mine definitely has to be my breadmaker and oven,
fresh dough to put in the oven for lunchtime rolls, yummy
mine definitely has to be my breadmaker and oven,
fresh dough to put in the oven for lunchtime rolls, yummy
You cant't go wrong with a really sharp knife
My Hario burr grinder & my AeroPress.
^^ Oh yeah - and a Global chef's knife.
Bread maker and rice cooker. My GF said we should get a rice cooker for ages and I couldn't understand why, but seriously it's been the best kitchen thing we've bought.
After we bought it I later heard Ken Hom say, when asked how most people in China cook rice, that most people use rice cookers. Good company then.
Grab that. Get that. Check it out. Bring that here. Grab anything useful. Take anything good.
Yeah, but what do the Chinese know about rice?
Oh, wait .....
My favorite is my juicer. I have been into juicing lately and I can consider my juicer as my new best friend.
Has to be my apple peeler/corer that I got from Aldi for £6.99! It's one of those that spins the apple and peels and cores and slices as it goes.
Breadmaker is our favourite, for sure! Pizza nights are a weekly event now
A good bread knife is a good thing to have, too. Never tried one of those snazzy motorized ones, not sure I trust myself haha
Guzzini Gildo crumb vacuum! Brilliant for those toast/muffin/pikelet crumbs. Looks good too and gets people talking.
My favourite with no doubt is the wife, does it all for me and more
My absolute favorite is my Kitchenaid 6500 stand mixer. Not only does it do the standard paddle/hook/whip functions, there are also plug-ins to a high torque socket for pasta rollers, meat grinders, dough rollers, shredders, etc. Don't ask what I paid for it and all the accessories. If I had of been married when I bought it, I'd probably have been divorced as a result...
After that comes my Robot Coupe R2N - if you're going to buy a tool, buy the best you can afford, and you aren't getting better than these, except when you buy the higher dollar versions. This beast has replaced my old Cuisinart AND my VitaMix blender. Bought this one as a demo model, otherwise would have had to spend better than $850 for it - and they go a lot higher.
I've seen some mention of pans, and specifically non-stick pans. Those things are dangerous. A well seasoned cast iron pan is every bit as non-stick, if not more, than any teflon coated pan, and far less likely to poison the air you're breathing. A couple of Revereware stainless pots and pans for everything else. No aluminum. Period. Too much anecdotal evidence between aluminum and Alzheimer's. Dunno about England, but the brand of choice here is Lodge.
My newest toy, and one I wish I had of bought years ago, is my countertop induction cooktop. Good thing I don't have aluminum, as none of them will work - absolutely perfect for frying, candy making, heating water for coffee/tea, baking, etc... Waring 23.5" dual burner... 1/2 price from Wayfair.com, saw it on a TV commercial...
Good knives and a couple of good whetstones are a must. I've got a very nice set in a butcherblock holder on the counter that I bought 30 years ago, thinking it was cool to have a beautiful set that was made in Solingen, Germany... spent more money than I should have for what turned out to be nothing more than a decoration. My daily driver? Victorinox Fibrox 8-Inch Chef's Knife... I've had 3 of them over the last 25 or so years, and only replaced them due to heavy use.
Lots of other stuff that never gets used. Not sure if all of the above is considered gadgets or not, but other than the addition of the oven and a good cutting board, those are my must haves for any serious kitchen work.
There's a fair bit of overlap between your R2N and my Magimix 5200XL. For instance, same company makes them. Magimix is Robot Coupe's domestic line. Same type of motor - commercial grade induction motor. 30yr warranty on mine.
Not sure about capacities. Mine says 16-cup, your 3 quart. As the Robot Coupe is aimed at restaurants and mine at domestic use, yours might be bigger. That said, mine is every bit big enough for us, or perhaps even oversized a tad.
Blades are similar (Sabatier s/steel), with similar range of s-type, cutting discs, Julienne dics, graters etc. Not sure about motors. Yours says 1HP, mine 1100w. My guess is yours is heavier duty, after all, it's aimed at, what, 20-30 covers per night, day-in, day-out? But, both commercial-grade induction motors, from the same company.
No way does it replace my Vitamix, though. Oh, there's a good degree of overlap, but each does things, or does them better, than the other. One thing the Magimix does which, I think the R2N doesn't, is three interlocking bowls, so three lots of processing before I need to wash bowls.
I seriously thought about the Robot Coupe range before buying the Magimix. What swung it, eventually, was that I could buy the Magimix, locally, retail, whereas the RobotCoupe is aimed at commercial and hard to find on retail sale, certainly locally to me. And second, and more important, that 30-year motor warranty which is certainly aimed at the domestic market. There's an element of reassurance in having it, but mainly I figure if the offer it, it's because they don't expect to have to honour it very often.
The Robot Coupe purchase was right place/right time. I happened to be at a convention for a large tech company, and there was a convention going on for restaurant supply on the other side of the hotel, which, by sheer coincidence, was being attended by a friend of mine in the restaurant business, and I got a side door invite to the sale of all the demo gear once their convention closed. I paid a touch more than 1/2 price for it, and considering I had used a similar product when I worked in a kitchen in my younger years, I knew just how good of a product it was right away.
Your base size is actually slightly larger than mine, both in capacity and power. I can get larger capacity bowls, but haven't found a real need, and the power difference is as much a function of electrical voltage as anything - we're on 120v here, and iirc, you folk are at 220+. Anything bigger for us would require upgrades to our circuit breakers for home use, or a dedicated circuit in a pro kitchen. Either way, I'm relatively certain they both sound similar, as in jet airplane at takeoff level...
I use it to make salsas, relishes, tomato based sauces, etc, which I then can. Also makes fantastic nut butters - no jarred peanut butter comes close to made fresh.
I still have a high priced Cuisinart machine with all the nested bowls and adjustments and accessories, and it sits on a shelf. I sold the VitaMix to the local health food store. The Robot Coupe does just fine for purees and pretty much anything I used a blender for, with one exception - I do have a $10 WalMart no named blender specifically for making milk shakes, on the rare occasion I want one and don't buy it made for me at the local burger shop (and no, I'm not talking fast food burger and frozen dairy product drinks with artificial flavors ) I had considered buying a so-called soda fountain style shake maker, but couldn't justify the cost/use nor the cleanup involved.
Jet plane on take-off? Well, depends on the plane.
But yeah, in common with the Vitamix, quiet they ain't. What helps a bit, at least in the rest of the house, is an insulated base. I use a square of wood, on top of a folded towel. It significantly dampens down vibration, but doesn't threaten stability or block motor ventilation. It helps a bit.
Some areas I use the Vitamix for include dry goods, like grinding down grain into flour, or anything involving ice or frozen fruit, like smoothies, frozen yoghurt, ice cream, etc. And of course, anything I want hot, like cheese sauce, chocolate sauce, hot soup, some coffees, satay sauce, etc.
Oh, and I use a Kenwood stick blender for quick blitzing, like a tomato pasta sauce, or blitzing hot soup, etc, in the saucepan.
And I do still have an older, much cheaper food processor that gets occassional use if the Magimix is busy, but it's .... crude .... compared to the Magimix. Quite what it is, I don't know, but it isn't a patch on the Magimix. I suspect a combination of motor power, and those oh-so-sharp blades. And they REALLY are sharp. You do get what you pay for. I don't really need the other one, but I'm not just dumping it, and it does just sit there as a backup.
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