Hensperger - Not your mothers microwave cookbook: fresh, delicious, and wholesome main dishes, snacks, sides, desserts, and more

THE HARVARD COMMON PRESS
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Boston, Massachusetts 02118
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Copyright 2010 by Beth Hensperger
Cover photographs copyright 2010 by Joyce Oudkerk Pool

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
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information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America
Printed on acid-free paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hensperger, Beth.
Not your mother's microwave cookbook : fresh, delicious, and wholesome main dishes,
snacks, sides, desserts, and more / Beth Hensperger.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-55832-418-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-55832-419-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Microwave cookery. I. Title.
TX832.H45 2010
641.5'882dc22 2009035000

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Cover recipe: Salmon with Crme Frache and Dill in Parchment ()
Spine recipe: Vegetable Kabobs ()
Back cover recipes: Mixed Vegetable Risotto with Fontina ()

Book design by Ralph Fowler / rlf design
Cover photographs by Joyce Oudkerk Pool
Food styling by Jen Straus

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Not Your Mother's is a registered trademark of The Harvard Common Press.

For my father,
Edward Hensperger,
microwave engineer

Writing a cookbook is not a solitary endeavor, so I would like to express my appreciation to the people who contributed to this book and shared their expertise and excellent taste. I would like to thank Peggy Fallon of Dacor Appliances, for her salad; Carolyn Jung, the talented food writer, for her dad's chicken; Robert Lambert, for his expert chocolate sauce; Jacquie Higuera McMahan, for her Mexican palate; Victoria Wise, for the idea of a microwave yogurt bchamel sauce; the generous happy cook Dolores Kostelni; Phyllis Hensperger, for sharing her knowledge about and skill with vegetables, and for her springtime strawberry jam and vanilla custard for trifle; Valerie Cimino, for the care and detail she provides that make me feel like I have my own personal editor; and copyeditor Christine Corcoran Cox.

Microwave ovens have become an essential part of modern lifeeven for those people who do not consider themselves cooks. Microwave cooking, especially using the ovens sold today, is a convenient and safe method of food preparation. Not Your Mother's Microwave Cookbook offers more than 125 recipes with the goal of empowering you to prepare delicious, healthful meals every day.

According to a survey by Panasonic's Home Appliance Group, only one-third of people who own microwave ovens use their microwaves for cooking beyond reheating food. Since most American households have a microwave, even one-third of users equals lots of people who are turning to the microwave for more than just reheating. Let's all follow their lead! Once you learn the basics and understand both the advantages and the limitations of this method of cooking, you'll find that microwaves are incredibly versatile and an invaluable tool in your kitchen.

The microwave is famous for a few elementary kitchen tasks, such as heating up leftovers and cold coffee, boiling water for tea, rewarming take-out food, heating canned soup, making instant oatmeal, popping popcorn, and cooking frozen dinners. But the microwave can also keep up with any top-of-the-line restaurant range in turning out stylish, sophisticated dishes.

Not Your Mother's Microwave Cookbook takes a middle-of-the-road approach to meal preparation. I want to get you fed, and fed well, without spending all day in the kitchen! Save the fast food for when you really have no time to cook a proper meal. Despite today's busy lifestyles, we all want nourishing, delicious, home-cooked meals. I will teach you to take advantage of the microwave's exceptional convenience to prepare quick, tasty microwave meals from scratch in less than 30 minutes. When confronted with a recipe with too many ingredients and that seems to require fancy culinary skills, most people just give up. I wrote this cookbook with ease in mind, with recipes that are simple and centered around just a few fresh, good-tasting ingredients.

These recipes focus on what the microwave does best, from hot breakfast cereals to soups to vegetables to fish and poultry to poached fruit and jams. The microwave can simmer, steam, boil, reheat, reduce, poach, and braise. The key to producing greattasting dishes is to use flavorful broths, juices, sauces, and herbs. Fish cooks better and with less fuss in the microwave than by any other method. Polenta and risotto can become standard fare any day of the week instead of special-occasion foods, thanks to the microwave's elimination of these dishes' traditionally long preparation times. And would you believe that the microwave can produce a homemade tomato sauce for pasta in less than 10 minutes? Cooking vegetables is probably the best job the microwave can do. All vegetables steam well since they contain a large quantity of water. Carrots, parsnips, and asparagus become aromatic and tender in the microwave. Greens become smooth, sweet, and velvety. Broccoli keeps its bright green color. Corn on the cob retains its essential sweetness. And with the microwave, you don't need to add much (if any) fat or salt, enabling you to feed the kids wholesome food they will enjoy and can easily learn to cook for themselves one day.

You do not need to know how a microwave oven works to cook with it, according to Carl Jerome, cooking assistant to iconic chef James Beard and one of the microwave-cooking experts of the 1980s and 1990s. When I first heard this statement, it released me from worrying about whether I could be a great microwave cook without understanding the scientific principles behind the microwave-cooking process. You might feel the same way, but if you're curious about what is actually going on in the microwave once you hit the Start button, here are the basics.

First, micro means smallin this case, 3 to 5 inches in length and as big as your finger. Microwaves are waves of energy, not heat. Microwaves are small electromagnetic radiations, colorless, odorless, and tasteless, entering the oven through the magnetron tube and traveling at the speed of light. These ripply waves cause water or fat molecules to vibrate at a higher frequency (billions of times per second), resulting in the generation of heat. This is the reason we cook in the microwave by time and volume rather than by temperature.

Inside each microwave is a tube called the magnetron, which is the heart of the oven, converting regular electricity into high-frequency microwaves. When the waves reach the oven, they are distributed by a stirrer fan. The moisture in food absorbs them and creates friction through the vibration of the molecules, which cooks the food. The cooking process thus begins from the outside and penetrates inward. The air in the oven doesn't get hot (although heat buildup in the food from extended cooking times does, of course, occur), so the entire oven stays cool.

Microwaves are non-ionizing radiant energy in the same family as radio waves. This is a different type of wave from X-rays, which cause a chemical change. This is an important difference, since it means microwaves do not accumulate or leave any residue in food, air, or the body. Food cooked inside a microwave oven does not present any sort of radiation risk, despite the ubiquitous use of the word "nuked" to describe microwaved food. This is because microwaves cease to exist as soon as the power is turned off. Since these radiations are non-ionizing, they are not capable of changing the basic structure of any molecule to any extent. The moment you open the microwave door, the waves are already completely gone. There are special door seals to prevent leakage, so a microwave in the process of cooking is totally safe.