Love Your Microwave
LEAF’S BACK! This week, our favourite gastro-guide steers you through quality cuisine cooked solely in the microwave.
If forced to, I would pick the humble microwave as my number one favourite appliance.
And you know what? It wouldn’t be a tough call. Blenders are great in that they reduce chopping time and make a macho noise, but I know a lady who is missing six and a half fingers because of a Magimix accident! It made the barn-dance really awkward; you had to grip her wrist to spin her, rather than her hand.
And coffee-grinders are capital gadgets (you have to rate the amount of caffeine those guys coax out of the beans) but they epitomise the one-trick pony. The same goes for toasters.
So, on the grounds of versatility alone, microwaves are clearly The Almighty. They also come in a stunning variety of prices and designs – from the functional white boxes that domesticate our gyp rooms to the stainless steel beasts that haunt the kitchens of the likes of Alan Sugar and Sauron.
Someone should start a microwave appreciation society. Oh, wait! Good old ‘Kathy Ka Yan Chan’ from Leicester University already has: see for yourself on Facebook.
Here are four microwave recipes that will make you snigger haughtily when you next clap eyes on a hob:
1. Microbutty
Two rashers of bacon
Ketchup
Lettuce (If you’re into leaves. I am.)
A roll
Put two rashers of bacon on a plate. Microwave for one minute, then turn the rashers over. Microwave for another 30 seconds. Remove, place in a bread roll, smother with ketchup and add a few salad bits. Devour.
A cracking little bap
2. Muggins (muffins made in a mug)
½ Cup of butter
½ Cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of oil
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup of self raising flour
50 ml milk
Cinnamon/cocoa powder
Blueberries
Mix all the ingredients with a fork. Put about two tablespoons of the mixture in a mug. Microwave for one minute, till it has risen and assumed a muffin-like texture (though it won’t go brown). Consume out of mug with a fork.
Delicious
3. Jam and Cheese Microdream
Mature cheddar
Jam
Bread
Sugar
Toast a slice of bread. Spread liberally with jam. Lie sliced cheddar on top. Microwave for 20 seconds. Sprinkle with sugar. Live a short and happy life.
Sat fat and sugar: excitable bed-fellows
4. Micromelette
2 eggs
Cream
Pesto
Chicken bits/tomato
Beat the eggs with a dash of cream. Add salt and pepper and a large dollop of pesto. Add whatever other omelette-y ingredients you want. Pour into a bowl and microwave for a minute or so, until nothing is runny.
Looks vommy, tastes yummy