In the Kitchen With Mattie

Archive for the ‘Equipment Review’ Category

When I was a child I spent weekends with my grandparents, my fathers parents.  I loved them and they loved me. I can’t say that my grandmother loved or even liked to cook, she did it out of necessity more than as a way to get some enjoyment. I’m the opposite, I am happiest being in my kitchen cooking for those I love or anyone who needs a good meal, I love to nourish people and see them enjoy what I make.

 

The meals that my grandmother turned out were pretty basic to say the least. My grandfather was not an adventurist when it came to food and he ruled the roost at home. My favorite meals that she turned out included her pot roast and spaetzle, her “red soup” which in reality was a very basic tomato based vegetable soup, usually made with some short ribs and it had the addition of some tiny spaetzle in it too……..are you sensing a theme here? I grew up eating spaetzle and have passed my love of them onto my children and others too. I remember when I was very young my grandmother had a round plastic disc that sat over the pot of simmering water, it had holes in it that were approximately 1/4 inch round. It was placed over the pot and the spaetzle dough was then forced thru the holes into the simmering water below. They would cook in the simmering water and then rise to the top when they were cooked thru, she would then remove them from the water and place them into a shallow bowl with some butter, they would then be served with the roast and gravy. At one point my grandfather decided that he liked his spaetzles a little larger in size so the plastic pot topper disappeared and she began to place the dough into the water by small spoonfuls, in all these ensuing years I had never seen another pot topper like she had until about 3 weeks ago when I was browsing Amazon for some staples I usually order from them. Suddenly there it was!  A pot topper that looked just like the one my grandmother had all those years ago, only this one was made in stainless steel. I pushed the order button and was left alone with my memories until it arrived, such wonderful memories of a long ago simpler time when life was always sunny wrapped in my grandparents arms. Here is my grandmothers recipe for spaetzle:

 

1  1/2 cups unbleached white flour

2 large eggs at room temperature

2 tablespoons softened, not melted butter

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup whole milk

finely chopped chives…….optional

 

Mix batter together and press thru spaetzle maker into simmering water. When spaetzle float remove from water and place into a bowl, mix in a bit of butter to stop them from sticking together. Leftover spaetzle are wonderful re-heated by sauteing in some butter in a frying pan until they are toasty and crisp. If adding them to a soup, prepare them in a separate pot of simmering water so they don’t cloud the broth, add them to each bowl as you serve the soup.

 

Tonight I was finally feeling well enough to go into the kitchen and recreate one of my grandmothers meals that was one of my favorites.  Here are some pictures of it, I have to say it came out excellent and you will find my standard recipe for short ribs on this site, enter short ribs into the search area and it will bring up all those posts. I hope if you try this meal you enjoy it as much as we do. If you love spaetzle I would highly suggest that you invest in one of these pot toppers, they aren’t inexpensive but one will last you a lifetime and one of your children will probably fight the will over it.

 

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Simply-Calphalon-Nonstick-Double-Grill/dp/B002CZQGS6/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1318549978&sr=8-5

 

This link will lead you to my favorite grill pan by Caphalon, it is a dual burner non stick pan that I absolutely love. I does a great job and cleans up quickly with no scrubbing. It also works well on all kinds of gas and electric stoves. If you regularly have a need to grill lots of food at once I would really recommend this pan. I have bought at least 4 grill type pans over the years and been disappointed in the performance from them, this one is a 10 in my book!

It is no secret among my family and friends that I simply LOVE anything to do with my kitchen and creating a good meal. That includes great knives, pots, pans and gadgets. I normally don’t buy unitasker gadgets but made an exception for this one, it is the Kuhn Rikon Corn Zipper shown in the picture above. I already have another model of corn zipper that they put out and while I was happy with that model too, I couldn’t resist this cute one when I saw it.

Even hubby got into the act of helping to zip the corn we had and he loved it…….typically he doesn’t like being in the kitchen unless he is desperately needed to do some lifting and such, tonight he was having fun zipping the corn and I had to order him out.

If like us you love that fresh summer sweet corn but have had extensive dental work done over the years and now have to resort to cutting the corn off the cob to enjoy it (usually using a knife and making quite a mess in the process) get one of these for yourself and give it a try. One word of caution, it is very sharp and probably should not be used by small children without very close supervision, they will want to use it as it is so cute so keep an eye on them. Second thing is be aware of how much pressure you exert (not much is needed), if you dig in you will find yourself with a lot of the cob still attached to the kernels, it won’t take long before you know exactly how much pressure to exert to release every kernel right to the cob.

We are eating a lot of this summers fresh sweet corn thanks to how well this new zipper works and I am going to load the freezer with more to last thru the fall too. You can find this on Amazon.com, it has many good reviews on there.

Last week hubby ordered me a new pan I had seen on QVC. It is labeled as a 10 inch Fritatta Pan but as we don’t really make many frittats around here it will get more use with making potatoes.

Tonight I was making a quick meal and decided to give my new pan a try. I took four medium sized russet potatoes and peeled them and gave them a quick wash in the sink.  Then I took out my Kuhn Rikon thin slice mandoline and got busy cutting them into very thin slices, then I peeled a small onion and gave that a quick slice on the mandoline too.

If you routinely need to slice things very thin let me reccomend you picking up one of these small hand held mandolines from Kuhn Rikon, I myself have two of them and one of the julianne one too. In my kitchen equiptment arsenal I also have a Professional Bron mandoline that I used in my work life and yet it doesn’t perform as well as this little one from Kuhn Rikon does for me. The Bron has multiple adjustments on it for different cut thicknesses and that alone makes it a bit more versital and yet the little hand held model is the one you will always see me reach for when I want to cut whisper thin, be it potatoes, onions, cucumber, celery or what have you.

Now onto the new pan set and how it performed for me at dinner tonight. After the potatoes and onions were prepped I put a teaspoon of clarified butter in the pan on the stove for a little flavor. The I started laying in the sliced potatoes, alternating with the onion strings and a bit of salt and pepper, until the pan was about 3/4 of the way filled. I poured about 6 ounces of unsalted chicken broth over the top and turned the heat up to a medium flame  and covered the lower pan with the top that locks into it, I left it alone for the next 10 minutes then removed the top pan and let it continue to cook so the broth evaporated, that took about another 10 minutes. When the broth was just about all gone I again put the top pan on and then flipped the whole pan over so the top (now on the bottom) could brown, the potatoes were pretty well done cooking already and I just wanted to get them to a nice brown crispy state. The pan worked perfectly for everything, the non stick qualities are great and the finished potato gallet slid right out onto the platter when it was browned.

Now I have made this gallet often over the years and you can definitely do it without investing in a pan of this kind. Would you want to? I can tell you that even after all the years I have been making it the old way I have burned myself a few times while trying to juggle a hot pan and a plate, it is an definite pleasure to do the flipping of the potatoes when they are all enclosed, instead of trying to slide it onto a plate and then flip it back into the pan from the plate, a few times it has also slid apart on me over the years and once or twice I have also dropped it, it is a bit of a dangerous proposition to manage to pull it off well if it is something you don’t do regularly. I would say getting this pan is a definite plus for me and it may be for you if you think you would enjoy this potato dish or if you routinely enjoy frittatas at your house. I had first seen the pan in a popular cooks catalog at more than twice the price QVC has it for, so if you do purchase it I would really say to go the QVC route. The other day on QVC I saw that Rachel Ray is also now selling the same model of pan but hers is an 8 inch model which would be a bit small for me, the one I purchased is a 10 inch model and is just perfect for us.

Next time I will make them a little richer with the addition of a bit of heavy cream and then top them with some shaved parmesan cheese, there are lots of things I can forsee making in this. How about some thin sliced apples, cinnamon and butter for some dessert……..my mind is really going into high gear now.

If you click on the pictures you can enlarge them and see the layers of potatoes.

Most people get excited about getting a new car or a piece of jewelry or some take fancy vacations and that makes them happy. Me, I get overjoyed when I get something for my kitchen that allows me to cook a fantastic meal for people I love. Behold, a work of art that I just recieved. Something that really makes my heart sing! A new Kuhn Rikon 12 litre pressure cooker! It looks more like a work of art to me than a simple vessel to cook a meal in, I know most people wouldn’t get so excited to have one of these so they wouldn’t understand how I feel when I look at it, and that is ok, I am sure they have things that bring a smile to their faces too that I wouldn’t understand either, but I won’t judge them on what makes them happy and hope they won’t judge me either.

Taking it from the box I am reminded of why so many people love this brand of pressure cooker, people whose opinion I value. The cooker is heavy for its size, the metal shiny as a mirror, the edges smooth as glass with no rough spots, the handles on both sides are securely fastened, and I really love the smaller size of the handles instead of the usual longer one, it allows me to not have to juggle pots around on the stove to make the handles mesh with each other and not be in the way to be hit when walking past the stove. It truly is a thing of beauty and I am already anticipating cooking many, many great meals for my family in it. The NY Times once labeled it the Mercedes of pressure cookers and checking it over I can see why.

I spent the night just reading all the information in the manual and the cookbook that came with it. I am first surprised at how little liquid you are instructed to use when cooking in it so I jot an email to one of those afore mentioned friends and he says that indeed, unlike other pressure cookers you don’t need a lot of liquid in a Kuhn Rikon, this will be a great thing when it comes to having to go thru a long reduction time in order to make gravy. In my other cookers I normally have to add a lot of liquid to start with and it takes a good while to reduce that cooking liquid to concentrate the flavors later when making the gravy or sauce to go with the meal. I can tell by trying to secure the lid that this pressure cooker is indeed made to tight specs, there is no wiggle room once the lid is secured, it is tightly sealed. Some of the other cookers I use have a little play when the lid is secured but not this one!

When it arrived I wanted to cook with it immediately, unfortunately I had nothing here to try it out with so had to have a little patience, something I am not known for when it comes to trying a new kitchen treasure. Last night we went and did our grocery shopping and I picked up a large 7 pound hen so my first try with this pressure cooker will in all likelyhood be chicken and dumplings, I will post when it is done later tonight.

You may be asking yourself why I wanted or needed such a large size cooker in a house with only two people in it, after all space is at a premium around here and storage of such a large pressure cooker can be an issue. Well, if you keep in mind that I regularly cook for others too and when doing that I normally have to do two or more pots, this will cut down on that need, it will also cut down on all the clean up having to wash several pots causes. I also use an amazing amount of stocks in my cooking and much prefer home made to store bought, I can control everything that goes into the stock and that is good for hubby with his high blood pressure issues, his doctor has even commented that the more he eats meals I prepare instead of junk food his BP is in a great place compared to what it used to be. I am a soup addict, I admit it! I can eat fresh home made soups every day of the year and will often eat a whole pot by myself over the course of a few days, I eat it as a meal, I eat it as a snack instead of junk food, I just love it. Lastly, you can make a small amount in any size cooker but you can’t make a large amount in a smaller cooker, so this size will serve me the best.

I have already picked three of my other cookers to pass onto others and hope they will enjoy them too, doing that will more than give me the room to store this beauty with no problem.

So in conclusion, if you are interested in feeding yourself and your family healthy quick meals, even after a hard day at work, let me suggest you try pressure cooking for yourself. You don’t have to get this particular cooker but do get one that has good reviews on it to begin with. If you find pressure cooking works well for you then start a change jar for your own dream cooker, your time is valueable and so is your health and using a pressure cookers helps in both areas.

If you want to read up on this companys cookers go to their website at

www.KuhnRikon.com    they also have all their great gagets on there and some recipes too, enjoy!