Kitchen Stove

pan of noodles in the first few days

What can we make with the shiny, black cook top over here? 

Another Kitchen Story....

This is the first time I've had an induction cook top.  Let me start by saying that I really, really wanted to like this.    I still do. 

I know a handful of people who have this kind of stove, and they have all said it has been a wonderful improvement in their cooking lives.   I myself am still grappling with how it works:

• only certain kinds of pans can be used (ferrous metal)
• burner:base ratios matter a lot
• moving a pan off the burner automatically turns it off (well, you have 90 seconds before it shuts down completely).

This last one is advertised as an advantage...and I'm still trying to understand why I'm supposed to want that. 

The Embassy generously, generously  purchased an expensive set of Danish pans designed for this type stove: 

Since they are to stay with the house (and were provided for my time here, again, courtesy of the American taxpayer)  I was eager to be cautious with them.   I figured that my reliable stainless pans should work just as well, and I could keep the new pots safe & shiny for the next American family who will replace us. 

Wrong.  My All-Clad pans work okay...but, the elegant pans work much, much better.  So much better that I over-cooked both my potatoes and my broccoli into a soggy mess......while my two pots of rice were wet, swampy and undercooked.  What?  How?!    Tempted as I was to return immediately to the slower All Clad, I'm not sure I have the 35 minutes available every day just to bring the water to a boil.....I'm caught between a jet engine and horse-pulled cart. 

One absolute must is an utterly & completely flat base on the bottom.  Two of my own saucepans have the tiniest, teeniest wobble -- hardly noticeable on a regular stove, but it makes world of difference on this one.   

This made me suspicious of Induction and her elitist tendencies ;-).  I started to wonder about the level of perfection required for cooking vessels;  and by the way, just how automatic do I really need things to be?  Is my resistance because I'm getting older and less flexible?  Or is it that having a stove think for me is a mildly repugnant use of  technology?   I figure not too many women yearned for a return to hauling the bucket of water after they had spigots in their houses, but I am pretty sure there were significant numbers of women who regarded microwaves suspiciously, not ready to walk away so quickly from the traditional - and trusted -  ways of heating food. 


It didn't help matters that my naive &  joyful rush to the stove after unpacking my coffee pot ended in the sad and depressing realization....

....you know what happened, don't you? 

While Bialetti has layered the outside of the coffeepot in stainless steel at the factory,  it's not enough -- the aluminum core is identified and shunned by Induction Society: 

alternative with the butter warmer - clever & desperate

...and just as if I'd tried to sneak myself and the coffee pot into some proverbial Country Club:

splotchy, watery, bubbling mess....

Madame Induction KNEW I was trying to pass off an imitation. 

so empty....

For it did not work.  :-(

So, there it is.  I have some very serious practicing & learning to do over here with this stove.

My manual for this one is in English and it has a cooking time + heat grid: 

I am thinking I'll begin with this.....potatoes and rice seem like two for a start.  Then, maybe I can work my way through the list and see how it all comes together.  I have to figure out a way to get along with this stove, after all. 

no complaints from the risotto chef, though...

I'm still hopeful I'll find the magic and learn to love it, in fact....