Don’t you just hate it when you are preparing a lot of food for a party and you haven’t got enough room in the oven? At the risk of sounding like an infomercial, never fear – with this handy appliance you probably already have in your kitchen, you need never run out of cooking space again!
No, I’m not talking about the microwave…. But the dishwasher! Did you know that you can actually – and safely – cook food in a dishwasher? I read a few articles about it a while ago and was very curious. I never got round to trying because one of the main things people seem to cook in dishwashers is a whole side of salmon – not something I had occasion to cook.
But when we had a lot of people over on new year’s day and I was preparing a buffet, I decided this would be the perfect opportunity. I didn’t actually tell my guests how the salmon was cooked but mainly because I forgot to mention it – it was no great secret! The salmon came out perfectly poached and nobody would have ever known the difference.
There are a couple of key things to remember when poaching salmon – or indeed cooking anything – in the dishwasher. I’ve read a few articles claiming that you can cook something while you are actually cleaning dishes at the same time, but I’m not sure about that – I’d prefer to run an otherwise empty dishwasher and not put any detergent in!
The most important thing is to make sure that whatever you are cooking is tightly wrapped – I wrapped my salmon in several layers of foil. I placed it on the top shelf of the dishwasher and ran the shortest economy setting cycle – it doesn’t take hours to poach salmon.
And that’s pretty much all you need to do! I used a whole side of salmon – I think a smaller piece might disintegrate but if you do try this with a single fillet, let me know how it turns out! I served the salmon on a beautiful Richard Bramble plate that I was given a while back and it looked very good as part of the new year buffet. I served the salmon cold with mayonnaise but there’s no reason why you couldn’t serve it hot, straight from the dishwasher!
I’ve recently seen an articles about cooking in your washing machine which is interesting (and possibly a hoax), I’m not sure if I’m brave enough to do that!
I wonder who first thought of the idea - someone whose oven was broken the day the mother in law came to lunch perhaps?!
ReplyDeleteIt's a bizarre idea, but as a dishwasher does get very hot, why waste the heat?!