What's Cooking EDF? #4

[Xaston]

I'm moving into a nice big new apartment by myself at the beginning of December. I've been living with roommates so I've been using shared stuff and stuff that isn't mine. I am taking with me a cast iron pan, a big saute pan, a bunch of forks, and an ice cream maker.

I'm gonna go to a kitchen supply store in a few days. What do I need to buy, and how much should I be looking to spend?

I want to be as good as you guys at cooking and plating.

[ElSapo]

NYT atricle on outfitting your kitchen cheaply.

[dogsballs]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm moving into a nice big new apartment by myself at the beginning of December. I've been living with roommates so I've been using shared stuff and stuff that isn't mine. I am taking with me a cast iron pan, a big saute pan, a bunch of forks, and an ice cream maker.

I'm gonna go to a kitchen supply store in a few days. What do I need to buy, and how much should I be looking to spend?

I want to be as good as you guys at cooking and plating.

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Get one good knife - you'll end up using it for just about everything. The other 14 in my block get used about once a month (except the steak knives... [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]). One good un is enuf. Plus one small paring knife if you really want.

I use 3 chopping boards:
1 plastic - for raw meat/fish etc. Make sure it has that little moat round the edge to collect juices that drain out...unless you wanna keep cleaning your counter.
1 wood for stinky vegetables like onions/garlic.
1 wood for clean/fresh/sweet stuff, eg fruit/tomatoes/lettuce/stuff that you dont want tainted by stinky onions etc.

I'd suggest one good big pasta pot. One with the strainer thingy thats part of it, so you just whip it out and the pasta drains straight away. Also doubles for stews etc, of course.

One small nonstick frying pan - for eggs/omelettes/fish type things.

Couple saucepans with tight fitting lids. Prolly never need more than 2.

Other things I think are good to have:

One of those things that look like a satellite dish that you use to steam veggies instead of boiling them in water. I cant eat broccoli thats been totally dunked any more.

A knife sharpener + sharpening steel. Obv reason.

[ElSapo]

I just want to second something from that article - you don't need a microwave. You really, really don't. It won't do anything that you can't do with an oven, a sauce pan and a skillet. It may do it faster, but, at least for the home cook, good food is not about faster.

Learn to be patient. It's something I'm still working on. Learn to appreciate the process of thinking about food, preparing it and cooking it. Just because that box can cook it in three minutes does not mean it ought to be cooked in three minutes. And it definitely does not mean it will taste better.

[Xaston]

Yea, the only thing I ever use the microwave for is Thai Kitchen noodle bowls. But boiling water works fine for them too.

I'm going to the store tomorrow and will report back, possibly with pictures if I get anything I'm really crazy about. I wanna get some of those cool "upside down pyramids without tops" bowls that I see on Iron Chef.

[octopi]

The photos do this no justice. At all. But this was one of the best meals I had last month, and since my boyfriend just landed a gig doing restaurant reviews at our city's newspaper, I had some delicious meals in September. (mostly)

At Costco one afternoon, we bought two things (besides the obligatory hot dogs): a rack of New Zealand lamb and a Cuisinart hand blender.

At the Farmer's Market we had purchased some beets and corn, but almost a week had gone by since I had gotten to using them, as I had been working a lot. So the beau surprised me one evening by cooking dinner.

The beets were roasted then pureed with the handblender, and made into a very colorful and perfectly cooked risotto. He said that was the most challenging part of the meal, it took some time to reduce the puree. (Later in the week we used the puree with a turban squash puree to have pureed squash beet soup.) The corn was a wonderful seasonal accompaniment to the meal.

The lamb was seared and coated in a hazelnut-berbere crust. Berbere is an Ethiopian spice that I adore. It seems difficult to find in our city, but we had bought some at the Granville Market in Vancouver in the spring, and finally had the occasion to use it. It consists of ground chili peppers, ginger, cloves, coriander, and according to Wiki, rue berries, and ajwain.

We drank it with a special beer out of Quebec's Unibroue brewery, their special edition #16. I believe it's a pale ale.



Forgive the horrific photography [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[SamIAm]

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Not food, but I wanted to post this...

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Can we have a "What's Cooking on your knife magnet, EDF?" hijack? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]



I like all these knives except for the Global pairing knife; that thing is garbage. Still, it turns out it's really useful to have a knife I don't care about; I use it for grunt work that would dull my nicer knives. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I also just got the Spiderco Sharpmaker off ebay, on the recommendation of the eGullet knife article.



I love it. Anybody who believes the hype about how you should only get your knives professionally sharpened, should get one of these instead. (Those who can just use wetstones don't need any encouragement from me. I was intimidated, though.)

As soon as it arrived, I sharpened my pocket knife and the cutlery above that needed it. It paid back its $30 price tag right there.

P.S. Octopi, great work on the chops. They look great!

[Ron Burgundy]

I also use a Spyderco ceramic sharpener. It's great.

[Isura]

I went to a butcher for the first time yesterday. I went late so all they had for ribs was veal ribs. I tried it with ElSapo's rib sauce, and it turned out awesome. I prefer veal to beef ribs when made this way.

Also, this morning I found this cool recipe of protein pancakes.

1 cup whole wheat pancake mix
3 egg whites
2 scoops protein powder
3/4 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoon flax seeds

I mixed the water, eggs, cottage cheese, and flax seeds in the blender for 30 seconds and then mixed by hand with the powders.

[offTopic]

I made macadamia nut-crusted halibut filets at my parents' house last night, which is no big deal.

What happened through oversight on my part was overloading their blender with macadamias while making the crust. As a result, some of them got stuck in the bottom of the blender cup, and got a little "over-processed".

As I was using roasted/lightly salted nuts, this yielded macadamia butter which was delicious. I scooped it out and we all had some with graham crackers and then resumed making dinner.