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jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sat Nov 20, 04 4:47 pm Post subject: Kitchen tips

A thread to pass on kitchen tips, whether the best way to seperate an egg, keep a hollendaise sauce stable, you get the drift.

I'll start off with a gadget, most of us are stuck with something along the lines of a standard hob. Mine is certainly standard, and very underpowered, despite a so called wok burner. It is on the scan ebay for a better one list, but I digress.

I make up for this with with two rectangular cast iron griddles which together sit side by side over all of the hob. You can see them advertised on TV at the moment for ï¿½15 at Homebase etc. Mine were also ï¿½15 from a "posher" source, and mine are clearly good quality. I have not seen the advertised ones.

With all burners on, you have a wonderfull almost restaraunt style grilling surface. Cast iron when seasoned well, beats a non sitck frying pan. When frying you can adjust the burners for different tempurature zones, and when browning meat, it can do so with considerable speed

The griddles are reversible with ridges on one side, flat on the other, for flexibility in how you want to cook.

jema

sean
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sat Nov 20, 04 5:05 pm Post subject:

We've got one of those. Dashed useful. Following in the same vein: Don't be afraid to let pans, grills, griddles etc. get really, really hot before you put any food into/onto/under them. One of the main reasons that restaurants are better at cooking steaks, fish and so on than most of us is that they use seriously high temperatures. (Except for Heston Blumenthal, but molecular gastronomy is probably another thread.)
Consequent to this tip, get a really powerful extractor fan/hood if at all possible.

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sat Nov 20, 04 5:10 pm Post subject:

sean wrote:

Use of the griddle and the smoke detector (which is upstairs) going off are synominous, a haze pervades the kichen currently

as we have no extracter. When we get to create our dream kitchen, I serious intend to get restaraunt gear. Why do we have to make do with feeble hobs? I really don't get it. I can only be a matter of vavle size or somthing

jema

sean
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Sat Nov 20, 04 5:18 pm Post subject:

You may need to check your gas pipes as well. We've got a six hob Britannia cooker, which is I guess semi-pro quality. When it was delivered I discovered that the gas pipe in the kitchen had been blanked off. The plumber who did the work for me checked the demands of the hob (in terms of flow of gas), and told me that I was lucky, as another burner would have meant having to replace the pipe with a wider bore version. This would have been really bad, because they aren't allowed to join to lead any more, and we would have been in for major works. We got away with it, but it's certainly something to be aware of.

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Mon Nov 22, 04 8:07 pm Post subject:

Is it common to have underpowered gas? I know electric hobs are pathetic (and I would never have one) but I've never had a problems with a gas one.

In fact my tip would be to get a heat difuser, so that you can get your gas low enough to keep things just simmering for slow cooking. Oh - and get a builder to break the tip off your best knife trying to open a can of a paint. I was livid at the time, but it's proved invaluable for getting garlic skins out of the garlic press!

sean
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Mon Nov 22, 04 8:22 pm Post subject:
I think it's about the bore of the pipe in, and the number of burners. I don't know enough plumbing history to know if it's likely to be a common problem. It's obviously a problem sometimes, and I hadn't been aware of it before. Heat diffusers are good too.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Nov 22, 04 8:48 pm Post subject:

wellington womble wrote:

Gas hobs certainly vary in power, from 2.5 to 4.0 kila wotsits is the range you can get.

jema

mrutty

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1578

Posted: Mon Nov 22, 04 8:59 pm Post subject:
Depending on the type of oven it's either a small injector that can be swapped for a larger one, or the bore of the pipe into the house. A normal house has 15mm, I'm guessing that the bigger kit gets 22mm

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Mon Nov 22, 04 10:30 pm Post subject:
Aha - thanks guys - where would I be without you!

sean
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Tue Nov 23, 04 8:39 am Post subject:
We could run how to be a bloke courses. Cookery to gas valves and pipe bores in 4 steps.....

Gervase

Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 8655

Posted: Tue Nov 23, 04 10:12 am Post subject:

Kitchen tips and pipe bores - I thought this was a dig at the state of my kitchen and my penchant for droning on and on...!
Griddles and tuna will defeat any but a restaurant-standard extractor, in my experience. The whole house reeks of tuna for a couple of days afterwards and confuses the cats terribly. - so now I'm forced to fire up a small petrol stove and do the whole thing alfresco, which can be interesting if you've invited friends for dinner and the heavens open! Still, it does provide a conversation point (along the lines of "What's that f***wit doing outside in the pissing rain?")

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Tue Nov 23, 04 10:14 am Post subject:
I bought a gas barbeque with a cast iron griddle. It sits outside the back door (we have a porch at the back) and is perfect for anything fishy

wellington womble

Joined: 08 Nov 2004
Posts: 15051
Location: East Midlands

Posted: Tue Nov 23, 04 12:08 pm Post subject:
Has anyone tried putting essential oils in the grill pan to get rid of fishy smells. I've heard of it, but thought it might taint the fish. In these enlightened days, I thougt it might be quite nice (depending on the oil....)

snowball
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 6246
Location: swindon

Posted: Tue Nov 23, 04 5:52 pm Post subject:
Lemon or lime juice is good to get rid of fishy smells on griddles, frying pans etc. Hopefully, they will enhance the flavour and not detract from it.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28235
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Dec 06, 04 1:06 pm Post subject:
When cooking Indian Breads don't substitute the recommended flour with whatever alternative they recommend. You will get a much better result on say Rotis with Chappatti flour. jema

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