The Thorngrove Table

A suggestion for the Cook who has everything

Looking for that unusual present for the cook in your life? Well, not content with the cherry pitter or strawberry huller, Williams-Sonoma tempt us with yet another unitasker - the 'Chestnutter':

"This tool takes the peril out of scoring chestnuts – an essential step before roasting or broiling them. It's simple to use: Place a nut in the chamber, close the handles, and a stainless-steel blade makes a perfect "X" through the outer shell and inner skin, which then loosen during roasting. 6 1/4" long."

Hoorah, yet another gadget to clutter up my kitchen drawers! Available here for the princely (or as this is Christmas, kingly) sum of $25.

Welcome to my Kitchen

I was tagged for this meme by the lovely Celeste of Chopstick Cinema (at which a new film is now up so go look) a couple of weeks or so ago. In cooking, 'better late than never' doesn't hold true, but fortunately this is blogging - albeit cooking blogging - so it does. Anyway, on with the show. This is my minute 7' by 7'12" kitchen. It's in a relatively tidy state at the moment, but as you can imagine when it's untidy it's a nightmare. It's about time to do a reorganisation however...

Looking in the door, immediately to the right is a bookcase stuffed full of comestibles and ingredients. Beyond that is my kiln on a table, which supports my kettle, kitchen towel and supply of dishclothes. It also usually supports my food processor, but Mark has just had his wisdom teeth pulled so Tanya borrowed it to make him mush. I'm thinking of adding shelves above that area. The sink has a shelf above it with my tiny deepfryer, hand mixer, chocolate melter and hotpot on it beside the colanders and wok. Out the window you can see my overgrown back garden.

One dead washingmachine that I'm about to replace, one newish hotwater heater and one on-its-last-legs gas stove, the latter crowded with stainless steel pots and my lovely cast iron frypans (which work brilliantly and cost me the ridiculous sum of £10 for 3). I use the dishrack to store my clean dishes.

The little blue thing is my fridge. No, I kid you not. It also needs to be replaced, but I haven't decided with what and where exactly I'm going to put it yet! Other than that, the usual jars of kitchen utensils, a knifeblock with some of my Globals and a lovely blue & white meatplate that my Mum gave me for Christmas. The cat mugs are a highly amusing range by Portmeiron, "Splat" by Rob Scotton - ideal gifts for cooks. The "Platter of Tiny Feet" one cracks me up whenever I look at it. The hotpot is cooking beef, onions & red wine stew. Usually my housemates and I share a Sunday roast but as mentioned above; wisdom teeth extraction pain.

Rubbish bin, burgler alarm, salt cellar, scales, the knives I use most, and sundry other items. And that's pretty much it for my kitchen. Carolyn, I want yours instead!

Pasta Drying Rack

Look what I found in a charity shop yesterday lunchtime [rubs hands with glee].

I've been looking for a cheap pasta drying rack for ages and now finally, success! (and really, it would be hard to beat its £3 pricetag). And I'd say it had been used - never - judging from the wood I had to pull out of the holes.

I have the (much, much easier to find in a charity shop) manual pasta machine sitting below the sink and gathering dust. Underneath the aforementioned George Foreman minigrill, to tell the truth. So now I just need to go buy some pasta flour and I'm all set.

Pointers to any tried and trusted pasta recipes will be greatly appreciated.

Utensibility Week

For Sam (of Becks & Posh)'s Utensibility Week:

As aforementioned, my kitchen is a tiny 7 by 7.5 foot box. I don't have wallspace, I have two-dimensional vertical storage. And oddly enough, all my favorite utensils are grouped together on the same piece of two-dimensional vertical storage. I know this was only supposed to be one utensil, but well, it was just too serendipitous to resist.

Going sort of clockwise from the top, we first of all have my collection of Global Knives on that wonderful invention - the magnetic strip. These are the ones I use frequently; there's also a carver, a fish boner and one huge wopping knife I'm unsure of what it's for except to make me go "meep!".

Some people don't like Globals, saying they're too small, light and unbalanced, but I could write poetry about them (don't worry, I'll spare you). I have very small hands so they're an excellent fit. I like the lightness as I have mild arthritis, and I think they balance perfectly for me. I also love the single piece manufacture - hygenic, easy to clean and stylish - and the dimple-ridged hilts. Of them all, my favorite is probably the large vegetable knife.

Next is my Juniper Wood Salt Box. I bought it at Spittlefield Market five years ago, off the guy who makes them. This was rather expensive - about £20 back then - but it's a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. The maker also told me juniper wood is mildly anti-bacterial, so an excellent choice for this type of container. I love it so much I gave one to some friends as a wedding present.

Beneath that is my Salter Scale. It's the smallest version and Sam has already given the lowdown on them, so I'll just say I couldn't live without it.

Last, but certainly not least useful, is my new Mini-magnetic Board, bought on my recent sojourn to the US. I'm terrible about losing recipes when cooking, or dropping stuff all over them (not to mention the severe dearth of bench space I suffer from). This has gone a long way to helping as I use it to hold written or printed recipes. The steel board is about 6 inches by 4 inches and is stuck to the wall. It has those super-strong little magnets that firmly attach even recipes cut out from cardboard boxes. Not only is it discreet but it's quite stylish when empty. Also, it's completely invaluable and to ice the cake, only cost US $6. I strongly recommend getting one to any cook!