- wok - make sure it's not one of those flatbottomed "pseudo-woks". The whole principle of wok cooking requires a curved bottom. The ones with the ring-holder even work well on an electric range
- preserves - lemons, tomatoes (as long as you do not add anything whatsoever but tomatoes) and jams are all safe to do without a pressure canner. Not much else is. Do yourself and your friends and family a huge favour and read a book! The 'bible' is "Putting Food By" (ISBN: 0452268990), but here is a very good freebie :
And something not on your list but you may find useful is a Food Saver vacuum sealer. Don't get a cheapie brand. Best price in town on Food Saver is Costco. The good models also have an attachment for vacuum sealing jars of different sorts (read: coffee!)
liss76
· 3 years ago
Dh mentioned you had a blog. :o)
A cheap substitute for airtight spice bottles is ziploc bags. I use the snack ones for spices I use infrequently and in small amounts (fenugreek, tamarind, star anise, etc.) and mason jars for spices I use in larger quantities. I bought a really cool antique post office cabinet at Kitchenalia a couple years ago that has lots of tiny drawers and is perfect for storing the bagged spices--I have so many that I've taken to storing them alphabetically for easy retrieval.
I have an authentic wok that I inherited from my Dad's ill-advised foray into Chinese cookery, but I picked up a second one for $1.00 at Value Village. Make sure you get a wok that suits the type of cooking you will be doing, and don't get one with wooden handles that cannot be removed. I have a deep one and a shallow one.
I, too, am coveting a full size food processor. We've had a KitchenAid with oodles of attachments for 10 years now and I have a lovely little 4-cup food processor, but a combination 4-cup/8-cup would be so useful. Some of them are designed so that you can put ice into the larger recepticle while using the smaller bowl--effectively chilling what ever you are processing. A good feature for certain soups, icings, etc.
We need a new blender. :o) Ours is one of those nasty Oster ones with the big top and the tiny bottom that can't handle blending frozen fruit. WE drink a lot of smoothies, so this is a PITA.
Something else that is nice to have (which we don't, yet) are Silpat sheets.
bodensatz
· 3 years ago
Coincidentally the guys on my brewers list are talking about asian cooking, and one guy here in Ottawa just sent this, which I guess should have been obvious :
"Also, just to note: If you are ever in the market for a wok, go to china town and pick up a carbon steel one. They go for about $15. Once seasoned, they are 1,000,000,000 times better than the shitty teflon coated $100 abominations you can get at fancy stores."
liss76
· 3 years ago
FWIW, both of mine are carbon steel. The reason I made the "no wooden handles" suggestion is because it makes it a lot more difficult to properly season the wok if you can't put it in the oven. :)
Value Village, ONS, Salvation Army, and St Vincent de Paul often have woks and they're only a couple bucks. Good to try it out and then buy a new one when you have a feel for it.
Apparently they also regularly have yoghurt makers! :D
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- wok - make sure it's not one of those flatbottomed "pseudo-woks". The whole principle of wok cooking requires a curved bottom. The ones with the ring-holder even work well on an electric range
- preserves - lemons, tomatoes (as long as you do not add anything whatsoever but tomatoes) and jams are all safe to do without a pressure canner. Not much else is. Do yourself and your friends and family a huge favour and read a book! The 'bible' is "Putting Food By" (ISBN: 0452268990), but here is a very good freebie :
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/publications/publicati...
And something not on your list but you may find useful is a Food Saver vacuum sealer. Don't get a cheapie brand. Best price in town on Food Saver is Costco. The good models also have an attachment for vacuum sealing jars of different sorts (read: coffee!)
A cheap substitute for airtight spice bottles is ziploc bags. I use the snack ones for spices I use infrequently and in small amounts (fenugreek, tamarind, star anise, etc.) and mason jars for spices I use in larger quantities. I bought a really cool antique post office cabinet at Kitchenalia a couple years ago that has lots of tiny drawers and is perfect for storing the bagged spices--I have so many that I've taken to storing them alphabetically for easy retrieval.
I have an authentic wok that I inherited from my Dad's ill-advised foray into Chinese cookery, but I picked up a second one for $1.00 at Value Village. Make sure you get a wok that suits the type of cooking you will be doing, and don't get one with wooden handles that cannot be removed. I have a deep one and a shallow one.
I, too, am coveting a full size food processor. We've had a KitchenAid with oodles of attachments for 10 years now and I have a lovely little 4-cup food processor, but a combination 4-cup/8-cup would be so useful. Some of them are designed so that you can put ice into the larger recepticle while using the smaller bowl--effectively chilling what ever you are processing. A good feature for certain soups, icings, etc.
We need a new blender. :o) Ours is one of those nasty Oster ones with the big top and the tiny bottom that can't handle blending frozen fruit. WE drink a lot of smoothies, so this is a PITA.
Something else that is nice to have (which we don't, yet) are Silpat sheets.
"Also, just to note: If you are ever in the market for a wok, go to china town and pick up a carbon steel one. They go for about $15. Once seasoned,
they are 1,000,000,000 times better than the shitty teflon coated $100 abominations you can get at fancy stores."
Value Village, ONS, Salvation Army, and St Vincent de Paul often have woks and they're only a couple bucks. Good to try it out and then buy a new one when you have a feel for it.
Apparently they also regularly have yoghurt makers! :D