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Originally posted by muppet_girl:
Anyone own metal mesh gloves? (Saw one on Queer Eye for shucking oysters.) I feel I should use these when cleaning all the blades. I'm so afraid of an accident.

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...We had those when I worked in a deli for cleaning slicers and knives, etc. They will keep you from cutting yourself as long as you're not, you know, sticking your hand directly on a moving blade or anything.

My favorite kitchen tools I love mostly for the aesthetic value - I have a big old-school grid-style potato masher and a big ol' eggbeater that was my mom's. I like old stuff.

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Originally posted by septembergirl:
(re: 5 cup food processor) Which brings me to the only reason I'm not happy with it: I should have gotten the bigger size, tiny kitchen or no.

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1) Cuisinart 13-cup food processor. Bigger really is better, and DAMN is it awesome. I'm not a good baker because I am too impatient to knead, so this does the trick. When the job is too small, I just use...

2) Immersion blender. We love to blend soups and beans right in the pot. It also comes with a little mini-food processor attachment for little jobs like pesto or bread crumbs. Yum.

3) Potato ricer. It's a one-trick pony but man do I love it. A million times better than a potato masher. Z and I fight over who gets to rice the potatoes when we use this thing. I want mashed potatoes now.

4) My huge cutting board. Little ones are stupid unless you're just cutting one lemon. I need a big board for my huge Wusthof knives.

5) My huge Wusthof knives. LOVE THEM.

6) Citrus press. It looks like this:
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/pDetail.asp?i=3&p=55 except mine is yellow.

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Originally posted by Sonya:
I want mashed potatoes now.

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I just made The Best Ever Vegetable Loaf, using all of the odds and ends of veges in the fridge and some mince etc etc. It is very yummy and I was thinking that I actually feel warm fuzzy feelings for a kitchen appliace - my food processor.

It's tiny - about the size of a carton of milk and it is so useful that I recommend to everyone they get one.

What's your's?

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Originally posted by Sophie:
has anyone ever found a humidity-proof salt shaker? If you can point me to one online (with foreign shipping) I'll love you forever.

I have dozens of failures that I've bought with high hopes that they can defeat the tropical humidity, but no matter how expensive it was or what it said on the box or how much rice I put in with the salt, after a week of 99% humidity I always end up with what looks like a big rock of crack rattling around in it.

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Originally posted by Merimoo:
Veggie bags http://www.boston.com/ae/food/articles/2004/11/03/its_in_the_bag/ that purport (apparently my word of the day) to keep them fresh for weeks.

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I just bought some of these!

I am totally in love with my Pampered Chef spatulas (I have the two at left). They are heat-safe to 650 degrees, dishwasher safe, don't stain (like with spaghetti) and just are so wonderful. I have other spatulas but I'll wash these just to use them instead.

ETA: I also have a few of these that I love. One for olive oil, one for vegetable oil, and one for vinaigrette.

I still love my little food blender. I eat low carb and I turned a whole head of cauliflower into faux fried rice the other day. It was so easy and very tasty and kind of ricey to go with my curry.

I now have a pantsload of FFR left over though, which I mixed with onion gravy (which involved the food processor as well!) and eat as comfort food in place of mashed potato with gravy. Major comfort food for me .

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Originally posted by Eckerslie:

I still love my little food blender.

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Originally posted by Alice:

Everyone's invited for latkes...

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Originally posted by amie:
any hints on where one might be able to buy this milk-carton-sized wonder?

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Originally posted by meggo:
My grandpa made the best potatoe pancakes (they're pretty much exactly like latkes right?) Can I get your recipe??

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I'm not sure mine come anywhere close to "the best potato pancakes" - in fact, I know they don't. My friend Angela makes the best and she won't give me her recipe!

I use a sort of modified version of Evelyn R0se's method, which is as follows (for a large quantity of latkes):

2lb potatoes
1oz flour
2 small eggs
1/2 teaspoon of mixed herbs
1/2 teaspoon of salt
black pepper
sunflower or other very neutral-tasting oil, for frying.

Grate the potatoes as finely as possible (in the Lovely Magimix or by hand). Then put them in a sieve and leave them to drain for ten minutes, squashing them with a wooden spoon in order to get rid of as much liquid as possible. Don't leave them for any longer or they go black, and belong in the "EW" thread!

Mix the flour, eggs, herbs, salt and pepper together and beat until they form a batter - then add the potatoes and mix thoroughly. (Evelyn R0se suggests that you do this in the Magimix and "pulse" it for about 5 seconds to get the potato to a pulp - I prefer it without doing this, though).

Heat about 1 cm of oil in a heavy-based frying pan, and then drop generous tablespoons of the mixture into the oil. Flatten them a bit with a fish-slice or similar (I'm sure there's a different term for this implement in the US and I'm relying on Bekka to tell me if a fishslice is something altogether different and highly embarrassing ). I mean the flattish kitchen tool with which one removes things from a frying-pan.

Resist the temptation to do what I always do, which is to start poking them before they have "set". If you leave them, they don't stick to the pan (although I've never tried making them in anything other than a non-stick pan). Cook them, turning them over once, until they turn a deep golden brown. This will take about 5 minutes on each side for the first batch, less for later ones.

They freeze *really* well - cook them to a slightly lighter brown, cool them and interleave them with greaseproof paper (uh, baking parchment?!) and put them in plastic bags in the freezer. You can heat them up on a baking tray - defrost them for an hour or so, then cook them for about ten minutes in a medium oven.

I hope that all this works... but they won't come up to your grandad's standards, I'm afraid. And I've just realised that there is a completely different species of potato pancake which is Irish in origin (called something like "boxty?" or is that a beauty treatment?!). I had an Irish flatmate who used to make this version, and they were great, but they were very different from latkes. Alas, I never winkled the recipe out of him, either. I think it involved a chant in mediaeval Gaelic, though...

Potato Latkes

2 large potatoes, grated
1-1/2 Tablespoons flour
1 egg
salt
pepper

Blend by hand and fry in crisco (aka. "spry"). Traditional size is a 4-5" diameter circle; if you make them smaller (2-3") they'll be crispier.

Drain on towel and pat top with towel to remove excess grease. Serve with sour cream and/or applesauce.