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Mini eggs in the Microwave – Easter treat

Mini eggs in the Microwave – Easter treat
There are lots of film clips and pictures going around on social media at this time of year about how tasty mini eggs are if you microwave them. Microwaving them for a short while softens the chocolate inside and makes them warm and even tastier.
So, we thought this might be a good time for a little education about the science of microwave ovens and microwave cooking for you.
Microwave ovens work by applying energy to molecules in their path. Microwave energy effectively makes molecules move faster, that movement in turn causes friction and friction causes heat. 
In a microwave the effect of that heat is the food heating up. Molecules that move more easily heat quicker which is why liquids or food with a high moisture content heat up quicker in your microwave than those with less moisture. 
Occasionally there is no moisture present in the oven and when this is the case the microwave doesn’t like it. Simply put, the microwave energy needs to be absorbed by something – preferably something in the oven or it will find the next weakest part (the plastic roller ring or the waveguide cover) or if run ‘empty’ for too long will cook itself ! – to destruction.
This is sometimes where problems occur. In our workshop we will occasionally get a call from a customer who has reported some random sparking in the microwave. A little questioning about ‘what were you heating?’ ‘How soon did it spark?’ ‘how big was the portion being heated?’ generally reveals one of 3 scenarios :
The customer was defrosting something from frozen. If something is taken from the freezer and put straight in the microwave, there is no moisture until the frozen food starts to melt.
The customer was heating such a small quantity of food that there were more microwaves in the oven cavity than could be absorbed by the food.
The food – as far as the microwave was concerned was solid, such as butter or chocolate, again for the first few seconds until it started to melt on the outside.
There are simple solutions to prevent sparking in all 3 of these situations. 
For frozen food ; let the food stand for a few minutes before putting it into the microwave, the longer the better of course but if its long enough that the outside becomes wet as the outer layer of frost melts enough to absorb microwaves.
For small quantities or for solids just put a (microwave safe) mug of water in the microwave with it. It might take fractionally longer to heat overall but the water will absorb some of the microwaves to prevent them damaging parts of the oven before the butter or chocolate melt.
You might find as you’re melting your mini eggs that this happens to you. If it does, now you know why and what to do to prevent damaging your microwave. 
One last tip. If you do heat your mini eggs or chocolate or butter. These all have fat or sugar in which absorb microwaves very well. This means that they will get very hot very quickly. Don’t burn yourself on melted chocolate. 
Created On  17 Feb 2023 13:34  -  Permalink
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Genuine parts or genuine quality

Genuine parts or genuine quality
As well as our own website at www.kitchenwareonline.com we sell spare parts on amazon and our ebay shop.

We know that manufacturers genuine parts are made by or made under licence for the manufacturer and as such demand a higher price than copies made and distributed by any number of factories who have the ability to copy products. Products are invariably made similar but not to the manufacturers own specifications. Sometimes these work ok and last a long time – sometimes they don’t. The main thing is that the price should reflect that difference in quality and you would expect these ‘pattern’ parts to be considerably cheaper than genuine ‘ branded’ parts.

We know that as sellers of manufacturers genuine parts we get more sales if we advertise the fact that they are ‘Manufacturers genuine parts’ However, there are a lot of ‘businesses’ particularly on ebay and amazon who have huge numbers of listings and just buy and sell large quantities of cheap copies of almost anything. We have noticed more recently on these platforms that the sellers are listing these parts as ‘Genuine Quality’. Obviously a bit cheeky as if they are pattern parts they are not genuine quality and they are not genuine. A customer glancing thorough the listings would see the word genuine and think exactly that they are genuine.

Be careful only in that we don’t mind paying a little extra for branded parts but don’t get duped into paying branded prices for a pattern part.
We deal with several manufacturers and many spares distributors and do find that the manufacturers name isn’t always on the part or the packaging. For instance we by many genuine spares from Panasonic and the packaging rarely mentions Panasonic and often just says made in China or Vietnam. However, we know or trust that Panasonic spares are from Panasonic and will be made to their specification wherever in the world they choose to have them made. 

Created On  17 Feb 2023 12:59 in Product information  -  Permalink
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Peanut Chicken Noodles

Peanut Chicken NoodlesPeanut Chicken Noodles
Ingredients:
250g pack rice noodles
2 ready-cooked chicken breasts, skinned and shredded
1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced
2 handfuls beansprouts
3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
4 tbsp light soy sauce
4 spring onions, sliced
50g peanuts, roughly chopped
20g fresh coriander, roughly chopped

Instructions:
Cook the rice noodles according to the pack instructions. Meanwhile, put the chicken and pepper in a microwave-proof dish and cover. Microwave on High for 2 mins, until piping hot.
  1. Follow the instructions for the rice noodles, place the chicken and sliced pepper into a microwaveable dish and cover. Set the microwave on high for 2 minutes until the contents is piping hot. 
  2. Drain the noodles, stir in beansprouts, add the chilli sauce and soy sauce and whisk the contents together, (including the chicken), to finish scatter peanuts and coriander over the bowl. 

Created On  11 Jan 2023 12:19 in Microwave recipes  -  Permalink
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Is your fridge freezer not working?

Is your fridge freezer not working?There are four main causes of your fridge freezer stopping working!
For the following fizes, you will need the fridge freezer manual to see where in your fridge freezer the elements will be placed.
  1. The thermostat can be faulty, use a multimeter to see if the thermostat is in fact faulty, you can purchase a thermostat from www.kitchenwareonline.shop, you will need the make and model of your fridge freezer
  2. The door seal to check for a fault, place a piece of paper between the door frame and gasket, remove the paper (door still shut) if the paper comes out easily the seal is faulty, got to www.kitchenwareonline.shop to find a replacement
  3. The PCB can be faulty (make sure the power is off) the PCB is usually on the top fascia panel, you will need to remove this and look for signs of damage, this will tell you if the PCB is damaged to replace your PCB go to www.kitchenwareonline.shop
  4. The Evaporator, this can be blocked with ice, if this is the case there will often be a problem with the heater, sensor or fuse, you can find all these items at www.kitchenwareonline.shop, you can check if the evaporator is blocked by seeing if the compressor is running correctly, remove the evaporator cover and see if there is a lot of ice
Created On  12 Dec 2022 13:37 in Technical and repair articles  -  Permalink
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Are you having issues with your dishwasher?

Are you having issues with your dishwasher?

Are you having issues with your dishwasher?

There are several issues that can arise with your dishwasher!

For the following fixes, you will need the dishwasher manual to see where in your oven the elements will be placed.

 

  • Ensure the power is turned off, the lower door sealcan wear down over time, check for signs of this, you can find a range of lowerdoor seals on www.kitchenwareonline.shop
  • Again, power off, there can be a faulty hose, you can check the external hoses to see if there is any damage, they will be positioned at the back of the dishwasher and check internal hoses for the same thing. If it shows that any of the hoses need replacing, you can find them on www.kitchenwareonline.shop
Created On  12 Dec 2022 12:29 in Technical and repair articles  -  Permalink
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Are you having issues with your oven?

Are you having issues with your oven?

There are several issues that can arise with your oven!
For the following fixes, you will need the oven manual to see where in your oven the elements will be placed.

  • The first thing we should suggest, is ensuring your clock is set to the right time. It may seem like this would not cause any issues, I mean it is a clock after all, but it can in fact stop the whole oven working. 
  • The next thing to check would be the thermostat, with the make and model of your oven you can find the correct oven thermostat for you on www.kitchenwareonline.shop 
  • The thermal cut-out can cause the oven to turn off if it overheats, with the make and model of your oven you can find the correct oven thermostat for you on www.kitchnewareonline.shop to check the thermal cut-out (make sure the oven is turned off): 
    • Begin by identifying where the electricity enters and exits
    • Use a multimeter, switch to a low resistance setting 
    • Measure the connections, they should be the same resistance if the two-meter probes were touching
    • If the reading is different, the thermal cut-out has failed
  • Again, making sure the oven is turned off, the thermal block can become loose, so check the link and connector, there can also be charring which means that it needs replacing, you can find the correct oven terminal block for you on www.kitchenwareonline.shop 
  • Lastly, the heating element we sell a range of heating elements on both our websites www.kitchenwareonline.com and www.kitchenwareonline.shop, if the following coincides with the symptoms of your oven you can almost guarantee that the heating element is faulty; oven clock is working and set to manual, light on the front remains on until it reaches required temperature, the oven fan is working as normal.
    • Similar to the above about checking the thermal cut-out, find the two connections
    • Multimeter on low resistance setting, measure the reading should typically be a resistance between 20 and 100 ohms
    • If there is no connection your oven element will need to be replaced
    If none of these have fixed your oven we would suggest finding a local engineer.

 






Created On  12 Dec 2022 10:59 in Technical and repair articles  -  Permalink
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