WolfChef

I forgot to mention a few of my favorite things about the Robot Coupe. Torroidal shaped top with the hole in it. Makes it so easy to add ingredients without worry of stuff flying out. Dishwasher cleanup for all except base and knives. They come out sparkling white everytime. Attachments are virtually unbreakable. Processor knife flies about a hair width above bottom of bowl. Which is important in making things very small. Sound it makes when running. For reference I also have older KA and a smaller Cuisinart. I bought my Robot Coupe at a garage sale a few years back for $35.00 with bowl, knife, constant feed attachment and 1 shredding blade. It was missing the lid for the processor bowl. It sat on a shelf in the garage for 3 years till last summer unused. THe thing is so big and heavy I was starting to ask myself why I bought it. Last summer I bought a used lid for it on eBay and haven't used the KA or Cuisinart since. Things I don't like. How large it is. This is not a tool for a small kitchen. Cost of parts, like the bowl lid. Which is why I bought a used one. If for whatever reason I had to outfit another kitchen, I would spend the extra dollars and get the Robot Coupe. It's just one of those tools I can't wait to use again, like a favorite knife or sauce pan.

As long as I have my teeth...I bite.

I use a Robot Coupe R2. If your slicing, shredding or julienneing in the Robot Coupe the bowl size doesn't matter as it has the constant feed attachment. Just place a large bowl, bus pan or whatever under it and start feeding it. The processor bowl is normal sized, but they do make larger models...if you can afford them. Cost is a issue with Robot Coupe, but in my opinion they are worth it.

During summer camp in boy scouts, the so-called leaders thought it smart to supply every patrol with a weeks worth of food at a time. First week all the good stuff was consumed first day, if not sooner. By the end of the week we resorted to making pancakes with water, flour and TANG. Somehow a packet of TANG had survived the initial onslaught, and we thought it might be good in "orange pancakes". We were wrong, but we were also very hungry, so we ate them. The second week we decided to divy up all the goods equally...sadly this did not happen. The proceedings broke down rapidly and became every man for himself. Just like _Lord of the Flies_. Our patrol appropriately named wolf pack, was the worst of all patrols in this regard, the others were far more orderly and democratic. I'm sure you can see where this is headed. We took to raiding other campsites in the wee hours of the morning; even the adult leaders. The morning after the raid(s) all campsites were searched for the pilfered goods, and luckily they didn't lift up the trash bag inside of the trash can. Surprisingly our patrol "shared" the stolen goods much better than what we were supplied with. Go figure. Those of us who still see each other still laugh about Tang pancakes.

I disagree. I believe every bit helps. Multiply it out to 12 months...now it's something to think about. Multiply it by everybody in your town, state, country...and it might mean the difference in whether the utility HAS to build that new powerplant. Utilities love appliances that draw a constant amount...because they can forcast these. They hate appliances that draw huge current for short periods...like air conditioners, stoves and water heaters. It is these high demand appliances that decide when new power stations are required. My 2 cents. Anyways that's what my friend the vice president of a electric coop tells me all the time. According to him the best example of a constant draw appliance are lights, with christmas lights being the epitome.

On a sort of related note...back when I cooked, Chef Lemonte told me that if you needed a drink (booze) real bad and the only thing available was cooking wine; you should cut the ends off a loaf of bread and pour the wine through it. This would remove enough of the salt and you could drink it. This being said, I've never needed a drink that bad, and have my doubts that merely bread would remove salt dissolved in wine.

This is the main reason I quit cooking as a sous chef back in 1983. I love to cook. All aspects of it...but when I was grossing around $600.00 for a 6 day week with the long hours and very few days off that chefs get, especially weekends...and the waitstaff were making $300 to $400 just for a Friday or Saturday night, I decided that being a chef was a thankless job and not for me. Like I said earlier I love to cook, and to continue, it would turn into resentment...so I quit and I'm glad I did. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying waitstaff don't work. They work damn hard, it's a very tough job. It's not easy to juggle a customers, the kitchens and bars needs at the same time, and multiple tables/parties to boot. But for me it was like the people weren't coming out to be waited on as much as they wanted a damn good meal; you know something they couldn't make at home, whether it was drive or talent...and when it was great, who got the reward...not me.

Since I was a young lad I've referred to squash as squish.

Watched my youngest (sixteen) the other day. He has always been a ramen for a snack after school kind of guy, instead of ice cream or cookies like the other kids. Anyways, he shreds cheese into the bowl before he puts the hot ramen in. I asked him about it and he said he doesn't remember how it started but it is his favorite thing to do. Any cheese will work he said, but he really likes it when there is swiss in the house.

I've never seen diatomaceous earth sold as vermiculite. You might be thinking of something else similar. d.earth is a very, very, very fine powder. I've used it as a filter medium for aquarium fish. It will filter out everything suspended in aquarium water, leaving the water absolutely crystal clear. It's also used to kill insects without pesticides. I might be wrong but I think the d.earth does this by being so very fine and so abrasive it gets into and causes problems with the exoskeliton of insects. Someone at the tropical fish store I used to work at(years ago) said it was a mined product that was basically the remains of the microscopic sea creatures diatoms. The vermiculite I've seen is heat expanded mineral approximately 1/8 to 1/4 inch in size and has been associated with asbestos. When we had fruit flies last year we cleaned and removed the food sources from them. Our biggest culprit was the unwashed container we put all the vegetable and fruit scraps in before taking them to the compost.

Wow Mat that looks incredible. How did it taste? Was it worth the effort and are you going to do it again? I also have no frame of reference for a pork pie, but it looks to me to be the sort of thing one would slice wedges off of for the better part of a week.

This is what happens to 2 1/2 lbs of Jarlsburg and 2 cups of pretty good wine when your drunk brother in law is left in charge of the cheese fondue. He didn't think it was bubbling enough so he adjusted the flame. The smell of scorched cheese registered in my brain almost exactly the same time I heard someone say "Does the cheese fondue taste funny?". But I have to admit that having 30 plus people give Dave a hard time about it for the rest of the night made it worthwhile.

Hey Jamie Valvo, do the new pans look and feel the same? Do you have a old one and a new one that are the same size...if so are they the same weight? Or is there something about the old ones (something intangible?) that you like better. Does anyone know if the old and new styles are manufactured in the same place/country?

I've used it three times and so far love the pan. It does a excellent job of searing the pork chops, chicken and stew meat on my wolf range. I've had the heat med high to high when doing this and it handles the heat well. Many pans overheat very quickly on the burners of my wolf range and then the fond is ruined. As andiesenji said about it fitting in her small convection oven...it fits in mine...but just barely. And as a bonus it has cleaned up far easier than any of our revereware. I have a extensive set of revereware pans(about 35 total) about half of which are copper bottomed and the other half are clad and enjoy them except for the fact that you can't toss em in the oven. I'm glad I bought this pan and have ordered a couple more in other sizes. Thanks andiesenji for the heads up.

The other topic currently going about serving size of ramen made me wonder what other people add to ramen to personalize it. I myself prefer thin sliced green onions added just at the end of the 3 minute "cooking" phase.

mizducky, do what my youngest does...just use part of the packet. He uses between 1/3 and 1/2 of the packet.

Thanks for pointing this out andiesenji, I ordered one yesterday. I've been looking for a pan with that shape that I can take from the stove top to the oven that didn't cost $150.00 plus. Everything I've like so far has been around $200.00. When it get's here I'll let you know what I think. BTW amazon is out of the $49.99 priced ones. I got mine for 59.99 with free shipping.

Do you happen to have a picture of this burned pan? Don't chip at it, you might chip the porcelain of the pan. And finally what were you reducing the pomegranate juice for? Sounds interesting.

I'm sure it's pretty darn good when it's fresh; but by the time it gets to you it has to be 2 or 3 days old if not older. Even with overnight shipping, which in the case of international shipments is a misnomer because nothing is ever certain when U.S. customs is involved in the equation, you have all the issues of it's transportation, like rough handling, wrapping in some kind of plastic which will have a effect on it's palatability and flavor, and then the decompression of it's flight overseas and sudden recompression; how good will it be? ( I know there is probably more wrong with that last sentence than I have hairs on my face, so I apologize. ) You know what I mean, how much was lost in it's journey? Probably too much to justify it's price.

Wow, nice pictures and commentary. Thanks, looks like something I'll try next time I get the urge to stir fry. So how was it? After eating it, is there anything you'll do different the next time...like more or less garlic or roast the peanuts longer/shorter?

Next time try tempering the eggs, don't feel bad though because it is really easy to scramble `em. And I'm guessing that melted sugar is pretty warm/hot. TEMPERING The technique used to blend uncooked eggs into hot mixtures. Eggs are beaten and a little of the hot mixture is stirred into them to warm (temper) them, The warmed eggs are then stirred into the remaining hot mixture. Tempering helps to prevent the eggs from curdling.

We used to have a wine rack (I know it's bad now, so don't berate me. We learned the hard way.) and since it's gone I sort of miss the jingle and clank of the bottles every time the refrigerator started or stopped. Now since the remodel there are cabinets over the fridge.

Not to nitpick, cause as a former Marine I have nothing but respect for the Navy and it's mission; but I hope you do your math a little more careful before leaving port or there will be some unhappy submariners. Thanks for all the insight you've shared with us.

Jason your link does not work. At least for me.

Well put Michael.