Obviously great for heating up leftovers, frozen meals, etc, but it generally gets a bad rap in the culinary world. However, I’ve noticed more chefs using the microwave when cooking - David Chang is a big fan of them. Many use them to help with prep.
As a home cook, I find that it saves time. I will often pre-cook veggies in microwave before putting them in a pan with oil. This works really well with Brussels sprouts. I’ve also microwaved a whole head of cauliflower before drizzling it with oil and spices and blasting it in a hot oven to get color on the exterior. Potatoes are also great in the microwave.
Do any of you use the microwave when cooking?
Edit: I forgot to mention one of my favorite uses for the microwave in cooking - for frying shallots and garlic!
https://www.seriouseats.com/fry-garlic-shallots-in-microwave
It’s great for streaming raw vegetables. Put in plastic bag and nuke for 60s followed by 10s at a time till just steamed
If you want a scrambled egg patty for like a breakfast sandwich or something, the microwave is fine. Beat the egg, add a splash of water to lighten it up, and then dump it into a container with a diameter that matches your desired sandwich size.
Microwave until patty is cooked. It’s fine, tastes like egg, has the appropriate texture.
You already mentioned them but potatoes are damn decent if you don’t want to take 40+ minutes to oven bake one. Also I find it hard to balance crisping the outside while not turning the inside to mush in an oven. Microwaved potato skin doesn’t crisp but it stays soft and very easy to cut through.
I’m also guilty of using it to defrost meat when I forget to thaw it overnight.
Yes, it’s way faster than the oven! If you have an air fryer, you can put a bit of oil on the potatoes after microwaving them and pop them in the air fryer at a high temp til crisp.
Something I like to do sometimes is to microwave the potatoes, break them apart into chunks, spritz with oil, season, and air fry to brown them and get them crispy.
I use a combination of my microwave and air fryer a lot. Especially for reheating. When I want something to be hot, but also crispy on the outside, like pizza or burritos, I usually throw it in the mee-crow-wav-ay for a minute or 2 and then in the air fryer to finish it off. Works great for reheating things that have been fried. My latest tonkatsu and curry binge, I reheated the chicken this way a lot.
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm