Defrosting
•Microwaves are an excellent way of defrosting frozen food. Microwaves gently defrost frozen food in a short period of time. This can be of great advantage, if unexpected guests suddenly show up.
•Frozen poultry must be thoroughly thawed before cooking. Remove any metal ties and take it out of any wrapping to allow thawed liquid to drain away.
•Put the frozen food on a dish without cover. Turn over half way, drain off any liquid and remove any giblets as soon as possible.
•Check the food occasionally to make sure that it does not feel warm. If smaller and thinner parts of the frozen food start to warm up, they can be shield by wrapping very small strips of aluminium foil around them during defrosting.
•Should poultry start to warm up on the outer surface, stop thawing and allow it to stand for 20 minutes before continuing.
• Leave the fish, meat and poultry to stand in order to complete defrosting. The standing time for complete defrosting will vary depending on the quantity defrosted.
Hint
•Always defrost large, dense pieces using the defrosting programme. The food will defrost gradually and evenly, you will not run the risk of the outside drying while the centre is still frozen.
•To speed up the defrosting process, it is recommended that after a while the food be divided up into smaller pieces.
•For large pieces of meat and dense food, introduce a couple of breaks into the defrosting process.
•When defrosting irregularly shaped food, halfway through the defrosting time you can cover or wrap the thin parts with aluminium foil.
•When freezing foods, you can already allow for them being defrosted easily in the microwave by not using aluminium foil or trays and by freezing flatter portions.
04 OVEN USE
oven use _35