Lynn Alley - The Gourmet Toaster Oven Simple and Sophisticated Meals for the Busy Cook

Copyright 2005 by Lynn Alley
Photography copyright 2005 by Joyce Oudkerk Pool

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Alley, Lynn.
The gourmet toaster oven: simple and sophisticated meals for the busy cook / Lynn Alley.
p. cm.
Includes index.
1. Toaster oven cookery. I. Title.
TX840.T63A44 2005
641.589dc22 2005048619

eISBN: 978-1-60774-164-0

Cover and text design by Catherine Jacobes Design
Food styling by Andrea Lucich
Food styling assistance by Lorraine Battle

v3.1

To Mwith love as always

To the gang at Ten Speed Press, the most author-friendly publishing house I know. Thanks to Phil Wood and Lorena Jones for once again believing in me and one of my projects. Thanks to Carrie Rodrigues for a great and patient editing job. Thanks to Mark Anderson and Dennis Hayes for selling it, to Kristin Bryan Casemore for publicizing it, and never let me forget Kristine Standley for paying me!

To my mom, Margaret Zink, who fortuitously fried my conventional oven, leaving me with no means of baking potatoes or bread and thus initiated the hunt for the perfect toaster oven.

And once again, to my eager neighbors, who are always willing to stop by for something new: Helen Mildner, Marie Pike, Rosella Heffner, and Bob, Ernest, and Paul Tassoni.

To Lad and Crystal, my best buds, ever present in my home and always loving me unconditionally, whether in the loping, slobbering way of dogs or the elegant, arrogant, detached way of cats.

To those purveyors who generously supplied equipment and technical information and backup: Catherine Bourdais from Staub USA, Karen Kazam and Judy Mora at DeLonghi, Le Creuset, Tufty Ceramics, Krups, Black and Decker, and Cuisinart.

Many years ago, while I was in college, I rented a room in a beautiful old house in Berkeley. Stephen Felgar, a quiet, scholarly astronomy student, rented the room next to mine.

In the days before running had become fashionable, Felgar would run a good six miles every afternoon. When he returned home from his run, hed slather up a piece of white bread with a thick coating of peanut butter and toast it until bubbly in his toaster oven. No one ever saw Felgar eat anything but hot peanut butter sandwiches.

Like Felgar, most of us have a pretty limited repertoire of toaster oven dishes. We melt cheese on toast or English muffins, heat tortillas, and occasionally heat up a TV dinner or a Hot Pocket.

But for me, all of that changed when my mother picked me up at the airport one day and announced that she had accidentally turned the microwave on for fifteen minutes with nothing in it, thinking she had turned on the timer. As a result, the floor and door of the microwave had melted, turned black, and begun smoking. Since the microwave and the oven were in one piece, I knew the whole bundle would have to be taken out and trashed.

Within a week of my return, the old microwave and stove had been pulled out of the kitchen and a gaping hole remained where they once stood.

Mom and I went shopping together, and after weeks of looking, I finally lost my heart to a Jenn-Air Pro-Style downdraft, dual-fuel, top-of-the-line range with a grill on top. I had visions of grilling freshly made pitas or naan, veggies from the garden, and anything else that would not splatter grease all over my shiny new range. Unfortunately, the dealer didnt have one in stock, so the stoves ETA would be at least three more weeks down the road.

Sure, I had a battery of slow cookers left over from research on my last cookbook, but you cant bake good bread in a slow cooker. I had wanted to get a new toaster oven for a long time, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do it. (My former toaster oven, a good one but decrepit with age, had recently dropped its door on my foot.) So, with scientific fervor, I read up on the subject and went comparison shopping for a toaster oven that would meet my needs.

I also began to wonder if it might be possible to take a toaster oven, like a slow cooker, uptown. From toast to, say, .

And just as I set about answering these questions and wondering if such a book might appeal to the gourmet reader, Sam Gugino, the Wine Spectators food columnist, ran a column about the comparative merits of toaster ovensan act that in my mind officially elevated the toaster oven from the realm of the lonely-pensioner-in-a-tiny-apartment or the bachelor-who-lives-on-toasted-peanut-butter-sandwiches to the affluent, upscale theres-only-one-or-two-of-us-in-the-kitchen-and-were-busy crowd. Of course, theres also the sophisticated-college-student crowd, the gourmets-on-the-yacht, the cabin-by-the-lake crowd, and the happy singles (whether retired or working), and let us not forget the growing number of owners of upscale RVs who might want to venture into the gourmet realm with this handy little device. The toaster oven, like the slow cooker, is perfect for numerous small venues.

Whats so useful about a toaster oven? Here are some of the reasons why toaster ovens make good sense:

* They take up less space.

* They preheat quickly (5 minutes or less).

* They cook small quantities more efficiently.

* They use anywhere from to the energy a conventional oven uses.

* Theyre generally easy to clean.

* Theyre cheaper than conventional ovens.

* They wont heat up the whole kitchen or house on a hot day.

* They may include rotisserie or dehydrating attachments.

* Most have a large window allowing for a clear view of the ovens contents.

* Theyre portable.

* Some models can be suspended underneath the kitchen cabinets.

In contrast to old-style toaster ovens, whose primary job was to toast bread, melt cheese on English muffins, or heat up TV dinners, modern toaster ovens offer a larger capacity, convection baking, and even rotisserie attachments. In addition, most modern toaster ovens maintain cooler exterior surfaces and are a cinch to clean.

What youll find in this book are some of the fruits of my foray into the world of the toaster oven. These are dishes I like to eat and that I think real people like to eat. In most cases, the number of ingredients and the work involved are minimal, but the results should be something youll be proud to serve and happy to eat.

Here are some unique ideas for making the most of your toaster oven.

* You can make a huge batch of cookie dough, then put individual scoops on a cookie sheet as if you were going to bake them, but freeze them instead. Once they are frozen, toss them in a freezer-weight plastic bag to keep in your freezer. Then, any time you want fresh cookies, just pull out one or two at a time to bake and eat them hot out of the toaster oven. (See the chapter.)