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regularizer posted:I'm looking for a kitchen island or table that has a large square-ish workspace, not a narrow one. Something like this: I use this as a free standing island in my kitchen and really like it: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90049200/ It's 24" deep which is standard counter depth, so you get a lot of room to work with. When I see them at Ikea they sometimes have shallower shelve units butted up to them to make them even deeper if you want. If you want something cheaper, check Costco for nice big stainless steel tables like this: http://www.costco.com/TRINITY-EcoStorage%e2%84%a2-24%e2%80%9d-NSF-Stainless-Steel-Table.product.100036154.html I think they're too clinical/professional looking for most homes, but if you have a lot of stainless steel it might work.
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Jan 4, 2014 19:05
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrjrMs739NI Got a gift card to Williams Sonoma, got one of the few things that wasn't available for much cheaper elsewhere: a Smoking Gun. Smoke is a little superficial compared to traditional cold smoking, it's more about aroma than taste. Amazingly convenient and fast though, and cleanup is super easy. After I traditionally cold smoked cheese I would have to let it sit plastic-wrapped in the fridge for a week for the more acrid flavors to mellow out, but this is ready to eat right away. I tried letting the cheese sit in a smoke-filled container for 2 days (smoked twice) and the taste was pretty close to a traditional cold smoke. Fridge smells like applewood now though. Also, you can do stupid things like smoking your bourbon, putting a cigar in your manhattan or lifting the lid off a platter and having a magician's poof of smoke come out. It's a fun toy and it works, if you don't mind plunking down $100 for convenience when there are $30 traditional cold smoker options out there. Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 10:11 on Jan 5, 2014 |
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Jan 5, 2014 10:01
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mod sassinator posted:I use this as a free standing island in my kitchen and really like it: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90049200/ IKEA also have these alternatives, which might also be interesting. If I had a bigger kitchen I'd probably get the stainless steel one.
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Jan 5, 2014 13:43
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Am I doing something wrong with my 8qt Presto pressure cooker? I've been using it for a few weeks and, generally, it works great. However, I've had some issues with poo poo spraying out the valve over the past week. A few days ago I tried making some red lentils. I had about a cup of lentils in the bottom of the pot with enough water to cover them by a couple inches. I sealed it up and cranked the heat to high. As soon as it got to pressure and steam started coming out the vent, it also started spraying out a nasty starchy mist that covered everything around my stove. It was a bitch to scrub down everything. I did a quick-release and when I opened the pressure cooker, the lentils has completely disintegrate into nothing. Keep in mind that these had only been cooked under pressure for about a minute, and recipes I looked at said to cook them for 4-5 minutes under pressure. Of course, I thought I'd try again. So I took another cup of the lentils, but this time I thoroughly rinsed them off. They did the same thing, so I cleaned my kitchen and gave up on the lentils. This morning my wife tried making some irish oatmeal. She had like a cup of oatmeal and maybe 2 inches of water in the pot. Again, it started spraying out poo poo when it got to pressure. Everything you read says to never fill the pot more than halfway full when cooking things that might foam up, but we had less than a quarter of the pot full on all these occasions. The only thing I could think of is that maybe we're heating it up too fast. I assume this could lead to too violent of a boil which increases foam/etc... that can get clogged or spray out of the valve. However, everything I've read says to just crank the heat on the pressure cooker to high until it gets to pressure. Should I be cooking grains at lower temperatures to bring them up to pressure? I have no idea what else it could be.
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Jan 5, 2014 17:41
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Mr Executive posted:Am I doing something wrong with my 8qt Presto pressure cooker? Once it gets to pressure, turn the heat to low, just enough to maintain pressure. It doesn't say that in the instructions? edit: the gas coming out of the valve should be a whisper, not a spray Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 19:05 on Jan 5, 2014 |
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Jan 5, 2014 18:52
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Legumes foam. Add oil. Will prevent foam ups. Edit: vvv I've done oats a ton of times and it's fine. Use steel cut. GrAviTy84 fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Jan 5, 2014 |
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Jan 5, 2014 20:00
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Also, don't do oatmeal in a pressure cooker. Maybe consider reading the manual before using potentially dangerous culinary devices in future.
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Jan 5, 2014 20:04
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Steve Yun posted:Once it gets to pressure, turn the heat to low, just enough to maintain pressure. It doesn't say that in the instructions? I didn't mention it in my post, but this is what I do. I crank up the temp to high until there is a solid stream of steam coming out. Then I back the heat down to medium/low to where there is a consistent quiet hiss. Should I be backing off the heat earlier, or raising it up to pressure on medium/high rather than super-high? GrAviTy84 posted:Legumes foam. Add oil. Will prevent foam ups. I forgot to mention this too, but I actually did this on the second batch of lentils. I put about 1 tbsp of olive in, but it didn't seem to have any effect. We were using steel cut oats. mystes posted:Also, don't do oatmeal in a pressure cooker. Maybe consider reading the manual before using potentially dangerous culinary devices in future. Hmmm, ok, let me see if my pressure cooker manual has any information about oats. Oh my, what is this? Does the manual actually list oats in the cooking time chart?  I better call Presto and let them know that mystes says oats shouldn't be cooked in a pressure cooker. Maybe you should consider being less of an ignorant dick when somebody asks an honest question.
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Jan 5, 2014 22:43
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Mr Executive posted:I didn't mention it in my post, but this is what I do. I crank up the temp to high until there is a solid stream of steam coming out. Then I back the heat down to medium/low to where there is a consistent quiet hiss. Should I be backing off the heat earlier, or raising it up to pressure on medium/high rather than super-high? Is watching for steam and hissing what the manual says to know the cooker is up to pressure? In general you don't want steam and hissing because that's liquid and flavor escaping from what you're cooking (or in the worst case, you're over pressure and it's trying to let some out). On my Fagor cooker there's a little yellow indicator that pops up when it's at pressure. I put it on medium high-ish heat until it pops up, then back it down to low/medium-low and periodically check that it hasn't dropped down to indicate pressure is lost (if so I crank it back up until it's at pressure and then back it down to low again). If everything goes well I never have steam escaping from the cooker. Getting a ton of steam sounds like you might be heating it too much for too long (do you have a glass top range? I do and it's really annoying how slow it reacts to changing heat, so I rarely use super high heat)
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Jan 5, 2014 23:10
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That's what he's doing. Quiet hiss = maintaining pressure.
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Jan 5, 2014 23:21
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mod sassinator posted:Is watching for steam and hissing what the manual says to know the cooker is up to pressure? In general you don't want steam and hissing because that's liquid and flavor escaping from what you're cooking (or in the worst case, you're over pressure and it's trying to let some out). On my Fagor cooker there's a little yellow indicator that pops up when it's at pressure. I put it on medium high-ish heat until it pops up, then back it down to low/medium-low and periodically check that it hasn't dropped down to indicate pressure is lost (if so I crank it back up until it's at pressure and then back it down to low again). If everything goes well I never have steam escaping from the cooker. Getting a ton of steam sounds like you might be heating it too much for too long (do you have a glass top range? I do and it's really annoying how slow it reacts to changing heat, so I rarely use super high heat) The manual says you will know it's reach pressure when you see and/or hear a steady stream of steam coming from the pressure regulator. When it gets near pressure, it starts spitting out steam frequently, but not in a steady stream. So I've waited until it is really a solid stream before backing off on the heat. An I have a gas range, by the way.
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Jan 5, 2014 23:40
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I'm working on a pressure cooker thread since there is so much interest in them lately. Will post later hopefully. Unrelated:  Seen at Costco today. Just a heads up.
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Jan 5, 2014 23:43
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GrAviTy84 posted:I'm working on a pressure cooker thread since there is so much interest in them lately. Will post later hopefully.
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Jan 6, 2014 00:57
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GrAviTy84 posted:I'm working on a pressure cooker thread since there is so much interest in them lately. Will post later hopefully. Classic Blender + Wildside Jar for $299? JFC, I need to go get a Costco membership.
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Jan 6, 2014 01:06
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I have a Presto PC as well and struggled with that problem. There are two solutions, which can be combined: add a touch of oil to the water, or cook your starchy goods inside a bowl inside the PC. Use a trivet or steamer basket to keep it elevated from the base of the PC if you use a bowl.
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Jan 6, 2014 01:22
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Mr Executive posted:Hmmm, ok, let me see if my pressure cooker manual has any information about oats. Oh my, what is this? Does the manual actually list oats in the cooking time chart? 
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Jan 6, 2014 02:29
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oatmeal in that sense would be rolled oats, which do foam like mad. steel cut oats, not so much.
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Jan 6, 2014 02:34
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Me in Reverse posted:Classic Blender + Wildside Jar for $299? JFC, I need to go get a Costco membership. Don't forget the lifetime guaranty as well!
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Jan 7, 2014 01:20
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duffmensch posted:Don't forget the lifetime guaranty as well! 
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Jan 7, 2014 06:23
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So I asked for and received a garlic press for christmas. One thing I didn't expect is that after pressing a clove, there's a sort of skin left behind inside the press. It's not the crisp/flaky stuff, it's soft. It's annoying to remove it, enough to the point that I'm wondering if having my mother spend $30 on this Bru Joy was a mistake. do others feel the same way, and/or what do people generally do with garlic?
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Jan 7, 2014 17:56
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http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/how-to-mince-garlic Cut off the stem, tap with side of knife blade to remove skin, smash clove under blade, chop. If you practice you can get 4-5 cloves chopped in like 1-2 minutes.
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Jan 7, 2014 18:03
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Laminator posted:http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/how-to-mince-garlic Forgot to mention I had been doing that before I got the press. I'm not as fast as Pepin though. e: on second thought, it sticks to his as much as mine.
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Jan 7, 2014 18:14
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Yeah that happens with any garlic press I've found. If you put in a clove without removing the skin, it makes it a little easier to cleanly pull everything out. Also fresh garlic doesn't mush up as much as old stuff.
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Jan 7, 2014 18:58
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If you want garlic that fine, why not microplane it?
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Jan 7, 2014 20:44
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angor posted:If you want garlic that fine, why not microplane it? Man, microplaning garlic is a pain in the rear end. Your fingers are scraping the blades in no time and 100% of the garlic stays adhered to the microplane, which you have to wipe off with your finger and now you have sticky garlic finger. I just use a knife and a cutting board, but I see nothing wrong with garlic presses.
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Jan 7, 2014 20:55
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:Man, microplaning garlic is a pain in the rear end. Your fingers are scraping the blades in no time and 100% of the garlic stays adhered to the microplane, which you have to wipe off with your finger and now you have sticky garlic finger. I use a microplane for garlic almost every day. Bang the microplane against whatever you're putting garlic in and 99% of it comes right off. Yeah, your fingers hit it at the end of the clove but it's not a mandoline...
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Jan 7, 2014 21:31
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Squeezing a garlic press takes one second. There's a skin left behind but if you take it out of the hopper and mince it up that takes another ten seconds, which is still faster and nicer on your fingertips than a microplane.
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Jan 7, 2014 21:42
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Steve Yun posted:Squeezing a garlic press takes one second. cleaning a garlic press is kind of a pain. smacking your already dirty knife that you used to prep everything else, then passing it through the garlic takes like 3 seconds. winner: use a loving knife.
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Jan 7, 2014 21:59
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GrAviTy84 posted:cleaning a garlic press is kind of a pain. It's easy if A) your garlic press has one of those built-in pokey things to poke all the garlic out of the holes, or B) if you have one of these in your sink 
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Jan 7, 2014 22:15
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When I used to use a garlic press I would run water on it, then use one of those sprayers, and eventually resort to putting it up to my mouth like a harmonica and blowing through it to get the bits out.
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Jan 7, 2014 22:18
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My garlic press has plastic bumps on the back that help push the garlic skins out of the holes when you fold it open and reverse it. A vigorous push, along with a few seconds under the tap, and we're good to go! I use the OXO press: http://www.amazon.com/OXO-SteeL-Garlic-Press-Stainless/dp/B0000CDVD7
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Jan 7, 2014 22:26
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It's just one of our holy wars that will never be settled, much like juicing citrus or buying knives
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Jan 7, 2014 22:28
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I got this one as a gift and it's pretty easy to clean. I prefer to use the microplane though.
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Jan 7, 2014 22:35
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Yeah, mincing garlic is really one of those "do whatever the gently caress you want" things. Just as long as you're mincing it yourself, and not buying the jarred stuff.
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Jan 7, 2014 22:48
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Any wok recommendations? I've been using a cheap one I got from IKEA for a few years and can't help but think that spending a few more dollars would be worth it.
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Jan 7, 2014 22:59
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confonnit posted:Any wok recommendations? I've been using a cheap one I got from IKEA for a few years and can't help but think that spending a few more dollars would be worth it. go to your local chinatown or restaurant supply store. get a carbon steel one.
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Jan 7, 2014 23:06
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confonnit posted:Any wok recommendations? I've been using a cheap one I got from IKEA for a few years and can't help but think that spending a few more dollars would be worth it. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3401971 quote:The large, thin, carbon steel or cast iron cooking vessel of choice in much of Chinese cooking. Proper use of a wok implies face rippingly hot heat, therefore WOKS SHOULD NOT BE TEFLON COATED. Look for a wok that is thin and has a metal or wood handle, often welded or bolted to the wok body. Do not get a wok with a plastic handle. Woks are authentically round bottomed, however if you cannot use a wok ring, or must use an electric range, get a flat bottomed wok. Spergers will rant at you for it, but it's better than nothing, and certainly better than nonstick "woks". Like cast iron cookware, woks need to be seasoned. Watch this:
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Jan 7, 2014 23:07
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Two boring requests: Anyone know of a good slotted spoon with some depth to it? Preferably wooden but isn't necessary. And a decent kettle for the stovetop? Edit: Also need a nice pair of kitchen shears! Pontius Pilate fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Jan 7, 2014 |
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Jan 7, 2014 23:25
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confonnit posted:Any wok recommendations? I've been using a cheap one I got from IKEA for a few years and can't help but think that spending a few more dollars would be worth it. I got a 14" carbon steel one from The Wok Shop a couple years ago, and it's been absolutely great. I like that I was able to get a round bottom one, where all the asian groceries in this mid-sized city had were flat-bottomed ones.
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Jan 8, 2014 00:27
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Sounds like I need more wok practice rather than a new pan, or at least in addition to. Thanks for the recommendations.
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Jan 8, 2014 01:37
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