Posts filed under 'Gadgets Galore'
To say I am pragmatic about kitchen purchases is an understatement. My working kitchen has limited space so when it comes to new equipment and gadgets, I ponder, ponder and ponder just a bit more before I finally commit to a purchase.
I had been secretly lusting after a Le Creuset pot for years – just how many years? I don’t know, but I did not need a new pot and sheesh the price tag - would it be worth it? Was Le Creuset really the Holy Grail of the culinary world?
Last January with a holiday bonus in hand, I invested in a Le Creuset (kiwi green) 5 1/2-quart dutch oven. I can tell you, Y-E-S, it was worth every penny. As you can see from the drain pan, in one year’s time I have invested in two more pots (a small saucepan and a larger saucepan).
I LOVE these pots: Love how they look, love how they cook and love how they feel. I am quite surprised with how strongly I feel about my Le Creuset pots. Everything looks pretty in these pots because the interior is a creamy white. Admittedly, when I brought the green pot home, I didn’t know if I could deal with the hand washing and I did not know how I would feel about the temperature adjustments at my stove. These pots came with rules…
As a recipe writer and a cook, I value the benefit of cooking in a well-seasoned cast iron pan (Barr often recommends heavy, cast iron) but whenever I cook with one at someone else’s home, I am always worried that I am going to wreck their pan, wash it the wrong way etc, etc…
Neurotic? Yes, I know. But people feel very strongly about their cast iron pans, especially perfectly seasoned ones. Seriously, it is rumored that people in the south pass along their cast iron cornbread pans in their wills. If you are not the favorite daughter, your cornbread would be doomed for all of eternity.
Back to Le Creuset and its rules: First, cook at a lower heat than you might think (unless boiling water for pasta). If you are an instinctive cook, you will recognize this as you use the pots. Second, avoid using metal cooking utensils. These pots are enameled cast iron and very sturdy. After almost a year of use, I have determined that a Le Creuset pot would be tough to wreck
There are other brands of enameled cast iron, but my vote is to go with the original. I perused the other brands and was unimpressed with their "Made in China" origins. I admit it, I like the romance of "Made in France," as they have been made for 125 years.
Online shopping for Le Creuset can be very daunting. I picked up all of my pots at the Le Creuset outlest in Kittery, Maine. I highly recommend locating an outlet for your purchase and signing up for the outlet’s mailing list (coupons, my friends coupons). The ladies who work at the Kittery outlet were exceptionally helpful and patient with me as I picked up pot after pot and pondered and pondered.
So…What pot will I need to upgrade next?
Follow Le Creuset on Twitter.
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December 10th, 2009
Over the summer, flavorista Kitty gave me a rolling pin to test drive. It was similar to my favorite rolling pin from Italy only much fancier. The rolling pin was made by Peter Turner, a nationally recognized furniture maker who happens to live in South Portland.
Each 18-inch rolling pin is made out of Maine maple with a diameter of 1 3/4-inches. Hand turned on a lathe, finished with walnut oil and tavern green milk paint, these rolling pins work equally well on pie, cookie and bread dough. Please note that anyone with nut allergies can have the rolling pin finished with mineral oil instead of walnut oil.
The weight and length of the rolling pin is really appealing and effective. The length allowed me to easily roll out a larger sheet of dough for cut cookies and for biscuits. The feel is a little bit different than a traditional handled rolling pin but I find this design gives you much more control over the dough that you are trying to roll out.
To order a rolling pin, you can contact Peter via e-mail – petersturner@hotmail.com or on the phone (207-799-5503). He accepts both checks and credit cards. The price is $32 plus $5 – $10 shipping depending on where you live. What a perfect holiday gift for the baking-inclined flavorista on your list.
If you happen to be local, check out Peter’s wares at the Society of East End Arts Holiday Sale that takes place the first weekend in December.
November 18th, 2009
Entertaining sometime soon? Pork shoulder is a cinch with a pressure cooker.
Most of the prep and cooking should be done the night before but even early morning on the day of your party will make it easier for you to enjoy your guests. Another advantage to cooking it the day before is that you can refrigerate the sauce and pork which will solidify the fat. This makes it very easy to skim the fat before reheating it for the party.
Being very meaty in flavor, pork shoulder is great paired with some fruit. I served this with grano and green bean almondine. It was perfect for a cold fall night. If you are curious and want to learn more, accomplished cookbook author Victoria Wise wrote a very handy book entitled The Pressure Cooker Gourmet.
Citrus Pork Shoulder Under Pressure
Serves 6
2 lbs bone in pork shoulder
1 Tbsp. cumin, toasted and ground
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. fresh oregano, chopped
4 cloves minced garlic
1 large onion, diced
1 cup chicken or beef stock
1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice with zest from one orange
Juice of 1 lime
2 bay leaves
1 cup grapes
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes or 1 (16-ounce) can of diced tomatoes, drained
1 tsp.-1 Tbsp. Spanish paprika, spicy works well too
sea salt, to taste
Begin by braising the pork shoulder. Pour the oil into the bottom of the heated pressure cooker. Season the pork shoulder liberally with salt and pepper. It works best to start with a pork shoulder at room temperature. Sear the shoulder in the oil and brown on all sides. Remove from pan.
Add the onions to the pan and saute until soft. If the pan is dry add the stock to moisten. Now add the spices, bay leaf and the orange & lime juices. Snuggle the pork shoulder down into the onions. Add the fruits and garlic. Secure the lid of the pressure cooker and bring up to pressure.
Once you start hearing the steady hiss, lower the heat to medium and cook for 45 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the pan to release it’s one pressure for about 30 minutes. Now you can release the remaining pressure. Take off the lid and let cool completely.
To reheat for dinner remove the meat from the sauce. Using an immersion blender or your food processor or blender, puree the pan juices. Slice up the meat into portion sizes and place on to a nice oven proof casserole. Pour a bit of stock or water into the pan and heat in the oven at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Heat your sauce and adjust the seasonings. Enjoy!
November 3rd, 2009
The "No-Drip Honey Pump" is one of my favorite gadgets from the Fancy Food Show. The folks at Savannah Bee Company take their honey quite seriously and the result is a superior, consistent product. Additionally, they are masters at packaging and design; their products are so pretty you want them in your kitchen.
So… back to the super cool, totally drip-free honey pump: I am going to guess that Savannah Bee Company has spent more than a few years and probably lots of money to perfect this handy gadget. It is designed to fit their signature 12.6-oz. tower jar. It has not hit the market yet, but it is available for pre-order on their website or you can just wait to find it at your local gourmet store.
I can assure you that I tested this pump and sampled almost every varietal of honey at their booth. It honestly does not drip. It is a truly novel and noble solution to sticky honey jars and counters.
Savannah Bee Company’s other new products include honeys selected and bottled to be specifically paired with certains drinks or foods. So, I’ll start with a swirl of tea honey in my mint tea and go from there.
July 14th, 2009
from allposters.com
Brought to you by the Scripps Spelling Bee, deinsophistry is a noun meaning skilled table talk.
Between "don’t chew with you mouth open" and "forks are not optional," do you sometimes find table talk at your table lacking? You might want to give table games a try. These are not traditional board games because as one might imagine, Monopoly and spaghetti do not mix well. These are games to jump start conversations and fun at the table.
Family Time Fun Beginning Dinner Games is geared towards younger children (ages 3 – 6 years old) with games like "Rainbow Dinner" where someone picks a color and everyone names foods that color. The original version of this game is more appropriate for children ages 6 -12 with easy math games like "Counting Moo" where everyone takes turns counting and every even number must be a moo (1, moo, 3, moo, 5 and so on). The first person to slip up takes a sip of milk. Flavorista Eliza gives these cards a thumbs up.
For grown up conversations, give Table Topics a try. These 4×4 inch square cards are packed into a modern, lucite box. Flavorista Kitty shared the gourmet edition with me. Fun questions like "What is the most impressive meal you have ever cooked?" and "If you had your own cooking show, what would be your theme?" Table Topics comes in many different versions. If you are visiting relatives this summer, Table Topics would be a great item to bring along as a hostess gift.
I would be neglect if I didn’t mention Namits. When we dine out, Namits is my secret weapon. It is a set of colorful cards on a wire ring. Each card has a topic. For example, "Name Things That…" and on the reverse side there are action words "Fly, Swim, Tip, Ring." Older children love to play and babies just like the hard, plastic cards. I love how it easily fits in my purse. We’ve had it for years and it just doesn’t get old.
May you all enjoy much deinosophistry.
June 7th, 2009
This week on the Food Network, Giada DeLaurentis, Ina Garten and Rachel Ray all demonstrated different ways to squeeze a lemon. Giada squeezes it into her hand to catch the seeds; Rachel squeezes them as pictured below so that the seeds don’t fall out and Ina just takes her chances and pulls the seeds out. 
I love my citrus reamer and just to prove that it is the best method, I conducted a little experiment. I have plans to make a lot of lemon cream so this was as good a time as any.
Juicing Lemons, Techniques with Yield Results: I juiced 3 lemon halves as described above and got about 1 Tbsp. from each half. With the citrus reamer I got 2 Tbsp. or twice as much juice. So the moral of the lemon story is that a reamer yields the most juice plus it saves time and money.
Lemon Cream (aka lemon curd) is very versatile culinary staple - great for fresh fruit tarts, especially paired with raspberries and blueberries. You can mix it with whipped cream for a light mousse, or use it as I did with Anna’s Vanilla Cupcakes. You can make this cream with limes or meyer lemons too. Save the whites for making angel food cake, which is also delicious with lemon cream.
Makes 1 cup.
2 ounces of butter
1/2 cup sugar
zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup lemon juice
5 egg yolks
Melt the butter in a heavy bottom sauce pan over medium heat. Add sugar and stir until it disolves. Add the lemon juice and zest. With a whisk, mix the egg yolks together then pour into the butter sugar mixture whisking the whole time. If you have a candy thermometer, the curd is done when it is thick and reaches 168 degrees. The finished cream will thicken as it cools too.
PS from Kimberly: I also love my citrus reamer and have always found it to be the best way to juice a lemon. Now, I know that I am right. Excellent!
June 1st, 2009
I love soft butter for my toast. There are ways to store butter out of the refrigerator but you do have to be diligent about changing the water or adding fresh ice cubes or the butter will turn rancid. Butter Bells are very popular in France. I had one of these for years until it ultimately broke. They do come in marble which would be the best.
My mother-in-law gave me my current favorite one, a butter boat. While it is still made of ceramic, it is great as I can just put a stick of butter in it while it’s cold. You place an ice cube in the dish below and that keeps the butter perfectly spreadable. With the butter bell your butter has to room temperature so that you can cram it into the compartment. If only I could find a butter boat made of marble.
May 17th, 2009
I finally had a chance to check out a new, independent cooking store in our area. Kitchen & Cork is located in Scarborough, ME and it is a lovely place with gourmet goodies and gorgeous wares for the kitchen. I adore ambling through kitchen stores checking out what’s new, what’s trendy and silly gadgets.
I am not in the market for a new pepper mill, but my eyes and hands were drawn to these Vic Firth Pepper Mills. They were heavy and smooth and so beautiful. The store samples did not have peppercorns in them but they seemed to turn so effortlessly. I am quite smitten with the Sierra model and may add it to my Christmas list.
Here’s the cool part of the story: Vic Firth was a timpanist for the Boston Symphony and he was very frustrated by the inconsistency of drumsticks. He was committed to creating a drumstick that delivered consistent tone with each drum beat. As a result, Vic Firth drumsticks are considered the gold standard all over the world and these drumsticks are made in Maine! The folks at Vic Firth have taken what they know about wood and building a superior product and have transferred this knowledge to peppermills and rolling pins.
Check out the Vic Firth online store for "Thoughtfully Designed. Meticulously Crafted. Guaranteed for Life." products. It is remarkable in the age of the mammoth W-Mart to find such a suberb, American-Made product. Thank you Vic Firth and company from flavoristas everywhere!
April 19th, 2009
I cannot remember when I got this ice cream maker, but goodness do I remember life before we had it; very dull let me tell you, very dull. Homemade ice cream makes the world a better place. Maverick was swooning just the other day "about that homemade ice cream you make, it is soooooooo good!"
There are many different kinds of ice cream makers out there. I happen to really like this one. You freeze the cylinder and prep the ice cream base one day ahead of when you would like to make it. Then it is as simple as pour the mix into the cylinder and turn it on. Within, 30 minutes you’ll have some seriously addictive ice cream.
It is a tad noisy so if you want to have homemade ice cream for dessert at a dinner party, power it from an outlet in the bedroom, away from your guests. For an easy no cook, egg free, vanilla ice cream base, click here. For my favorite tangerine sorbet recipe, click here. More recipes to follow…
April 9th, 2009
I know that there is only a few months of school left but it’s never a bad time to re-think what’s in your children’s lunches, or in this case what is your child using for a lunch box?
Flavorista Eliza has used one of these laptop lunch boxes for her daughter for almost two years. Next year, I may have to upgrade Lollie and Maverick. Recently, our little minions (or as I like to call them my "mignons") have been more vocal and interested in what will be placed into the lunch boxes. Personally, I think they are tired of yogurt and hot soup. Maverick’s newest addition is cheddar and crackers. Lollie’s newest addition is roast beef in a pita pocket that she assembles at school.
Anyway, check out the laptop lunch box website. It is full of great information and recipes. The FAQ section was very helpful to me.
April 6th, 2009
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