The Microwave

After thinking again about which tools I use most frequently. In this case, it was the microwave. It sometimes gets a bad reputation for reheating low-quality prepackaged food, but in my nearly daily usage, this has never really been the case. It solves my breakfast problem and is used for many other tasks. Its one of the kitchen tools that fully integrated in my daily routine.

My weekly lunch planning revolves around whether or not a food can be microwaved. It's pretty much the only way to reheat food. Though I may use the electric hot plates at some point to reheat corn tortillas. This means food that can be steamed (i.e. not something crispy) and that is not easily overcooked. When it comes to things like noodles and sauce, I try to keep them separate so that they don't turn into mush, but of course this doesn't always work. Also bringing sometimes three boxes to lunch is not really practical.

Besides that, it's great for quickly cooking ingredients, whether that's heating frozen peas, making a warm carrot salad or baking a quick cake. One fun thing is, if you want the crunch of a raw onion but not the raw flavour, microwave it for about 30 seconds to mellow the flavour. This is great in salads, for example. Do you have any unconventional uses for the microwave?