February 19, 2012

I have been rather involved with other activities so have neglected this blog since early January and have some catching up to do. I’ll do my best to keep more up to date but I’m not going to make any rash promises.

A couple of days ago I made a batch of Chile Verde sauce for a neighborhood taco party.
The recipe is in the recipe section of my blog.
Unlike most recipes, I slow roast the vegetables for this sauce.

A full roasting pan results in a reduction by about 1/3 to this amount:

After they have cooled, a food processor is used to puree everything evenly but some texture remains.
The effect of the roasting removes the bitterness that often is found in tomatillos.

Today I’m making a batch of butter. Here it is just out of the churn, it needs to be worked with butter paddles to work out as much of the residual liquid as possible.

I’m taking a break to perform this step in the process.

Here it is worked and pressed and formed into a block.

Kitchen Essentials

On one of the forums to which I belong, there has been a discussion about measuring cups and spoons. Since I believe in having enough to work on more than one recipe at a time, without taking time to wash and dry implements during the process, I have several sets of each.
I know most people get along with just one set, often because storage is a problem but I have a solution for that also.
As you can see in this photo, I keep my measuring cups in plastic bags that allows them to be hung and kept free of dust.

I actually will have two or three sets, each in their own bag, on a shower curtain “ring” which makes it easier to hang them on a hook.

Here are the graduated glass liquid measures made by Pyrex and Anchor Hocking.

The largest is 2 1/2 quart, the smallest 1 cup.

The advantage of the glass is that they can be used in the microwave.

Here are some plastic graduated liquid measures that I don’t use as much, mostly because they are not for use in the microwave.
Some that are supposed to be okay for microwave use will become opaque if they get too hot for too long.

The measuring spoons are also organized on these same shower curtain rings.

Except for the plastic sets that are organized by size in mesh containers found in an office supply store, some are magnetic, the sets are kept together.
As you can see, they are of different shapes and some have long handles which are perfect for getting down into deep jars.

The large oval shaped spoons just to the left of center are “odd-sized” measures, 2-Tablespoons, 1 1/2-Tablespoons, 2-Teaspoons, Pinch and Smidgen.

I also have a graduated pipette for measuring milliliters of liquids that have to be carefully measured, such as concentrated flavorings that are measured by drops. This is much more accurate than an eyedropper.

With the recent interest in molecular gastronomy, it is important to have very accurate measuring devices.

Regular digital scales are necessary and if one is really dedicated, an extremely accurate digital scale, similar to those used by jewelers, is essential. Fortunately these are inexpensive.