Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Reheating

I've read all sorts of conflicting reports on microwaves and what they do to the quality and health of our food. The evidence is scary enough that I've decided to wean us off of ours. We only really use it for defrosting once or twice a month and microwave popcorn on occasion, but the biggest thing is reheating food. I always make enough food for leftovers and those usually get reheated in the microwave.
So my search began once again for a better way.
I have found a few good solutions.
1. Flashing
This has nothing to do with showing body parts. It's a great way to reheat food in the oven without re-cooking it. It works well with food that isn't too dense or that can be spread out.
Preheat your oven to 475 degrees and put the food in- preferably in a thinnish layer on a pan, pie tin or cookie sheet and let it go for 5-10 minutes. This works great for grains in the morning. I also reheated my Pad Thai this way in a pie dish. Delish.
2. Bathing
Once again, no nudity here. This is good for defrosting. Basically, you seal your food in a ziploc bag (if needed) and give it a nice warm bath in a bowl. Change the water out if needed. Works great for frozen fish or shrimp and also for frozen fruit and veg.
3. The counter top toaster oven with convection
This will probably be my next purchase with my Home Depot gift card. Big enough to fit a 12" pizza or a medium sized casserole. Since it's smaller than a standard oven, it preheats faster, takes up less energy and doesn't heat up the whole kitchen. The convection feature cooks about 33% faster.

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