You may know this already but I didn’t. If you’re cooking pasta or rice, bring to the boil as you normally would, then put the lid on, turn the hob off and leave it for the normal cooking time. Cooks as normal. 15ish minutes of energy saved.

I just suck each grain/piece individually until ready then place on the serving plate

eww, remind me never to eat at yours!

I’ve just started getting Saturdays Paella ready

*sucks*

mrsflash – after 15 minutes it gets pretty cool even with the lid on, however I do use the same technique for frozen veg – bring it to the boil for a few mins and then turn off, you get nice al dente veg thats not too hot. Not sure I like luke-warm rice though, or that it costs that much to heat it the full time 😀

😯 i didn’t know that.

Thanks MrsF

I’m going to test that theory!

Hello Sailor, what other sucking services do you offer?

🙄

People cooking pasta in a 24hour period x 15 minutes of gas = flipping lots of gas used!

I like your thinking MrsFlash!

I’ve got this tube (not sure where it bought from), you add rice or pasta, add boiling water, leave for 15/20minutes and its cooked! And its hot too!

Coffeeking, I just drained it and put it in the pan with the sauce for a minute or so and it was fine temp wise. It’s still pretty hot after 15 mins.

I was sceptical I have to say, but it worked a treat.

People cooking pasta in a 24hour period x 15 minutes of gas = flipping lots of gas used!

exactly.

If you are “cooking” rice, you can save 100% energy by not cooking it at all!
Soak it in water for 2-3 days (change the water several times). Works for black wild rice, so I see no reason why not others. Add tasty dressing with lots of fresh herbs and good olive oil. Yum.

I’m not sure I’m quite well prepared enough to be cooking my tea 2-3 days in advance mountaincarrot!

Don’t think this will work with pasta to be honest, well not in ‘normal’ cooking time anyway. And won’t it mean the rice is a bit on the watery side. I’ll give it a go though but I’m not convinced.

Gary, honestly it works with pasta, I did it on Monday night. I don’t know what you mean about the rice being on the watery side, drain it? But if you use the same amount of water as you normally would it should just absorb as normal (not tried it with rice yet)

Alternatively, buy fresh pasta (Or make your own) which cooks in 2 mins anyway, and tastes nicer…

🙂

Who the hell cooks pasta for 15-20 minutes in the first place?

hmmm, I always turn the gas down to a tiny bead, but I’ll try this instead 🙂

Who the hell cooks pasta for 15-20 minutes in the first place?

I don’t actually time it, just test it so maybe not 15 mins – but I did say ish 😛

Who the hell cooks pasta for 15-20 minutes in the first place?

‘holemeal, innit.

That method for cooking rice is Delia’s way of doing it….

Pass me my pinny!

Do you also do Delia’s perfect white sauce stick it all in the pan together and don’t worry about a roux method too? totally foolproof.

So’s Delia’s unscrew the lid off a white sauce jar method 🙂

White sauce is piss easy to do anyway.

Melt butter
Jam in flour
Break out the electric whisk
Jam in just boiled water, keep whisking until its smooth
Jam in milk powder until the sauce is white

2 minutes flat.

You can turn your oven off 15-20 mins before the end of cooking time too if you’re roasting something.

milk powder? never heard of that one. why not just use milk.

Meant to meantion the oven one too.

That’s a lot of jam in your white sauce.

Gary_M – Member
That’s a lot of jam in your white sauce.

Bah! beaten to it!!!

hmmm – I eat lots of pasta, maybe too much……….and yeah it does take about 15-20mins (I clearly use packet rubbish not this fresh stuff some of you mention)

Will be trying this Mrs Flash, thankyou – well telling Mrs Yoshimi about it anyway 😉

I rely on my hob and my tungsten light bulbs to heat the house up.

I’ll freeze 🙁

packet rubbish here too yoshimi 🙂

I use a similar technique to cook rice – fill pan with required (washed) rice, cover with same amount again water and boil with lid on until all visable water has boiled off. Take off heat, DON’T remove lid and then start cooking your curry whilst it stands – keeps nicely hot for ages and cooks as it stands.

If you want ‘pilau’ style, flash-fry the rice in a little oil and some cumin seeds then add vegetable stock instead of water and use same technique.

EDIT – except I didn’t read that you use the technique for rice too. Ooops

Good post Mrsflash. In the same spirit, I’ll be saving energy tonight by shutting my computer down and leaving 5 minutes early…

At least credit, that you read this in this months Essentials 😉

I thought it was a viz top tip 😀

i accidently did this last week. I put a cup of rice in pan with cup and half boiling water when at work. We then got a fire call so i stuck a lid on it and turned cooker off. We got back about half hour later and i thought my tea was ruined but it was perfect :-). Handy as i always kill my rice lol

Hora sucks… 😛

Gets coat…

mick do you always eat your tea favourite bit first. My dad still does and he’s been retired for 18 years. He still thinks he might get a shout though.

Chuck Norris just stares at his pasta until it gives up and admits that it’s cooked.

How much energy does that save?

packet rubbish

is it rubbish though?
Grey cells are not what they used to be but, in one of Matts’ nutrition articles in the Mag I’m sure he said the dry stuff was better as its made with a different type of flower to the fresh stuff, better GI ‘characteristics’ or sumfink….. cheaper too 😆

CO-OP ‘packet rubbish’ is currently on offer – stock up folks 😀

At least credit, that you read this in this months Essentials

erm, I won’t because I don’t know what that is.

A friend mentioned it to me.

marsdenman, I was joking about the rubbish, dried pasta is fine 🙂

mick do you always eat your tea favourite bit first. My dad still does

Hold on, I thought only children eat tea, whereas adults tend to graduate onto dinner or supper…. 😉

I try to boil pasta with the lid off beside an open window and put the pan off centre on the ring. Takes ages to cook and uses tonnes of power but works… 😉

Nah, I still struggle to get my girlfriend to use lids. I sometimes have to spell it out, ie what the lid is actually used for!

And am finally getting used to cooking with leccy since I moved into her flat…good thing to do long term because the price of gas will rise much higher than leccy in the coming years.