My Food Prosessor

dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m

14 years ago

This is a consolidation of thoughts on many recent topics from various threads.

FOAS said, "The reason that my FP doesn't get more use is very simple: I enjoy prep."

I happened to turn on NBC's "Non-Stop Foodies" last night, a chef was preparing a dish and he was explain why he felt making chopped food has a better texture with hand chopping than with a food processor.

Before anyone jumps on me, I AM NOT SAYING A FP IS USELESS!

Personally, food prep is part of the pleasure of cooking. I find uniformly machine sliced cucumbers less than satisfying in a salad than hand cut ones texturally.

I don't think you need to have knife skills like Martin Yang either, but it is fun trying.

I was invite to a dinner. The wife pulled a knife out from a case when she was making pork. An incredible shinny looking 12" blade sushi knife.

She told me that was a $1,200 yanagi ba type knife. I have not used a knife like that before, I asked if I could try it.

You know a $100,000 watch is less acurate than a $10 drug store watch, but there is no comparasion between an expensive Japanese knife and a cheap (I know, $100 is not cheap) BB&B knife. She showed me a few other knives in the case.

After checking out on eBay and a few othe sources, I gave up on finding affordable good Japanese knives. I did find a place where I can get 1095 high carbon steel ($30.00). So I will be making myself a few yanagi ba blades and a nakiri blade.

You will agree, a good knife deserves the best cutting board, and the best cutting board is a substantial end-grain cutting board. A nice slab of end-gain board is not cheap. I am cheap. So I made my own.

A poster here asked about how I used wet wood to make things in a couple of days instead of waiting years for the wood to dry.

The storm a few weeks ago gave me many downed branches. I cut the branches to reasonable sizes to fit in the microwave, and cooked the wood using low power. You can play with the power setting depending on how wet the wood is and how much wood you have in the microwave. Some times I went with full power but shorter time. When there is not much steam coming out from the wood, I then final dried the wood in my gas oven, setting the temperature at 250 F.

How do you know if the wood is completely dry? First keep a glass cup, plate or anything glass in the refrigerator, take the hot wood out from the oven and place it on the cold glass, if you don't see condensation on the glass, the wood is dry.

I will have a lot of enjoyment with my food processing system. :-)

dcarch

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Comments (8)

John Liu
14 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
I hear very good things about Watanabe, and some of his knives are more affordable than most. He has a neat set of photos showing the process of making his knives. Google Watanabe Blade.

But it looks like you've already made the blades? Tell me more.
User
14 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Dcarch, I'm not usually a fan of laminated boards, but I must say that I love your board. A beautiful, functional work of art.

What is the wood?

Ann
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Here ya go Florey! It was on page 4 I believe. While I'm at it I'll post my vegetarian recipe for chili. It's easily made with meat by starting with browning ground meat or other meat then going from there with this recipe. Saute about 3 cups each of onion, celery and peppers of your choice and two Tablespoons or more of garlic[ I use about 3 or 4 for this amount, smiles]. When these are sauteed a bit, add two cups of carrots and 2 large cans of small diced tomatoes [with their juice]. I don't like to use crushed or sauce in my chili. I think it overwhelms the veggies. A bay leaf and couple tablespoons each of cumin, chili powder, and salt. Add water or veggie stock, if needed, to bring level up to slightly above veggies. As hard veggies begin to soften, add 2 cups each of eggplant[cubed], zucchini and/or yellow squash. Cook another ten minutes and add 2 cups each mushrooms, canned or frozen corn and canned or frozen green beans. Taste now for salt and seasonings and adjust. Next add as many beans as you like. I use the liquid in the beans too. At least 1 lrg can of dark and 1 lrg can of light kidney beans. Also, black beans and cannellini beans are good. Pintos are great too, naturally. As soon as beans are heated through the chili is done. Taste once more for seasoning. Like all chili this is best if made the day before. Does great frozen. I usually make about 3 gallons of this at a time and freeze in 4 or 5 containers.
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Once upon a time, a son of France rose, drank his bowl of cafe au lait, smoked a morning Gauloise, and made machines until lunchtime. Fortified by the lunch packed by his young bride, a carafe of vin ordinaire, and more Gauloises, in the afternoon he made more machines. The next day, and the next week, he did it all over again. Those machines traveled all over the world of the swingin' seventies, to kitchens from Helsinki to Hackensack, and set to work. Chopping and dicing, whirring and kneading, they worked in kitchens grand and small, just as their big commercial Robot Coupe brothers were working in the world's restaurants. Like the solid French ouvriers who made them, the machines worked and worked. The years passed, decades went by, generations came and went. The sturdy young Gaul who screwed together this food processor and riveted the engraved label to its underside grew old, stooped, and was buried in the old cemetery by the wood, next to his beloved wife. The machines he made outlive him, and may outlive their children, and their children. In 1970s France, they hadn't learned to shave thicknesses and cheapen materials so that their products would fail just after the warranties expired. Your Robot Coupe in Kitchen Aid livery was made to keep working indefinitely. It was meant to be the last food processor its owner would ever have to buy. We live in the twilight of quality consumer goods. Everything is made in China of thin plastic and pot metal, cost-engineered to fall apart after an average of X years, with a standard deviation of Y that the company's accountants compute into the warranty reserves and balance against the manufacturing cost, to achieve maximum profit for the corporate parent. There is no red wine, or indeed time for lunch, in the factories. Yes, there are sturdy machines in the factories, some even made in France. They are used to make the cheap new machines that we consumers buy. Or, that we don't buy. You can get a used bowl, lid, blades, and stem for your KFP 700 for about $50 on eBay. See link for a typical auction. Or a new work bowl for about $60 from a few companies who stock parts for old machines. Try Gourmet Depot. Obvious, as a grouchy old sentimentalist, I would keep using the old French machine instead of junking the work of our Gauloise-puffing and vin rouge-imbibing hero. But I'm not a nutter about this stuff. Why, only today I dumped a box of old stuff - 56K modems, parallel printer cables, floppy disks, Celeron processors - at the freegeek computer recycle place. But I kept the old acoustic coupler and 1200 baud modem that I used to go online with, from pay phones on dusty roads all over France. Maybe, even the side road where the factory once stood. Maybe, even the phone where our hero would call his young wife, to take her out for dinner with the francs earned from his long day of making machines. Maybe, even the sturdy machine on your kitchen counter. Here is a link that might be useful: Example
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Edited to correct typos. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans with shortening or coat with cooking spray. Line bottoms with parchment paper and grease again. Measure flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a medium-size bowl. Stir with a fork until well blended and no lumps of cocoa remain. In large mixing bowl, beat butter using an electric mixer on medium-high speed until very creamy. Gradually add 1 cup granulated sugar and 3/4 cup brown sugar, beating until light and fluffy, at least 3 minutes. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Add vanilla until blended. Turn mixer to low and beat in 1/3 of flour mixture, then half of buttermilk, beating only until mixed after each addition. Beat in another third of flour mixture, then remaining buttermilk, ending with remaining flour mixture. Beat only until evenly blended. Overbeating at this point will toughen cake. Divide batter evenly between pans, then bang pans on counter several times to remove air bubbles. Bake in center of 350F oven until center of cake springs back when lightly touched and sides of cake start to pull away from pan, from 30 to 35 minutes. Let cakes cool in pans set on a rack for 10 minutes, then turn out. Remove parchment paper, then cool cakes thoroughly on racks. When ready to assemble cake, slice each in half horizontally to make 4 layers. To make filling, combine frozen concentrate, 3/4 cup sugar and gelatin in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar and gelatin are dissolved, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in orange zest and 1/4 cup liqueur. Press a sheet of waxed paper into surface of orange mixture and refrigerate just until it no longer feels warm to the touch, about 20 minutes. Whip cream in a large mixing bowl until soft peaks will form. Gradually beat in icing sugar until combined. Fold in liqueur mixture until evenly blended and no white streaks of whipping cream remain. To assemble, place a layer of cake, cut side up, on a serving plate. Brush with about 1 tbsp liqueur. Spoon a scant fifth of filling onto middle of layer, then gently spread almost to edge. Top with a cake layer, brush with 1 tbsp liqueur, then spread with a fifth of filling. Repeat until all layers have been added. Use remaining filling to frost top and sides of cake. Refrigerate immediately for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight, so flavors blend. For best flavor, bring cake to room temperature before serving. Leftover cake will keep well, loosely covered, in the refrigerator for about 2 days.
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punamytsike
14 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
love your board, love your knives. Do you have somewhere instructions how you made your board? something I might want to tackle once I have my work space.

Thanks
caliloo
14 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
That board is gorgeous. Can you explain the process you went through to make it?

Alexa
Jasdip
14 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Holy smokes; you made your board?? Gorgeous!
How big is it? You're not only a scientist but a wood-worker!
foodonastump
14 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Judging by the bark and by where you live, I'm going to guess maple and oak. Am I close?

I, too, really like the cutting board. Both the unique aspect of each individual block and the fact that you used random widths rather than create a uniform checkerboard. Nicely done!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but there seems to be a good amount of checking and other irregularity in the wood. How did you deal with that? (Specifically from a sanitary aspect.)

The blades look interesting, too. (A lot more interesting than your sawzall blade project, if I may!) Like John, I'm not clear on what you bought and where you are in the project. Are you grinding them or actually hand forging them?
lsr2002
14 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Beautiful! The blades and the block are lovely.
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
Original Author
14 years ago
last modified: 11 years ago
Thank you all. Just sharing ideas to amuse you.

It was said, "Necessity is the mother of invention"
I say, "Parsimony is the father of inventiveness"

Making my own black garlic so that I don't have to pay $6.00 a bulb.
Making my own $50.00 sous vide cooker.
And now
making a $300.00 cutting board from scrap firewood
And also Turning $30.00 of steel into $2,000 worth of knives.

John, There are many metals which can make high quality knives. I decided to use 1095 high carbon steel because it can give me "scary" razor sharpness. After hardening and tempering, I may be able to get close to Rockwell 62 hardness, which is about the same hardness as many knives as Watanabe Blade you mentioned. Watanabe is very reasonable, but a 12" blade will still set you back $500.00.

Ann, thanks. A well appreciated compliment coming from a well establish cutting board designer and maker. FOAS is correct, The woods are oak, maple and an old stump of sweet gum. I will be cutting FOOD ON A STUMP. :-)

jasdip, thanks. The board is 18" x 12" x 2.5". Very heavy. Not too big to use as a serving/carving board on the dinning table.

punamytsike and Alexa, thanks. To make an end-grain cutting board is easy if you have the tools:

1. A couple of bar clamps.
2. A table saw (mine is a 10" saw).
3. A belt sander.
4. A wood worker's scraper.

After the wood has been dried and cut into blocks as in the photo, using the bar clamps and waterproof wood glue, and glue the blocks one row at a time. Just make sure that you have two surfaces of the blocks in alignment using the saw's rip fence. It takes about one day for the clue to dry. After that you can use the table saw's rip fence to have all four surfaces of the wood block sized and squared.

Make as many rows of wood blocks as you need depending on the size of the cutting board you want.

Glue the rows of blocks together and cut the uneven lengths of blocks off and there you have your cutting board ready to be smoothed out.

Using the belt sander to flatten the surfaces and the scraper to give the surfaces a very shinny smoothness.

Now the final step is to saturate the finished end-grain cutting board with mineral oil.

FOAS, Thanks. Those few cracks were filled in solid using a paste made with fine saw dust and waterproof glue. Otherwise the surface is mirror-smooth.

I will need to harden and temper the blades. If you remember my "leaf blower BBQ", actually that was a test to see if I would be able to get to hardening temperature for 1095 high carbon steel using a BBQ. I intend to do a differential hardening to get the edge to close to Rockwell 60 to 62. I have some wood in the microwave now for the handles.

"-----(A lot more interesting than your sawzall blade project, if I may!)----"

That's a very cutting (hehee, can't resist a chance for a pun!) remark, FOAS.

Then how is this for a saw blade cleaver I made sometime ago?

Dcarch

My Food Prosessor

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John Liu

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My Food Prosessor

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John Liu

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dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
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