Poppadoms

[Tim W]

Raw, uncooked, flat, smooth, Poddadoms, not the ready-to eat version. The directions say to fry them in hot oil so they expand into the wrinkly, crumbly moonscape that we would all know as a poppadom. But I am having the low-fat version and cooking them in the microwave and here's the thing:

a 12g poppadom is subjected to 700watts of microwave energy for

60seconds and that seems to be just enough to transform it for eating warm and that is way too much energy. How can it not be totally incinerated? Am I going to break the microwave doing this?

Tim W

[Murmansk]

There must be some moisture in the popadom still once you've cooked it for 60 seconds so I guess it's OK as that's what absorbs the microwaves.

Perhaps if you were to do it for five minutes until it was a pile of dry powder and all the moisture had gone - then it probably would damage the oven.

[Bob Minchin]

Microwave ovens work by certain constituents of the food being made to vibrate and hence get hot. These are mainly water and fat molecules.

700watts for 60 second is almost exactly the energy needed to raise 25g of water through 40 degrees (About room temp to eating temperature)

So yes rather too much energy for a 12g poppadom it seems. Un absorbed microwave energy bounces around in the oven and gets sent back to the magnetron where is can do a degree of damage but the design should be reasonably resilient to this. If you are really concerned then maybe experiment with an open container of water in the oven as well as the poppadom and see if the cooking is affected which would show that the microwave energy is "needed" by the poppadom. Reducing the amount of water might achieve a better balance.

[Davidm]

I've cooked my poppadoms like this for years and never had a problem, far more convenient than messing around with frying pan and oil, and they taste just fine. Probably healthier too.

[Brian-Gaff]

Water content? Brian

[Jonno]

Tim W scribbled

Tried nuking a couple at a time?

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , Tim W escribió:

I think if you read the instructions, they tell you to sprinkle a bit of water on them before microwaving them. It's the water that heats up and cooks the poppadom.

[David Lang]

Gandhi is turning in his grave........

[Huge]

He was cremated.

Not in a microwave.

[Bob Eager]

Or indeed a rotisserie.

[Thomas Prufer]

The mircrowaves are designed to not die when run empty, so yes, OK.

Anyway, I stick pappadums in the pop-up toaster. They need to be turned as not of them fits in, but they only need a few seconds.

Thomas Prufer

[T i m]

I did some last night that way. ;-)

May I ask why? I think I understand that consuming oil that has been overheated can be an issue and I know too much of the wrong type of oil can also be bad. FWIW, after cooking I put mine in a warm oven on a rack (vertically) on a plate with some kitchen towel and they seem to come out much dryer.

I've tried that, and under grill but they (or the ones I have tried so far) never come out as nice as the flash fried ones? ;-(

Would you say the low fat version (?) microwaved are an acceptable alternative, considering etc (like sometimes it's better to go without rather than eat the 'healthy' alternatives).

Cheers, T i m

[Albert Zweistein]

Exactly.

[Graham.]

But basted with ghee.

[Graham.]

I've seen magnetron magnets crack when ovens are run empty.

60 seconds is probebly not enough time for them to overheat though. The usual advice is to put a small cup of water in the oven as a dummy load.

[Michael Chare]

No, I don't suppose the microwave will mind.

[polygonum]

At least some of the water in the poppadom will evaporate - so you need not just the heat to raise its temperature, but also the latent heat of evaporation. No - I haven't worked it through...