วันเสาร์ที่ 28 กรกฎาคม พ.ศ. 2550

"Curver"-container exploded during first attempt to cook Thai

"Everything is impermanent", say the Buddhists. And so is my "Curver"-container (similar to Tupperware).
After having watched several videos on Thai cooking at youtube.com today, I decided to give it a try myself. The big advantage of videos in comparison to books is that you can actually observe the whole cooking procedure. Makes it easier to avoid mistakes.
Thus, highly enthusiastic and looking forward to my delicious Thai dessert tomorrow(sticky rice dessert), I started cooking around 9 pm (didn't get very far though).
I love sticky rice and I was quite surprised to hear that you do not have to soak it for a couple of hours as I always used to do. It is enough to leave it for 20 minutes in water, rinse the water but leave enough to microwave the rice in the following for about 10 minutes.
Quick and easy. Good news for me!

I made a very good start: the soaking went well! No problems (well, ok, I could have taken a larger bowl, but apart from that, no problems).
Then, I put the rice into the "Curver" container and closed the lid, which already seemed a bit odd to me, because as far as I know, the microwave heats up from inside and thus causing a big pressure if the air cannot exhaust anywhere. I remember what happens to "Super Dickmann's"



when you try to microwave them.

However - I trusted the Thai cook as she was the expert! So I closed the lid, set the clock on 10 minutes and started the microwave on full power (about 800 watt). After about 3 minutes I heard the first plopp. The lid popped up.
"Well", I thought "I knew this could never work. But well...now that the lid is open, everything will be fine. Yummy sticky rice is about to be ready soon!"

Instead of waiting in front of the microwave, staring into the window which - as mum always said - is not good for my eyes, I decided to go and brush my teeth in the meantime.
Being in the bath, I heard another plopp. This made me think...My feeling and the smell which did not come from my incense stick, made me go to the microwave and STARE INTO THE WINDOW.

Now that was fun. I could not at all remember having used my black sticky rice...

But this was not all. When I wanted to get the container with the burned rice out of the microwave, I got to know that it had actually melted and was glued to the microwave...The bottom was a big whole, the rice was black and reminded me of a brick. I assume, I could menace students with it if they do not do their homework properly ("Teacher throws sticky rice at student. Student dies!").

I wished I had a digicam on hand - I should post a picture to you AND THE THAI cook.
However, I still wanted to have this nice dessert and having destroyed one good container already (which is a big loss for me, because living in my first own appartement, I hardly have any kitchen utensils), why not giving it another try ;) .

The second time (400 Watt, 4 minutes) worked! :)
And my "curver"-box is the best example for the impermanence of things. As a monk once taught me: "Imagine you have a nice cup. Consider it as being broken right from the beginning, because once it breaks, you do not suffer from the loss."
So be it....

1 ความคิดเห็น:

Erik กล่าวว่า...

Ha ha, I can just picture the situation and can completely sympathise as I've had containers melt in the microwave before too. Though I'm glad to hear that you could salvage some of the rice. Mmmmm, sticky rice!