On yesterdays i saw a chef using a microwave to melt chocolate. Never seen this on masterchef , bowl over a pan of water on there ,seemed like cheating to me.
Oh definitely cheating.
But then, if it's easier.....
When I first started out as a teacher I recall a mother coming in in high dudgeon as ready-roll flakey pastry had been used in a cookery lesson.....
Standards just fall in every generation, I bet nobody puts doilies on their tea tray any more.
Yes it is Ginge. And ground pepper. And powdered spices. All should be hand-ground in a brass pestle and mortar, by the light of the full moon. And as for gas cookers - well society's downfall can be linked to the demise of opne fires in kitchens.
It's not cheating - it's available kitchen equipment, just like these water baths for slow "soft" cooking of meats, and so popular with Heston, or the ghettoblasters for fast freezing of sorbets/ice-creams/granitas etc
In my ideal kitchen, I would love an ice ghettoblaster and also a full charcoal grill (with extraction of course)...and probably a pizza oven!
Has anybody here got one of these, and has anyone cooked with these water cookers.
Question Author
Raymond Blanc once said that using a microwave oven to cook food for your children was an "act of hate".
I assume he is meaning microwave meals as opposed to using the microwave to melt a bit of chocolate...unless of course you are dishing up that bowl of melted chocolate to your kids for their dinner!
I am a chef and I have to say there is no difference melting it in a microwave to melting it over a pan of hot water. We use the pot method simply because there is always a pot of hot water on the cooker. Just because it's not shown on Masterchef doesnt mean it's wrong!
For Funks Sake, all you need to do is melt the damn chocolate. There is no magic to it. Just don't overcook it (otherwise it goes grainy). I use both methods.
A lot of chocolatiers favour a microwave over a bain marie as you don't have to worry about any water vapour getting into the chocolate and making it go cloudy.