(no subject)

[coraa]

For dinner, I made a red beans and rice-ish dish. (I say 'ish' because it's not traditional: I used bacon instead of the traditional ham hock and andouille sausage, and I added some dried chanterelles and dried tomatoes to help make up for the loss of 'meaty' flavors from not using the sausage.) It was pretty good, I thought; not sure what Pava (who is less fond of beans than I am) thought.

I got many awesome things for Christmas, but among my favorites are the things I got to help me cook: a cast iron dutch oven (7 qt; massive even empty), an immersion blender, a mandoline. I used all of them making dinner tonight -- the mandoline for slicing the celery and bell peppers (and lordy lordy, it went quickly), the dutch oven for sweating the onions, celery and bell peppers and then slow-braising the whole mess; the immersion blender for smoothing the beans out. Yum.

(A 7-qt dutch oven, even just one-quarter full of beans and liquid, is really heavy. It's going to take some practice to learn to maneuver it, especially when it's hot. But I got pretty good at maneuvering the 12-inch skillet full of food, so I'm confident I'll get used to this one, too.)

Comments

[triath.livejournal.com]

Wow, you just saved me research time. Over Christmas my mom suggested I use her mandoline to cut up the carrots at an angle, to which I said "How will a musical instrument help me?" Even after she presented me with the item in it's labeled box, I still was convinced that mandoline was the brand name.

Mom: 1, Marcy: 0

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Haha! Yeah, the first couple of times I heard of the thing, I was like, "...what now? Next, will I be sauteeing the chicken using a piano?"

I ♥ mine. It made short work of five stalks of celery. I want to try it for slicing potatoes for gratin!

First you warm the piano strings...

[triath.livejournal.com]

It also makes short work of fingers, so be careful. I have this tendency to want to cut all the way to the end of the vegetable, but it's so not worth it.

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

I want to try it for slicing potatoes for gratin!

I can't imagine doing it any other way! (I think that's what I originally bought my mandoline for, actually.

I loves me some immersion blender and Dutch ovens, too. I have a huge 8-qt. (I think -- might be bigger) Le Creuset Dutch oven that's too heavy for me to wash; I can pick it up, but I can't hold onto it reliably when it's soapy. They make fab soup, though.

[dancambull.livejournal.com]

I love our immersion blender, it is so great for making sauces and soups. The best thing for helping maneuver when hot are some silicone gloves, especially when reaching into a hot oven (I tend to burn the back of my hands and arms more than the palms). Besides, if you lift the weight enough, you will definitely get used to it.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to using the immersion blender to puree my squash soups. It'd be way easier than pouring the soup into the standing blender, blending, then pouring back.

I covet silocone gloves.

[dancambull.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you don't have to worry about spilling hot soup on yourself, though be careful, if it is too hot, the soup might splatter.

I had never seen the silicone gloves until my neighbor bought them for me after I repeatedly burned myself making us dinner when our husbands were out of town.

[ceph.livejournal.com]

Nice. You'll have mad biceps in no time.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Mad biceps!

I ought to weigh the thing. I bet it weighs a ton, even empty.

[bellwethr.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a fantastic dish, and a great haul! :)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I am so excited! I want to make something that requires a million thin slices just so I can use the mandoline.