Essential items to hand when you cook?

[researchgal]

Henckels tomato knife; set of pyrex nesting bowls to use during prep--makes me feel like I'm on my own cooking show ;)

although a set of ramekins might be even more authentic...

[tommy]

i'm all about the ramekins for prep.

r-gal, what's a "tomato knife"?  i call that a bread knife in my house!

[researchgal]

it's smaller than a bread knife (and a breadbox!) but bigger than a paring knife--it gives you better precision than the bread knife, can slice super-thin slices of tomato, onion, cukes, etc..

[tommy]

is this thing serrated?

[Rachel Perlow]

Yes. The bread knife is like 8" long and 1" wide, the tomato knife is about 5" and about 1/2" wide. (I have one too.)

[Wilfrid]

Okay, Sandra.  What's a microplane?  

:(

[Rachel Perlow]

A microplane grater is the kitchen version of a rasp. Here's a picture:

[tommy]

i place a microplane on the table with a hunk of cheese when serving pasta.  it does a nice job, and people like playing with it.

[jhlurie]

We should start a different thread about ground pepper.  All I'm gonna say here is that I'd never had freshly ground pepper before my 18th birthday, and I've never quite forgiven my mother for that. :)  In the years since, I've made sure to buy her a peppermill as a present no less than once every four or five years.

[tommy]

i bought my parents one as well.  :)

i also have one at the office (for lunches or dinner), one in the car, so i'm never stuck without one, and one at home that i pack for vacations.  

Click here for info on that little fella.

[bluewine]

I live for my set of Global knives.

I have decent pepper & sea salt grinders but fall back on my pestle & mortar for greater control (esp. when making black pepper ice cream).

My cooker is a 5 ring smeg (awful name I know) with one very big design flaw - the grill is electric.  Every time I use it any fat or other residue created when roasting burns off.  Too much hassle to keep it spotlessly clean so I have to live without a grill.  I have a blow torch to compensate - great for skinning red peppers.

Other useful things to have are several frying pans - very useful if your are an oven cook like me.  I use Analon (don't know if they are available in the states).  I like Le cruset but they heavy & you can't put wooden handles in the oven.  

When making sauces copper pans are essential - they do something that other pans just don't do.  Fiendishly expensive in the UK - I got mine in Paris.  There's a fantastic aladdin's cave of a cookery shop near the sunken shopping mall in les halles - just along from the restaurant that specialises in pigs trotters.

As for gadgets - I wouldn't know where to begin.

[jaybee]

Not exactly on topic, but a numer of posts include photos.  Are these your own or lifted from a web page.  If they are your own, how did you get them into the post?  I tried and failed.

Must they be converted from JPEG's to another format?  Sorry to interrupt an excellent and potentially valuable thread but I had to ask.

[Jinmyo]

Clicke ici, jaybee.

[Malawry]

I have decent pepper & sea salt grinders but fall back on my pestle & mortar for greater control (esp. when making black pepper ice cream).

Black Pepper Ice Cream???

You didn't think you'd slip that one by us, did you? I must hear more. What goes into it, how you serve it, and so on.

[mamster]

I've had black pepper ice cream at a restaurant--it was excellent.  I'm all for ice cream experimentation.  I've enjoyed bay leaf ice cream, pandan leaf, chocolate chili, and so on.  (See my post about La Casa Gelato on Canada.)

[Blue Heron]

next to my stove I've got my salt, pepper mill, olive oil, starbucks logo looks like a coffee cup but is really a timer, ceramic rooster pitcher containing wooden spoons, spatulas, ladel, whisk, etc.  Nearby are my wooden tongs for toast & bagels, immersion blender, pocket screw-pull & foil cutter (which I prefer to my rabbit lever-pull) and pizza wheel which I use a few times a week for quesadillas.  Also I keep handy my gadget thingy I got in Switzerland that nicely removes the tops of my soft boiled eggs without making a mess.

[Wilfrid]

Black pepper ice cream.  Yes indeed.  If you want to get the idea, simply grind a little black peper over a scoop of vanilla.  Along the same lines, black pepper over strawberries.  I promise I am not joking.  I was gobsmacked the first time I saw someone grind pepper over their strawberries, but they were a serious feeder so I treated the idea with respect.  It works.

Tommy, I sometimes walk around with a pepper mill in my pocket.  It's a talking point, and also handy for random seasoning. :)

[bluewine]

The ice cream based I use the most is:

6 egg yolks

6.5 oz caster sugar

3/4 pint milk, 1/2 pint cream (whipping or double)

beat eggs & sugar until pale

warm milk & cream

when hot (not boiling) add to sugar/eggs mixture

make sure you beat as you add

return to saucepan & heat until slightly thickened

don't over cook at this stage or you'll get sweet scrambled eggs.

I usually pass this through a very fine seive into a cold bowl

churn in ice cream maker when cold (important - it must be cold)

You can ingredients when churning - eg 1 1/2 tablespoons of lightly crushed black pepper.  

If using saffron, bay, thyme,  rosemary etc. - infuse the milk/cream for 1/2 hour before adding to the sugar/eggs.

Olive oil can be added to eggs/sugar.  It can be overpowering - so less is more in this case.  40-60 ml

vanilla - don't use if using herbs & spices - it gets in the way

I'm not a fan of chocolate ice cream but white chocolate ice cream is wonderful - use about 200g

[tommy]

Tommy, I sometimes walk around with a pepper mill in my pocket.  It's a talking point, and also handy for random seasoning. :)

shucks.  and i was thinking you've always been so happy to see me.

buh-dhm.

[Wilfrid]

It's great.  I just feed you the lines, and I know you're going to come back with the punch.  This is how Martin and Lewis started out.  On a food web-site, right?

[tommy]

wilfrid keeps a pepper grinder in his pocket and a mushroom brush under his bottom lip.  he's a walking kitchen i tell ya.

[Wilfrid]

The mushroom brush didn't long survive inspection by My Beloved.  My face is now as smooth as my baby daughter's bum.  I am looking for other ways to brush my mushrooms.

[yvonne johnson]

We have a microplane and I've used it, but I didn't know what it was called till today. Very informative place, this eGullet. Of course, my consort (still can't get over that) knew what the thing was called.

Things I like at hand are wodden spoons, spurtles (wooden sticks) --they all hang on the wall, easy reach and easy find, rack, and good Irish linen dish cloths. All of these items belonged to my granny and my mother so they've been around a bit during their long lives.

[Wilfrid]

What do you do with spurtles?  Stir things?

[tommy]

What do you do with spurtles?  Stir things?

i use them for rim shots immediately following my horrible jokes.

buh-dhm.