February 2013

Lunchtime is around the corner, and your tummy is rumbling. If you've got a microwave, a mug and a few basic ingredients, you can cook up a meal right in the office.

Morning Edition's David Greene recently started microwaving scrambled eggs in a mug for those early mornings on hosting duties. It led him to wonder about the other possibilities of this culinary art.

To ensure that the shrimp would brown before cooking through, we used the largest shrimp we could find. Leaving their shells on as we roasted them provided a barrier between the meat and the heat, which prevented the surface of the meat from shriveling. Further research revealed that the shells are also loaded with sugars, proteins, and other flavor-boosting compounds that amplified the rich seafood flavor. To make deveining and (later) peeling the shrimp easier, we used a pair of kitchen shears to split their shells from end to end without removing them from the flesh.

Pan-roasted fish seems like a simple dish, but in reality it is usually only well executed by practiced chefs. At home, the dish often results in dry, overbaked fillets. We set out to develop a foolproof recipe for producing succulent, well-browned fillets. From an initial round of testing, we knew we needed thick fillets; skinnier pieces end up overcooked by the time they’ve achieved a serious sear. We then turned to a common restaurant method to cook the fish: Sear the fillet in a hot pan, flip, then transfer it to a hot oven to finish cooking.