Building materials for bread oven

[Mary Fisher]

Haven't a microwave!

Water with peas???

Heaven forfend!

Yes, that's what it takes on the hob ...

Mary

[Clint Sharp]

In message , "dennis@home" writes

Seconded, frozen peas are delicious when cooked in a microwave and fish is really nice as well, scrambled egg is a doddle too!

[Dave Plowman (News)]

All it does is speed up the operation slightly.

I prick them and microwave at full power for about 10 minutes for a large one. Then coat in olive oil and a little salt and put in a red hot oven for half an hour turning once. Crisp on the outside and flowery in the middle.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Other useful thing is if you want a hot milk based drink. No milk pan to wash up as you simply heat it in the mug.

[dennis]

I just turn on the convection part of the microwave at the same time as the microwave. Takes about 30mins for 5-6 spuds.

I might junk the oven for a cupboard next time.

[dennis]

Do you fry yours then?

[Mary Fisher]

Our Circulon pans just need a wipe with a paper towel even after scrambled egg.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

Fry?

No. Freshly picked garden peas - the only ones worth eating - have a lot of water in them. About half a minute on the hob in a covered pan, perhaps with a little butter, at most a lettuce leaf under them, is all they need to be fit for even my fussy palate.

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

What a palaver!

I run a knife round the edge of the potato, put them in the hottest oven, in not much more than half an hour they're done.

The consistency of the inside depends on the type of potato, some are floury, some waxy. I prfer floury for baked pots but don't mind waxy ones.

Mary

Crisp on the outside and flowery in the

[The Natural Philosopher]

Be careful. Stone can split under heat and send explosive shards flying...

Brick is better frankly.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Mike wrote: I've an original 19th century metal

If I want to turn bread into heat I just burn it.

No metal plates involved at all?

[Mary Fisher]

You just don't understand the technology.

>

[Mary Fisher]

No - you don't say!

Well in this case it will be fine then, the stone will be over the heat.

Technology again.

You must know that there are many types of brick ...

[AJH]

What I meant to mention, though it is probably obvious, is that a good source of high thermal capacity dense bricks is those old off peak electric thermal storage heaters, the types that had flaps to control convection air, often used to e found in offices and parish halls.

The one I stripped apart had holes through the brick where the coil of resistance wire passed through. I wonder what scope there is for shaping them with a diamond disc, to form segments of an arch.

AJH

[dennis]

Ah! steamed.

Steaming is good but not as good as microwaves.

What do you do for peas in winter when you can't get fresh ones?

[Mary Fisher]

Yes, over the years we've pulled a few of those apart and saved the bricks for Spouse to use for a brazing hearth. He hasn't done yet!

Don't know yet. We're waiting for a book to come so that we can consider various materials, their properties and dis/advantages. Once we're armed with that intelligence the shaping and building will be easy. He'll be in his element, using his Big Boy Toys!

I'm grateful for all the sensible answers on this thread though, it's been fascinating.

Thanks, Andrew,

Mary

[Mary Fisher]

You've compared my way of preparing freshly gathered garden peas with yours?

er - we don't have peas in winter, they don't grow in winter in Yorkshire. We use other vegetables, which do grow in winter and which are available fresh. I love winter vegetables. In fact I love all vegetables in their season, just the idea of having peas, artichokes, tomatoes or whatever all year round is BORING.

We rarely use out of season vegetables, there's no need to ... we're very lucky to have a wealth of variety in this country.

Ocasionally I use our own vegetables which I've preserved (usually by drying) but it doesn't happen often.

Mary

[dennis]

I don't like cooked fresh peas for some reason. I just shell them and eat them (sometimes I don't shell them either).

[Andrew Gabriel]

He -- this follows quite closely how I've cooked peas over the years.

Initially I boiled them, because that's what my mother did. ;-) Then I found steaming them left more flavour in the peas, and less down the sink when you drain the water off. Something else I tried was heating them in a frying pan, _not_ frying them, but to ensure the pan was large enough that they laid only 1 pea deep, with no water but a little melted butter to make contact with the bottom of the pan which you keep with them when served. This works very well, but it's all too easy to overcook them if you get distracted for 10 seconds, and even slightly fried peas aren't nice. Now, I usually microwave them, with a knob of butter and again no water, and shake them up when half done. This is consistently good, although the frying pan method is a slightly better taste when you get the timing just right (but horrible otherwise).

These methods all work with both fresh and frozen peas, although timings are obviously different. For all these methods, I like them cooked as little as possible -- basically just heated up. I like raw peas too, but more than a few and they can give me stomach ache. I wouldn't eat raw unfrozen peas from a shop though, only if I just picked them.

[Mary Fisher]

So you can't say that microwaving is better.