Microwaves again

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

It's still nowhere near as good as fried, but it's good enough for the kids :)

[mint]

Richard, you're spoiling those kids![;-)]

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

They take such advantage of me :)

[idun]

[quote user="Mr Coeur de Lion"]It's still nowhere near as good as fried, but it's good enough for the kids :)[/quote]

 

I am so glad that I am not the only one who loves fried bacon. I don't get grilling, get that pan heated up and get my bacon fried and golden. Delicious!

[Théière]

[quote user="idun"]

[quote user="Mr Coeur de Lion"]It's still nowhere near as good as fried, but it's good enough for the kids :)[/quote]

 

I am so glad that I am not the only one who loves fried bacon. I don't get grilling, get that pan heated up and get my bacon fried and golden. Delicious!

[/quote]

Just realised my microwave was a Bejam special bought in 1985, had to change the lap and blown fuze last year and the mica sheet fell apart a month ago.

Bacon

[idun]

The bacon thing is interesting Theiere, but who would start cooking anything in a cold frying pan? Not the way I cook at all.

Still I may even try the microwave, just as a test, but when I was young and naieve I tried cooking in mine and had some right royal disasters, in spite of following the instructions to the letter.

[Théière]

Don't know why we have such a large microwave, only needs to be jacket potato sized [:)] although Lidl has one with a grill in the top so may cook a bit better that way, meat goes so tough and rubbery I wouldn't ever use it for that.

Chancer has one of those Halogen glass ovens and really likes it, bought one but took it back to the shop the day after having not used it as it didn't seem to cook things any quicker apart from conventional oven warm up time.

[Chancer]

Woops, you have triggered an evengelical posting from me!

Its a shame you didnt give it a try but then you would not really have been able to return it.

I agree about the cooking time although I think it is significantly faster than a conventional oven for smaller items, chops, fillets, sausages, small roasts etc, the real saving is the warm up time which is a couple of minutes and the power consumed, my oven was only a few years old but took 20 minutes to warm up, during that time it was consuming a solid 2.4 kilowatts and thereafter the thermostat would cut in and out but mainly in, I reckon probably an 80% duty cycle going to 100% if you opened the door to see how things were going.

The halogen oven uses 1300 watts for 2 minutes during warm up and after that the duty cycle is only 30% even at the higher temperatures, much less at lower ones.

One can clearly see the cooking, not only is the bowl completely clear but the food illuminated by the halogen and at worktop height, you dont need to bend down to peer through a smoked glass door or open it to really be able to see, when cooking fatty foods like sausages, chops etc within a few seconds the food appears to sweat like a fat git on a sunny day (like I used to!) the fat or meat juices just run to the bottom of the bowl but never seem to heat up, there are absolutely no cooking smells or smoke and the bowl and racks are easy to wash up and hence never get encrusted, I dont think taht anything could get encrusted even if you didnt clean it.

The things that I hated and dont miss from my old oven were getting an eyefull of smoke and hot air thanks to the fan when i had to open the door to check the cooking and the cleaning of it with noxious chemicals that used to turn the skin on my hands to a numb mush.

I have long since removed the old oven to give me more storage space and only once have I missed it, I was cooking an omelette and wanted to finish it off under the grill still in the pan.

[idun]

I had a microwave with a grill, but it it was terrible, though I did buy a cheap one.

Friends in France have slightly bigger than average microwave ovens, that do it all, microwave and bake and you can mix the cooking times for both. They love it, but like so many french people I know, they don't really bake or cook much to be honest. They do not have what I would call a proper oven at all.  http://www.bosch-home.fr/nos-produits/la-cuisson/fours-à-micro-ondes/HMT85ML63.html this is similar to the one they bought and very expensive.

 

I keep looking at these halogen ovens and wondering, so come on Chancer, how good are they;

[mint]

When we first moved to France and had to wait 5 months for Godin to deliver my oven, some kind friends lent me something similar to that oven, Teapot.  The only difference was the plate/cooking platform was down the bottom and the glass dome was on the top.  I think they said it was an infra red oven so whether infra red and halogen equate to each other, I have no idea.

It was a bind cleaning the grille at the bottom and even more of a bind cleaning the glass dome, so although I was very grateful for the loan, I couldn't wait to take it back afterwards.

[Alan Zoff]

We quickly dumped our second machine - the "with grill" version - or rather it pretty much dumped itself as it was a piece of junk (Belling). Went back to a simple, large microwave only.

Our first one came with a browning dish which is still used for bacon and the like. Works well. Also very good for chicken portions.

[Théière]

[quote user="Chancer"]

Woops, you have triggered an evengelical posting from me!

Its a shame you didnt give it a try but then you would not really have been able to return it.

[/quote]

Well Chancer you've done it second time around, gone and bought the halogen oven, it will replace the aged microwave. I couldn't resist Maplin's bargain at £29.99  [:)]

 

[idun]

I was at my cousins the other day and as usual she had baked her lovely victoria sponge in the microwave. As it's covered in icing you can't see how pale it is, but it is always good.

So I decided to give it a try with this thread in mind.

I made up an extra big mix and I put approx half the mix, into a 6" pyrex dish.  So that half would be a mix with 4oz of margarine and 4 of sugar etc etc. My cousin said that for an 800watt oven to cover with a plastic lid that you get to cover food in microwaves and bake for 6mins which I did. It rose, but as I have too much butter in the house at the moment I'd used butter and always found that all butter cakes are heavier, and this cake was heavier than hers. So with the rest of the mix, which I had planned on baking in the oven to compare, I decided to be naughty and make a treacle sponge. Put a load of golden syrup on the bottom of the pyrex dish and covered it with the rest of the mix and covered it and baked it for the same amount of time. It was wonderful. And that is all I ate all day, which is very bad for me, but it would have been me who ate it no matter what, whether it was over 1,2 or 3 days and I would probably have had a lot more food with it.

That is the first thing I have baked in the microwave and it was good, much to my surprise.

[Clair]

[quote user="Théière"]Well Chancer you've done it second time around, gone and bought the halogen oven, it will replace the aged microwave. I couldn't resist Maplin's bargain at £29.99  [:)][/quote]

For those keen to go it a go, Aldi are selling one next week at 35€: http://www.aldi.fr/OFFER_F_SA/OFFER_35/OFF07.SHTML

Chancer, how does it compare to yours, capacity-wise?

[Clair]

[quote user="idun"]Friends in France have slightly bigger than average microwave ovens, that do it all, microwave and bake and you can mix the cooking times for both...[/quote]

I am looking at something like this one, once our current MW stops working.

[Théière]

[quote user="Clair"][quote user="Théière"]Well Chancer you've done it second time around, gone and bought the halogen oven, it will replace the aged microwave. I couldn't resist Maplin's bargain at £29.99  [:)][/quote]

For those keen to go it a go, Aldi are selling one next week at 35€: http://www.aldi.fr/OFFER_F_SA/OFFER_35/OFF07.SHTML

Chancer, how does it compare to yours, capacity-wise?
[/quote]

Identical to my recent purchase.

[Chancer]

Yes its the same as all mine (I am a collector now[;-)]) at 12 litres, mine I bought from a catalogue shop for that price, if you are not cooking for a large family and have retained your traditional oven I would say that a 7 litre one would be just as good, lighter and easier to store, I was complaining about not having space to store mine and my sister with a womans logic said "put it inside your oven" me being a man decided to remove the oven and fit a cupboard.

If you want to talk about bargains I bought 6 of the 7 liter ones for the flats from MakroDirect for £50 with free delivery [:D] happy days!

It wasnt a promo, they dont do the Makromail offers on Makrodirect more a pricing mistake I suspect, they are at a normal price now.

[Clair]

Re Aldi's halogen oven...

I bought one this morning (35€) and am impressed by the capacity. I'll have no problem roasting a medium-sized chicken with spuds on the side.

At 1400W, it's got to be better than the full-size oven, particularly as the main element near the fan has stopped working.

I also have the Remoska, which works very well despite its age and extensive use.

[Chancer]

It will be interesting to see how you rate it against the the Remoska, I didnt use compare as I dont think that they are comparable if you follow my meaning.

I love roast chicken from mine its just i can never afford one in France, I have done the veg with it but couldnt really call them roasted, very tasty all the same.

I may one day cut down the high grill or rehausse the low one, I find I would prefer one betwen the two. 

[Clair]

[quote user="Chancer"]It will be interesting to see how you rate it against the the Remoska, I didnt use compare as I dont think that they are comparable if you follow my meaning.[/quote]

From what I have read on cooking fora/forums, users tend to pit one against the other, but I don't think they're comparable either.

I'll use this as I have used the Remoska up to now, as an alternative to my costly no-fan oven.

Like yours, mine can take p to 20 mn to come up to temperature and I try to use it when baking in bulk. Yesterday, for instance, I used it to make a batch of courgette cakes for the freezer during the cheap rate in the afternoon and home-made pizza afterwards, as it was already hot.

The Remoska does not have a thermostat. If you only consider its 350W against an full-size oven rated at 3500W, it is economical. But it runs at full power until it's turned off.

The halogen oven is rated at 1400W. I expect to be able to use it more than I do the big oven, and for food which would not fit in the Remoska.

[quote user="Chancer"]I love roast chicken from mine its just i can never afford one in France...[/quote]

As I only buy Label Rouge, I wait until they're on offer.

The last lot I bought were at 12€ for 2 birds of 1.5kg, which worked out at 4€/kg. I got 3 packs and vacuum-packed each bird for the freezer.

It's not expensive as, once I get all the meat off the bones, there's enough to make 2 or 3 meals for the two of us, and I also keep the carcases in the freezer until I have enough to make a batch of stock.