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I _wish_ I were plotting for _Hop, Skip and a Jump_, but my brain is just not there yet. Soon, hopefully!
Yesterday, I did some comparison of mashing/whipping potato and celeriac. I peeled and cut up a small yellow and a small celeriac, put them in a glass dish with some water (not covering) in the microwave and cooked them until a fork did the right thing on contact. I took them out, saved the water (because around here, if I don’t save it, 36 hours later I’ll wish I had, if not sooner), and started my comparison experiment.
I did fork, potato masher, regular blender (because I’d found a chart purporting to tell you what you can and cannot use various kitchen power tools for, and it said you can’t use a blender to mash potatoes) and an immersion blender (Braun Multiquick Pro — it’s old, altho we only fairly recently unboxed it). All of them work, and if you want quick cleanup and the rustic type of mashed, the masher is definitely worthy. The masher stores poorly anywhere, really, but should never be gotten rid of because it is just too useful. The old-skool blender, as always, is the wrong tool for the job, altho it does work. And finally, the immersion blender is a freaking dream. For the two blenders, I added back some of the cooking liquid to get it to loosen up a bit. I wasn’t going to be adding milk products (obviously). I then put everything into the fridge (I intend to make some kind of shepherd’s pie and use this as the topping, but that’s for tomorrow, which is, of course, today).
It was fun, and I posted the pics over on FB. Plenty of other people have done more or less the same experiment and you can watch their much better videos over on YouTube.
The post generated some discussion, and my friend JC commented that she, too, could find no particular use for a blender, but intended to get a food processor to make latkes and perhaps this as well. She already has an immersion blender, tho. That got me thinking, because I know she’s still got her KitchenAid, so I found the attachment that you can use for grating and posted the link. I noted that I’d never owned that attachment. However, a mutual friend then chimed in to say they _did_ own that attachment, and they used it when they had to grate a ton, and it worked, er, great.
So that was interesting! I had suspected that if I started talking about the many, many, many power tool solutions for kitchen projects, I’d start to learn what other people did and did not own and/or use or had tried out and gotten rid of or whatever. Yay!
I also took a hard look at the Swissmar Borner V-Slicer which we’ve had … for years and never used, because that is the theme here, right? Use What You Have Until You Figure Out Why You Hate It And Then Get Rid Of It and Never Make The Same Mistake Again, or, you know, until you love it and use it all the time is fantastic, too. I couldn’t figure it out (familiar, here, also! Just like the Moka pot! OK, mine is a Musa, but Moka is more recognizable), so I found a YouTube by the maker and watched, somewhat mesmerized, as someone with far better knife skills than I have put that thing through its paces. But as near as I can tell, you cannot grate things with a Swissmar. Which is fine, because I have a box grater and a friend recently posted one of those Reels montages of TikToks by the guy who does the I Didn’t Learn This Until I Was In My 30s videos, and it included using a box grater on its side. Not all of the tips and tricks that guy shares are worthwhile, but the box grate idea was interesting, so I figured I’d give that a try.
Breville makes an all-in-one immersion blender with a pretty sophisticated food processor attachment that includes a grating while. While some versions of the Braun Multiquick _also_ have a grating wheel, mine does not, and I don’t think one ever existed that is compatible with the one I own. Since my Braun otherwise has a lot of life in it, is awesome, and is a gift from Donald, it’s pretty impossible to imagine replacing it. Which is good, because this project is supposed to be about Loving What You Already Have, not about, hey, there’s a cooler option out there. Altho sometimes, it really is worth it to replace N gadgets with N-M gadgets, just to get the counter/storage space back. No regrets on either the Instant Pot or the Breville countertop oven/airfryer.
So the grating options around here (for hash browns, latkes, carrot cake, etc. type purposes) are basically the cuisinart food processor or the box grater. I only have a few carrots and not that many parsnips, so I think I’m going to try the box grater on its side thing and grate radishes and make a radish quick bread.
Then I think I’m going to get out the V-slicer and make a shepherd’s pie with a ton of vegetables in it and the whipped potato/celeriac. Not sure if I’ll put any meat in it or not — I thawed some ground beef, so I could use that, and I have some impossible in the freezer so that’s an option too. I might just make the sauce with bacon or goose fat and not actually put any other meat in it tho.
ETA: box grating (on its side and then tilted) is easier than using it in the vertical position, but my hand does still cramp somewhat. This is definitely because I’m pushing too hard, so NOT pushing too hard would probably help a lot. Cleaning a box grater is easier than cleaning the food processor HOWEVER box splatter grater is much worse than food processor splatter, in terms of area of countertop, etc., impacted.
I didn’t bother to get the V-slicer out for the shepherd’s pie. Spreading pureed root vegetable on top of the “filling” is much trickier than I had realized. Mad props to everyone who can do swirly things that look nice. I did not use any meat altho I did use a lot of mushroom. In a fit of whimsy or something like it, I grated the last of the onion. I can definitely see why the v-slicer video narrator says don’t cut the stalk before slicing; onion really falls apart with the top taken off, but it’s _such_ an automatic thing to remove when just using a knife. There’s a huge skill set involved in using these tools and not all of it is particularly visible or memorable.
The radish quick bread had the _most_ disgusting color as batter (I used watermelon radishes, because that’s what I had the most volume of), however, it smells fantastic cooking and is browning beautifully.
The shepherd’s pie and the radish quick bread are totally compatible to cook at the same time in the oven, altho I did start the bread while I was still working on the “pie”. I am now broiling the top of the “pie” while the bread cools before taking it out of the pan.
Yesterday, I did some comparison of mashing/whipping potato and celeriac. I peeled and cut up a small yellow and a small celeriac, put them in a glass dish with some water (not covering) in the microwave and cooked them until a fork did the right thing on contact. I took them out, saved the water (because around here, if I don’t save it, 36 hours later I’ll wish I had, if not sooner), and started my comparison experiment.
I did fork, potato masher, regular blender (because I’d found a chart purporting to tell you what you can and cannot use various kitchen power tools for, and it said you can’t use a blender to mash potatoes) and an immersion blender (Braun Multiquick Pro — it’s old, altho we only fairly recently unboxed it). All of them work, and if you want quick cleanup and the rustic type of mashed, the masher is definitely worthy. The masher stores poorly anywhere, really, but should never be gotten rid of because it is just too useful. The old-skool blender, as always, is the wrong tool for the job, altho it does work. And finally, the immersion blender is a freaking dream. For the two blenders, I added back some of the cooking liquid to get it to loosen up a bit. I wasn’t going to be adding milk products (obviously). I then put everything into the fridge (I intend to make some kind of shepherd’s pie and use this as the topping, but that’s for tomorrow, which is, of course, today).
It was fun, and I posted the pics over on FB. Plenty of other people have done more or less the same experiment and you can watch their much better videos over on YouTube.
The post generated some discussion, and my friend JC commented that she, too, could find no particular use for a blender, but intended to get a food processor to make latkes and perhaps this as well. She already has an immersion blender, tho. That got me thinking, because I know she’s still got her KitchenAid, so I found the attachment that you can use for grating and posted the link. I noted that I’d never owned that attachment. However, a mutual friend then chimed in to say they _did_ own that attachment, and they used it when they had to grate a ton, and it worked, er, great.
So that was interesting! I had suspected that if I started talking about the many, many, many power tool solutions for kitchen projects, I’d start to learn what other people did and did not own and/or use or had tried out and gotten rid of or whatever. Yay!
I also took a hard look at the Swissmar Borner V-Slicer which we’ve had … for years and never used, because that is the theme here, right? Use What You Have Until You Figure Out Why You Hate It And Then Get Rid Of It and Never Make The Same Mistake Again, or, you know, until you love it and use it all the time is fantastic, too. I couldn’t figure it out (familiar, here, also! Just like the Moka pot! OK, mine is a Musa, but Moka is more recognizable), so I found a YouTube by the maker and watched, somewhat mesmerized, as someone with far better knife skills than I have put that thing through its paces. But as near as I can tell, you cannot grate things with a Swissmar. Which is fine, because I have a box grater and a friend recently posted one of those Reels montages of TikToks by the guy who does the I Didn’t Learn This Until I Was In My 30s videos, and it included using a box grater on its side. Not all of the tips and tricks that guy shares are worthwhile, but the box grate idea was interesting, so I figured I’d give that a try.
Breville makes an all-in-one immersion blender with a pretty sophisticated food processor attachment that includes a grating while. While some versions of the Braun Multiquick _also_ have a grating wheel, mine does not, and I don’t think one ever existed that is compatible with the one I own. Since my Braun otherwise has a lot of life in it, is awesome, and is a gift from Donald, it’s pretty impossible to imagine replacing it. Which is good, because this project is supposed to be about Loving What You Already Have, not about, hey, there’s a cooler option out there. Altho sometimes, it really is worth it to replace N gadgets with N-M gadgets, just to get the counter/storage space back. No regrets on either the Instant Pot or the Breville countertop oven/airfryer.
So the grating options around here (for hash browns, latkes, carrot cake, etc. type purposes) are basically the cuisinart food processor or the box grater. I only have a few carrots and not that many parsnips, so I think I’m going to try the box grater on its side thing and grate radishes and make a radish quick bread.
Then I think I’m going to get out the V-slicer and make a shepherd’s pie with a ton of vegetables in it and the whipped potato/celeriac. Not sure if I’ll put any meat in it or not — I thawed some ground beef, so I could use that, and I have some impossible in the freezer so that’s an option too. I might just make the sauce with bacon or goose fat and not actually put any other meat in it tho.
ETA: box grating (on its side and then tilted) is easier than using it in the vertical position, but my hand does still cramp somewhat. This is definitely because I’m pushing too hard, so NOT pushing too hard would probably help a lot. Cleaning a box grater is easier than cleaning the food processor HOWEVER box splatter grater is much worse than food processor splatter, in terms of area of countertop, etc., impacted.
I didn’t bother to get the V-slicer out for the shepherd’s pie. Spreading pureed root vegetable on top of the “filling” is much trickier than I had realized. Mad props to everyone who can do swirly things that look nice. I did not use any meat altho I did use a lot of mushroom. In a fit of whimsy or something like it, I grated the last of the onion. I can definitely see why the v-slicer video narrator says don’t cut the stalk before slicing; onion really falls apart with the top taken off, but it’s _such_ an automatic thing to remove when just using a knife. There’s a huge skill set involved in using these tools and not all of it is particularly visible or memorable.
The radish quick bread had the _most_ disgusting color as batter (I used watermelon radishes, because that’s what I had the most volume of), however, it smells fantastic cooking and is browning beautifully.
The shepherd’s pie and the radish quick bread are totally compatible to cook at the same time in the oven, altho I did start the bread while I was still working on the “pie”. I am now broiling the top of the “pie” while the bread cools before taking it out of the pan.