How to care for Ceramic Stove-top ??

Grace,

I use small non-stick pans (smallest size in the cookware set) for tempering. It has a flat bottom and I place it on the smaller cooking surface.

For deep frying, I always use my indalium kadai and keep it in high heat. Yes, it has a rounded bottom, but I prefer frying in that. I never use non-stick pans for deep frying except when making small quantities, but for that I reduce the heat below medium. The power/heat being wasted maybe a point here, but that has been my personal preference so far. Sometimes, I do use my anodized cooker bottom for deep frying.

As for cooking pulao, I keep the heat just a little above the medium and switch it off after 6-8mins. By this time, a couple of whistles would have already come. If we keep in high heat, we may get the whistles sooner, but the rice may not be cooked. When we cook in medium heat, the rice cooks evenly. We can remove the cooker from the hot surface a couple of minutes after we switch it off.

For making regular rice(ponni rice), I maintain the heat to near high(cooker has a flat bottom) and switch it off within 3-4whistles. Since I keep the cooker on the surface after switching it off, a couple more whistles go off, but that's fine.

As for the 'Hot surface' indicator being on, it is quite normal for the electric stoves. Even in regular electric stoves (that does not have glasstop), the heat is retained in the coil, but there is no indicator.

But in the ceramic glass stoves, the indicator shows that the surface is still hot to touch. That does not mean the power is being used up, since we've switched off all the cooktop surfaces after cooking. Right? It is a safety feature, to let us know that the surface is still hot to touch.

When I start preparing dry curries/gravies etc, I always keep the heat a little above medium since I use the non-stick/anodized cookware. Then reduce the heat to medium for sometime and finally low heat. This way, the dish is evenly cooked and saves the heat/power.

Cheers
Krithika

 

I have ceramic glass stove too in my kitchen. It got some scratches on it which are white. Is there anyway I can get rid of them.

Thanks,
Latha

 

Grace,

I use iron kadai or stainless steel wok to deep fry. After initial heating I set the stove to be at 4, it just maintains the heat pretty well.

For normal cooking, I switch of pressure cooker/pan in 3 whistles for rice and leave veggie 3/4th steamed and leave rest for latent heat to do the job.

Its been fun cooking in this as there's no big messup, but I'm still missing the BTUs a gas cooktop can offer :-( I generally use all type of utensils but always use them with care (no sliding on stove top)


-Uma

 

I doubt because the cooktop is glass. I know there are replacements for the cooktop itself. I guess it costs about $200-$300

-Uma

 

British Thermal Unit (BTU) is a measure of energy.

In North America, the term "BTU" is used to describe the heat value (energy content) of fuels, and also to describe the power of heating and cooling systems, such as furnaces, stoves, barbecue grills, and air conditioners. (Source : Wikipedia)

Grace, its just the output power of your stove, the time it takes to heat up a cup of water in gas stove is different from that of electric cooktop ranges. I could safely say that there's an instant heat in gas which is missing in electrical ones.

-Uma

 

That were really great tips to take care of the ceramic top so that it can be maintained for the long time. I will mention about these tips to all my friends so that none of our money is wasted.

 

It really good tips.Other thing is that Clean the top with a special cleaner from the manufacturer once or twice a month. This will keep the stove top shining and looking new. Wipe the cleaner off completely when finished.