Wednesday, April 8, 2015

COOKING WITH YOUR DISHWASHER

For years, gourmands have realized that you can poach salmon or trout very successfully in the dishwasher. Simply add seasoning and oil to the fillets, wrap them in foil, and place them in the top rack. The dishwasher running through its cycle will turn them into a delectable creamy dish. However, most dishwasher chefs advise that using detergent in the washer during the process will add a strange flavor to the fish, which means as a practical matter that you cannot cook the meal while simultaneously washing dishes.

Italian food writer Lisa Casali gainsays the above conservative approach. She advocates the preparation of all sorts of tasty meals in the dishwasher, and she has authored a cookbook, Cucinare in Lavastoviglie, which explains in detail how to do this (unfortunately, the book is available only in Italian). The secret is to put the food into sealed canning jars or airtight vacuum bags first. Once you have done so, you can actually cook items like veal, lobster, vegetables, couscous, tuna, and desserts while at the same time cleaning dishes in a detergent-filled washer. The key to this process is to eschew using edible items which require higher temperatures than the 140 to 150 degrees Fahrenheit normally found in the washing cycle.

Cynics may point out that it is easier to prepare foods in ovens or on stoves which are specifically designed for that purpose. But what is the fun in that? Aren't you tempted to host a fancy dinner party and shock your guests by throwing the uncooked food and some dirty dishes in the washer and then serving a delicious meal on the freshly-cleaned plates? Don't you want to entertain your children with the process so that they can have a salmon-chanting evening by screaming excitedly for "Dishwasher sockeye! Dishwasher sockeye! Dishwasher sockeye!" for dinner?

For further information, go the the NPR website here (unless, of course, you can read Italian, in which case you should get Ms. Casali's book). Or, you can watch Dan Pashman's and Liza de Guia's video, where they experiment with a variety of exotic dishwasher-cooked items and come up with both major successes and spectacular flops.

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