over the past three years, i’ve thought to write a post about my convection oven nearly every time i’ve used it, marveling at what a switch it was from an american oven, but how much more i prefer it. finally got around to that post! 🙂
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i love my little oven. so so much. if we ever move back to america, i think i will forgo the usual american-sized appliance and purchase something like what we have now. that’s how much i love it.
here it is. (not a great pic, i took it with my phone.) my convection oven!
this baby will microwave, spot-heat, steam, bake, defrost, toast, and grill. and it also has a “bread rise” function that i’ve found to be quite handy, cutting my rise times in half, usually.
here’s a picture with a 9X13 pan for reference.
pretty tiny, huh? but big enough to bake almost anything i need. it came with two “racks” that are more like pans that slide into the grooves in the side. with those, i can bake two 9X13 at once, provided that the ingredients won’t rise during baking and don’t go over the top of the pan. i’ve also made a few turkeys in there, and although there is ZERO extra space, it works! i had the get used to not being able to use the microwave function when i was baking something — a number of times i was baking bread while working on another recipe that needed melted butter or warm milk. after a few months, i just got used to doing things on the stove.
the steam function is a pretty cool one, if you ask me. the oven came with a small ceramic dish that i can fill with water and place into the back right corner. then i can place a dish of carrots, broccoli, apples, etc, into the center of the oven, and hit “steam.” through engineering i have no desire to guess at, the oven pulls water from the cup and makes it into steam that fills the air and shoots down into the food. i can steam veggies in about 2-3 minutes. love it!
sometimes i can hardly believe i used to preheat a whole oven to bake a tiny sheet of cookies. mottainai is a common phrase in japanese, basically translating into “don’t waste it!” — it’s exactly the phrase that comes to mind when i think of my little oven.
Can I get you to bring one back for me too? I love Japan.
Nice! Gotta love Japan! Wish I had one of those when I was in China…mine was slightly smaller (had to force a 9×13 in!) and was essentially the same thing as those little toaster ovens you can get in the States. You can forget a turkey! Although, I don’t know how to cook a turkey anyway, ha!
I loved mine except when I wanted to use a microwave while something was cooking in there.