Use your microwave more. Here are a couple of things which save me a lot of time:
Pile plain raw spinach on a china plate and pop it into the micro for one minute. It will come out nicely wilted/parcooked and ready to toss with a bit of olive oil and garlic as your side dish, or to chop up for addition to omelettes.
Finely dice mushrooms and microwave them with a little salt no added oil or fat. They are damp enough to cook in their own juice, and this is a good low calorie addition to your omelette or scrambled eggs at breakfast.
If you decide only after starting a cooked dish that you’d like to add some sauteed onion or garlic, no need to dirty up another skillet. Dice up the onion or garlic, put it in a small bowl with a little oil or butter, and give it 30 seconds in the microwave. It’s a very close approximation of sauteed.
Melt a couple of tablespoons of butter in the micro, then mix into it two tablespoons of flour and give it about 20 more seconds. It will fluff up into a chunky, crumbly mixture. Voila - you have instant blond roux, ready to thicken soups or stews.
They are fully cooked! If you have noodles as your last layer, you have to put a lot of sauce on top or THAT particular layer may not cook at the edges. But I like a bit of crunch now and then
I fully agree with MissRancher. I haven’t pre-boiled a noodle for lasagna in years. When I make lasagna, I make 4-5 large pans worth, and 4-5 ‘loaf pans’ at the same time. The no-boil method (with standard noodles) makes this infinitely easier.
I make my sauce a bit more “watery” than it would be if I pre-boil, but the extra water gets absorbed, and the noodles are perfectly al-dente when served. Once built, prior to my final layer of sauce & cheese on the top, I press down on the last layer to spread the liquids inside around, and compress out any air spaces.
My other lasagna secret is to add some of the red sauce to the ricotta prior to layering it in. I can’t stand large dry clumps of ricotta in my lasagna, and the sauce does wonders to blend the flavors throughout the entire recipe. Lots of meat as well between the layers.
I like to chop up celery by just chopping it off the whole stalk, instead of individual ribs at a time. Saves time! I usually only see dirt at the root end anyway.
Speaking of ricotta cheese: this is my “secret ingredient” in spaghetti sauce. You can notice very fine light speckles in the finished sauce, but it’s not weird looking, and it tastes oh so yummy. (I use a whole container, of the non-huge size.)
I open one end, them poke a hole in the opposite end. Put the can to your lips and blow, the cylinder of paste slides out with a delightful wet ploppy gurgle sound. Also works great with refried beans.
When I cook with minced lamb (shepherd’s pie, for example), I always toss in a handful of rolled oats to thicken the gravy - it works really well, both practically and aesthetically
Ugh. Sorry to jump on you, but THIS sounds like heresy more than slicing tomatoes with a bread knife. Part of what makes a roux a roux is the browning. And you will never brown anything by microwaving it.
Just crack out the cast iron skillet and make roux the way God intended.
Yes, I did notice that. But there is a difference between white roux and blond roux. You probably should have called what you make a white roux. Blond roux has a small level of browning. Even white roux has a short amount of browning. And I can honestly think of no circumstances where you are better off using a white roux than a more browned roux. Unbrowned flour tastes raw. A small amount of browning is always a good thing.
My contribution to this thread is to microwave scrambled eggs instead of using a skillet. You’ll get a fluffier, larger serving of eggs. Melt a small amount of butter and swirl it around a 1 quart measuring glass. Break both eggs into the container and whip with a fork till both the yolk and white are very well distributed. Place container in microwave and cook 2 minutes on high. Take out the eggs and inspect the egss. If needed, microwave an additional minute until eggs are done the way you like them. When finished, slide the egss onto your plate and add your choice of seasoning agent onto the eggs. Enjoy.
Add-on to the ‘clean as you go’ : use a grocery-store plastic bag for a garbage sack instead of jumping back and forth to the garbage can, as you cook. If your cabinets have accomodating knobs, it’s easy to hang one in front of you and toss veggie ends, used paper towels etc. in it. At the end of your cooking session, toss in the regular garbage.
Anyone skin tomates? If you’ll dip your tomato in boiling water for a few seconds, the skin will crack and you can slip it right off.
Re Microwave Roux: A friend of mine from Opelousas gave me her recipe for microwave roux. I promise you, it turns out rich choclate brown. It calls for equal parts oil and flour - the hot oil does brown the flour. And it takes less than 10 minutes.
This is weird. Maybe somebody can give me some 3-D tips about recipe writing?
What I mean is-- let’s say I have a watermelon, and I want to cut it off the traditional horizonatal, and instead the vertical-- how do I express this in common coordinates. I like to take a cross section of the melon cut out the circle of melon from the rind and coarse dice. A practical tip for melonmen, slicing and dicing for fruit salads everywhe, 2 inch bias slices, traced the rind, and removed are quicker melons to serve.
Also, when cutting a melon longitudinally, it is helpful to lop off the rind on a side and provide a plane to upright and steadybase the melon for slicing.
