MICROWAVE COOKING: Dos And Don'ts

Hi, I am Jennipher Marshall Jenkinson, chairman of the UK Microwave Technologies Association and also the writer of the cookbook Microwave Magic, the Art of 21st century Cooking. Most food you can cook in a microwave but like any kitchen appliance, I wouldn't say you would cook anything. Microwaves are really great for cooking vegetables, chicken, fish and all types of cakes.

But two things you should never do, you should never deep fry in a microwave because you can't control the temperature of the oil. And never ever try to cook an egg in its shell. When cooking eggs, they release four hundred times their own volume in steam.

So within a minute, the egg will explode in the oven and you only have to have an egg explode once in your microwave to see the mess it causes. So never cook an egg in its shell in a microwave. Couple of do's when cooking jacket potatoes, always cook the skin.

Or of any vegetables, tomatoes, peppers if you are cooking them cook the skin. They also release a lot of steam when they are cooking. And if you don't prick the skin, then they will too will explode.

There is a myth you can't use metal in a microwave. Metals works out really well and for something like cooking very delicate ends of cold fish. I would cover the ends, the heads and the tails of the fish in small amounts of foil.

The only thing you got to do is to make sure that the foil doesn't touch the sides of microwave oven. And of course, you can use metal in a microwave. All ovens these days comes with metal trivets.

You can see our ovens have got metal trivets in them. All metal trays, perfectly acceptable. The manufacture wouldn't actually put a metal trivet into a microwave unless it was there for a purpose.

And the purpose is to elevate the food so that the food is cooked in the center of the oven. And so elevate the food, so you can use metal in a microwave.