Posted on 05/01/2022 1:12:22 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
I bought some new gadgets and products recently. I think the most interesting was the ‘Sushi Bazooka’. There are lots of these available, but they all work along the same lines and make it much easier to fill and roll Maki Sushi, California Roll, etc. It doesn’t always come out as perfect on the first try as some videos make it look, but with a little practice it’s great. 'How Daily' shows how it works:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe8GsJ3M4F0
I was introduced to this type of sushi by a Korean friend who calls it ‘Kimbap’. She made it with imitation crab (but the little 'salad' shrimps might be better for those who don’t like ‘Krab’), cucumber, pickled daikon, and strips of cooked egg (mix eggs as for scrambled eggs, spread a thin layer in a frying pan, and cook quickly so that when it’s done it’s like a big tortilla that you can cut into strips.)
And you must have the sear-your-mouth horseradish condiment, ‘Wasabi’, to go with it. The pickled ginger usually sold with Sushi is also very good, and in recent years I’ve found both the horseradish and the ginger in the Asian sections of many American supermarkets.
In a local health food store I found an unusual cracker. The century-old Inés Rosales company in Spain makes several types of these and they appear to be available in two sizes. They’re different from the crackers we’re used to – softer, and sort of halfway between a biscuit and a cracker, with unique textures and flavors, some savory and others sweet. These are available from lots of vendors online, and while they’re more expensive they’re worth it, especially for entertaining. Since they are softer, if you are going to serve them as an hors d’oeuvre, it would probably be best to wait until the last minute to apply any spread or topping that’s very ‘wet’.
We bought a Ninja air fryer last month, and so far we’ve tried two things in it – Brussels sprouts and steak. Neither turned out very well, but we’re assured that it takes some tweaking and practice to figure out, so I’ll have to do a progress report later. (One thing I really want to try in it is frozen onion rings, but for some reason our stores that usually have them - as well as French fries - have none. I’m not sure why – that kind of thing is usually out-of-stock around Super Bowl time, but normally available. This is the only extended shortage I’ve noticed since early in Covid when we couldn’t buy toilet paper, chlorine bleach or hand sanitizer.)
There’s a restaurant in Austin, Texas called ‘El Arroyo’ that is very popular for its Tex-Mex food, but most famous there and elsewhere for the ‘readerboard’ signs it displays outside. They do a different saying every day, many humorous, some mildly philosophical or even very sober. Over the past couple of years, they've gotten a lot of sign-mileage out of Covid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDJhbvQnaFE
-JT
This month: Kitchen gadgets and other stuff.
(If you would like to be on or off of this monthly cooking thread ping-list, please send a private message.)
-JT
Re: kitchen gadgets
I’ve found I can’t live without an IR temperature gun and a fast read probe thermometer. Better cooking via modern thermometry is a thing for me.
Like these:
https://smile.amazon.com/Etekcity-Lasergrip-1080-Non-Contact-Thermometer/dp/B00DMI632G
https://www.thermoworks.com/thermapen-one/
The Thermapens aren’t cheap, but they are FAST! If anyone knows a cheaper alternative that is just as fast, I’d be curious to know about it.
The onion rings cooked using the foodie turned out better
than the fries (IMHO) Rather than cook bacon in the oven,
try the foodie on the rack. Very good, as are the burgers cooked on the rack.
This site might be of help:
https://thekitchencommunity.org/ninja-foodi-recipes/
My favorite will always be a kitchenaid. I have two. I need a professional restaurant size. When I made dinner last night, I had to make dough twice because 17 cups of flour won’t fit in a 4.5 or 5 qt. lol
I bought both of those for my husband’s birthday a couple of months ago. He’d especially been wanting the ‘gun’ type, which I think he’s used most often.
Thanks. I think bacon and hamburgers are two of the essential ‘food groups’ and glad to see suggestions for them.
We were given one by my mother-in-law. I’ve yet to try it out; my kitchen is so small, and I really haven’t baked much over the past couple of years. I bought a nice cover for it, and it’s on a shelf.
My husband does want the meat-grinder attachment for it.
(On our next move - hopefully our last - I want a really big kitchen. I’m finding counter space even more attractive than cabinet space.)
I just got that kitchen. Have a fair amount of counter space and a HUGE island. It is a real game changer.
The other thing I got is a big 5 burner cooktop and an exhaust to the outside.
okay....has anyone used a Pullman pan before?.....thinking of getting one but want to know if its worth it...TIA.
Leave it to the Japanese :-)
Don’t know if anyone has done this before: every time I try to cook a syeak in a pan I get some water from the steak and it boils rather than sears. So I cooked the steak by laying it directly on the oven rack in a 400o oven. A few minutes on each side with a pan beneath to catch the drippings and it cooked better than ever.
I bought one a while back, but it turned out to be much larger than I expected - I think it’s about a 2-lb loaf, and I wanted one to make small breads, like those little rye or pumpernickel loaves you can buy for appetizer-type stuff.
I like using the Bridgford frozen dough, and thought I’d try that in it.
When you buy one, make sure you get the size you want- and you want to be sure it has the top that slides on and off. (They’re nice for making pate-type recipes, too.)
I’ll tell my husband that. He eats a lot of steak, and usually does it in cast-iron on the stove top. (I think he starts with a REALLY hot pan.)
I envy you!
Little over a year ago bought a bread machine. Had thought about getting one for years but resisted as I enough unused kitchen gadgets. Finally bought a roughly $70 one. Was tired of buying a loaf of bread once a week and tossing half of because wife and I don’t eat that much anymore and don’t like freezing bread. Can make a loaf for a few cents so don’t feel bad about waste. Now use it every 7 to 10 days. We now make fancy breads that I would pass up in supermarket. Have started letting machine do mixing, kneading and resting. Take dough out for final rise and then bake in oven, oven does a better job baking than machine.
But my favorite thing in the world is my knife. Not an expensive knife. It is hand made by someone who used an old piece of hacksaw blade. I picked it up at a garage sale for ten cents. It is sharp, it is always hand washed, honed and rubbed with a lightly oiled rag before going in it's own special place in the drawer.
Yesterday I could not find it. My mother was coming to dinner and my knife was no where to be found.
I was frantic. I was baking, whisking and kneading but all the time my brain was going "where is my knife?" Finally lined up the family, had they seen my knife?
What Knife?
MY knife. My little wooden handled knife that sat in it spot, (Drawer was opened) RIGHT HERE. Where was my knife?
My Dear Husband, My Sweet heart, love of my life and father to my children.... "I used it down stairs to cut a piece of rubber hose. It is probably still down there...."
Everything else was put on hold until knife was found, washed, honed and I was once again chopping, slicing dicing and making radish roses.
The Word has now been issued, do not touch my knife.
I like that.
Chef Jean-Pierre makes a garlic puree. He keeps it in the freezer to use as needed (I don’t think it freezes solid with the olive oil in it, but it keeps and is still easy to spoon-out as needed). He uses a blender for larger batches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZA2UcvnE6g
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