Microwave Scrambled Eggs

In my last class, one of my students was shocked to learn that you can make scrambled eggs in the microwave. Not really scrambled eggs but if you consider the eggs on most fast food breakfasts sandwiches "scrambled eggs," you won't be disappointed in these. They are more steamed than scrambled, light and puffy. For weekday breakfasts, these are great - fast and easy and sized for a bagel or English muffin.

Glass storage containers or measuring cups work as cooking containers. A 2-cup round one is the perfect size for the egg to fit on your bagel, but any tall round container that’s microwave safe will work. It puffs up quite a bit. A 2-cup measure may sound huge for one little egg, but any smaller and the egg is going to overflow.

Get your bagel toasting if you want it toasted, because the egg will take less time than the bagel. Just crack the egg into the glass container, add 1 Tablespoon milk or cream, and a little salt and pepper, and scramble it all up with a fork. Microwave the egg for about 1 minute. You’ll see it get really big, but it won’t overflow the container. If you want some melted cheese, sprinkle some grated cheese on top and put it back in for 10-15 seconds. Just scoop the egg with cheese on top onto your bagel.

That's it! No messing up a frying pan and it takes about 1 minute. For a quick breakfast, it's hard to beat.

Mug Fudge Cake

It rises up a lot more than that while cooking.You'll see. :-)

The final recipe from this week's class: Mug Fudge Cake. You mix everything in a big coffee mug, pop it in the microwave for 3 minutes, and poof! You have a delicious chocolate cake. You also get a thrill watching it cook because it rises straight up out of the mug while its cooking, and you'll be convinced it's going to overflow. But, if you use a large mug, it will not become a microwave disaster.

That's half, so 1 mug is plenty to share.

This serves 1 person very generously. We suggest sharing with a friend. The chips settle to the bottom, making a fudge-y layer so if you split it, cut in in half lengthwise, rather than taking the top off and giving it to a friend (but, it's chocolate so we understand if you hog the most fudge-y part).

Mug Fudge Cake
(serves 1-2)

4 Tablespoons all purpose flour
4 Tablespoons sugar
1 pinch of salt
2 Tablespoons natural cocoa powder (like Hershey's brand)
3 Tablespoons milk
1 large egg
3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
3 Tablespoons chocolate chips (for a change, try white chocolate)
½ teaspoon vanilla

In a large mug (12 oz.), combine the flour, sugar, salt, and cocoa powder with a fork. Add the milk and egg, Mix well. Add the vegetable oil and mix with the fork until smooth and the oil is well-combined with the batter. Mix in the chocolate chips and vanilla. Cook in the microwave for 3 minutes. It will rise up very high(!), but it will not overflow the mug. Let sit a moment before digging in - it's really hot. Fantastic with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream!

Super Easy Summer Pasta

The green chunks are tomatoes too, a variety called Green Zebra

This is an easy pasta to whip up in under 5 minutes with a few ingredients in your fridge. It uses delicious summer tomatoes, barely cooked to preserve their fresh flavor, and pesto sauce. Mix them with leftover pasta and some mozzarella cheese, heat up a little, and you have a tasty summer dinner.

Ripe Green Zebra tomatoes in my garden. It's been a good year for tomatoes!

Fresh ripe tomatoes in summer are a special treat and I used tomatoes from my garden. I particularly like a variety called Green Zebra which ripens to yellow with green stripes. If you can't find summer ripe tomatoes, chopped up cherry tomatoes anytime of year are your next best choice.

You can use plain ole mozzarella cheese, like what you use on pizza. Or to elevate this to incredible, use fresh mozzarella (which is quite a bit more expensive).

This recipe illustrates how easy it is to take some basic ingredients and make something delicious, really fast. We all have busy lives and if you can throw together simple yet tasty meals on the fly, you're a great cook!

Quick Tomato Pasta
(serves 1, costs $2.80)

1 ½ cups cooked pasta
1 cup of chopped fresh ripe tomatoes
1 ounce of cubed or shredded mozzarella cheese
2 Tablespoons pesto sauce (homemade or supermarket)
salt and pepper
olive oil

In a microwaveable bowl, combine the pasta, tomatoes, cheese, and pesto sauce. Season with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Microwave on high for 1 minutes and serve. Microwave for about another minute until the pasta is hot and the tomatoes are soft. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. Drizzle with a little olive oil, if desired.

Quick Fish

Here's a big-flavored sauce for a mild piece of white fish. You can use catfish, tilapia, cod, or any other fillets of white flaky fish. The recipe is for a single serving because most fish doesn't reheat particularly well. You can precook extra potatoes and carrots, assemble them with the sauce and fish when you are ready to eat and it will be done in under 10 minutes. Not bad!

Don't try to cook more than 4 servings at once because the fish will cook unevenly - some parts underdone, some parts overcooked.

Fish with Mustard-Caper Sauce
(serves 1, cost varies depending on fish used, $2.80 at $4.99/lb fish)

1 small potato, washed and cut into chunks
1 carrot, scrubbed and cut into chunks
1 ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 ½ teaspoon chopped capers
1 Tablespoon olive oil
6 ounce fillet mild white fish such as cod, tilapia, catfish
salt and pepper

Cover the potato and carrots with water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook for 15-20 minutes until they are tender but not falling apart. Drain and put into a microwaveable dish. Season lightly with salt and pepper. The capers and mustard are salty so you don't need much salt. In a small bowl, combine the mustard, capers, and olive oil. The mustard and oil will separate; that's OK. Drizzle half of this mixture over carrots and potatoes. Lay the fish fillet on top and spread on remaining mustard-caper mixture. Cover tightly with plastic wrap, leaving one corner open a little bit to allow steam to escape. Microwave on high for 2-3 minutes. The exact time will depend on the thickness of the fillet. You'll know it's done when the thickest part flakes easily. Let sit for 2 minutes to finish cooking.

Cooking Times for Multiple Servings - unlike conventional ovens, you need to adjust the cooking time as you add more food. Remember that the time will depend on the thickness of the fillet. Thin fillets cook much faster than thick ones.

2 servings: 4-7 minutes
3 servings: 6-8 minutes
4 servings: 7-10 minutes

Spicy Tomato Sauce - the Indian version

This spicy tomato sauce is going to be the base of our next Meatless Monday dish. It's really easy to make in the microwave. You can make it ahead for that meal but it cooks so fast, you don't really need to plan ahead. If you don't like spicy, go with 1 Tablespoon chile. If you do like spicy, definitely use 2 Tablespoons. It's still not that spicy so if you are chilehead, feel free to add more!

Besides using in our next Meatless recipe, you can serve it over roasted chicken or fish, with a grilled steak, or over rice. You could also poach eggs in it - delicious for brunch.

Spicy Indian Tomato Sauce
(makes about 4 cups, costs $2)

1 ½ Tablespoons vegetable oil or butter
1 Tablespoon minced or grated ginger
½ medium onion, minced
1 - 2 Tablespoons minced seeded hot chile (serrano or jalapeño)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1 26 - 28 ounce can of chopped peeled tomatoes

Heat oil or butter in 2 quart microwaveable dish for 1 minute on HIGH. Add the onion, chile, and ginger. Microwave on HIGH for 1 minute. Add cumin and salt. Microwave on HIGH for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and microwave on HIGH for 4 minutes. Stir, and microwave for 4 minutes.

Meatless Monday - Microwave Spinach Lasagna

We are not vegetarians but we are all for eating more delicious vegetarian food. It's a great way to eat well for less since meat is a fairly expensive way to get your protein.

This is a recipe for microwave spinach lasagne that I have been making for many years. It has a lot of ingredients, all easy to get, and the dish comes together easily. The toughest part is the assembly. You can do this. A tip on the noodles, after cooking and draining them, lay them out flat in one layer. Then they won't stick together, making assembly easier.

This is a great one-dish meal, good enough for company but so easy to make.

Microwave Spinach Lasagna
(serves 6, costs $11.00)

6 lasagne noodles, cooked according to package directions and drained
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil + some more to oil dish
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
¾ cup water
1 Tablespoon vegetable stock concentrate or dry vegetable soup mix
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon dried oregano
¼ teaspoon black pepper
a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
12 ounces frozen spinach
2 cups low-fat cottage cheese, a 16 ounce container
2 eggs
12 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese (3 cups)
⅓ cup Parmesan cheese, about 1 ounce

Thaw spinach by microwaving for 3 minutes in a 1 ½ quart microwaveable bowl or dish. Put spinach in a colander to cool while you cook the sauce.

Combine oil, onion, and garlic in the same dish you cooked the spinach in. Microwave for 3 minutes, stirring once. Stir in tomato sauce, tomato paste, water, vegetable stock concentrate, sugar, basil, oregano, black pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. Cover with lid or plastic wrap and microwave for 4 minutes. Stir and microwave for 4 more minutes. Stir again and set aside.

Squeeze most of the liquid out of the cooked spinach and coarsely chop. Put in a medium bowl. Add cottage cheese and eggs. Stir to combine.

Spray a 12"x8" microwaveable glass dish (this size will fit in most microwave ovens) with nonstick cooking spray or lightly oil to prevent sticking. To assemble, lay 3 noodles in dish  Ladle on ½ of the sauce, all the spinach mixture, then sprinkle on 2 cups of mozzarella cheese. Put on remaining 3 noodles, and the rest of the sauce. Cover tightly with plastic wrap.

Microwave on high for 5 minutes. Then microwave at 70% for another 12 minutes. Remove the plastic wrap and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella cheese and Parmesan cheese. Microwave on high, uncovered, for 3 minutes until cheese is melted. Let stand for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Adapted from Microwave Cooking Lite, Contemporary, 1985. I've changed the cooking times a lot because microwave ovens in 2013 are a lot more powerful than microwave ovens in 1985.

Ginger Chicken Kabobs

There are some things the microwave oven does really well. Steaming chicken is one of them. When it comes to cooking very lean chicken, like breast meat, the microwave is unbeatable. (Check here for basic chicken cooking instructions in the microwave.) We add flavor with a quick and simple marinade and the chicken cooks in minutes. There's no browning, but that is OK. Small pieces of chicken would dry out too much anyway.

The marinade is a tasty combination of garlic, ginger, cumin, and olive oil with just a hint of mustard. You only need to marinate it for 15-30 minutes. The original recipe says it can marinate for up to 2 days but even after 24 hours, the texture suffers. I wouldn't go beyond an hour. If you don't want to bother with skewers, arrange the chicken piece in one layer on a microwaveable plate and cook just like the skewers.

Here's a tip on mincing or grating fresh ginger: peel the ginger knob with a spoon (works better than a vegetable peeler or a knife) and then freeze the whole thing. Once the ginger is frozen, it's less stringy and the ginger will keep forever in the freezer.

Ginger Chicken Kabobs in the Microwave
( serves 4-5, costs $5.65)

1 ½ pounds skinless boneless chicken breasts
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 Tablespoon minced or grated fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 fresh green hot chile (Serrano or jalapeño), seeded and minced (optional)
½ teaspoon dry mustard or 1 teaspoon brown or Dijon mustard
About 1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper

Cut the chicken into strips about ¼" thick.

Combine the olive oil, ginger, garlic, cumin, chile (if using), mustard, ½ teaspoon salt, and black pepper in a medium bowl. Add chicken strips and coat with marinade. Cover bowl and marinate in the fridge for at least 15 minutes, but no longer than 1 hour.

Thread chicken strips onto wood or bamboo skewers. Don't pack the chicken too tight on the skewers because it won't cook through in 4 minutes. The chicken pieces should look like a wavy line. Sprinkle lightly with salt. Arrange on a microwaveable dish and cover with plastic wrap. Cook on high for 2 minutes. Flip over the skewers, re-cover, and cook for another 2 minutes on high. Let stand for a few minutes. Serve by pouring any accumulated juices over chicken.

Adapted from Morghul Microwave by Julie Sahni, William Morrow, 1990.

Salt & Making Your Own Microwave Popcorn

We don't make a big deal about nutrition here. We think that if you take the time to cook for yourself, eating a variety of real food, you'll do OK. In this post, we're going to talk about salt, a rather demonized ingredient these days.

Salt makes food taste better. We use it judiciously to bring out the fantastic natural flavors of real food. Salt is a flavor enhancer. That's why there's a pinch of salt in our granola and a little bit in our clafouti. In savory recipes, it's not the primary flavor like in many processed foods. It's not added to balance the over-use of sugars (yes, there is often a lot of sugar in even savory processed foods). The combination of sweet-salty and fat in many processed foods makes you want to eat even more of that food, which is key if you are trying to sell more food. We aren't selling anything. We want you to eat better by cooking for yourself.

Even in recipes with a lot of salt (anything with chicken stock with salt added, for instance), you'll find that our version is lower than a commercial version. Because it's made from scratch, our version tastes really good without lots and lots of salt. Our fast chicken noodle soup recipe makes about 8 cups of soup, 4 generous servings. If you use low-sodium stock in a box, the soup will contain about 800 mg of sodium per serving. Most people consider a can of soup one serving, and the whole can contains nearly 2000 mg of sodium! That's very close to all the salt recommended in a day just from your lunch.

One of the hardest things to gauge is how salty other people want their food. We don't eat a lot of processed food and we add a fairly moderate amount of salt to savory recipes. So, our idea of enough salt may not be enough for you. In our recipes, there is enough salt to make it taste good to us. We encourage you to experiment with the amount of salt. Start with what we suggest, and add a sprinkle more if you think it needs more. Eventually, you'll figure out how much salt you like relative to what we like.

Here's a snack that is associated with lots of salt: popcorn. Commercial microwave popcorn has become hugely popular. Sure, it's convenient but is popcorn really that hard to make? No! If you make it yourself, you can flavor it the way you want. It costs next to nothing and contains only real ingredients. Like popcorn, oil, butter, and salt.

You will need a plain, clean, lunch-sized paper bag or a 2 quart microwaveable bowl with a cover. For a single serving, add 2 Tablespoons popcorn kernels and ½ Tablespoon vegetable oil. Fold over the top a few times to keep the popcorn from escaping. Place in the microwave and pop on high for up to 3 minutes, or until you hear the popping slow down. Be careful because it's easy to go too far and burn the popcorn. 3 minutes is usually long enough.  If you want to add butter, place ½ Tablespoon of butter in a bowl, then dump the hot popcorn on top. Toss to melt the butter and coat the popcorn. Sprinkle with salt, about ⅛ teaspoon, and other seasonings, if desired. Instead of salt, parmesan cheese is delicious. Some black pepper is also good. You can double this recipe and still use the same size paper bag.

Microwave Rice

Cooking rice on a stove is not as easy as people would have you believe. If you set the heat too high, it can boil over, creating an awful mess. Leave it on the heat a little too long, and you end with rice bonded to your pan. Yet another mess! Too much water, end up with mush. Too little water, crunchy rice. Ick.

I have a confession. I'm a trained chef and even I have trouble getting rice right cooked on the stove (when I worked in restaurants, we steamed the rice in a big steamer which was nearly foolproof). A rice cooker does ok, but who needs another appliance cluttering up the counter? You have a microwave cluttering up your counter already and it happens to be a great rice cooker. Some people have no choice; a microwave is the only thing they have.

Rice is a staple, so having a good method for cooking it in the microwave would be nice, wouldn't it? There are a lot of bad microwave rice recipes out there. By bad, I mean, recipes that totally trash your microwave. I have done extensive testing of recipes and this one really works without creating a pool of starchy rice water in the bottom of your microwave.

Microwave Rice
(makes 3 cups, serves 4-6)

1 3/4 cup water or broth
1 cup rice (converted, jasmine, basmati, long-grain)

Place water and rice in a 4 cup microwaveable bowl or measuring cup. Cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high for 4 minutes. The water should be boiling at this point, but not frothing and going over the sides. Microwave on low (20-30%) power for another 20 minutes. Nearly all the water should be absorbed at the end. Let stand for 5 minutes

On high powered microwaves, 30% is enough to cause boil-overs. Try 30% and if looks like it's going to blow, reduce power to 20%. If it doesn't boil at all in the first minute after you reduced the power, try 40%. The first time you try this, you'll want to keep an eye on it. Unfortunately, given the different power ratings on microwaves (anywhere from 500-1200 watts), it's impossible to give the perfect recipe for every microwave oven.

That's peachy!

It's still peach season here in Colorado. Beautiful peaches are available everywhere. A really ripe peach is a summer joy. You know the kind - you need to eat it over the sink. But, peaches are a great year-round treat because they freeze so well. You can pick up a bag of frozen peaches at the supermarket and keep them stashed for smoothies, peach sauce - great on pancakes, and peach desserts like crisps or cobblers.

Here's a peach topping that is so easy. You use the microwave to cook the peaches in a simple maple syrup flavored sauce. Real maple syrup is expensive, but this extends that luxury by mixing it with peaches. Imitation maple syrup works too if real maple syrup isn't in your budget.  The peaches are good on pancakes, pound cake, ice cream, or frozen vanilla yogurt. It's a fruity way to sweeten plain yogurt too.

Peach Slices with Maple Syrup
(adapted from Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving)

1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons sugar
4 large peaches, peeled and sliced OR 3 cups thawed frozen peach slices

Combine maple syrup and sugar in a 4 cup microwavable container. Microwave on high for 1 minute or until sugar is dissolved.

Add peach slices, cover and microwave for 3 additional minutes. Let stand, covered, for 2 additional minutes.

Use hot, cool in the refrigerator or freeze in plastic containers if not using in the next week.

Note: 2 Tablespoons of Amaretto or Sherry can be added when peach slices are added, if desired. Amaretto, an almond liqueur from Italy, and peaches are a particularly tasty combination.

One Potato, Two Potato, Red Potato, Blue Potato…

Yes, there are blue potatoes, though they are really more purple-colored.  You may have never eaten a purple potato but almost everyone has eaten a Russet (also known as an Idaho even if it doesn't come from Idaho) . Russets are “baking” potatoes but for cooking, they are the go-to potato. They can be baked, fried – Russets are used to make French fries, mashed, boiled. If you are looking for a single potato that is good for nearly everything, it’s the Russet. They are starchy which is why they bake up all fluffy and turn into silky smooth mashed potatoes.

 

Potatoes with less starch are called “waxy” potatoes. They hold together better so they are great for roasting, boiling and potato salad.  They make decent mashed potatoes, but they are not as smooth as Russets. Red-skinned potatoes and yellow potatoes, like Yukon Golds, are waxy potatoes.

Blue potatoes are the waxiest of all so don’t try to make mashed blue potatoes. They’ll look cool but the texture is often lumpy and not at all smooth.

No matter what the color of your potatoes, you should store them in a cool, dry and dark place. You may be tempted to put them in the refrigerator but this isn't recommended. Potatoes convert starch to sugar in cold temperatures, and sweet-tasting potatoes are just weird.

Here's a simple microwave recipe for potatoes. They don't brown up like oven-roasted potatoes; the peel is left on to give them some color. But they still taste good, clean-up is very easy and they take a couple of minutes of prep and 11 minutes of cooking/standing.

Microwave "Roasted" Potatoes
(serves 3-4)

Though the recipe calls for oregano, it's just as good with other dried herbs such as thyme, basil or rosemary. Make sure to crush them to release their fragrant oils.

2 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large Russet potatoes, washed, unpeeled and cut into 1/4" thick slices
1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed in your palm

Put garlic and 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a 2 quart microwaveable casserole. Microwave 1 minute, serving once. Stir in potatoes. Cover and microwave on high for 3 minutes, stir. Re-cover and cook on high for another 4 minutes, until centers are just tender. Let stand, covered, for 3 minutes.

Stir in salt, pepper, and oregano. Serve.

Tip: It's easier to stir the potatoes if you keep most of them on end rather than laying them flat.

Curried Chicken Salad

This recipe is a riff on Thai Curried Fried Rice. That classic Thai restaurant preparation uses Indian curry powder (not Thai curry paste) and pineapple. Curry goes great with the chicken and fruit in the salad.

This recipe also gives us the opportunity to introduce the extremely useful technique of cooking chicken in a microwave. You can get pre-cooked chicken in most supermarkets, but it is quick and easy to cook it for yourself. It’s cheaper and you know the chicken isn’t “enhanced” with lots of salt and preservatives.

Curried Chicken Salad

Makes 2 servings

1½ cups chopped chilled cooked chicken breast (about 8 ounces)

½ cup halved seedless red grapes

½ cup diced apple

2 Tablespoon diced pineapple (canned is fine)

1 Tablespoon raisins (or one small kid’s box)

3 Tablespoon mayonnaise

1 tsp honey

½ teaspoon curry powder

½ teaspoon lemon juice

⅛ teaspoon salt

⅛ teaspoon pepper

1 Tablespoon sliced or slivered almonds, toasted at 300 F° for 5 minutes and cooled

Combine first 5 ingredients (chicken through raisins) in a large bowl.  In another bowl, combine mayonnaise and next 5 ingredients (through pepper) stirring with a whisk.  Pour mayonnaise mixture over chicken mixture, toss gently to coat.  Sprinkle with almonds.  The amounts are approximate, so use as much or as little as you like.  And, getting the fruit and chicken at a salad bar is a great way to get just as much as you need.

Tip

To microwave chicken:  Put chicken in a glass dish and cover with plastic wrap, leaving a corner open to let out the steam. Cook on high power. The time depends on the size of the chicken breast.

·      4-6 minutes for 1 boneless skinless chicken breast

·      7-9 minutes for 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

·      10-12 minutes for 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Turn it 180 degrees halfway through cooking.  After cooking, let stand 5 minutes before removing the plastic wrap. Open the wrap away from you so you don’t burn yourself with the steam. Cut chicken to check that the chicken is cooked all the way through. Times here assume a high-powered microwave; your mileage may vary. Season cooked chicken with a sprinkle of salt and black pepper. Chill before using in salad.