Sarah Flower - Halogen Cooking For Two

The halogen has been promoted as a machine that cooks up to 40% quicker than conventional ovens, yet to me it is much more than that. It is incredibly energy-efficient. The halogens large glass bowl offers me a complete view of anything I cook. The oven steams, grills, bakes, roasts, defrosts and even washes itself. And one thing it is absolutely perfect for is cooking for two.

Once you have mastered the basics, this machine will change the way you work in your kitchen. When cooking for two, you no longer have to waste energy heating a conventional oven. You can create amazing dishes with the minimum of fuss, washing up and waste.

Most of my recipes are quick and easy to prepare and I like to keep to a simple style of cookery that brings tasty results without you getting too frazzled.

Many of my readers have contacted me to ask how they could adapt some of the core recipes featured in The Everyday HalogenOven Cookbook so that they could cook them for two people. I have carefully selected some of the most popular recipes from that book and reworked them to serve two. I have also included a large number of new and exciting recipes which work really well for two these form the majority of the recipes in this book. If you cant find your favourite recipe from my first book in the following pages but would like it adapted to serve two people please let me know via my website www.sarahflower.co.uk.

I am a great believer in making life easier and saving money where you can. I am, too, a great fan of making use of the fridge or freezer and planning ahead. I would also strongly advise doubling up some recipes, enabling you to eat one and freeze one for another meal. You may also find some of my other halogen books useful most recipes in these other books serve four but, with the eat one, freeze one principle, you can simply save time and create two meals in the time it takes to prepare one.

I hope you enjoy this journey and if this book has whetted your appetite for halogen cookery, why not have a look at my other books in this series including The Everyday Halogen Oven Cookbook, Perfect Bakingyour Halogen Oven and the latest, The Everyday Family Halogen Cookbook.

If you have any questions about using your halogen oven or about any of the recipes in this book, please contact me through my website: www.sarahflower.co.uk

Good luck.

with As in my other halogen cookbooks, this first chapter shows newbie halogen oven users how to get the most from their machine. If you have bought another one of my books, you may want to skip this chapter as it contains duplicate information, or you might like to quickly scan it just to remind yourself of the joys of the halogen.

There are many different halogen ovens on the market, but they are basically all the same machine. The two main variations are the bowl size and whether the lid is on a hinge. My first machine was from JML when they first started to become popular. I was not really sure what to expect and, over time, it has gained more and more use in our home. Personally I would opt for the largest bowl as this increases the ovens usability. You can also purchase extenders, which can help maximise use. Extenders are metal rings that fit over the top of the halogen bowl, literally extending the height of the bowl and enabling you to fit more into your oven. The lid then fits on top of the extender. They are also useful if you want to keep the food away from the heating elements to prevent burning.

After using the JML, I progressed to use the Flavorwave Turbo Platinum Oven. Some of the advantages of this particular oven are that it has a hinged lid, digital settings, three-speed fan and a preheat setting.

Looking at online forums I have noticed that the lids do seem to be a bit of a bugbear. I used a lid stand positioned beside my JML machine, though annoyingly these are optional extras that you have to purchase and are quite flimsy to look at. Personally, I think it is better to buy the halogen cooker with the hinged lid if you can afford it this is definitely a safer and easier option. One particular reader, a gentleman in his eighties, phoned my publisher on using one of my other halogen cookbooks to find out where to buy a Flavorwave because he found the lid on his existing oven too heavy to keep lifting on and off. For that reason he wanted the hinged lid that the Flavorwave offers.

The halogen oven is basically a large glass bowl with an electric halogen lid. The lid is heavy as it contains the halogen element, timer and temperature settings. It can be fiddly to clean but I will come to that later. The halogen bulbs heat up the bowl and the fan moves the air around the bowl to create an even temperature. As it is smaller than a conventional oven, it heats up faster, reducing the need for long preheating and in some cases reducing the overall cooking time.

This makes it a very popular choice for those watching their pennies, living on their own or, like me, cooking for a busy family. It has even become a popular choice for students and caravanners. I read on a forum that some caravanners use the self-clean facility just like a mini dishwasher ingenious! It is also popular as a second oven and really becomes invaluable at busy times like Christmas.

For safety, the lids handle has to be securely fixed in place for the machine to switch on. This means that when you lift the lid, the oven is automatically switched off. If, however, you are using the Flavorwave machine with the hinged lid, you have to press the start button and remember to turn the machine off before you lift the lid.

The halogen does cook slightly differently to a conventional oven, so initial use often involves a process of trial and error, but it is not vastly different. If you have favourite recipes that you cook in the conventional oven, try them in the halogen. I find cooking at a slightly lower temperature or cooking for less time normally gives the same results, but hopefully this book will help give you more confidence.

The halogen oven is not a microwave and does not work in the same way as a microwave, so if you are thinking you can cook food in minutes you are wrong. It does however have a multitude of functions: defrosting, baking, grilling, roasting and steaming the halogen is perfect for all these. Remember that to get the optimum benefit, air needs to circulate around the bowl, so ideally place dishes and trays on racks and avoid the temptation to overfill.

This sounds obvious but make sure you have oven trays, baking sheets and casserole dishes that will fit inside your halogen oven. There are few things more frustrating than planning a meal and just at the last minute realising that your dish does not fit in the machine! You can use any ovenproof dish or tray metal, silicon and Pyrex are all fine. The halogen oven is round so it makes sense to look at trays and stands of the same shape, just smaller so you can remove them without burning yourself!

Out of everything, I think this is the halogens biggest drawback. When I first started using one, it was frustrating to find that 80% of my bakeware did not fit in the machine, but a quick revamp and purchase of the accessories proved invaluable. If money is tight, you will often find great casserole dishes at car boot sales or charity shops you dont have to spend a fortune on new cookware.

You can also buy an accessories pack, which contains steamer pans, grilling pans, toasting racks and even an extension ring. These are highly recommended if you use your oven regularly and certainly enhance what you can do with the machine. There are many websites selling or advertising these accessories, so a general internet search will point you in the right direction. Amazon is also a great place to look.