities for this recipe because even though I halved things and was using larger moulds, I still had enough mixture left over to make a generous sized ‘muffin’ of pudding (the fourth ramekin having been broken some time ago!). So, whether you’re halving or making a full batch, make sure you have a couple of extra moulds in reserve!

Butter the moulds well and refrigerate.

Preheat the oven to 190°C (conventional oven, not fan).

To make the sponge, melt 160g of chocolate with 60g of butter (unsalted). When this mixture has cooled, add to it 3 egg yolks, 50g of ground almonds and 50g of rice flour*.

Whisk the 3 egg whites until soft peaks form and then add 100g of caster sugar and beat until stiff. Note – just because you may have used the KitchenAid while the baby is asleep previously, there is a massive difference between making some brownies using the flat beater and vigorously whisking egg whites on full speed …

Fold the egg whites into the chocolate mix and ensure everything is well combined.

Spoon some mixture into a mould, top with a frozen square of chocolate and coffee, and then cover with more mixture.

Bake for 18-20 minutes (if you’re using a larger mould, like me, you may want to extend that by 5 minutes or so). The puddings will puff up a little while baking and should be reasonably firm.

When done, remove from moulds while hot and serve immediately. We served with cream, because, well, if you’re doing pudding, you may as well do it properly.

While these puddings were nice they were … just that. I thought it was a lot of effort to go to for a dish that didn’t really stand out. I disliked the ‘just in time’ nature of the dish – if you were entertaining you’d spend the pause between dinner and dessert in the kitchen making these as there’s so little you can do in advance. Of course, unmoulding anything is always fraught with danger (and, in this case – massive fail – but I think my puddings were slightly underdone) but there’s no harm in serving this dish unmoulded. It looks fine in the ramekin.

There are other Jamie Oliver recipes I return to time and time again (his spinach and feta pie, and also his brilliant cheesecake recipe, which I haven’t yet written about). But this will not be one of them.

* As mentioned once or twice in other places, rice flour is readily available in Australian supermarkets. Just make sure you buy rice flour and NOT ground rice! Also, if you are cooking for people who have a medical issue with gluten, always check that any products like this are gluten free (100% white rice). You’d be surprised at the places where gluten crops up.