Your least and most used kitchen appliance/utensil?

[badjak]

It looks nice, but I'll stick with my mortar and pestle
Whole cloves, bit of banging and done
But I ate mainly SE Asian style food, so it's used for chili's, ginger, cumin, coriander etc as well
And easy cleaning. Just heavy

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

It looks nice, but I'll stick with my mortar and pestle
Whole cloves, bit of banging and done
But I ate mainly SE Asian style food, so it's used for chili's, ginger, cumin, coriander etc as well
And easy cleaning. Just heavy

I can honestly say I've never put ginger or garlic in either of my pestle and mortars. Never occurred to me. Many years back a family member gifted us a grater plate/saucer for ginger, garlic & nutmeg. I hate it. But hubby wants to keep it. The only thing I found it useful for is taking the skin off my knuckles!

 

[badjak]

It does look a bit like a torture device

 

[LissaC]

SatNavSaysStraightOn thank you so much!

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

I can honestly say I've never put ginger or garlic in either of my pestle and mortars. Never occurred to me. Many years back a family member gifted us a grater plate/saucer for ginger, garlic & nutmeg. I hate it. But hubby wants to keep it. The only thing I found it useful for is taking the skin off my knuckles!
View attachment 109176

Yer that would be long gone if it were my kitchen

 

[LissaC]

I have a pestle and mortar that's at least 10 years old and I think I only used it once or twice. I just don't have enough strength to use it well enough so that the food is actually crushed.

 

[SandwichShortOfAPicnic]

I have a pestle and mortar that's at least 10 years old and I think I only used it once or twice. I just don't have enough strength to use it well enough so that the food is actually crushed.

Same here.
Gave my 30 year old pestle and mortar to my sons just a couple of weeks ago for the same reason.

 

[badjak]

I have a pestle and mortar that's at least 10 years old and I think I only used it once or twice. I just don't have enough strength to use it well enough so that the food is actually crushed.

I'm surprised..
It doesn't take much.
Are they very smooth on the inside? I got several ones and I prefer the coarse one.
But.. each to their own

 

[LissaC]

I'm surprised..
It doesn't take much.
Are they very smooth on the inside? I got several ones and I prefer the coarse one.
But.. each to their own

Mine is the coarse one too. For some reason I just can't make it work.

 

[caseydog]

I'm surprised..
It doesn't take much.
Are they very smooth on the inside? I got several ones and I prefer the coarse one.
But.. each to their own

The coarse one is used a lot in Mexico, where it is called a molcajete.

I have a smooth one, made of marble. The weight of the marble makes it easier to grind things.

CD

 

[blades]

I appreciate that most garlic crushers are a pita, and hard to get clean, but this one is different. My garlic and ginger press is fantastic and exceptionally easy to clean. Even cleaning it is quicker than chopping garlic by hand. Plus it's designed to crush ginger as well which it does get used for as well. It wasn't cheap, but they're is no way I'd chop garlic my hand when my garlic press is to hand.

The airfryer, well I took a long time to be convinced about them and buy one, but now I have one we use it so often because it doubles as a mini oven and takes just 90 seconds to heat up to temperature. In fact we use it that often that when we stayed with my sister in the UK, after the first week we were missing one so much (and her oven was very temperamental) that we purchased one for her. She uses it daily. Her oven on the other hand blew up leaving a hole in the side of it and scorched & dented her fridge!

The pasta maker came to us free. I do use it from time to time. I'm hoping to learn how to make my own pulse pasta from it. The supermarket pulse pasta leaves a lot to be desired.

What things do you cook in the air fryer? I sometimes wonder about the sanity of running the oven for an hour to bake a couple of russet potatoes. Perhaps the air fryer would make a more sensible approach. Of course Morning Glory probably recommends the microwave oven. I haven't tried that.

 

[caseydog]

What things do you cook in the air fryer? I sometimes wonder about the sanity of running the oven for an hour to bake a couple of russet potatoes. Perhaps the air fryer would make a more sensible approach. Of course Morning Glory probably recommends the microwave oven. I haven't tried that.

The microwave oven does cook a potato quite quickly, but I'm not a fan of the texture. It comes out hot as h3LL, but is still a bit hard.

CD

 

[LissaC]

What things do you cook in the air fryer? I sometimes wonder about the sanity of running the oven for an hour to bake a couple of russet potatoes. Perhaps the air fryer would make a more sensible approach. Of course Morning Glory probably recommends the microwave oven. I haven't tried that.

I know the question was not aimed at me, but you can cook a lot more stuff in the air fryer than you think. I've made chicken kiev, roasted broccoli, cubed potatoes, french fries, grilled sardines, chicken with sauce (I have a glass container that fits perfectly there), fish fillets, and salmon. You can also use it to make cakes and pastries (never tried that), or reheating food that you need to be crunchy.

 

[caseydog]

I know the question was not aimed at me, but you can cook a lot more stuff in the air fryer than you think. I've made chicken kiev, roasted broccoli, cubed potatoes, french fries, grilled sardines, chicken with sauce (I have a glass container that fits perfectly there), fish fillets, and salmon. You can also use it to make cakes and pastries (never tried that), or reheating food that you need to be crunchy.

I've noticed that cooks either praise air fryers, or curse them. There seems to be a wide range of opinions on them. I don't need one, and don't have room to spare for storing one in my kitchen, so I don't plan to get one. The storage space is the biggest reason.

CD

 

[LissaC]

I've noticed that cooks either praise air fryers, or curse them. There seems to be a wide range of opinions on them. I don't need one, and don't have room to spare for storing one in my kitchen, so I don't plan to get one. The storage space is the biggest reason.

CD

The other day I saw a meme (in portuguese) saying air fryers are kind of a cult Which I think they are.

They are one of the most divisive topics of our age