equipment » Kavey Eats

The Joys of Deep Fat Frying

15 Mar 2013 3 Responses »

Mar 152013

As anyone who read my post about Glazed Vanilla Bean Doughnuts will be aware, we were recently sent a Judge Cookware Multi Basket Deep Fat Fryer to review and I had a list as long as my arm of recipes to try!

In an era that’s obsessed with healthy eating for longevity, in which media tells us one more food group to avoid after another, and where fried foods are often dismissed as “dirty” it seems that the deep fat fryer, or chip pan, has lost much of it’s former allure. But whilst oven chips have become ubiquitous, baked doughnuts, samosas and battered fish simply don’t compare to the real (fried) deal! Of course, fried chips are better than the oven version too.

So far we’ve made those lovely vanilla doughnuts, fried some firm silken tofu which we’ve served with tinned pineapple and sweet and sour sauce, enjoyed southern fried chicken with chips, chips again, and lastly, fish and chips in a thick beer batter.

Still on the list are pakoras, tempura prawns and aubergine, potato and other vegetable crisps, onion rings, sesame prawn toasts, samosas and so much more…

We’re finding the fryer pretty straightforward to use.

It comes with a large basket and two single baskets, but we’ve used the large one for everything so far. The baskets feel very flimsy but seem to be fine in use.
The thermostat makes it easy to heat the oil to the required temperature for different recipes. The range is 130 to 190 C.
The oil heats up pretty fast, and the indicator light makes it clear when it’s reached temperature. There’s also a light to show when the unit is switched on, which should help those worried about leaving the unit on by accident.
The lid has a filter built into it, described as a lifetime filter. Certainly, the only thing that escapes through it is steam so the kitchen doesn’t get too smelly. There’s also a window in the lid which lets you see the colour of the food as it cooks but I find it easier to flip the lid open and get a proper look. The hinge design isn’t ideal as the lid doesn’t rest at a fully vertical position when open, but it’s manageable.
The fryer takes about 2.5 litres of oil to fill.
Probably the main negative is that the only concession to emptying the fryer are two very faint grooves at the corner, which are described as a “pouring channel”. Lifting the entire fryer, when full, and pouring the oil away from that corner, is a challenge. And the oil tank doesn’t come out for cleaning like many models at the same or lower price point, which is a real shame.
Because of that, we’ve fallen into a pattern thus far of filling with clean oil and then using four or five times over a week or two until the oil is ready to throw away. The idea is to then put the fryer away for a good few weeks, otherwise we’ll be eating fried food way too often!

By the way, don’t pour used oil down the sink or it will clog up your drains. Pour it back into an empty bottle and drop it off at your local recycling centre, where they can deal with it properly.

Everything has cooked evenly and pretty quickly too. It’s not been overly greasy, though that’s more a factor of choosing good recipes and cooking at the correct temperatures, I think.

Overall, we’re happy with the fryer.

If you have any great deep fried recipes to recommend, please let me know in the comments. Thank you!

The Judge Multi Basket Deep Fat Fryer is currently listed on Amazon for £62.95.
RRP is £125 but most retailers that stock this unit sell it at around the same price.

Kavey Eats was sent a review unit from Judge Cookware.

Hydros Filtering Water Bottle

11 Mar 2013 2 Responses »

Mar 112013

I don’t order bottled water in restaurants. We are fortunate enough to live in a country with safe, clean and reasonably plentiful drinking water. It strikes me as crazy to pay (financially and environmentally) to drink bottled water instead.

There’s an argument for those who prefer carbonated, in which case buying fizzy bottled water is no different to buying any other soft drink. But personally, I prefer still, so I always ask for tap. Often, it’s the lower end restaurants that get sniffy about it, never the posh ones.

I have occasionally bought bottled water when out and about. It’s a rare thing, as I’m conscious of the cost not to mention the litter.

We live in such a disposable culture. Now that a lot more packaging is labelled recyclable, people seem think there’s no environmental impact to throwing it away. But of course, even when something can be recycled, there’s a huge energy and resource cost to create the original item, to collect and sort the used item and to recycle it into something else. And, for various reasons, probably not least of which is that our recycling efforts are still rather half-hearted, 75% of post-consumer plastic waste in the UK is sent to landfill.

Recently I came across the Hydros Filtering Water Bottle. Instead of buying water, carry a Hydros bottle with you. You can either fill it at home, or if you’d rather not carry the weight around, fill it on the go. More and more restaurants and cafes are willing to fill reusable water bottles for free.

Made from Tritan plastic (BPA free) it has a filter embedded with an anti-microbial, to stop the build-up of bacteria which can be a problem when reusing some bottles. The filters are replaceable and last for about 150 uses. Oh and, best of all, it’s dishwasher friendly.

I like that you can fill from the top or through the side opening, which allows you to fill from a low or awkward tap – it’s a little slower but it works fine. The water passes through the filter into the bottle fairly quickly. Just make sure you close the bottle properly though, as a leaking bottle in your bag definitely won’t put a smile on your face!

The bottles aren’t cheap at £24.95 each. Replacement filters cost £7.94 each or £19.94 for three. However, given the price of bottled water, this doesn’t represent all that many bottles. When you factor in the environmental benefits, it makes the decision easier.

Another pleasing aspect to buying a Hydros bottle is that the company contribute about 60 pence / $1 from each bottle sale to “sustainable water infastructure projects”. They remind us that one in seven people around the world – that’s over a billion people – don’t have access to clean, safe water. They currently partner with Engineers Without Borders to fund rural water projects such as Project Gundom in Cameroon. Visit their website to read their mission statement, criteria for choosing projects and Project Gundom.

Other reusable bottles on the market include Give Me Tap (£12 for a metal bottle, no filter), LifeBottle (£12 for a BPA-free stainless steel bottle, no filter), Camelbak Groove (Approx £25 for a plastic bottle with integrated filter), Ohyo (£4.99 for a collapsible plastic bottle, no filter), Brita Fill & Go (£14.99 for a BPA-free plastic bottle with integrated filter), H2Onya Bottle (£8.50-£10.50 depending on size for a stainless steel bottle, no filter), Bobble Bottles (£8.99-£12.99 depending on size, for a BPA-free plastic bottle with integrated filter), Klean Kanteen Wide (£13.50-£26 for a BPA-free stainless steel bottle, no filter included, but compatible with standard filters), Aladdin Papillon (Approx £10 for a plastic bottle, made from recycled material, no filter), Aladdin Aveo (£9for a BPA-free plastic bottle, no filter). Contigo Autoseal Madison (£Approx £15 for a BPA-free plastic bottle, no filter), Kor Delta Hydration Vessel (Approx £20 for a plastic bottle, no filter) and Nalgene On The Fly (£Approx £13 for a BPA-free plastic bottle, no filter).

Kavey Eats received a review sample Hydros Filtering Water Bottle.

Making Glazed Vanilla Bean Doughnuts + A Review of Pure Vanilla

05 Mar 2013 17 Responses »

Mar 052013

When you think of foods that benefit from deep frying, what springs to mind?

For me, the list was long…

Fried chicken, battered fish, proper chips, pakoras, tempura, tortilla chips, sesame prawn toasts, whitebait, crisps – not just potato but courgette, parsnip and beetroot, fried tofu, onion rings, samosas, calamari, gulab jamon, even deep fried mars bars…

But before all those came doughnuts! So when we were sent a Judge Cookware Multi Basket deep fat fryer to review (coming soon), the very first thing we made just had to be doughnuts.

Well, you would, wouldn’t you?

With a pile of cookery books also awaiting review, we flicked through Pure Vanilla by Shauna Sever and chose her Glazed Vanilla Bean Doughnuts recipe to try.

Published by Quirk Books, a young American publishing company based in Philadelphia, Pure Vanilla has been written primarily for the US market, which means you’ll need to make a little effort to translate aspects of the recipes. Fahrenheit cooking temperatures and cup measurements are easy as conversion charts are handily provided inside the back cover. You’ll also need to parse ingredients such as all-purpose flour, confectioners’ sugar, heavy cream and sticks of butter, but in the era of Google, that’s not too onerous.

Often, single ingredient cookery books can be a little too gimmicky, adding the chosen ingredient to recipes in which it doesn’t really belong or contribute much just to shoe-horn them into the book. But I really like the kind of recipes Sever has included in her collection – I’m drawn to Light, Crisp Vanilla Waffles, Vanilla Cloud Cake, Tres Leches Cake, Vanilla Snaps, Vanilla Biscotti, Vanilla Bean Marshmallows and Vanilla Mojito, amongst others.

There are some weaknesses with the book too: the index is truly appalling – it lists over a third of the recipes under “vanilla”, which is surely a given in every single recipe in the book and should have been excluded!

Not all recipes have accompanying photographs, which is a shame as those which do instantly appeal more strongly.

The recipe we made was straightforward to follow and came out beautifully. The colour of our finished doughnuts appeared a touch dark, and we worried we’d overcooked them but they were perfect in both taste and texture, with a light and fluffy interior and a perfectly judged vanilla flavour – it came through clearly, made a definite contribution but didn’t overwhelm.

As we made half the amounts given, I’m sharing the amounts we used rather than those in the original recipe.

Glazed Vanilla Bean Doughnuts

Makes 6 doughnuts

Ingredients
For the doughnuts:
1.5 teaspoons dry active yeast
2 tablespoons (30 ml) warm water
3 heaped teaspoons granulated sugar, divided
120 ml whole fat milk, at room temperature
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract (not essence)
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
2 egg yolks
30 grams unsalted butter
225 grams plain flour, plus a little extra for kneading
0.5 teaspoon salt
Vegetable oil, for frying
For the glaze:
100 grams icing sugar
1 tablespoon whole fat milk
Pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Note: Vanilla bean paste is a thick paste full of actual vanilla seeds and is a great alternative to scraping a real vanilla pod. I used Nielsen-Massey’s paste, which I think is excellent. If you can’t find this product, either use the seeds from a quarter of a vanilla pod or an extra teaspoon of extract instead.

Method

In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together yeast, warm water and one teaspoon of the granulated sugar. Leave to stand until it foams, about 5 minutes.
Using the paddle attachment on the mixer, at low speed, mix in the remaining granulated sugar, milk, vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, egg yolks and butter.
Add the flour and salt and mix for a further 3 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl and the paddle.
Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface and knead by hand, briefly, dusting with flour if you need to.

Place in a large bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in volume. Ours took a couple of hours; you can also leave in the fridge to rise more slowly overnight).

Turn the dough out onto baking parchment and divide into 6 equal portions.

Roll into balls, flatten and cut a whole out from the centre of each one. We used an icing nozzle, as we didn’t have a suitably small cookie cutter. We also combined the dough from the four holes into two small round doughnuts.

Cover with a clean cloth and allow to rise for 30 to 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
Make the glaze by whisking together the icing sugar, milk, salt and vanilla bean paste.

Heat oil to about 180 C and fry doughnuts, in batches, until golden brown – about 2-3 minutes per side. Sever warns against turning too often, as this can result in greasy doughnuts.

Transfer to paper towels to drain.
Spoon the glaze over the doughnuts whilst they are still warm, so it melts and trickles down the sides.

With thanks to Quirk Books for the review copy of Pure Vanilla and to Judge Cookware for the multi basket deep fat fryer.

Review: Cuisinart Electric Spice & Nut Grinder

13 Feb 2013 15 Responses »

Feb 132013

“YOU CAN’T USE THAT GRINDER FOR SPICES!

MY COFFEE WILL TASTE OF CURRY!” *

That desperate wail will be familiar to any of you who share your house with a coffee lover.

We used to have an old blender with a spice grinder attachment but it wasn’t very good so we threw it out years ago. We now have a burr grinder that Pete uses for his precious coffee beans (and occasionally, for grinding his home grown wheat).

It is not to be used for spices.

Even running a bagful of rice through afterwards doesn’t entirely remove the taint of spices, so I’m told. And masala coffee just doesn’t appeal, apparently, though I’m sure it’s the next big thing.

Time to look for a second grinder then, one of the bladed variety, to use for grinding spices, chopping nuts and anything else verboten. There are many models on the market, but I ruled most out. Some specify that they can be used for dry ingredients only, whereas I like the idea of being able to make somewhat sloppy spice pastes including ginger, garlic, lemon grass and even onion. Others are just too difficult to clean. Some have been reviewed by other customers as being too fiddly to use or having poor build quality and hence poor durability.

After spending a frankly ridiculous number of hours on internet research, the model at the top of my list was the Cuisinart Electric Spice and Nut Grinder (SG20U), RRP £50. Luckily for me, Cuisinart have really connected with bloggers over the last few years, so I was able to obtain a review sample.

Why did I want this particular grinder?

Firstly, I have a bit of a thing for brushed stainless steel. The shiny chrome look leaves me cold but brushed metal… oh yes!

But actually, that’s not the main reason. (Obviously). What I really like is that this grinder comes with two (decent sized) detachable bowls, each provided with an airtight lid so freshly ground contents can be stored in the bowls. And – this is the best bit – they’re not only easy to clean, they are dishwasher safe!

Having two bowls means, if you don’t already have a hallowed coffee grinder, you can set one bowl aside for coffee and use the other for everything else. Or if you make a spice paste and only use half, you can leave the rest in the fridge for a few days, without losing use of your grinder.

Review

It’s very easy to assemble. The bowl clicks in easily and the clear lid pops over that. I was worried I wouldn’t like the push down operation, having used and disliked a different make and model of that style, but actually it was very easy – press down to grind, release to stop.

For fine grinding of small volumes of spices, the grind is a little uneven, even if you continue to grind for longer. This is because the centrifugal action throws the light fragments up the sides of the bowl. Whether or not this is an issue depends on how fine and even you want the finished powder to be. When I made garam masala, I chose to sieve the powder with a tea strainer to remove larger fragments but I could have left them in – they were small enough not to be an issue.

The same goes for coffee – you’ll need to use a higher volume of coffee as the larger fragments won’t extract as effectively.

Where it comes into its own is for making spice pastes such as the Thai-inspired red curry paste we concocted. Lemongrass, onion, garlic, ginger, whole cumin seeds, powdered spices, soy sauce, dried chillis were quickly and effectively pulverised into a paste.

After being washed in the dishwasher, we couldn’t even tell which bowl had been used for coffee and which for the ground spices and spice paste, so there’s no danger of previous ingredients tainting the next.

For spices and pastes, this grinder is a great choice. I’ve not yet used it for nuts. It’s simple to use, feels robust and the two bowls with storage lids make so much sense.

For coffee drinkers, I’d suggest investing in a burr grinder so you can better control the exact size of the grind and ensure that the whole batch is evenly ground too.

Kavey Eats received an Electric Spice and Nut Grinder courtesy of Cuisinart.

* Actual words were more ferocious and peppered with choice expletives!

Paris Qooqing Comes to UK

02 Jan 2013 8 Responses »

Jan 022013

Earlier this month I went to Paris to meet the QOOQ – not, in this case, a quirky cook but a French-designed and made tablet aimed at foodies (or foodistas, as they call them in France).

Tablets may seem two a penny these days, but the QOOQ was actually conceived and launched before the iPad saw the light of day and, against the expectations of naysayers, it has survived the rise of its shinier and trendier sibling and developed a strong following in its native country since 2009.

The design is strong, sturdy and splash proof with a significantly thicker glass screen than the iPad and the tablet has rubberised feet and a fold out stand that make it very well suited to use in the kitchen. It can even withstand reasonable rough and tumble, though when one of our group dropped a QOOQ on the floor (with the agreement of the team who make it) it did cause some damage, though fairly quickly fixed by an expert.

Hubert introducing the Qooq and Guillaume tasting our cooking efforts

The other key element of the QOOQ is its content – there are over 3,700 English language recipes, and over 4,000 French ones. A new tablet comes loaded with 1000 recipes and users can either buy additional ones (individually or in blocks) or access them via the monthly subscription service. Another great touch is the option to upload your own recipes onto the tablet, in the same format as the native ones, and these can be shared between QOOQ friends.

Recipes can be sized up and down, and a shopping list for ingredients automatically generated. There’s also a meal planner which allows you to bookmark chosen recipes into the meal planner.

As they use the QOOQ, users can create personal profiles which “learn” their preferences in terms of ingredients they like and dislike, techniques they have mastered or don’t yet know and the kind of recipes they like to make. This allows the QOOQ to offer tailored suggestions in response to recipe searches. And each QOOQ allows multiple profiles to be created, so it can be used by several members of the family.

Recipes are provided by a really wide range of chefs and cooks, many of whom are very well known and successful in their respective fields. Content is wide ranging, to offer something to absolute beginners and advanced cooks alike. Guillaume Hepp, one of the three founders of the business, and Hubert Block, the Marketing Director, talked to us about some of the people who have contributed, though at the moment, the majority of these are best known within France. This French content is now being translated for the UK and American markets, and the instructional videos are being dubbed with voice overs, but the plan is to partner with experts in America and here to film fresh content.

The Linux-based operating system also comes with a suite of applications allowing users to browse the internet, access email, look up the weather, listen to radio, play music and video files and view photos. However, it is locked down so you won’t be able to install additional applications to make it as fully versatile a tablet as others on the market.

The interface is reasonably intuitive and I think most users would be able to find their way around after a few hours of playing with the QOOQ. I’d like to see more thought going into quicker navigation shortcuts such as touch and hold or double tap to drill down through search results and straight into content. Additionally, when making two recipes at the same time, I found it frustrating not to be able to quickly switch between selected recipes without navigating slowly back and forth between them. An option to select up to 5 current recipes and quick switch between them would be a valuable addition. With longer to play with it, I would likely have a longer list of recommended enhancements as these came to the surface within our 40 minute cooking test.

Putting the Qooq to the test, with expert chef Farida

Probably the biggest issue at the moment is the current state of the translation of the French content into English. If the team behind QOOQ didn’t realise before quite how different American and English English are, they certainly did after our visit and feedback on the day! (Two countries separated by a common language, and all that). It’s not just a case of eggplant versus aubergine and cups versus grams but a different style of talking about food. We also encountered a lot of errors such as incorrect equipment lists and mismatches between ingredients mentioned in the introduction and later in the recipe. And as of yet, the translation from American imperial measurements to metric ones is still a work in progress, as we realised when one of our test recipes called for 5 and 5/8 tablespoons of cream!

I like the idea of the QOOQ, though I do think the English language version is not quite ready, particularly for the UK market. Right now, it feels like a late-stage prototype and whilst it’s nearly there, it still needs a fair bit of work to take it to the point where I could recommend it wholeheartedly.

Price point is also an issue. Unowhy? have switched production to France rather than left it in China, where they started, and have worked on automating much of the manufacturing process, such that less human labour is required but I imagine costs are still higher than they would be in the Far East. That may be a contributor to the purchase price of £289 plus a further £7.50 a month subscription fee.

The QOOQ content is great, but I can access great instructional content for free using my existing PC, laptop and tablet and the web. I need to apply a little sorting to sift out the gems, and a little more effort to scale a recipe or generate a shopping list, but I don’t find that too onerous given the zero cost.

Were I free to install additional software onto the tablet, this might sweeten the deal, as the Qooq could then take the place of any tablet on the market, but the restriction to proprietary browser and apps is limiting.

Kavey Eats visited Paris courtesy of Unowhy? With thanks to fellow blogger Paul Hart for permission to use his vastly superior images.

Lakeland’s Cheese Making Kit

17 Dec 2012 6 Responses »

Dec 172012

When I attended a Lakeland product preview event this summer, the products that excited me most were the components that, together, form a cheese making kit. Sold separately, the recommended items are a large stainless steel maslin pan (though any similar large pan would be fine), a digital thermometer, two different cheese moulds, vegetarian rennet and some muslin squares. Lakeland also sell a recipe book called How To Make Soft Cheese.

We recently received samples of the above items and Pete got to work making some cheese.

Over to Pete:

Halloumi

Not knowing anything about making cheese, I was initially drawn to by the Halloumi recipe, largely on the grounds that it sounded so simple. The ingredient list was pleasantly short too – milk and vinegar.

The recipe instructed me to heat the milk to 95 degrees, add the vinegar and give the curd a few minutes to form before skimming off. This first part was painless; the measures marked on the inside of the maslin pan made it easy to pour in the right quantity of milk without using a measuring jug and and the temperature probe, easily clipped to the side, worked like a dream.

The curds themselves were wet, but easy enough to transfer to a colander lined with a muslin square. But the Lakeland’s muslin squares are the smallest I’ve ever seen and about half the size I’d like them to be. I’d suggest you buy larger pieces of muslin from another supplier, such as this Kitchen Craft Butter Muslin from Amazon.

Once drained, the I spooned the curds into the mould – although the recipe ended up making slightly more curd than expected, so both moulds were pressed into service.

I’d hoped, after all that, to be left with lovely, rubbery, aching-to-be-fried Halloumi, right? Wrong!

What I’d made was crumbly cream cheese – perfectly tasty, but absolutely nothing like Halloumi.

Clearly I’d done something seriously wrong, so a-Googling I went. It turns out that Halloumi is a not only more complicated than the recipe suggests (with additional heating steps that are entirely missing in the recipe), it’s also, and I’m quoting from Wikipedia here, “unusual in that no acid or acid-producing bacterium is used”.

Halloumi is made using rennet, not vinegar, and is heated a second time after the curds have formed.

However the recipe in the book does have a lot in common with paneer cheese, as do the results. Paneer is usually made using vinegar or lemon juice in place of rennet and is strained and pressed once the curd has separated.

Mozzarella

Thinking perhaps that the recipe had simply been mis-titled, the next one I attempted was mozzarella, with Kavey there to assist.

Once again the milk was heated – to only 32 degrees this time – before lemon juice and rennet were added.

After 30 minutes, the curd had set reasonably firm and was ready to be cut and drained.

A portion of the drained curd was then placed in a bowl and microwaved – the aim was to bring it up to 60 degrees, at which temperature it should magically have transformed into shiny, stretchy mozzarella which could then be kneaded and patted into shape.

Well, no such luck for us.

We tried heating it, re-heating it, overheating it and swearing at it.

Despite our best efforts, all we achieved were soft, mushy, slightly grainy balls which tasted overwhelmingly of lemon juice.

The whole exercise was fairly demoralising, especially as we measured the ingredients and followed the instructions on temperature scrupulously, before then trying to apply additional heat and still failing.

Again, we looked up other mozzarella recipes on the web afterwards and discovered that key elements of the method were missing from the recipe in the book; namely the second stage of heating the curds, still in the whey, before the last stage of heating as per the book.

The actual kit, with the exception of the overly small muslin squares, is fantastic and very well made. The maslin pan, with internal measurements marked, is a delight and the digital thermometer quick and easy to use.

The book, however, makes me wonder if anyone actually tried any of these recipes before it was published and is the one product I’d discourage you from buying. Assemble a kit of large pan, accurate and quick thermometer, rennet, moulds and muslin and source your recipes from the internet instead.

Despite our lack of success, we haven’t been put off cheese making and will be trying again with other recipes, very soon.

Kavey Eats received samples of the cheese making equipment above from Lakeland.

A Review, A Recipe & A Competition with Oxo Good Grips (Closed)

19 Sep 2012 124 Responses »

Sep 192012

Scroll down for Easy Caramelised Onion Potato & Dauphinoise Recipe and Competition.

Review: Oxo Mandoline Slicer & Angled Measuring Jug

I was recently invited to review some products from The Oxo Good Grips range.

I’ve used and purchased some of the kitchen utensils before, and really like the well-designed handles, which are both easy to grip and ergonomically comfortable to hold.

One tool I’ve never used before is a mandoline slicer. I love the idea of slicing fruit and vegetables quickly and evenly but I’ve always been scared of the sharp blades, and the thought of slicing my fingers right along with the fruit and veg. Given how easy and safe I’ve found their other tools, I decided that if I was going to give a mandoline a chance, the Oxo Good Grips one would be a good one to try.

Larger than I expected, it’s a sturdy device; once the non-slip legs are folded into place it feels reassuringly robust, with no worrying wobbles. A handle at one side makes it easy to hold too, though actually, I found it didn’t have any tendency to move during operation anyway. There are curvy and straight blades for slicing as well as julienne blades for cutting sticks; the blades are easy to insert (and remove) and you can adjust how thick you would like your slices. The food holder does a good job of holding fruit and vegetables securely and keeping your hands well away from the blades. To my delight, I found it really easy to use, not at all scary as I’d imagined, and quick to dismantle and wash too. (The blades need to be hand washed but the main body of the slicer, and the food holder are both dishwasher safe). As it’s quite bulky, it will take up a fair bit of space in storage, even with the legs folded flat, but it’s definitely earned its place for the moment.

Oxo’s website lists it at £61.30 but you’ll easily be able to find it for £50 or less.

image from Oxo website

The other item I chose was an angled measuring jug. Mine holds 1 litre but they are also available in smaller sizes from 1 cup to half a litre. The plastic jug has a comfortable, soft, non-slip handle and is dishwasher safe. But the clever bit is the angled measuring units. Usually I find myself setting a measuring jug onto the work surface and then bending down low to read the units on the side, as I carefully pour in the contents. The angled measurement units let me pour contents in whilst being able to easily read the volume from above. No more bending is definitely better for my back.

Easy Caramelised Onion & Potato Dauphinoise Recipe

When I shared the Waitrose cookery school’s recipe for Easy Potato Dauphinoise a number of people suggested variations including the addition of onions.

More recently, I came across an Alex Mackay adaptation of tartiflette, incorporating caramelised onion alongside potatoes and bacon. His recipe includes instructions on caramelising onions. That’s not a complicated task, by any means, though it does take time and patience.

But I’ve had a jar of Asda Extra Special Caramelised Onion Chutney in the larder (from a goodie bag given to me at an Asda Leith’s blogger event) and knew it would be the perfect shortcut.

Ingredients
3-4 tablespoons sweet and sticky well-caramelised onions (or Asda’s ES caramelised onion chutney)
500-600 grams peeled large waxy potato such as Desiree
200 ml double cream
200 ml full fat milk
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
Salt and pepper

Method

In a large sauce pan place the double cream, milk, garlic, salt and pepper on a gentle heat.

Peel and slice the potatoes, about 3mm thick. I used the mandoline slicer this time, but sliced by hand previously.
Preheat the oven to 170 C.
Add the potato slices into the cream and milk and simmer for 15 minutes, until the potato slices have softened a little.

Use a slatted spoon to transfer about a third of the potatoes into an oven dish, arranging them so they’re reasonably flat. You don’t need to be too neat.

Spread the caramelised onions evenly across the potatoes.

Cover with the remaining slices of potatoes. Pour or spoon the remainder of the thickened cream and milk over the potatoes.
Bake for 30-40 minutes.
Check if done by inserting a knife into the dish; the potatoes should feel soft all the way through.

The dish will stay hot for several minutes before serving, if you need time to finish other elements of the fish.

COMPETITION

Oxo Good Grips are generously offering both the above products as prizes for a Kavey Eats competition.

The first prize is the Oxo Good Grips Mandoline Slicer.
The second prize is an Oxo Good Grips 1 litre Angled Measuring Jug.

HOW TO ENTER

You can enter the competition in 2 ways:

Entry 1 – Blog Comment
Leave a comment below, answering the following question:
What’s your favourite recipe featuring sliced fruits or vegetables?

Entry 2 – Twitter
Follow @KaveyF on twitter. Existing followers are, of course, welcome to enter!
Then tweet the (exact) sentence below:
I’d love to win Oxo Good Grips prizes from Kavey Eats! http://goo.gl/NM5FI #KaveyEatsOxoGoodGrips

RULES & DETAILS

The deadline for entries is midnight GMT Friday 28th September 2012.
Kavey Eats reserves the right to alter the closing date of the competition. Changes to the closing date, if they occur, will be shown on this page.
The winners will be selected from all valid entries using a random number generator.
Entry instructions form part of the terms and conditions.
Where prizes are to be provided by a third party, Kavey Eats accepts no responsibility for the acts or defaults of that third party.
The first prize is an Oxo Good Grips Mandoline Slicer. The second prize is an Oxo Good Grips 1 litre Angled Measuring Jug. Both prizes include delivery to a UK address. Prizes cannot be redeemed for a cash value.
The prizes are offered and to be provided directly by Oxo Good Grips.
One blog entry per person only. One Twitter entry per person only. You do not have to enter both ways for your entries to be valid.
For twitter entries, winners must be following @KaveyF at the time of notification, as this will be sent by Direct Message.
Blog comment entries must provide a valid email address for contacting the winner.
The winners will be notified by email or twitter (for twitter entries). If no response is received within 7 days of notification, the prize will be forfeit and a new winner will be picked and contacted.

This competition is now closed. First prize winner = Esther Lewis (entry via blog). Second prize winner = @novasilence (entry via twitter).

Thermomix: Quick Tasks

27 Jul 2012 4 Responses »

Jul 272012

Although we’ve been putting the loan Thermomix through its paces making basil tagliatelle and ragu and a quick guacamole, we’ve also found it a great help for other kitchen tasks.

Last year, Pete grew his own wheat, and has been grinding it as and when he wanted to use some in home made bread. Grinding with a small electric burr grinder is effective but slow as one has to batch it through bit by bit. But tipping the rest into the Thermomix in one go and letting those sharp blades have free rein for just a few moments reduced the whole lot to a fine flour in no time at all.

When I made avocado ice cream recently, we threw all the ingredients into the Thermomix rather than our usual jug blender. It did a very quick job blending a large volume of avocado flesh, sugar, cream, milk, lemon juice and vanilla extract which we then churned in our ice cream machine.

We’ve also used it to finely grate parmesan and chop onions and garlic, all of which it does very quickly and chop and combine ingredients for a meatloaf, which it handled much better than the disintegrating Magimix.

We didn’t manage to test the steamer functionality; we ran out of time, though we had the machine a while so all our fault.

Kavey Eats received a loan machine courtesy of Thermomix. (This is not a sponsored post).

Thermomix Review: Guacamole

09 Jul 2012 3 Responses »

Jul 092012

I’ve already posted about the results of my first trials of the Thermomix I’ve been loaned for a couple of months, in this post about basil tagliatelle and ragu bolognese.

Another of the recipes I tried, looking for those where the varied functions of the Thermomix would clearly save me time and effort, was the Fast and Easy Cooking recipe for guacamole.

It worked like a charm, and like the ragu bolognese, I was impressed with the balance of flavours and the even chopping and mixing. The only change I’d make next time is to reduce the oil content further.

Thermomix Guacamole

Ingredients
5 grams fresh coriander
1 chilli, top discarded
70 grams red onion, peeled and quartered
2 ripe avocados, peeled
10 grams lime juice
1 plum tomato, peeled and deseeded
40 grams extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Note: As I’m a wuss, we omitted the chilli. We switched the lime juice to lemon, as that’s what we had to hand. Instead of one plum tomato, we used a handful of baby plums. Our avocadoes were small so we used three. We reduced the oil by 10 grams as 40 grams seemed too much. Next time I’d reduce it to just 15-20 grams.

Method

Weigh the coriander on the lid, then mince the coriander and chilli by dropping onto the running blades at Speed 9.
Turn to speed 5 and finely chop the onion by dropping it onto the running blades.
Add all remaining ingredients (weighing the lime juice and oil as you add it) and mix for just 3-5 seconds at Speed 4, until the tomato is chopped.
Season to taste and serve immediately.

This entire recipe took less than 2 minutes, including the time to peel and quarter the onion and scoop out the avocado flesh.

Whilst guacamole is a very simple recipe that can certainly be made with nothing but a spoon to scoop the avocado, a sharp knife to chop ingredients and a fork to mash and mix, I was impressed by how fast it was using the Thermomix and with just a knife, spoon and the machine’s jug to wash up.

Kavey Eats received a loan machine courtesy of Thermomix. (This is not a sponsored post).

Thermomix Review: Basil Tagliatelle & Beef Ragu

27 Jun 2012 17 Responses »

Jun 272012

Of course I’d heard of a Thermomix. Beloved of chefs everywhere and of many domestic cooks too, this machine comes up in conversations with foodie friends on a regular basis. But there are often gasps of shock when the £800 price tag comes up; that’s a hell of a lot for a single appliance!

So, what is a Thermomix, you might be wondering, and why do so many people swear by it, despite the price tag?

Thermomix with varoma steamer basket fixed above main jug; internal basket, whisk, spatula and measuring cup/ lid window to side

Well, it’s a bit of a multitasker – it blends, chops, grinds, whisks, kneads, weighs, cooks and steams!

On paper, it sounds as though this single machine could replace a number of others including a jug blender, a food processor, a mixer, a slow cooker, a steamer and a grinder. But what’s it like in practice? To help me find out, I was loaned a Thermomix to put through its paces for a few weeks.

I was invited to attend a demo first, and was impressed to see how quickly the Thermomix could grind a fine flour from rice or hard lentils. I also watched the demonstrator blend solid frozen chunks of fruit into a smooth sorbet and chop, cook and blend vegetables into a tasty soup.

The Thermomix comes with a cookery book called Fast and Easy Cooking which provides recipes specifically written for the Thermomix. That may sound obvious, but actually, we found that the speed settings and durations for the chopping, blending and grinding functions in particular very different from our experiences with our Magimix food processor. Likewise, we needed specifics on temperatures and times for cooking.

As well as full recipes, there’s also a section at the front that gives settings for common tasks such as grinding coffee, making icing sugar from granulated, melting chocolate, grinding grains and spices, making breadcrumbs, grating cheese, peeling and chopping garlic, mincing ginger, whisking egg whites. crushing ice, mincing meat and making almond, soya and rice milk.

For our first meal made using the Thermomix we made basil tagliatelle (using the pasta verde recipe) and ragu bolognese.

Thermomix Basil Tagliatelle

Ingredients

The original recipe calls for 300 grams of flour, 3 eggs and 50 grams of basil, enough to serve 6-8.

We scaled it down to a third and started with 100 grams of flour, 1 egg and 20 grams of basil.

Perhaps our flour differed wildly from the flour used by the author of the recipe, but we added almost 100 grams again to bring the mixture together into a dough, and even then it was wetter than ideal.

Method

The first instruction called us to blend the flour and basil for 30 seconds at Speed 10.The results remain one of the single most impressive feats of the Thermomix for me; the flour and leaves vanished to be replaced with a fine and evenly ground pale green powder; not even a hint of dark leaf matter was visible and I was genuinely gobsmacked and delighted!

We added the egg and kneaded for 1.5 minutes on the dough setting.

Be warned that the machine moves when it’s kneading and Pete held it down to stop it walking off the work surface! We added extra flour to bring the wet mixture together into a sticky dough and kneaded a little more to incorporate it.

We wrapped the dough in clingfilm and left it in the fridge for a couple of hours before making the tagliatelle.

We used the pasta attachments for our KitchenAid to make the tagliatelle, which we did just as the ragu bolognese was finishing its cooking time, so we could cook the tagliatelle as soon as it was cut.

As with all fresh pasta, it cooked within minutes.

Thermomix Ragu Bolognese

Ingredients
1 carrot, peeled and cut into 3 pieces
1 onion, peeled and quartered
1 clove garlic, peeled
50 grams olive oil
450 grams minced meat (ideally half beef and half pork)
50 grams dry white or red wine
400 grams tinned tomatoes or passata
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of nutmeg
Small handful of torn basil leaves, washed and dried

Note: The recipe also calls for 80 grams of celery, but since I hate the stuff, we missed it out. We used 500 grams of beef mince, red wine and tinned tomatoes.

Method

Put the onion, carrot and garlic into the TM bowl and chop for 5 seconds at speed 7.

Add the oil and cook for 3 minutes at 100 C on Speed setting Spoon using Reverse Blade Direction.

Add the meat and cook for 10 minutes at Varoma temperature on Speed setting Spoon using Reverse Blade Direction.

Add the wine, tomatoes, bay leaf, nutmeg, salt and pepper and cook for 20 minutes at Varoma temperature on Speed setting Spoon using Reverse Blade Direction until the meat is tender and the sauce is reduced.

I must admit, I didn’t believe for a moment that such a short overall cooking time would produce a decent result, as the ragu recipes I’ve made in the past have needed several hours of cooking.

But to my surprise, the ragu not only had a lovely and balanced flavour but it was perfectly cooked as well.

It worked very well indeed with the basil tagliatelle and I thought the finished dish looked beautiful.

So far, so impressed. More posts on our experiments with the Thermomix coming soon.

Kavey Eats received a loan machine courtesy of Thermomix. (This is not a sponsored post).

Older Entries

The Joys of Deep Fat Frying

Hydros Filtering Water Bottle

Making Glazed Vanilla Bean Doughnuts + A Review of Pure Vanilla

Glazed Vanilla Bean Doughnuts

Review: Cuisinart Electric Spice & Nut Grinder

Review

Paris Qooqing Comes to UK

Lakeland’s Cheese Making Kit

Halloumi

Mozzarella

A Review, A Recipe & A Competition with Oxo Good Grips (Closed)

Review: Oxo Mandoline Slicer & Angled Measuring Jug

Easy Caramelised Onion & Potato Dauphinoise Recipe

COMPETITION

HOW TO ENTER

RULES & DETAILS

Thermomix: Quick Tasks

Thermomix Review: Guacamole

Thermomix Guacamole

Thermomix Review: Basil Tagliatelle & Beef Ragu

Thermomix Basil Tagliatelle

Thermomix Ragu Bolognese

Search

Follow Me

Kavey Nibbles

Chobani Yoghurts

In The Garden

Mitarashi Dango from Atari-ya

Affiliate Links

Translate this page

Kavey Eats Archives