Dishwasher Cooking

Your dishwasher is a lot more versatile than you think. Not only does it make cleaning up after a meal that much easier, but it can also be used as a way to cook the food that will go on the plate. At the regular setting, dishwashers clean with water at around 50–70°C depending on which stage of the dishwashing cycle they're at, and at around 60–70°C during the drying stage. Preparing meats and vegetables in a dishwasher would allow them to be cooked at a precise temperature in a liquid bath for a long period of time, similar to poaching them or cooking them in a sous-vide machine. And the best part about cooking with this method is as long as you tightly seal your food in either aluminum foil, vacuum-sealed food bags, or waterproof sealable glass jars, it can be done either in an empty dishwasher if you're worried about getting soap in your food, or while running a full load of dishes. Still not convinced about giving dishwasher cooking a try? It was the preferred method of cooking salmon of Vincent Price, a famous actor who was a gourmet cook when he wasn't playing Dracula or supplying the laugh at the end of "Thriller". So give these recipes a try whenever you feel like cooking something but you don't want to be in front of an oven; it's like your not going to start hand-drying all those dirty dishes.

Vegetables

100 g of asparagus, carrots, fresh peas, green beans, or spinach
5 g grainy mustard (5 g butter can also be used)
250 mL water
Pinch of salt and pepper

Put everything together in a Mason jar or any jar that has a sturdy screw-on lid. Seal the jar and give it a good shake. Place the jar on the top rack of your dishwasher, and set to a normal washing cycle (at least 40 minutes, do not use the "economy", "cool dry" or "potscrubber" settings). Be careful removing jars — they will be hot.

Seafood

1 dozen shrimp, shelled and deveined (scallops, clams, or mussels can be substituted)
1 clove garlic, chopped
250 mL  white wine
125 mL water
5 g butter
Pinch of salt and pepper

As with the vegetables, put everything together in a Mason jar or any jar that has a sturdy screw-on lid. Seal the jar and give it a good shake. Place the jar on the top rack of your dishwasher, and set to a normal washing cycle (at least 40 minutes, do not use the "economy", "cool dry" or "potscrubber" settings). Be careful removing jars — they will be hot.

Quick Compote

100 g strawberries (or other berries of your choice)
125 mL water
15 mL maple syrup
Pinch of cinnamon

Combine the berries, cinnamon, maple syrup, water in a Mason jar or any jar that has a sturdy screw-on lid. Seal the jar and give it a good shake. Place the jar on the top rack of your dishwasher, and set to a normal washing cycle (at least 40 minutes, do not use the "economy", "cool dry" or "potscrubber" settings). Serve on ice cream. Be careful removing jars — they will be hot.

Salmon
(Note - this is the recipe used by the foremost expert on cooking fish in a dishwasher, Bob Blumer.)

4 salmon fillets (about 170 g each)
60 mL freshly squeezed lemon juice
Pinch of salt and pepper

Piquant Dill Sauce

2 leeks, white part only, finely chopped, then thoroughly washed
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno, finely diced seeds and membranes removed
250 mL vegetable or chicken stock
60 mL sour cream
30 mL freshly squeezed lemon juice
30 g butter
15 g lightly packed fresh dill, stems removed before measuring
2 g salt
1.5 g freshly ground black pepper

1. Cut two square sheets of aluminium foil, big enough for two fillets on each. Place the fillets side by side on each square and fold up the outer edges. Drizzle the lemon juice over each fillet and season with salt and pepper.
2. Fold and pinch the aluminium foil extra tightly to create a watertight seal around each pair of fillets. Make sure the packet is airtight by pressing down on it gently with your hand. If air escapes easily, rewrap.
3. Place the foil packets on the top rack of the dishwasher. Run dishwasher for a normal washing cycle (at least 40 minutes, do not use the "economy", "cool dry" or "potscrubber" settings). When the cycle is complete, take out the salmon (be careful, it's hot), discard the foil, and place one fillet on a plate, with a generous serving of dill sauce overtop.
   
   Sauce
4. Melt the butter over medium heat in a saute pan. Add the leek, jalapeno, and garlic and saute for about 5 minutes, or until the leeks are translucent but not brown. Reduce heat to medium and add the stock. Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. (Adjust heat as required to maintain the simmer.) The liquid should reduce by half. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool.
5. Transfer the pan contents to a blender or food processor, then add the dill, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Puree until smooth. Reserve and reheat just before serving. Stir in the sour cream at the last minute.

Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science - Week 3

As I posted in my October 13th blog entry, I've enrolled in an on-line course about the relationship between science and cooking. A very video heavy week this time out - food porn fans would really appreciate all the detail that went into the making of this course. 

Here's what went down on the third week.

• The guest presenters this time out are Joan Roca, who runs the world-famous restaurant El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Spain with his two brothers; and Dan Souza, senior editor for Cook's Illustrated Magazine, and current cast member of the America's Test Kitchen television show, radio program and podcast.
• This week we learned about the various phase transitions foods can go through in the cooking process. While a change in temperature can cause a phase transition, a change in pressure can also make this happen.
• A pressure cooker works by trapping some steam as water inside it boils, thus increasing the pressure and raising the boiling point. When the boiling water reaches this higher boiling point, it transfers heat to the food more quickly than water at just 100 degrees Celsius. This is a much better way to explain how a pressure cooker works than the method used to describe what happened in Boston back in April of this year.
• Want to cook the perfect egg, one with a temperature of about 64 degrees Celsius, perfectly every time? As water boils at a lower temperature as you gain altitude, just climb a tall enough mountain. Unfortunately, the boiling point of water on the top of Mount Everest is about 71 degrees Celsius, so you're going to need a bigger mountain.
• Chef Roca then demonstrates some of his renowned sous-vide cooking techniques by cooking, among other things, eggs and a fillet of sole.
  
  
  
  
• Another method to cause a phase transition is to use a rotovap, which is used in laboratories for the removal of solvents from samples by evaporation, and in cooking for the preparation of distillates and extracts. Check eBay for one if you ever need to distill the essence of something in one of your dishes.
  
• The concept of entropy has been introduced; I don't recall ever hearing about entropy in either elementary or high school science class, but I'm learning about it as part of a course about cooking, go figure.
• To be fair, I don't recall getting as much background in the half semesters of elementary school home-ec class either. Maybe it's time it should...
• Still haven't clapped for the equation of the week. This time it's U = CkBT.
• A chemical breakdown of fats and a discussion about the science of supercooling follows, along with an explanation of why you can't make water as salty as you can sweet. Thanks to this course, I now know that the solubility of any compound, is similar to the phase transition between a solid and a gas. 
• I scream, you scream, this week's lab involves the making of ice cream - sweet.

Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science - Week 2

As I posted in my October 13th blog entry, I've enrolled in an on-line course about the relationship between science and cooking. Still haven't had the chance to try any of the recipes, still trying to a get a better grasp of the science portion of the lessons. Not enough hours in the week, but no one ever said taking a Harvard on-line course would be easy.

Here's what went down on the second week.

• This week's guest lecturer is Dave Arnold. Week 2's focus is on energy, temperature, and heat, so naturally we begin with a recipe to carbonate a cocktail to show what happens when you mix ethanol and water. I knew I signed up for this class for a reason.
• Because they're scientists, the instructors like to make things quantitative, in the belief that when we start to make ideas quantitative, then we'll start to understand qualitatively better.
• The benefits of sous-vide cooking is then demonstrated in an example using eggs cooked at various temperatures in a very small window between 57 Celsius and 70. Accurately controlling the temperature can make a great deal of difference - something to keep in mind when you're trying to make the perfect Eggs Benedict or eggs on toast.
• Equation of the week:  equals mc sub p delta t. (Or heat equals mass x specific heat capacity x change in temperature). You can use that equation to calculate how much energy you have to put into heating a cup of  water.
• Start with water that's at room temperature, in this case, about 23 degrees Celsius. One cup of water is 237 grams. We are going to heat it to the boiling point, 100 degrees Celsius. The specific heat (c sub p). for water is 4.18 joules per gram degree Kelvin.
• How much energy do I have to dump in? Using the equation Q is equal to mc sub p delta t, put in that m is equal to 237 grams, that c sub p is equal to 4.18 joules per degree Kelvin, and that delta T is 77 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Celsius - 23 degrees Celsius, the final temperature minus the initial temperature) If we multiply all of these things out, we got 237 times 4.18 times 77. So that's how much energy it takes to boil a cup of water -76 280 joules.
• What does that mean? Think about it like this, how much wood would you have to burn in order to make this much energy? If you take the energy density of wood, 14 megajoules per kilogram, then you can calculate for yourself that the amount of wood that it takes is 76 280 joules divided by 14 megajoules per kilogram, which is 5.4 grams of wood.
• Just for fun!: Go look at the power output of your microwave, calculate how long does it take for you to generate the 76 280 joules needed to boil water. If you put water in a cup in your microwave for that amount of time, does it actually boil? If not, why not?
• NOTE: Most microwaves have a power output of about 400 watts.
  The watts to joules calculation is the energy E in joules (J) is equal to the power P in watts (W), times the time period t in seconds (s): E(J) = P(W) × t(s).
• I got 190.7 seconds, feel free to let me know if my math is off (scroll over to see).
• You really see how much you don't know about a topic when you answer all the week's pre-questions.
• The liquid nitrogen lecture reminds me of an experiment I've been meaning to try, and of a cool food truck I saw on an episode of Eat St. recently.
• Think of heat as the most used and the most mysterious ingredient in your kitchen --> Harold McGee
• Heat: the total energy that results in the temperature of a system
  Temperature: the measure of energy in the motion of molecules in the material
• Want a quick way to calculate the number of calories in what you're eating? Use the 449 rule.
• We end with a demonstration of the coffee-infused rum cocktail the cafe Touba being made, and some more fun with equations involving latent heat.