Can a Microwave and a Baking Mat Change your Veggies? YES!

My mother has just contacted me and sent me some pictures from her iphone. She was very excited that her own cooking experiments with her silicone mats have been a success! She decided to try steaming carrots in a rolled up mat that she pushed into a high walled glass pan (like I showed her over the holidays)… using the Microwave.
The silicone mats can be used for many, many things so I was not at all surprised by her wanting to do this. But, the trick was that she wanted to do this in the micro-wave oven. Also, she wanted the vegetable fully cooked in a few minutes.
The silicone mats are quite heat resistant and microwave safe, but I wanted to be sure that neither the food, mat, nor oven would be ruined. Now, I know using a mat works well in a conventional over but they have been not as well tested using a microwave.
The usual technique is to take a silicone mat, which is very flexible and tough, and roll your food up into it. Then, push it into a higher walled glass cookie sheet so the ends are turned up and trap the food and juices in the roll.
With a normal oven, you can use a metallic pan as well as glass, but for a microwave, NO steel may be used.
Well, she tried it and the phoned to tell me that it really WORKS! In fact, it brings cooking times down from 20 minutes in a conventional oven to about 4 or 5 in the microwave. Her first attempt at doing this nearly burned the food in five minutes actually so she decided to watch it closer on her second attempt.
So, 5 minutes was a little too long and can over cooked the vegetables and that four minutes was better. But, it all depends on how many veggies you are cooking. Microwaves are quite temperamental when it comes to fluid volume.
We have tried this and have come up with a simple way to monitor the vegetable while they roast. Basically, you just have to cook the food for four minutes and then check the roll contents and then microwave it more as is require. Still, this is great, fun news from the world of cooking mats and other modern bakeware that I just had to share.
This type of cooking is not limited to carrots, obviously. It can be used to make stew, steamed vegetables, pot roast, baked potatoes, and fajita fixings. I have posted in other posts about using a mat to make taco shells without oil also. So, the mat’s versatility is very high.