Friday 29 May 2009

one-ring cooking

Having used the Remoska oven pot a few times (largely roast veg with chickpeas & herbs, and in one successful experiment adding a bit of tomato puree to that), it reminded me of previous thoughts about how many- most, in fact - use two or even three separate heat sources. It's difficult to generalise, but on full a cooker ring or oven can take around 2kW, and induction hobs and fan ovens more, as far as I can work out.

If cooking for several people it's probably reasonable, but for smaller meals I'm looking for meals that all happen in the same pan, or at least heat source. Obvious things are bakes/roasts/crumbles, as above, and soups (although in both cases it's worth taking into account how long each needs on the heat). One problem with curry type meals is that there's frying & boiling needed - I must look into how a biryani is made, I assume cooking the rice separately, but not necessarily. I've personally yet to eat an enjoyable rissotto/paella, but it's a thought too.

I try to stay pragmatic about energy use rather than be obsessive, but it does no harm to consider the options, especially when, frankly, I'm cooking for one, and eat to live rather than live to eat.

Thoughts/suggestions about things to try?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A stacking steamer is a useful thing for cooking several things on one hob, while still being able to take them out separately from everything else once they're ready.