I also had a major disaster a couple of weeks ago, my oven broke, it started sparking when I was cooking fishcakes and I haven't been brave enough to turn it on again since. So I'm ovenless! Despite this I have found plenty of hob top meals to make. The first of these being a sort of paella dish. It was unfortunately a bit bland and I think it could have done with a bit of paprika to spice things up, but not too bad.
Spanish Rice with Seafood (adapted from Olive Magazine May 2010)
(Serves 2)
1 onion, sliced
1 pepper, cut into chunks
olive oil
150g paella rice
pinch saffron
400ml chicken stock, hot
125g cooked mixed seafood
1 lemon, halved
small bunch parsley, chopped
Cook the onion and pepper in 2 tbsp olive oil in a wide, shallow pan until softened. Stir in the rice until coated in all the oils. Stir the saffron into the stock then add to the pan and stir well. Put on a lid and cook for 15 minutes until the rice is tender and the stock absorbed.
Stir in the seafood until heated through completely, then squeeze over lemon and toss through the parsley.
If the sparking was inside the oven itself and not the controls or the electrical outlet, it's probably the heating element that's going bad on you. They can be replaced and it's usually not expensive. I've done it a couple of times and it's not hard. Just be sure to unplug the oven before doing it.
ReplyDeleteHere's the sequence for replacing your heating element:
ReplyDelete1. Using the phone directory or Google, find a store that sells heating elements. Call them to be sure they have parts for your stove.
2.UNPLUG THE STOVE. 220 volts in not something you want to mess around with.
3. Remove the defunct heating element. With American stoves, that's usually a matter of removing a couple of screws and pulling off the heating element. I've never taken apart a British stove, so I don't know about yours.
4. Take the defunct heating element to the store you've found, along with any information you have about the make and model of your stove. The heating element is sometimes stamped with a part number. Buy the replacement part.
5. Take it home and install it. No big deal, right?
I once had a heating element flash and fail the night before Thanksgiving. We had a turkey in the refrigerator and family was coming the next day. I managed to slide into the stove parts store just before they closed and got it all fixed in the nick of time. The cat appreciated it. The next day she sat in front of the stove smelling the roasting turkey.