"Pop-Pop-A-Re-Pop:
Used Microwave Popcorn Bags, The Cooking Tool You Need AND Making A Nuclear sauté Pan"
Kitchen ingenuity forms the spine of our inmate culinary experience. My wing has a spinster microwave with 50 hungry mouths to feed. No spatulas, knives, tongs, oversized utensils, nor cookware. Small wonder she breaks down twice a year, given her side-hustle dehydrating spat-in dope! Taking all available help, lucky for us old Pop Corn helps our distressed damsel expedite getting convicts contented while achieving otherwise un-doable tasks what amounts to an electric steamer cannot manage.
Saving all used popcorn bags, often folded ones are put behind tubes running up the wall behind our oven for further uses. Basically this up-cycle item is a buttery vessel designed to super-heat food.
Any dish I make requiring onions and/or peppers I chop, add either a packet of sugar or Splenda and seasoning like garlic, fajita spice, salt and pepper, or leftover packs from ramen inside an empty bag, top folded down. Using 1.5 minute intervals, I remove and stir well until transparent loveliness comes unless I'm adding it to a dish like spaghetti sauce I'm cooking further. Still I go at least 4 rounds.
Meat like Summerdog - beef Summer sausages, lunch-meat, or even pouch chicken Ill fry like the produce. To get good char, a dollop of mayo stirred well with the chopped or ground product ignites the sizzle for crisp edges. Not overly wet, but finely coated is what's wanted. 3/4 of the trip I add in onion or peppers.
Never can you go wrong with the combo of cheese and bread, duh. Mom smelled trouble when I was 4 after wolfing down a grilled cheese and I hollered "gimme more!". For instant gratification garnered from those living in a human warehouse often for their troubles with that concept, keep that bag handy. With cheese and bread on the ready, I coat each slice both sides with mayo. Reason being the condiment is much more versatile than fake butter and though pricy, nowhere near the other option. Putting the sandwich in the closed bag nuke 1.5 minutes. Plop it on a plate to cool and you're home. No cleanup, Chief! Branching out beyond the Honky bread I use (one of a whole 2 options and the wheat gives me acid reflux, dunno why) you can go bananas out there with breads, cheeses, meats, and condiments. Myself I'm gonna put a piece of country ham, a bit o brie, a slice of pear, and some nifty topping like a spiced honey mustard when sweet freedom hits. Mmmmmmmama!
Repurposed Garlic Toast Croutons are simple salad magic. Keep two or more slices of simple buttered white bread garlic toast in a space for "stale-ing" overnight. An hour before serving salad, chop the slices into quarter inch squares, then fill your bag with 'em. Add additional garlic powder, salt, and Parmesan cheese if those are handy or you yearn for such and shake real good. Nuke 4 minutes, opening and shaking around 1/2way through. Dump and cool, Player. Restaurant quality accouterments lightning speed minus popping oil, dirty deep fryers to dump and clean, or anything to wipe or wash.
Cook-wise if I'm renowned for anything its WRAPS. I used to sell them by the box-full daily, all gone before my prep started. Multiple types, but an Italian with Summer-dog, pepperoni, stuffing, cheese sauce, and fried vermicelli was top dawg. Finishing the product I'd put five stuffed tortillas in a "fry box". This innovation requires a handy type with sewing skills and a heavy needle like steel or such.
Taking 4 used bags, carefully cut the sides up and lay each bag open. Cut the square inner heating sources from each. Procure two 8 inch pizza boxes, and use this excuse to punish a pair of pies! Remove the lid from one, trimming it so it fits inside the other without wiggle room. Sew the remainders of the bags in four panels covering the loose piece. This is the frying surface for a "skillet" when laid in the bottom of the intact box. Its surface is removable to clean. Inserted it's cockroach durable. TIP: we've limited resources, how we discover tech like this. Having the access you do, likely there's an adhesive solution as good, quicker, and maybe better than sewn. Using my fry-box nearly daily, it lasted six months until a trip to the Hole got it snagged. Thug life, Kids, don't always pay. Stay in school and keep your cookware, Lil' Ass G.
Wrapping this up: I place 5 burritos, 4 side-by-side with another across the bottom. I coat the exteriors with mayo all around, then top with black pepper and something red or brown like Cajun seasoning or paprika for presentation. Closing the box, nuke 5.5 minutes, turning halfway through. A delightful crisp edge, no pans to wash, and a FIRE final product.
Last, us Northpoint no-goodniks are limited to one option here, Act II Butter. Think of the flavor gallery at y'all's grocery! Sweet Kettlecorn, Spicy, Cheesy, and Lord knows what brave popcorn pilots like Orville Radenbacher III have figured since I hit these fences. Take my advice and should you dream up something nifty, share it with the rest of the class here!
Keep it Poppin', Partners. Back with more taste-full treats and tips someday soon! xoxoxo Batmama
#incarceratedwriter, #northpointtrainingcenter, #prisonrecipe, #prisonfood, #prisoncooking, #microwavecooking, #microwaverecipes, #popcorn, #pizza, #tortillawraps, #wraprecipes, #grilledcheese, #grilledcheeserecipes, #vermicellirecipes, #mayonnaise, #splenda, #summersausage, #sandwichmaking, #quickrecipes, #sauteing