So, frankly, for the longest time I thought the drawer under the stove was simply for pan storage. That was all my mother ever used it for-- I can't remember her doing anything with that drawer except place pots and pans.
I recently had cause to eat some dishes that were broiled. Each of them were quite tasty and surprisingly moist. So it caused me to wonder about this strange, alien cooking technique called "broiling." I spent some time today, in between doing actual work for my company, looking up broiling, and determining what might be the best course of action. It was during this time that I discovered that broiling, in addition to be something you can do in the main stove region of a conventional oven, can be accomplished in that little "storage drawer" at the bottom of a gas (and some electric) stove. You can imagine my surprise. I further learned that the drawer's front actually can rotate down to ease access for cooking using the broiler. And that funny pan with the slots that is always in that storage drawer? It has a purpose in broiling!! Aha!
Deciding to use it, I thawed some steaks over the day and they were ready when I was done with work. I used Mrs. Dash on both sides of each, seared them on the stove while the broiler warmed up, and then I followed the instructions I read online and put the thick steaks into the broiler for 12 minutes on the first side and 10 on the second side.
While not as good as grilled, I am very pleasantly surprised at how good they turned out. I was afraid that the steaks I was using were freezer-burned a little around the edges, but the broiling seems to have helped ease the damage done by that. The meat is still a little tough, but certainly not as tough as if I had fried them up or grilled them, so bonus. The internal meat is nicely pink and the outside is blackened but not overly burned. I'm sure I'll get better at that as I use this new-found technique.
Color me surprised.
I have expanded my cooking repertoire another notch and look forward to figuring better ways of using this feature of my stove.
As the afore-mentioned mother in this scenario, may I say in my defense that I used the broiler often--but stopped the practice because it gets so dirty and is hard to clean, especially after one has endured 2 knee surgeries and the broiler is at ground zero on the gas stove!
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, the next stove I used was electric, with a broiler feature inside the large oven, accessed by raising the wire rack close to the top electric element, which would then broil garlic toast or a steak.
I'm glad you enjoyed your steaks.