I prepare a fair number of meals, or at least portions of meals in the microwave. I figured out early on that the caveat cooking times may vary depending on the power of your microwave means that every microwaved meal is a potential science experiment gone wrong.
Preferring to err on the side of caution, my routine starting point is seventy percent power for two minutes. The power setting is not high enough to cremate the food, and the length of time allows for at least one stir or flip before a subsequent "nuking".
When he was still living with us, College Dude routinely asked for microwave guidance and I always answered seventy percent at two minutes. Not that college age kids tend to be sarcastic or anything, but one night College Dude mumbled something about there must be SOME reason why they put all those other buttons on the keypad.
Turns out College Dude was right. There IS a reason for the other buttons. Tonight I found the exception to my rule.
Tilapia (that's fish for those of you who don't speak seafood) plumps to roughly twice its original size at one minute, thirty seconds into the cooking cycle. It really looks moist and delicious at that point. In the future I'll remember that, I assure you.
I'll also remember that at one minute and forty-seven seconds, Tilapia explodes with a force that, for just a split second, causes concern about the intergity of the latch on the microwave door.
