Infrared oven offers a new way to cook

Some time ago, I was minding my own business, reading a book in my room when my then 5-year-old son burst in and excitedly said: "Mom, you have all those wrinkles on your face. But they have this cream on TV. All you do is wipe it on, and the wrinkles just disappear!"

  He's lucky he's cute; otherwise, I'd have put him up for adoption.

  But what does that incident have to do with an article about cooking with the Nuwave infrared oven? Well, it led to a discussion with my son about advertising claims and how he shouldn't believe everything he sees on TV.

  Now he's a more critical thinker. Maybe too critical. While recently watching a Nuwave infomercial, he expressed disbelief at the claims that the infrared oven could cook foods - including frozen foods - in just minutes without heating up the house.

  Since my friend Pam Smith, reporter for The Sun, had just purchased one, I decided to experiment with it. Pam loaned it to me with the idea that I would learn how to use it, then teach her how.

  But she had misplaced the cookbook that came with it, so I logged onto the company's Web site and found a recipe for London broil with mushrooms.

  After a quick trip to the grocery store for ingredients, I set to work preparing the recipe while my pensive little boy watched.

  I set the steak on the 4-inch rack and placed sliced mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce and butter in a pan below the steak at the bottom of the oven, just as the recipe directed.

  Being technologically challenged, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could set the Nuwave oven temperature and timer without any help from my son. So far, so good.

  Then, he and I watched in amazement as the steak began to brown within 2 minutes on the cooking rack in the middle of the oven. Below it, the mushrooms cooked in the liquid mixture.

  At that point, I felt a little disappointed. After all, there is a certain joy associated with sautéing mushrooms until they are cooked to perfection. But with the Nuwave oven, all you do is stand there and watch. (Dare I say I was bored?)

  After the recommended 5 to 7 minutes, I removed the oven dome to flip the steak over. The outer layer of the steak was brown and leathery whereas the inside was rare and juicy. I tried in vain to reset the temperature to medium so the steak would cook more slowly and evenly.

  Because the warm, half-cooked steak was a potential breeding ground for food-borne illness, there was no time to read through the instruction manual to learn how to reset the oven temperature. I had to finish cooking the steak at a high temperature, and even then, it took longer than the recommended time.

  When the outside appeared to be done, the beef was so red inside that I almost put a bull rope on it and stuck it in an arena with a drunk cowboy on its back.

  Instead, I cut thin slices of the meat and cooked it for another couple of minutes in a skillet on my gas stovetop before serving the meat to my son.

  "Oh my God!" he said. "That is the best meat I have ever tasted." While his declaration was indeed dramatic, he did ask for seconds and ate every bite.

  I, on the other hand, wasn't as easily impressed. I thought the meat was too tough around the edges and would have preferred to cook it in the liquid mixture with the mushrooms in hopes it would come out more tender.

  Well, lo and behold, Pam called the next morning to say she had found the recipe book. Unlike the online recipe, the recipe in the book calls for cooking the London broil in the liquid with the mushrooms.

  The book also suggests cooking some meats at a medium - not a high - temperature. The moral of the story is: Don't lose your cookbook.

  And like any new cooking device, I guess the Nuwave oven just takes getting used to.

  I also roasted a vegetable medley in it, but I prefer the texture, color and flavor of vegetables and London broils that I cook in my regular cooking range.

  However, I think college students in dorms might benefit from having a Nuwave oven. In fact, just about anyone who doesn't have a regular cooking range might find the infrared oven handier than a microwave oven.

  The Nuwave oven ran fairly quietly, didn't heat up the house and did an OK job cooking the food.

  But I'm still not sold on that wrinkle cream.