Cape Town - Everyone needs a good dinner party trick. But what would your guests say if you cooked their meals in a dishwasher?
This may seem too outlandish for some to even consider. But then, it is also an opportunity for an experiment too good to pass up. Scouring the internet for recipes, the most common appeared to be salmon.
Armed with a thin piece of salmon, vegetables, a jar and oven roasting bags, we set out to see if this could work.
The salmon was dressed in butter, garlic, lemon and a sprig of dill, and placed into an oven roasting bag. Of course, the concern is that the dish water will seep into the food and spoil it. So we made sure to seal the bag über tight, and double clamped it.
Next were the vegetables. We placed carrot sticks, broccoli, cauliflower and butternut into jars.
The fish and vegetables were placed on the top rack of the dishwasher, and we added a few dishes for good measure.Why not be efficient, and kill two birds with one stone?
However, we weren’t brave enough to add the soap. So we set the machine to a light pot cycle for 50 minutes – as instructed by the internet.
The result: our sealing of the bag worked, as it was still airtight by the time we took it out of the dishwasher. The fish was succulent and tasty.
The vegetables, however, were a bit of a disaster. The jars were slightly warm to the touch. So were the vegetables. But they were all still raw. Our mistake was that we didn’t add any water, that would actually steam the vegetables. And the jar was possibly too thick. So while the vegetables had to be written off, at least we had good fish, and clean dishes.
Cooking show host Jenny Morris says she has cooked in her dishwasher before. The thinking was that it could be an alternative for people whose stoves had broken.
She also used salmon, but wrapped it in foil. And didn’t add dirty dishes.
Morris suggests that vegetables be julienned, and flavoured butter be added. These can also be wrapped in foil. The result should be crunchy, or al dente vegetables.
Prawns, flavoured with lime, chilli and ginger, should be put through the shortest cycle for the best outcome. Buttered mussels would also go down a treat. Hake and sole are too flaky and tender for the process, but kabeljou, trout, and thick kingklip are all suitable.
She’s no stranger to unconventional cooking methods. Her most memorable experience was cooking bread in sand. The bread dough was wrapped in wet banana leaves and placed in a sand pit. A fire was built on top of it and allowed to burn for 45 minutes.
Once the bread is removed, the leaves will have been burnt off. The sand is carefully dusted off the bread before eaten.
Morris says nobody ate a grain of sand.
While some may be open to a bit of fun, others are mortified by the idea.
Jean Nel, outdoor chef and author of Braai The Beloved Country, responds with an emphatic “absolutely not!” when asked if he would eat a meal cooked in a dishwasher.
“What’s wrong with cooking on a stove?” he quips. Nel would much prefer to stick to the kettle braai. So much so, that the oddest place he’s cooked was at the highest point of the Cederberg mountain. Nel and his braai were flown in by helicopter and, after landing, prepared bacon and egg rolls for a couple amid a wedding proposal.
Cape Argus