Unlocking the Power of Your Microwave: Fast & Flavorful Meals

00:00:00.000 | Most people think the microwave is like a quick place to reheat leftovers. I, in the last week,

00:00:04.720 | have talked to a handful of people. All of them seemed like it was crazy when I told them we were

00:00:08.800 | cooking full meals in the microwave with like meat and fish. So what do you want to tell these people

00:00:15.120 | that think the microwave is not a way to cook? Because I think you've said it's the single

00:00:20.320 | best piece of equipment you have in your kitchen. I mean, it's a joke. It's like culinary arbitrage.

00:00:24.960 | It's in like 91% of all US households collecting dust. And if people use it, it's usually for

00:00:31.440 | popcorn or for reheating leftovers or a mug of water for something. And the reality is,

00:00:38.720 | I mean, it's not a joke. You press a button and things get hot. It's like the most magical

00:00:47.200 | element I could possibly think of. It's unfortunate that the UX and the UI is so bad on microwaves

00:00:55.440 | across the board and the marketing of it, because if the microwave technology came out today, I don't

00:01:00.560 | think you'd call it a microwave. That's what happens when you leave it to the military to

00:01:03.920 | come up with sort of marketing. It'd probably be called the turbo chef, right? Because that's what

00:01:11.120 | you use when you go into a Starbucks and they reheat all your food. It's a convection oven and

00:01:14.560 | a microwave, but it's called a turbo chef. And that's going to be coming to a kitchen near you.

00:01:19.200 | And it's going to be marketed as the new convection oven that's going to dramatically top off 75% of

00:01:24.080 | your cooking time. And it will conveniently drop that it's using microwave technology to cook your

00:01:30.560 | food faster. People are using microwaves all the time, but when they go out to eat, they may not

00:01:35.920 | realize it. But ultimately, if you understand the science, you're using microwaves to effectively

00:01:43.200 | heat the water molecules inherent in foods. And that's all that's happening. And it's steaming in

00:01:50.560 | and of itself. So it's the most energy efficient way of cooking. I think the data will start to

00:01:57.520 | come out that it's probably again, if you cook for two hours, it's probably not right for the

00:02:03.360 | microwave, right? But for cooking, like, say, blanching some broccoli or something like that,

00:02:09.520 | why would I take four liters of water take 12 minutes to bring that to a boil,

00:02:14.960 | steam or boil my broccoli when I could do that in five minutes in a microwave, it's just

00:02:20.320 | more energy efficient. Number one, number two, it's going to be the most nutrient dense way of

00:02:26.960 | preserving all the stuff in your food, because there's no osmosis, there's nothing happening

00:02:31.440 | where you're going to lose any flavor or any nutrients to the water or to the outside environment.

00:02:38.400 | So three, there's like, you can cook cleaner than anything else. I don't have to add anything

00:02:44.640 | to a microwave, right? Like, I don't have that oil, I don't have that fat. So it's

00:02:49.760 | theoretically, because you can make delicious things with no fats whatsoever. Basically,

00:02:54.960 | it's really good for anything that doesn't need to be crispy, right? Or long braise, for that

00:03:00.960 | matter, we're trying to break down, you know, muscle fibers, etc. So most people would think

00:03:06.240 | that it's crazy to cook a lobster in a microwave. Right? They'd say that's insane. That's the

00:03:11.600 | dumbest thing I've ever heard. And trust me, I used to be one of those people and tell like,

00:03:14.640 | like, Oh, yeah, the science sort of makes sense. And not the science doesn't make just a sort of

00:03:19.120 | sense. It makes a lot of sense. And I'd argue that you could butter poach a lobster in the

00:03:24.960 | microwave within any day better than you could, and more consistently than any other way of cooking

00:03:30.720 | lobster. That's crazy. I haven't I haven't made it to that point. And for anyone listening that

00:03:35.600 | isn't familiar with any day, it's a set of microwave cookware. That is not just for the

00:03:40.720 | microwave. The one thing you didn't put in your points was the thing you're cooking with is also

00:03:45.920 | the thing that you can store leftovers with and the thing that you can put on the plate to serve

00:03:50.000 | with. And you can and you can put it in an oven, you know, so it's like, so this morning, I just

00:03:54.960 | made I had a package of Korean wheat noodles, fresh noodles. I had a package of like one and a

00:04:03.120 | half pounds of frozen chicken thighs. I had some leftover shiitake mushrooms, I had a couple cloves

00:04:07.920 | of garlic. We're leaving town on Friday. So I just want to use all the stuff we have in the house.

00:04:11.680 | And now that I'm at the office a lot more the studio, I'm cooking all my meals ahead of time.

00:04:18.000 | So my wife, whoever's at home, they can still have a freshly cooked meal, they're just reheating it

00:04:22.720 | usually in any day. So I took a large deep any day, I took out the chicken thighs, and I put it

00:04:31.680 | in them, I covered it in any day and I microwaved it for about seven and a half minutes. I took out a

00:04:37.600 | pair of scissors, and it's still raw in the center, right, this block of frozen chicken thighs,

00:04:43.680 | and I just cut it up. Again, seems insane. Taking scissors, you know, kitchen shears,

00:04:51.600 | and I'm cutting into little bits. The main reason why is as a home cook, I don't want to

00:04:56.400 | wash more dishes than I need to. I'm always worried about cross contamination with poultry.

00:05:01.120 | So it's not like I want to use chicken, put it on. So if I take the chicken raw, put it on a

00:05:07.280 | cutting board, I have now chicken all over my my hands, I'm going to cut it. So I have to wash the

00:05:12.880 | knife, I have to wash the cutting board, I have to wash my hands multiple times, if you're going

00:05:16.320 | to do it correctly. And now if I just do it in the any day, I don't even have to wash my hands,

00:05:20.880 | because I've never touched chicken, I put the lid on, cook it for about seven and a half minutes.

00:05:25.200 | So it's thawed out, but the center is still going to be raw. I'm going to I could cook it all the

00:05:30.160 | way, but there's no need. And so I'm taking frozen chicken. Usually, if I have to defrost it, that's

00:05:35.840 | at least a day. But you know, how else are you going to defrost it, you have to like just leave

00:05:40.400 | it out. So I've done that a seven and a half minutes defrosted. Now I've chopped it up in the

00:05:44.560 | bits. I've taken the garlic and I've taken the shiitake mushrooms, I've added some, you know,

00:05:49.200 | momo soy sauce, some dark soy sauce, some agave, some neutral oil, and I'm just sauteing that

00:05:55.520 | added some scallions. And as that's cooking, I added the my chopped chicken and all the juices

00:06:02.480 | that accumulated and pretty much saute that for like a minute. And then I add the noodles that I

00:06:08.720 | cooked, you know, reseason and I'm ready to go. Put it back into any day and they're going to

00:06:15.360 | reheat that for lunch. So again, is it pretty? Absolutely not. But I'm not like cooking for

00:06:23.840 | an audience other than my family. The final product looks delicious, tastes delicious, but

00:06:28.960 | you know, it was a roundabout way of getting there, but it was extremely quick. I cooked that

00:06:33.680 | in 10 minutes. You know, while the water was boiling, I microwaved the chicken. So to do

00:06:39.440 | a delicious dish in 10 minutes, I mean, it's hard to beat.

Unlocking the Power of Your Microwave: Fast & Flavorful Meals

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