No Nukes

Steam it instead

Here’s one of my invaluable but infrequent cooking tips.

We’re all accustomed to reheating leftovers in the microwave, right? That’s practically what it was invented for.

And yet we just suffer when it turns the food rubbery, gluey, and tasteless. But there’s a method that’s much better for certain foods, and it’s steaming. Here’s my Chinese steamer basket; quite old, as you can see from all the rust, sitting on top of a pan with boiling water.

Inside the basket is a bowl of leftover pad thai. After 5-10 minutes steaming, it came out hot, delicious, and not all stuck together like the microwave would have rendered it. It’s the same for leftover steamed rice (“steamed” - get it?).

This does take slightly longer than microwaving, but not really that long. You don’t need a full pot of water; just enough that it doesn’t all boil away.

Tortellini with Gorgonzola & Garlic

This one is so clever I wish I’d thought of it, but in fact I read it somewhere.

Anyway: Take a glass pie plate, and put some Gorgonzola, garlic, and butter in it. Put it inside the steamer basket.

Throw tortellini in the (salted) water. Turn it up to boiling. Put the steamer on top of the pot, as in the above photo.

(You may want to start the water boiling before adding the tortellini, to make sure there’s enough time to melt everything.)

Take the steamer lid off periodically and check if the cheese & butter are melted. When they are, turn off the heat.

Take the pie plate out (carefully, since it’s hot), toss the tortellini in there & mix it around. Add red pepper flakes if desired.

Take it to the table, and put it on top of a dish towel (since you don’t want to put a real hot dish down on the table). Now you’re eating off the same thing you cooked with, so you only have to clean one dish, and it will keep the pasta hot as a bonus!