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I get thousands of letters from viewers of my television show and questions from
my cooking classes and the most common misconception about microwave cooking is
that somehow the machine does the cooking. This just isn't so. You do the
cooking. You stir and taste and adjust and improvise and do all the other
things that you do in conventional cooking. See, you are the cook and the
microwave oven is just a machine that heats the ingredients. It does so with
two important benefits. First, the mess of cooking is much less and the final
result is realized much sooner than when using conventional methods or as I
refer to it primitive cooking methods. Now what I want you to learn in the next
hour is to overcome any fears that you may have about microwave cooking that are
based on the technology of it or learning how to use it. After all, it's
just a tool like all the other tools in your kitchen and you are the cook.
You see all these beautiful things on this table? Well, I'm going to show you what
you have to learn to prepare dishes like this. Now you might think that you
can't but oh yes you can and it's so simple and here's what I'm going to show
you. I'll explain first about cooking in general and then micro energy in
particular. Then I'm going to show you some experiments that you can try
yourself to not only get to how the oven works but why it works that way and then
there are my 11 important tips that Eric needs to know to give you a head start
in learning to cook microwave. I'll also tell you something about the best
accessories to have for microwave cooking. Things like my instant
thermometer for instance or the indispensable ring pan and then we get
to the fun part, the thing I like to do best of all and that's cook. First I'll
show you how to convert your favorite recipe to microwave cooking and then
we'll do some rest from scratch so that you can see for yourself how easy it can
be. But you know I hope you really like to cook because you don't see that if
you're a good cook the microwave will make you an even better one but I'm
sorry to say that if you're a lousy cook the microwave will just make you a
faster lousy cook. Well let's get down to business. Look at that intimidating machine on
the counter. Now you may find it hard to believe that as your skill lenses you're
going to begin to put away your primitive cooking devices and only use
them. The oven is so efficient and clean and versatile and quick you wonder what
took so long to learn how to use. To build up your confidence remember these
two little ideas. First read your manual carefully then read it again. Go back and
learn one function at a time like how to set the timer or the power setting and
when you've mastered that learn how to use memory or the probe. Do it one at a
time or you might get discouraged or confused. The second idea is this, rely at
first on proof recipe the kind that are almost impossible to mess up. If you do
these two things and how to use the features of your oven one at a time and
start with full proof recipes you'll be ready for the reassignment of microwave cooking.
Now what is cooking? Actually it's nothing more than the application of heat to
food. The heat is the food fibers to break down thereby tenderizing the food
and it also causes fats and sugars to caramelize which have and enhances the
appearance of the food and when you've added enough heat it also sterilizes the
food by killing the bacteria. Now heating is done in three ways. One way is by
conduction like when you cook something in a pan of your stove. The heat from the
stove is transferred to the pan and in turn is transferred to the food all by
direct contact. The surface molecules of the food are heated and they transfer
the heat to the molecules deeper inside of the food so gradually the heat
penetrates in the center of the food. Now we all know what happens if you aren't
careful about how the way you cook this way. The food can be burned on the outside
if it's cooked too fast before the inside is cooked. Now the second way heat
is applied to food is through convection which involves the movement of heat
carrying air molecules within a given area. Your home furnaces use uses
convection by heating air and then pushing it throughout the house.
Convection oven use technique also as does your conventional oven. The heat is
applied to the surface of the food in the case of a roast and then is conducted to
the interior of the food. In the case of casserole like this you have two forms
of heating. First the hot air molecule heat the dish. The dish in her in turn
heats the food by conducting the energy to the inside. The third form of cooking
is by radiation. Now in this case energy radiates from a source the rays of the sun
and when you broil or barbecue you're also cooking by radiation. Also microwave
cooking uses radiation. Energy is imposed directly on food causing the molecules
to vibrate which generates heat from friction. Now microwave is faster because it
penetrates deeper into the food but the interior of the food is heated by conduction just as in
these other forms of cooking. Microwave energy is a common form of radiation but
don't panic it isn't like nuclear radiation. There are basically two kinds
of radiation ion and non ionizing. Non ionizing radiation doesn't break up
atoms and molecules like x-rays and nuclear energy do. Now non ion radiation
includes things like radio waves, infrared waves, light waves and of course
microwaves. They don't remain in the material to which they've been applied. In
addition to the use in cooking microwaves are used to conduct telephone calls in
our telephone systems carrying long-distance phone calls. In effect
microwaves are very short radio waves and in the microwave oven they're
produced by transmitter a magnetron tube and what this does it broadcasts them
directly into the cavity of the oven. When they connect with water molecules or
sugar or follicles like in food they cause these molecules to vibrate. The
vibration causes friction which in turn causes heat which out of the radio wave
ends up as heat in food. Now when you turn off the powers in your microwave
oven the energy travels so fast that they are gone instantly. It's like when you
walk into a room and turn off the light there's no more light in room. The three
properties of microwaves in micro cooking are they create food heat in
anything that contains water, sugar or fat. They reflect off metal they're
transmitted through anything else that doesn't contain water or metal. Now since
a microwave oven is nothing more than a metal box and since mice can't go through
metal the energy is confined within that area. Now conversely if you tried to cook
in a metal pot in your microwave since they cannot go through the metal you
couldn't cook the food inside. But that's not true of little bits of metal and on
my TV series which is called microwaves are for cooking I intentionally leave a
metal spoon or a fork in a dish and somebody always says hey you can't do
that but that relatively all amount of metal just reflects the energy off of it
which bounces around the interior until it finds a water sugar or fat molecule
and later on I'll show you how metal can help things even better. We're gonna do
some experiments next but first I want to impress upon you microwave oven safety.
If these things weren't safe first of all they could sell them but people still
seem to be concerned about it until they're told that this is perhaps the
safest one in your kitchen and here's why. If you could put your hand inside of
the oven it heated up you heat up a roast but you can't do that because when
you open the door these interlock switches disconnect the circuits and you
cannot turn on it turns off automatically and it's devoid of any
energy inside. Now if you're also concerned about being able to see them
in there and say hey I can see in there that means that microwave energy can get
out it's not true. These little tiny holes here are smaller than the diameter
of a microwave. What about it is about as big as my little finger or the diameter
of this wooden spatula handle. Now you can see in because light can go in and
out of these holes but the energy cannot get out. Now plastic ceramic and other
preferred cookware don't have water or fat molecules so they don't get hot from
microwave energy. In fact I have some here and I can show you what happens with
various materials in microwave. Here's a plastic dish made specifically
microwave cooking. Energy goes right this through this to the food inside no
effect whatsoever. If I place this in oven empty you can put it on for five
minutes take it out it will not be hot whatsoever because the energy is not
attracted to anything in the material. Then a ceramic pot the same thing is
true there is nothing in here that absorbs a microwave energy so the energy
goes right through to the food and it heats inside. Be careful with some dishes
like sammock and glass because when the food gets hot it in turn heats up the
dish. This is conduction of heat the other way instead of from the dish to
the food it's from the food dish and you could even use wooden utensils but watch
out because sometimes the glue in here and also from walking the wood absorbs
some moisture and it can be hot. Now finally the thing is so safe because
there's no open flame or heating element so you can't burn yourself. Fire of
danger of fire is virtually non-existent. We'll come back with some experiments
that will help you understand microwave ovens and microwave cooking even more.
It'll take you some time to get used to doing things by microwave but I've
gathered a few experiments that you can do on your own. In fact you might want to
try these right along with me now. They demonstrate how microwave energy
affects different materials. I'm going to play different materials in this oven.
First of all a can of beans, a plastic cup, another plastic cup with a little
bit of water, a potato, a made-for-microwave dish, a ceramic dish, a wooden spoon, and a
cloth towel. Turn the oven on for a short period of time and you'll see what
happens to those materials. Now if you recall microwave energy affects water
molecules by causing it to vibrate thus causing friction and thus causing heat.
It is transmitted through any material that does not have water or fat or sugar
and it reflects off of metal. By feeling these various materials you can see what
has happened. The towel is a little bit warm. There's no water in this but the
humidity in the air has given it some moisture so it gets warm. The spoon
likewise has been washed and it has water content. Also the moisture in the
air is here so it gets hot. The ceramic dish has no water whatsoever so it's as cool as
when I put it in. The same is true of the plastic dish. Very cool. The glasses
without anything in it is as cool as when I put it into the oven. The other glass
that has the water in it, you can see the water is hot as is the bottom of up. And
the potato which is loaded with water as are most foods is quite warm. And last
the can of beans, a metal can which reflects the energy, is just as cold as
put it in. Now when you're doing things in your microwave oven you can use the
principle of leaving metal in there. For example if I cook this sauce and leave
the spoon right in there, thing is going to happen to that spoon but it
reflects the energy to the other moisture in there. If I leave it in there
too long food is going to get hot and in turn conduct that heat up through the
spoon. The same is true if you leave a spoon pot on top of your range. The water
gets hot and conducts the heat up the stem of the spoon. The spoon in the
microwave does not get hot from microwave energy. It gets hot from the
thing that is heated with the water molecules conducting that heat up the
spoon. Now here's an experiment that is very important if you're thinking about
using different kinds of crockery or different materials in your microwave
oven that are sure of the content. Take the dish along with a little cup of water,
place in your microwave oven, put it on for one minute and when you take them out
water in this cup should be hot. The dish should be cool. If this dish is hot it's
absorbing energy and it may crack and it may break so don't use it for microwave
cooking. There's one thing in microwave cooking that excites people a great deal
and it's what we call arcing. Now arcing occurs when you have metal with little
tiny gaps in it and this converts the radio energy, the microwave radio energy
into heat and light and produces a spark and I can show that to you by taking a
bunch of aluminum foil and crumpling it up so that I leave little gaps all
throughout the surface of the aluminum foil. When I place this in the oven and
turn it on for a short period of time and see an arc. Now that isn't going to
hurt anything as far as the metal is concerned but because it's creating heat
if there's anything else in there that is flammable it could catch on fire and
that would not be good for your oven. A prime example of that is a loaf of bread
with a little metal twistum on it. If you put this in your oven you can get an
arc, the arc in turn will light the paper and you can get a fire in your oven so
don't put little twistums in the microwave oven. Also if you have dishes,
lovely dishes that are trimmed with metal these little particles in here can
cause arcing and it'll burn all that metal trim off of here. The one word to
keep in mind when you see an arc in your oven is to stop the oven. Rearrange the
metal or use a different dish and you won't have any problems. Now metal can be
used to advantage in microwave cooking because of that reflection property. In
fact when you're cooking a turkey and sometimes when you have a large item
like this that takes a long time to cook some areas may tend to dry out like the
ends of the turkey. So you can play a little bit of foil covering around the
turkey leg and also the wings which are much thinner than the thicker portion on
the breast can tend to dry out. So you place a little bit of aluminum foil
around the wing and for large turkeys you'll sometimes see that the breast
portion right up here will tend to dry out and you have something that we call
turkey jerky. Take foil and fold it up so you have no sharp edges and put it over
the spot that you see drying. Another example of using metal reflectance to
enhance your cooking is with a stew or something that has exposed pieces of
meat and vegetable. The tops of these can dry out from the direct imposition of
the microwave on them. So what you do is to take aluminum foil, crimp the edges
and put it over the top of the stew. Then replace the cover to keep in the steam.
Now what will happen is that the microwaves are reflected off the metal,
they will bounce around the inside of the oven and come in from the bottom so
it'll simmer in the juices and the top portions will not dry out. An example of
using metal reflectance is shown by these two dishes of carrots. In this case
I put sliced carrots in a microwave dish and covered it with plastic wrap. Now you
can see these woody carrots that have less water than some other vegetables
have shriveled up and really look rather unpalatable. The same kind of dish
covered with plastic wrap to keep in the moisture but covered with foil to direct
the energy to the bottom of the dish where the water is and you see beautiful
carrots just right for serving. Use metal in microwave cooking only to prevent
things from drying. It's your friend, it'll help you cook and I have some more
things to show you about how to use your microwave oven with greater success. This
next experiment concerns a subject that causes the most aggravating controversy
about microwave cooking and that's browning. Constantly hearing something
like this, Don I tried to make a hamburger in my microwave and it didn't
look nearly as nice as the way it comes out when it's done on the grill. That's
because it doesn't take as long but if you like burgers on the grill the way I
do then by all means use your barbecue. That's what it's for. But the question is
still can you get things to brown in the microwave? Why of course you can. But
let's look at what browning really is. It's simply the caramelization of fat
and sugars on the surface of the meat. For example on some of my recent
television shows I prepared a number of dishes that came out really great. See
how beautifully the browning process works? Now that's the color of a chicken
cooked conventionally. A lot of times you forget that that's the color without
basting. This is just plain old chicken. Now here is a chicken and here's
another one that I did in the microwave oven. This one I cooked very very quickly.
20 minutes it's completely cooked at high power in the microwave and here's
one that I did for 45 minutes at 30% power. So you can see the difference.
There's relatively no difference whatsoever. The reason that this one got
a little browner than this one is that I did it slower and approximating the time
of the chicken cooked in the conventional oven so it had a chance to develop that
caramelization which is what lends the color to any foods in a microwave or a
conventional oven. Now of course you can enhance your cooking by using any number
of brown agents. There's some on the market. Look around you can find they
give it a I think it's a better color and again the point is make your food
look as good as you can if you use you baste them. That's not unusual. That's
cooking and you pay particular attention to your cooking so it comes out the best
that it will. This is soy sauce. You can use soy sauce for a browning agent and
even if you marinate in red wine you'll find that the color of foods cooked in
your microwave will be just fine. Okay now let me show you another thing that
will perhaps illustrate a little bit better the subject of browning. When
you're cooking something on top of your range in fact if I take a hamburger here
and throw it in this pan and let it cook. Now if I take that hamburger out in let's
say oh 15 or 20 seconds the color is not going to be brown because it takes time
for that heat to cause that caramelization. You know when you hear the
sound something cooking the sizzling like that you know what that is? That's
molecules banging together causing sounds you can hear. The molecules are
activated by the heat in here just the same as they are activated by the heat
in this in this microwave oven. So when I take this hamburger out and turn it
over you can see the color here right here on the surface is quite dark on the
other sides here it's not really brown. It takes time for things to become brown
no matter how you cook them. With both conventional cooking and microwave
cooking you have to remember that the cooking process doesn't stop the moment
you take the dish from the oven. This is particularly true with items that have a
compact heavy mass such as a roast. Energy retained in the food continues
the cooking process after the food has been removed from the heat source. You
can see this demonstrated with an instant reading thermometer like I
always use. I remove this roast from the microwave at 130 degrees and if I let it
set right here on the counter for 10 minutes with no energy upon it it will
go up to about 140 degrees. Keeping that in mind remember to always under cook
dishes slightly in the microwave because the residual energy will bring it up to
the upper temperature. If it doesn't you can always put it back in again right
but you can't unbook it so don't spoil your meal by overcooking. Now here's the
final experiment I want to show you how to use the microwave oven probe. Many
newer ovens have this handy probe which is simply a temperature sensing device
that is plugged into the food and then plugged into the oven. When the
temperature reaches the level selected it automatically turns off the power and
here's a very easy way to see how it works. Insert the probe into a potato
and then set the temperature for 180 degrees.
Now look at your watch and note how long it takes for the oven to turn off. Now
take a second potato, insert the probe and repeat the process into the
potato and plug it into your oven. Now again set the temperature for 180
degrees but set the power control to 50%. Now if you've done it right it should
take just about twice as long to cook the potato to 180 degrees at half the
power so you can cook slowly using the probe or fast and get the desired
results that you want. And here's some things to remember about the probe. Don't
use it on irregularly shaped items like chickens or turkeys. There's too much
temperature variation for the probe to work properly but if you use an instant
read thermometer you can check around at various areas and make sure that the
turkey is done properly. The probe works very well in dishes that have a
relatively uniform mass such as roasts and also such as stews and casseroles. The
probe is a very handy tool if it's used properly.
Just because your oven uses advanced technology it doesn't mean that it works
by magic. It doesn't. It's no more magical than your toaster or electric
frying pan so learn how to use it and make it do what you want it to do. Don't
let it run your life in the kitchen. Treat it just like you would your
stovetop and if you feel like it open the door and see how a dish is coming
along. Don't let the digital clock intimidate you into waiting for the
signal to sound. If you change your mind about the cooking time change it. After
all you're the boss. You wouldn't watch helplessly as a sauce burned on your
stovetop so don't do it with your microwave.
Although you'll remember that I predicted that you will soon become
addicted to using your marvelous microwave oven please know that it's
not a substitute for every cooking device that you have in your kitchen. It
does a lot of things perfectly including roasting and sauteing and preparing one
dish meals, steaming, reheating, thawing and any cooking that doesn't call for
crusting or drying of the food. But there are things that don't come out so good
either. The microwave is less effective for baking and frying and some egg and
cheese dishes. Although you can make a wonderful quiche in your microwave.
Simply use common sense on this. If you love a charcoal broil steak over
hickory chips well for heaven's sakes use the barbecue. Use the proper tool for
what it does best. After all you wouldn't do a standing rib roast in a walk would
you?
We talked a little about this before. After you've estimated the cooking time
for your dish reduce it by about 10%. For example if you have a four pound
roast and you're figuring seven minutes per pound that would be 28 minutes.
Cutting 10% from the total you'll have 25 minutes. Set the timer for that then
check the roast because it may have cooked faster than you thought it would
and you can always pop it back into the oven if you want to continue cooking.
When cooking chickens or roasts or turkeys or any other large item by
temperature cook them 10 degrees less than you want to because microwave
cooked foods continue cooking even more than conventionally cooked foods do. And
when you cook vegetables do them until they're barely done and let the residual
cooking do them a little bit more maybe just a couple of minutes. How you cover
the food usually determines how it will cook in your microwave oven. If you want
moist cooking steaming for example cover the food securely to retain all the
moisture. You can achieve that by covering the food with the lid to the
container or by using plastic wrap. If you want it drier let the moisture escape
by using wax paper. Wax paper is also good for preventing spattering in the
oven. Use metal to direct the energy of the oven. When cooking a chicken for
example cover the legs with aluminum foil during the first part of the
cooking. Remove the foil halfway through the cooking cycle and the entire bird
will be done perfectly. You can cover a stew with aluminum foil also and force
the energy to come in through the bottom of the container so it will simmer and
not dry out the top. Modern microwave ovens allow you to select an energy
level you've located in percentages. Thus cooking on high is 100% of the available
energy and you have a number of options that provide for slower lower heat. And
here you just use common sense. Tougher foods require longer slower cooking so
they'll become tender and lives such as roasts and turkeys also benefit from
slow cooking.
Just as with conventional cooking techniques you still have to stir the
food if it needs it and taste it and poke it. Do the things to food that you
always do and remember that you can always open the oven door any time you
want and you won't lose any heat. The heat is in the food not in the oven.
Every time you open your conventional oven you lose as much as 100 degrees of
heat but that's not true with your microwave.
You've probably learned dozens of tricks in conventional cooking over the years.
You know things like doing a casserole until it's almost done and covering it
with grated cheese and putting it under the broiler for a couple of minutes to
melt cheese without burning it. Well you can do the same kind of thing with your
microwave oven. Here's a neat one. Put a little in your microwave for one minute
and then when you squeeze it you'll get twice the amount of juice. The more you
use your oven the more things you'll get that you can do with it.
I'll bet you've got some favorite recipes that you've been doing for a
long time and now you'd like to try them in the microwave. Well conversion of
recipes is easy once you learn the basic differences between microwave and
conventional cooking. Here are some guidelines that will help. First cut the
cooking time by 1 fourth to 1 third of the time required in conventional
recipes. Next cut the liquid by at least half since you don't need liquid to
prevent burning or scorching. Use oil and butter for taste if you like but not to
prevent sticking. If you're doing a stew or a soup cook the main ingredients and
add the stock later and use your favorite seasonings just as you usually
do. Be daring, experiment, lit up and learn.
There are all sorts of dishes, utensils and other accessories designed for
microwave cooking and I'll talk about them more later on. Some are just gimmicks
and aren't really very helpful at all but most of them are great. When cooking
with your microwave oven be sure you cook in the proper sequence. For example
if you're having a meal of baked potatoes, roast beef and fresh vegetables,
cook the potatoes first, very dense and they'll hold the energy for a long time.
Then cook the roast and when you take it out of the oven during the time of residual
cooking you can cook the vegetables and don't forsake your conventional oven and
stovetop. You can be doing something there while your microwave is occupied.
People seem to assume that microwave prepared food doesn't taste as good as
conventionally aired recipes. Now this is nonsense. The microwave often does a
better job so don't ever apologize for using the microwave to prepare dinner
for your guests. If you're concerned about it don't tell them you've done
that incredible roast until after dinner is over and the reviews are in and then
tell them there's nothing to it since I got my microwave.
To make your microwave cooking easier and more efficient you should have the
right dishes and accessories. Now you probably have a lot of them at home right
now. Things like crockery, these work very well and also glass items are good for
microwave cooking. Here's the old loaf pan that you use for bread which is a very
handy dish to use in your microwave and of course any kind of covered glass
casseroles that you have work well and for that weird plastic dish that you've
had around the house these are very good for reading things in your microwave and
you can of course even serve and cook on your serving platters and we've all been
known to put our coffee cups right in the microwave oven. There are some unique
items that are designed for microwave that perform a certain for example this
muffin pan is very useful not only for muffins and cupcakes but other things
like filled vegetable cups and the tube pan is extremely versatile. Here's a
small one and the reason these work so well in your microwave is that they have
a center post that is hollow and allows the energy to come from the inside and
the outside and the foods cook much evener. You should have a lot of covered
casseroles and when you can get the kind that all fit together it's much more
efficient because eight dishes nesting there take up very little space in your
cupboard. You've heard me expound on the virtues of the instant read thermometer
this I think is essential for all cooking conventional barbecue and
microwave. I had a special one made with a large dial so it's easier for you to
see the temperature as it's cooking and I also have one with a pocket protector
which has instructions on this for easy reference to cooking by temperature. Now
bacon does extremely well in a microwave oven so do roasts you want to keep them
out of the juices so there's a large array of roasting racks and bacon trays
that are available and these come in various sizes and shapes. Even a small one
for that last-minute hamburger and any flat glass tray is very good for items
that you spread out to have larger area than mass and don't force those mixing
bowls that you have these are just wonderful to mix the food and then to
cook it in your microwave oven and you can make some interesting molds with
this which are delightful when you unmold them on a serving platter for a
little unique recipe. Popcorn has become a very very popular and it does
extremely well in a microwave oven. Specially designed popcorn poppers work
very well and you don't have to use any butter or oil so it's better for you. We
talked about natural browning in the wave there are also many products on the
market that will enhance the color of all food cooked in microwave or
conventional ovens such as this KitchenAid Browning Liquid or Micro Shake
marinate in red wine you'll get a delightful color on your meats and you
of course can use soy sauce and even steak sauce. The coverings to the food
is very important also I think that aluminum foil is very useful because it
protects food and prevents overcooking and drying out and then there's plastic
wrap for dishes that do not have a cover you place this over the top and retain
the steam. Wax paper is extremely useful in all cooking microwave and conventional
put on the bottom of your oven and if you have any boil overs just take out
the wax or throw it away and you have a clean oven and of course roasting bags
are just as useful in a microwave as they are in a conventional oven. When you
have the proper tools and the proper accessories you're going to find that
your satisfaction with microwave cooking is going to be greatly enhanced.
Okay now that you know everything about why and how your microwave oven works
it's time to roll up your sleeves and have some fun cooking making your
family and friends envious and getting all those rave reviews just remember if
you thought you couldn't do it here's where you prove that yes you can cook
microwave. I'm going to show you how to convert one of my favorite recipes it's
for ossoboco or veal shanks Milanese and the recipe conventionally calls for six
veal shanks, a half a cup of purpose flour, a third of a cup of olive oil, a
medium onion finely chopped, one carrot finely chopped, a celery stalk finely
chopped, and three-quarters of a cup of dry white wine, eight ounce can of
crushed Italian tomatoes, two tablespoons of chopped parsley, two cloves of garlic
chopped, salt and pepper to taste, and additional parsley. Alright now here are
the instructions on how to prepare this recipe conventionally and I'll tell you
what you should do if you cook it by microwave. Place the veal shanks on
aluminum foil and sprinkle with flour. Well you do the same thing whether you're
cooking microwave or conventional. Heat the oil in a heavy casserole. Well you
don't have to heat any oil because your pot in your microwave doesn't get hot so
you don't need that lubricating factor. Then you brown the meat on all sides
over medium heat. Okay place them in your microwave oven and cook them until they
become brown about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the meat from casserole and add
the onion, carrot, and celery. Now here's a very interesting thing. In microwave you
take those flavor vegetables which are carrot, onion, and celery saute them first
for about three minutes in the pan in your microwave oven. Then add the meat
and brown it up for about 10 or 15 minutes. Stir in the wine. This is fine
because there's only three-quarters of a cup of dry white wine. If you have a lot more
than that you could reduce it by one half. And you add the tomatoes, cover the
casserole, reduce the heat, and simmer for one and one-half hours. In microwave you
don't add the liquid which in this case would be in the tomatoes until after the
meat has been cooked to tinderness. So in this case to convert it you would return
the veal to the veal is in the casserole so you cook it for about 30 minutes
instead of one and a half hours and it'll just be falling off the bone tender.
Then you add the tomatoes and cook it through until it becomes warm. Season
with parsley, salt, and pepper and that's all there is to it. Just heat it through
for about another 10 minutes. So what would have taken you over two hours
conventionally will take you about 40 minutes by microwave. And that's all there
is to it. When you're looking at a recipe, a conventional recipe, and when you want
to convert it just remember that to cook microwave you've got to think microwave.
To get you started in the joys of microwave cooking I've prepared some
wonderful recipes that I think you'll like to try with me. Each one of them
will prove to you that you can easily learn to master the art of microwave
cooking. Each one of them can be altered to suit your own personal taste and each
of them has a list of ingredients that will be displayed on your screen. Of
course you can stop the tape whenever you like or go backwards or skip
something and go ahead. And that's what makes this so much fun. Here's the first
recipe for you to try. This recipe is a microwave adaptation of a classic
Chinese dish. It's called ginger chicken and it uses the technique of placing the
seasonings and sauces under the skin. And you could also use this in many other
foul recipes. The advantage is that the flavors really permeate the flesh of the
birds and makes them so tasty. As you know chicken skin has a lot of fat and
many times this prevents the flavor from getting into the flesh of the bird. Also
let the chicken marinate for at least one hour before you cook it. And look at
the beautiful brown color. Who says foods don't brown in a microwave oven? I must
admit that this color is primarily from the soy sauce in the marinade. I'll be
back to show you how to make ginger chicken in your microwave. To make a
ginger chicken you start out with a three and a half to four pound frying
chicken. And then here's the technique of loosening the skin. Take a spatula
handle, a blunt object that won't pierce the skin, and just run it down underneath
the skin and just loosen it all the way around. Go down the drumstick and around
the side. The same on the other side. Just loosen like this and then turn the bird
over and do the other side the same way. Just go down the side. Be very careful
you don't...and don't worry about getting into the wing portion there. Okay loosen
all the way around and that's all there is to it. Okay now to make the marinade
for this chicken we use finely chopped ginger. And I don't ever take the peel
off. Some good Chinese cooks told me that you never have to do that. So mince up
about four tablespoons of fresh ginger. Place that in a mixing bowl. And then
also garlic is optional but I really think it adds something to the ginger
chicken recipe. So two big cloves of garlic. Mince those up very finely and
add that to the mixing bowl also. Then the other addition would be soy sauce.
About one cup of soy sauce. And I like to use the Chinese soy sauce which has a
little darker color. And a little bit of sherry for a little added touch of
flavor. Just about a half an ounce of sherry. Okay mix that all together and
now here's what you do to pour this underneath the skin of the chicken. Put
it in a bowl and lift the skin. Just make a little pocket and then pour it under
like that and then just smudge it all around. Oh goodness gracious. You get to
know your chickens this way too. On the other side same thing and then turn it
over and again do the back side. Okay after you've done this let the bird set
for a while. Oh an hour or so. The longer of course the better it's going to taste.
Then place it on a roasting rack and either cover it with wax paper or with
a cover. One of these colander type covers because you want the air to escape
so the skin will get nice and crispy on the outside. Here's one other technique.
If you see the skin starting to rip just take a little skewer and just weave it
together like this to hold that skin together. Just like that and that'll hold
it all so it looks like a chicken and then afterward you pull that skin up.
Pardon me the toothpick out. Set that aside. Roast it about 25 minutes on high
power and you will have a ginger chicken. And this is what it looks like when
you're all done. Isn't that beautiful? Look at the color. I usually recommend to
new microwave cooks that they cook up a leg of lamb as their first attempt at
roasting because it's so easy and it's really very hard to screw up. To make a
little fancier roast lamb have the butcher debone it and then stuff it with
a blend of herbs. Also when you have it deboned you tie it in a more rounded
shape which is better for microwave cooking. And I like to coat the surface
with a browning agent so the color is really pleasing but it's not that
necessary because you have to cook a leg of lamb long enough for it to cook
throughout and it browns up really quite naturally in your microwave oven. Now
when you cook a leg of lamb notice the small amount of juices that are released.
They stay in the meat when you cook by microwave and I'll be back to show you
how.
When you buy a leg of lamb from the butcher it's normally in this shape here
and you can see that there's a narrow end and then a thicker end. Now if you're
going to roast it just like that in your microwave what happens sometimes is that
the narrow end cooks faster and therefore you have lamb jerky at this end
before the body of the roast is done. To avoid that problem we use our old friend
aluminum foil and just wrap that around the narrow end for half of the cooking
time and then after you've accomplished that much cooking take it off so it'll
continue cooking here and be the same doneness as the bigger portion of the
leg of lamb. Then as I said ask the butcher to debone it. Now you can do this
yourself but it's a little bit more difficult than other home trimming
methods and just what you have to do is just cut along the bone and separate the
flesh and then take the bone out and you have a deboned leg of lamb. I'll just
finish up the the process right here and then show you how I like to stuff it and
the stuffings again are more or less according to your imagination but use
those things that complement the taste of lamb and I like to use rosemary and
garlic. Save this for the dog and you can also make a great stock with a bone like
this. So spread it out and then season it with first of all I'm going to use some
chopped garlic. Chop it up kind of I like larger pieces when you do a leg of lamb
and just spread them all over the surface of the open portion of the lamb.
Then some nice crisp fresh parsley about three or four tablespoons just enough
again to spread over the inside of the lamb and lemon pepper there's these
mixtures of lemon pepper which are very good so sprinkle some of that on the
inside lemon and lamb is wonderful and what could be better to complement lamb
than some rosemary leaves. This is the new easy open pack so put some rosemary
leaves over the top of that then roll it up and tie it with some string and see
what a nice rounded shape it has that's very important in the roasting of meats
in your microwave. Use a browning agent on the outside and that'll really give
it some color it looks just so luscious when it comes out with that glistening
color on the surface of the lamb and then a piece of wax paper over the top
as always with any roasting to keep the spattering that occurs when meats cook
from getting all over the inside of the of the oven and that's all you have to
do for a leg of lamb it comes out perfect.
The next time you have a formal dinner and want to impress your guests and
serve a glorious side dish think about making these. Aren't they pretty and
they're really very simple to make these are called tomatoes filled with broccoli
mousseline. Now you can make a variety of mousselines in your microwave oven and
they turn out fantastic every time. Serve them in a mold in fact a ring mold is
very very nice or individual serving dishes or in little custard cups and of
course you can place them in other vegetables as I've done with these
tomatoes. Now I like to make a watercress mousseline for a leg of lamb but if
you're having just a nice beef roast or a pork roast the broccoli mousseline in
tomato cup is just perfect and I'll be right back to show you how. Now I'm going
to show you how to make these wonderful little broccoli mousselines. It's really
very simple as you're going to see in one moment. First of all you want to cook
up some fresh broccoli and use the flowerettes only. I have some already
cooked and I always enjoy so much showing the color that you get when you
cook your vegetables by microwave because of the fact there's no water in
there you don't leach out the color the vitamins or the minerals. Now to make
these take a tomato and this is just a perfect size about the size of a tennis
ball and cut right around the top of the tomato. Instead of cutting off the top I
like to cut around this way because it gives it a better form to fill with the
broccoli mousseline and then take a spoon and just ream out the center of
that tomato and scrape out as much as you can of the liquid inside and another
nice little trick here is now to put some seasoning or a little bit of salt
and pepper in here if you're using something of a different type of mousse
than I'm using right now. One of the primary ingredients in the mousse for
today is parmesan cheese and that has plenty of salt so you don't need any
more. Take the freshly cooked broccoli and a half a cup of parmesan cheese, a
half pint of whipping cream, two eggs, and just a touch of nutmeg. Put that in
your food processor and process it until it's smooth into a consistency like that.
Okay then take each individual tomato and fill them up. Now instead of pouring I
like to use a spoon because you can gather up the pulp and also get just
enough of the liquid which is the egg and the cream in there otherwise sometimes if
you pour this the liquid comes out in the first half and you get a lot of the
pulp and the processed broccoli in the second half so one's watery and the other
ones just loaded with the broccoli. Now after you've filled them up and this is a
very very important technique because tomatoes are very soft and sometimes when
you cook them in your microwave you can overcook them so you have a pile of
tomato sauce with a little broccoli mousseline on top. So take a strip of
aluminum foil and wrap it around the tomato just around the belly like that
and then secure it with a toothpick. Stick it right through the foil into the
tomato and do that with each one of them and then you place it into something
like this cupcake holder and do as many as you're going to do just place it right
inside of here or an individual custard cup microwave for about two and a half
minutes and you have a perfect set custard.
You may have heard that fish cooks very well in a microwave oven. Well you heard
right fish has a very high water content and microwave energy works best of all
by heating water molecules and a microwave oven cooks very quickly so
your fish comes out moist with all those delicate flavors retained. Now whether
it's a whole fish or filets or steaks or shellfish there are lots of recipes for
each of these and they all work beautifully in your microwave. Today I'm
going to show you one of them and if you live in an area where you can get fresh
salmon you're really lucky. It's one of my favorite kinds of fish. Now even if
you can only get it frozen it's excellent for this recipe. For the sauce
you use sour cream but if you like you can substitute yogurt because it has far
fewer calories. Keep watching and I'll be right back with the recipe.
It's time that you want to treat your sweetheart or your husband or wife to a
little special fish recipe and this is salmon steaks with yogurt dill sauce. Now
let me mention one thing about salmon steaks. When you see them in the market
you can buy them just as I have them here all caught up and and packaged
separately but if you can buy a whole fish and do it yourself you're going to
save a lot of money. Just compare the price on this salmon steak and the whole
fish and then just for fun look at the price on the fillet of salmon and you'll
be shocked. Okay place them together two steaks one for each of you on a
microwave proof dish and in this case I have one in the shape of a fish. Isn't
that cute? Okay now I intertwine the two belly flaps with the other one so again
you are equalizing the mass of the fish and again the greater portion the
thicker portion you want to the outside of the dish because that's where most
of the microwave energy is imposed upon the food. Now for this we're going to put on
fresh dill or if you don't have any fresh you of course can use dried dill
and it's very very good. I think that this is one of the advantages that we
have in the food business today that you can get most anything all year round
even if it is dried. Okay that's all you need for this and a little glug of wine
just pour a little about a quarter of a cup of wine you don't need very much at
all because in microwave you're using that primarily for flavor and not as a
medium in which the fish are cooked. Then place a covering on this in this case
it's plastic wrap because there is no cover that comes with the fish dish and
that's all there is to it. Allow about two minutes per steak and that's all you
have to do. I have some cooked already and oh yeah yeah yeah you notice I always
say that the dish is never hot it never gets hot from microwave but it does get
hot from the steam from the cooking. So remove the plastic wrap and then pour
off the juices we have here and add to that some yogurt and whip it all
together and more dill weed if you like just whip that all together the same
sauce as I say you can use sour cream but this has a lot fewer calories then
pour it over the fish just like that and you can decorate with more dill if you'd
like or you can put a couple of lemon slices on the side and there you've got
a simple meal for the two of you it's absolutely delicious lots of health in
there fish is so good for you should eat much more and when you have a microwave
it cooks so much better that's the recipe for salmon steaks with dill sauce
there's a definite affinity between pork and fruit and the next recipe takes
advantage of that factor it's called a Scandinavian stuffed pork loin and not
only is it delicious but it really looks great now loin of pork is sometimes a
little expensive but there's hardly any waste so it's still a good bargain and
be sure to cook your pork to a temperature of 180 degrees but since
you're going to do it in your microwave you don't have to worry about it drying
out when cooking pork always keep the dish covered to maintain an environment
around the pork at that same temperature of 180 degrees now the next time you
want to impress somebody serve this roast because it looks as good as it
tastes and I'll be right back to show you how
you know wax paper is such a handy material to use when you're preparing
anything in the kitchen when I stuff this pork loin usually part of the
stuffing ends up all over the preparation area so when I have wax
paper here just wrap it up and throw it away and it's so easy to clean up all
right to make a stuffed pork loin take a loin of pork just pure meat here and
take one of your sharp boning knives and just run it down the center of the pork
make sure you don't go through the sides and then cut lengthwise and then go the
other way and make another X and if you don't go all the way through just simply
turn it over and do the same thing from the other end now the stuffing I have
prepared for this pork loin is a mixture of dried fruit and also chopped up apples
and we've got some grapes in there some raisins and also some of this larger
dried fruit like this you can buy this in a package at any one of your markets
okay take some of this and just stuff it into that pocket that you've made just
push it in there and then what I like to do is intersperse it with other things
like prunes here's a dried pear you can put in dried apples and again more of
this mixture to stuff and pack it in there as securely as you can now as you
position it's going to expand in the center of the roast and also when you
cook it the expansion is going to allow some of that stuff to come pouring out
of the end so to avoid that from happening take some skewers wooden or
metal it makes no difference you know the turkey skewers that you have that
are little metal ones those are great because you can use them over and over
again just throw them in the dishwasher but make sure they don't fall through
into the mechanism but take all this for dried fruit pack it into the pork loin
just like this and then take some skewers now these are the barbecue type
of skewers and just stick them through the end all the way through like this
and that will prevent that expansion from forcing out the dried fruit really
a very very simple way cover this securely remember I said you've got to
maintain an atmosphere of around 180 degrees in the pork and also around the
pork on the outside so place a cover over the top microwave for about seven
minutes per pound for let's say about 20 minutes then check the temperature and
this is one of the handiest tools you can use it's an instant read thermometer
the last portion of the cooking the last 10 minutes spread some chutney over the
top and let me show you what you have it's just a fantastic looking roast
there's a Scandinavian pork loin serve that to some company and they're gonna
say wow is that ever pretty and is that ever good so didn't I tell you it's
really not so hard to cook by microwave if you think microwave of course the
proof is in the eating I'm Donovan Fondry and thanks for watching and if you
want to get more of my personal recipes and techniques get a copy of my full
color cookbook called microwaves are for cooking at your local microwave
accessory store or write to me and send your request to Donovan P.O. Box 104 6
7 Oakland California 9 4 6 1 0 and remember yes you can cook microwave
you