One for everything and everyone – Cooking on a stove

If you don’t have room for fancyappetizers like grills, toasters, steamers, waffle makers and espresso makers, remember that you can just as easily cook on the stove, as long as you know how to use it properly.

Steam it and don’t sweat it

I’m always on the lookout for new culinary innovations. At one time I was introduced to steamers and realized that I really wanted to try making steamed cutlets or diet fish.

But it did not come to the purchase of an electric steamer, as I discovered its simplest substitute – a pot-

Steamer.

This is an ordinary stainless steel pot with one or two inserts and a lid, the price ranges from 900 to 3000 Dollars. The system is very simple: we fill the pot with water, put the food on the inserts, close the lid and put it on the fire. The bottom of these inserts are perforated and easily let steam through.

Compared to cooking with an electric appliance, there is one disadvantage – the lack of automation: a timer with shutoff and water level control. But in fact, I myself can’t tell you exactly how many minutes it takes to make rolls or chicken legs, so it’s not a loss for me.

The water level is also not a critical parameter, there is enough water in my pot, I never even had to add more water.

The pluses are much more tangible for me. First, I have a gas stove, so the additional expense of electricity for me is not really rational, unlike the gas.

The second – the dish is much easier to clean than parts of the electric cooker: dirt from stainless steel is easily and quickly removed. Third – if there is not enough space in your kitchen, steam cooker with all its equipment has to be placed somewhere, and a place for the pot is easy to find.

A kind of steam cooker is a mantovar – a pot used for preparing steamed mantles. The peculiarity of this cookware is that it offers more levels of cooking – either inserts with handles, or grids stacked inside, or both.

There will be not one or two, but three or four or more. Diameter mantovar can also exceed the standard size and is 28-36 cm.

All the fun of the grill

Another device that once captured my imagination was the grill. How appetizing do roasted on it look?

pieces of meat and poultry, and the cooking process is somehow more entertaining – more like a picnic! But again, an alternative was found in the cookware department – a special grill pan. Price from 1.5 thousand. Dollars.

Grill pans are made of cast iron and cast aluminum, are substantial weight and mass – all for a smooth, gentle transfer of heat to the products.

Bottom of the frying pans is ribbed, when frying it turns out that the food is not lying on the bottom in the oil or own juice, but on these very ribs, and the frying comes from the heat rising from below.

Thus, the cooking process is frying, but quite dietary. Meat, fish, vegetables are crusted with visible ribbing and retain juiciness inside.

Grill pans come in round, square or oval shapes. Can be non-stick coated. Frying on them is made according to simple rules.

Ribs of the dish wipe with oil but this is not necessary, it can not be used at all and put on the fire, the pan should warm up very well especially cast-iron , then the flame is reduced to medium and a little later lay out the products.

Ideally, they only need to be turned once. Meat and fish frying takes approximately 3-5 minutes each. On one side, vegetables – depending on the consistency: zucchini, peppers, eggplant, corn cobs – 1-3 min., Potatoes especially young ones take longer to cook.

Preparation of food is also important. Some of them are marinated – kept in compositions based on seasoned oil and herbs, sour cream, lemon juice or vinegar.

Before laying, they need to be well dried with a paper towel or kitchen towel except for buttery ones , no need to salt them so that there is no juice. If the juice did go, it is better to drain it immediately, but most pans have a special spout for this.

Multipurpose frying

The oven grill works a little differently: grilling in it gives different flavor nuances, and most importantly – the possibilities are also different.

The oven grill is quite a substitute for the toaster. Sure, this tiny wonder makes croutons quickly and hassle-free, but not every family is willing to buy another extra appliance for a couple of toasts.

And the ability of the oven is wider: it can fry bread for breakfast in just 4-5 minutes, make hot sandwiches with a variety of fillings and cheese, not fry slices of bread, and whole buns and not heat them up, like a toaster .

Oven grill – the alternative to the roaster. Meat dishes, sausages, sausages and chicken with it turn out wonderfully. And if you have skewers and a grill at home, you can cook dishes a la dacha: kebabs, fish with smoke, marinated chicken.

Cooking slowly but surely

Another miracle of modern technology – slow cooker, a special device that allows you to cook at a temperature of 80-90 degrees without hurrying, but extremely delicious, while carefully preserving the aromas, juice and all the usefulness of the product.

You can take advantage of the delights of slow cooking by acquiring a cast-iron, deep saucepan, or pot of

Cast-iron pots. Cooking in it is extremely pleasant: it gives the feeling of continuity, archaic, and warm.

This type of pot is very massive and heavy weighs from 3 to 6 kg ! , and therefore knows how to transfer the heat to the food particularly delicately, so that it achieves the necessary effect of cooking, like in a stone oven.

The pot must have a lid, and you can choose from round or oval-shaped duck-bowl pots. Sometimes the dishes have a vitreous enamel coating that makes them easy to clean. As you understand, the stockpot is practically eternal, and it’s easy to inherit it. So, do not be surprised at prices between 3 and 20 thousand Dollars for a slow cooker. RUR. but you can also buy it for 900 Dollars . .

For slow cooking you can use both the hob and the oven. The principle is very simple: first, strongly heat the dish, then lower the temperature and leave it to simmer for a few hours.

In addition to cast iron, you can also use heat-resistant ceramics and glass – serving pots and general pots with lids. They are designed exclusively for ovens.

A special treat

A variety of small appliances can be useful for lovers of different desserts. Although many of them we

Can make on your own stove, such as nuts with cream or waffles beloved from childhood.

In Soviet times, many housewives had special devices – double-sided forms for cooking on the stove. Nowadays they sell these things too. The pluses of buying them are obvious: an affordable price about 500-700 rub. , compactness especially important if you don’t use it that often , ease of use and, of course, nostalgia.

Get ready for winter

The stove will help to prepare the gifts of the country and the forest for long-term storage.

On the stove, you can make juice the way our grandmothers used to make it. A juice maker – a multi-tiered dish – will help

Made of stainless steel or aluminum cost from 1000 Dollars . . It’s similar to a steam cooker in design – a large pot, three levels. The lower level is for water, it turns into steam when heated and rises to the top through a tube .

On the last “floor” on the perforated insert put berries, slices of pears, apples, tangerines. Under the influence of steam, they give the juice, which collects in the middle compartment and drains out through a tube.

Juice Maker makes it possible to make large amounts of juice, which directly in the process of obtaining is the heat treatment, which means additional pasteurize or boil it is not necessary. Juice can be immediately poured into sterile jars and covered with lids for long term storage.

By the way, sterilizing jars is another function that the stove can handle. Clean jars put on a tray and send to the oven. We turn on the heat to 150 degrees and leave it for 15-20 minutes.

Jars, already filled with different delicacies – tomatoes and crunchy cucumbers, lettuce and lecho – also need to be sterilized. We take a large and high pan, put a towel on the bottom, put the jars and pour water on the shoulders with the same temperature as their contents, turn on the heat, and keep for about 15 minutes.

And dry!

It is convenient to dry herbs, mushrooms and apples in the stove oven. Prepare the products for drying, wash mushrooms do not need to be washed – only cleaned , dry with a towel, cut up. The slices should be rather thin – 5-7 mm.

Lining the tray with cooking paper and on it spread the products in a thin layer. Temperature mode for vegetables and fruits 80-100 degrees plus – the ability to use a fan . Drying should be done with the oven ajar, juicy foods should be stirred occasionally.

When most of the moisture is gone, you need to reduce the temperature to 60-70 degrees and keep until completely dry. The whole process takes 5 hours for carrots, 8-9 hours for tomatoes, 6-10 hours for apples, prunes, pears and mushrooms, 12 hours for apricots, raspberries, strawberries, cherries.

For quality drying of mushrooms first set a temperature of 50 degrees, then after 2-3 hours bring up to 80.

Drying herbs goes faster – about 4-5 hours, the temperature is set at about 50 degrees for parsley and celery – 70 degrees .

…And have a cup of coffee

A coffee machine is a device which gives a lot of pleasure to its owner, because it offers a special drink

High-pressure espresso coffee.

You can also prepare such a wonderful drink on the stove, as the hostesses in Italy and Spain do, espresso coffee makers are used for this purpose. This device looks like a small kettle and consists of three parts: the lower one is filled with water, the middle one with ground coffee, and the upper one contains the beverage.

When the coffee maker is on the stove, the water in it is heated and flows through a spigot to the coffee under pressure, then the liquid collects in the top. Boiling coffee in such a thing takes only a few minutes. Coffee makers are made of cast aluminum and come in 1, 2, 4 and 6-cup sizes. Cost from 700 Dollars.