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Not sure if it's due to moisture. We had gone out of home to home town for many months. Upon return we found that microwave isn't responding. It's a convection oven so a new one will be around 12k I guess.

Normally when we open the door the light turns on inside the oven. Currently it keeps off too. I am just worried if there are more issues than just front panel being bad.

Certainly!

My house here was rewired in 2007 with MK-brand modular switches and sockets. There have been numerous broken switches, loose connections, and sockets loosing their spring grip.

It's true that I was not using "modular" stuff in UK, but generally, cannot recall many such faults in decades.

However, a recent studio-flat build was wired up with Anchor modular stuff, which makes MK look good! :Frustrati

I have used Anchor Roma Modular Switch & Sockets. In most of the boxes, due to Modular Construction, there are a couple of blanks. Instead of Blank Plates, I have installed Switches although not connected to Wiring.
This will ensure a supply of Spare Switch, in case of failure of any one. The replacement would be of the same make, model and Texture as others. You can always distinguish a newly replaced switch from the rest as the texture changes with age.

But if you use one of unused switches on the board to replace a bad switch in the same board, then the slot where you got the replacement from would be empty & you would either need to either leave it empty or replace it with new blank plate which would be of a different age than the rest of the board.

Not unless the switch has signs of burnout on the front too. Just leave the switch as it is and change the connection to the unused ones.
Anyway it is theoretical only. Did not have any issue till now. Mostly because of low current using LED lights

Thanks for the suggestions. We visited multiple showrooms in Chennai, but wifey was not happy with space management of any model :( Our current Whirlpool Protton has 3 glass shelves + chiller tray + large vegetable tray. Since we don't usually store large vessels, but rather more number of smaller ones, this arrangement works better. However, most of the newer models only have 2 shelves even in a 260L one and many do not have dedicated chiller tray.

None of the showrooms had the protton series on sale and they claim that the protton series had lot of issues and has been discontinued, though I see it available on Amazon. From their site, I understand this is a non-inverter model. Does it make sense to go for a non-inverter model and any specific feedback on the protton series?

We have 3 nos of Triple door protton series with us and extended family. Pros - triple door hence would lead to less loss of cooling,Vegetable box prevents scalding or chaffing and preserves freshness.. Cons- slightly noisy.

You can go for it if its available. Last time I have seen it in Vasanth and co and Girias.

We have Elgi Ultra






Till we got the wet grinder, we did use a normal mixer for over 15 years. Yes you can use it but :

. Wet grinding at high speed overloads the motor so it heats up fast. The overload would trip the mixer regularly. I guess a more powerful motor would overcome this.
. Grinding in mixer heats the mixture up, so if you are not careful you can partially cook some bits.
. Finally the smoothness of the grind in a wet grinder is practically impossible to get in a mixer. The reason is that a mixer grinds by hitting the particles at high speed, while a wet grinder uses stone to literally grind the dough.

Ha Ha, if you are not interested in Kitchen work, why ask?

Any way, I guess that it may be feasible, but grinding a wet mix gives it a better texture. I think that the difference is similar to making Dal Vada from powdered Dal verses soaked and wet ground dal. There is a lot of chemistry going on when we wet grind.

I am trying to reduce the burden of the Indian women (at least the one at my home lol:). As some foreigner commented, Indians spend half a day preparing the day's lunch and then eat it in 10 mins. While they spend 10 minutes preparing a meal (maybe sandwich) and spends half an hour eating it.
I think we waste countless hours and energy just to make food that is like 10% tastier. Like what they show in the movie Great Indian Kitchen - idly batter ground in grinders, curry made in earthenware (as opposed to pressure cookers), chutney made using stone grinders etc. I wonder whether they are really worth the hassle.

I think Indian cooking is more about planning than about actually consuming time. For example, grinding batter can be done in scale that lasts for a week. Soaking the various pulses need to be planned well so that it can be grinded the next day.

My point is, it's more 'planning' effort than just more cooking effort. I try to help my wife to do some of these things and we split the work between us as well as involve the kids too to do some of the things.

It won't work. Wet grinding Rice and Urad Dal makes it a slurry and it still retains the property to get fluffy while inside a steam cooker. When its powdered and mixed it looses its ability to raise inside a steam cooker. Something to do with adhesion/cohesion and other scientific stuff. Lots of research needed. :D

You forgot fermentation :) This is the key part of the process. And the yeast itself. Foodies share sourdough starters with yeast specific to certain regions. May be this is why idli in Bengaluru tastes different from the idli made in Chennai. (yeast strain, temperature, humidity,...)

I don't know if anyone has tried making fermented batter with powders as the OP suggested.

Rava idli mix? (MTR brand is quite popular)
Quite a bit of baking soda and preservatives, plus hydrogenated fats. We use this once in a while. Not sure if a similar formula will work for rice idlis - I think some people have tried marketing such a mix.

A typical rice-meal in my state consists of rice, one or two vegetables dishes, a fish/chicken/beef curry, a fried fish and dal/sambar/rasam. Most of these dishes requires sautéing of onion, tomato and spices which requires time and effort.
I understand there is something complex happening there, but can't picture what two pieces of stone can do to the mix other than than grinding it.
I might be wrong here, but my understanding was that idly batter is not fermented using yeast but by bacteria. Bacteria fermentation produces acid which gives it the sour taste. Bacteria is already present in urad dal and that is why we don't have to "add" it unlike the yeast we add to bread dough or wine. Remember what happens when bacteria takes over the wine (due to contamination) - It turns into vinegar.

We have dish from dry powder also. It is idiyappam made from dry rice powder mixed with hot water. This does not need fermentation as I understand. We also prepare appam sometimes with slurry rice powder. But not idly or dosa for which wet grinder is used for the fluffy output. I have tried it with mixie when I was alone but got rubbery dosa only. Weather plays a important role in fermentation as never got good idly/dosa in cold areas. Heat is needed after the grinding and not during, I guess.

On reducing the effort front, we came from a long way from hand crushing them in different ways for different food items and as part of evolution, we will move as you say may be in the next generation as current generation still carries mixie and grinders with them even when they emigrate.clap:

You are right! I always assumed it was yeast. Learn something new everyday.

Adding bread yeast to the mix makes the batter fluffy and odd tasting. (tried it once)

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