Topic: How to re-heat frozen take away vegetable curry in the microwave?

[CURRYISNICE]

Hello all

I have a Daewoo KOR9GPBR Digital Microwave, 900 W, and have a frozen vegetable curry but dont know the best way to re-heat it?

I have heard some say you have to be careful not to cook it, but how do you avoid that?

Should I re-heat only on defrost or on a normal heating setting or a bit of both?

Any advice appreciated.

[livo]

CIN, a 900 Watt Microwave is not a particularly powerful one so you are lucky there. The best way to proceed with a microwave for your purpose is to firstly use small bursts at a medium setting with time in between. So say set it to medium about 500 - 600 watts for a minute to 90 seconds and then allow it to rest for similar time.  Check it and repeat until it is defrosted.  If you can do it, once it defrosts a bit, stirring at the rest points helps in spreading the heated food with the non-heated food.  Once you are happy that your meal in a container is pretty well defrosted you can then up the power and give it a blast for a minute, let it rest and check it. Again, resting and stirring is helpful to distribute the energy.  Microwave ovens are bad at heating or cooking food evenly because it is concentrated energy applied all around the oven and it is a box shape, so it is up to you to assist in the even distribution of the heat.  Rotating, turning, stirring and resting (and even foil covering) are important parts of using a microwave oven effectively and properly.

Unless yours is a new "Invertor" microwave, the lower power settings just turn the magnetron on and off with times of microwave and times of no microwave anyway. If you have the Inverter model then the power level is reduced but the magnetron works continuously at that lower power.  Rest times in between shots is still an important thing to master.

[Peripatetic Phil]

My model pre-dates inverter microwave technology but is digitally controlled and allows me to specify power in multiples of 10%.  For something like a vegetable curry, I would use 20% for an extended period of time (maybe 20 minutes), checking now and then to see whether it has yet reached eating temperature.  Although I do not disagree with Livo that stirring, resting, etc., are all useful adjuncts, in practice I find that one final stir will often suffice.  Perhaps I should note that my home model has a motorised Pyrex

[livo]

Yep. Low power, long time. Rotate, rest and stir. 20% for 20 minutes is probably about the same as 50% with equal on time and rest time. Just do not use full power for 3 minutes and expect to get a defrosted and reheated meal.

[chewytikka]

Read the instructions on the curry or even your Microwave, which will have a defrost function.
Hardly a steep learning curve.

[livo]

I recently purchased a new Sharp Carousel, being our 4th one of the same size, brand and model in 20 odd years. On this newest one, for some reason, Sharp has decided to change the controls, while the previous 3 were pretty much the same. The defrost function is pretty well useless. It has 2 separate defrost programs for Meat and Poultry with 3 possible selections for each.  That in itself is no big deal but now the minimum programmed weight for any selection is 500 g whereas the earlier models were programmable down to 200g on some functions.
The main thing though is that it doesn't defrost.  Not well anyway. After running 500 g of either meat or chicken through the program it is still completely frozen. Roasts are ridiculous.  You are always meant to sit the food to finish defrosting but this model is useless in this area. Lucky for me I was around before pre-programmed ovens. The only controls were a power level selector and a timer. Mrs L is not happy with it at all. I'm not sure if we got a lemon or if it is just the characteristic of this newer model.