Finding the chase and cutting to it

How on a minute, is there something you want to tell me?

What do you mean?

Well, you’ve blogged once in a blue moon the past year and this week, this is your fourth…

Oh, I had an operation last week and while I am not up to my usual fettle (I am sleeping nearly 9 hours a day at the moment), it’s a bit boring.  I am not up to the normal hurly burly of my job yet, but it is nice to catch up…   May I get back to the story, please?

OK, yes, please do.  What do you want to talk about?

Culinary adventures

I’m going to let words paint a picture (as I didn’t get my camera phone out in time): steamed salmon fillets with egg fried rice.

The solar cells are outputting an average 1kWh and our smart meter (and my blood glucose meter) suggest now is the time to cook this feast.

Sunday lunch is a big thing in our house.  We cook from scratch, something we love.  If there are three of us (as a min) we do the whole roast thing, but my husband is out and about today.

So what?

I’m setting the scene.  The great thing about this meal is that it takes less than 15 minutes, has some manual intervention but is otherwise simple.

Boil the water, add the rice, 5minutes later add the frozen peas and chop up some baby sweetcorn and add that a minute later.  Put on the microwave steamer with turbo cook: salmon for two is typically 220grams,so takes just under 6 minutes.

Fry up some spring onions or a finely chopped small onion.  When pinger goes for rice, drain rice and veggies and add an egg to the onions then tip in the rice and peas and baby sweetcorn.

When the pinger goes on the microwave, serve up the egg fried rice and salmon.  Tasty, simple, quick.  Not too bad on the washing up, especially if you do it while the plates are still warm.

So what?

This peaks out at 3.5kWh!  True the whole thing only takes 12 mins in total to cook, but that was a bit of a surprise.

3.5kWh for 10 minutes is 0.6 of a unit (8p), but still!  Boiled rice and vegetables would have been a maximum of 2.2kWh.

Should restaurants and ready meals take this into account for each dish to help us make ecological choices?  Should we do that ourselves on top of our other eco choices?

Microwaves are incrediably efficient – they do not heat anything up, but vibrate water.  I love them for cooking fish, I can cook a trout in 2minutes in my microwave and it’s delicious perfection.  As a student, this gave me high nutrition (especially protein and low in fat), was a bit special and simple to do.

Compared to a chop, it’s a bargin not only to buy but also to cook.