Hi everyone, welcome to potluck food talks. Today we're going to talk about small home appliances. That's a catchy episode title. Okay, let's start over again. Let's do it again. Oh no, it's fine. No, no, no, let's do it again. Hi everyone, welcome to potluck food talks. Today we're going to talk about microwave hacks. Is that better? No? Yeah, sure. If you have microwave hacks, that's great. No, I don't. Let's go again. Let's go again. Hi everyone, welcome to potluck food talks.
Today we're going to talk about microwaves and other small home appliances. Do you have any favorite home appliances, Phil? I do. I do actually. The thing is I have a very intimate relationship with my home appliances. They fulfill a certain function and I often find myself just being very grateful for what they do. I know what you're thinking about. You're thinking about your panini grill, don't you? Man, I don't have a panini grill. I was looking at one yesterday.
I don't have a panini grill at the moment, but a panini grill is just amazing. I'm especially thankful every day for my kettle. I have a very nice kettle where I can put in the temperature that I want. Which I never had before, but it was a really wonderful present. And now I can't see myself living without it. Like making tea, you know, I'm a big fan of like, you know, especially Japanese green tea where you need a certain temperature.
And for that I was boiling the kettle, starting it, stopping it, opening it, putting a thermometer in. Just like an idiot, you know. And now I just put in the temperature and it heats it up. So I'm very grateful for my kettle. Also very grateful for my rice cooker. What a really cheap basic rice cooker. Ah, that's not the... like you find one in every Asian home, right? Yeah. And I just bought like, I was looking at like fancy ones and stuff and they're very cool.
They can like braise and all that sort of stuff. I just bought a really cheap rice cooker from a Chinese supermarket here around the corner of my house for like 40 euros. And it works really great. I eat rice like every second day and it's so nice. You just wash your rice, put it in. It has such a homey feeling to it. Like you were like, I put on the rice, I do like other stuff, you know, I clean the kitchen or whatever. And it's just like bubbling. Everything smells like rice.
And the rice is just much better than when you cook it in the pot. It's just the case, you know. Yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree. Like I actually, I had one as a kid in Venezuela. It was really nice. Do you use the microwave or what are the uses you give to it?
Man, you know, like I, when I was like a young chef, I was like kind of against microwaves because I thought like, oh, you know, like these kitchens where people put like stuff in the microwave, ding it and then send it, you know, I thought that was horrible. And that is horrible. I think that I like that, that stigma. If I'm not wrong, that's something like the Spaniards changed because there was like this prejudice at microwave.
It gives radiation to your food and it's only for like home cooks without knowledge, something like that. Right. Yeah, exactly. And it's not the case at all. It's just like another way of applying heat to a piece of food, you know, like it has different functions and different ways to use. But I've learned that there is like, for instance, cooking potatoes in the microwave to make mashed potatoes or chickpeas, these kind of things.
And then there are like this special like containers with special forms to steam inside the microwave and this kind of. So there is a lot of things that are super interesting to do, which I don't. I usually just make like, you know, like microwave fries or cheap food for lazy people. Yeah, I feel like, yeah, I feel the same. Like that's there's like definite uses for a microwave. If I had a microwave at home, which I don't, but if I had one, I would use it, especially to heat up leftover food.
Right. Like, for example, stuff like lasagna, you know, like when I make lasagna, I always make like more than I can eat in a day. And like putting a piece of lasagna in a microwave and heating it up is just great because otherwise you have to like put it in the oven or put it in a pan, some water or something. It's just crap.
But like then again, you know, like I feel like, like you said, there's so many uses for a microwave that I don't actually really know about, like cooking potatoes and stuff like that, that I feel like would be really, really useful. But I just don't do it. The only, the only like different thing, so to say, which is something a lot of people don't do is when I need to melt chocolate, I always just do it on the microwave. I think it's cleaner and better.
Yes. I see people at home like getting this bad maddie is really messy burning the chocolate because they're cooking the water. And the way to do it on a microwave is you just add batches of 30 seconds, just 30 seconds, moving the chocolate 30 seconds again, moving again. And I change it like three the most. You already have it melted, like perfectly melted. Yeah. Do you have a bread toaster? Do you use your bread toaster?
That's another one that I, you don't have one anymore, but I used to use it a lot. Yes. Yeah. I mean, a toaster is essential. I don't actually have one right now because I mean, for people who don't know me, which is everybody, I've just moved house and I own nothing. So I'm buying things bit by bit. But like, yeah, I think like a toaster is super, super essential also for me anyway.
But like I bake bread at home, you know, so like when I bake breads, I have a loaf of bread, half of the loaf is going to disappear that same day. Right. When the bread is fresh, because I'll eat that for my dinner, you know, I'll just eat the bread with like cheese and butter. And, and whatever. But like the rest, I usually slice and then freeze while slice. Yeah. And then like when I need it, I'll just take slices out and put them straight in the toaster from frozen. And it works perfect.
Same. Because I think like fresh bread is amazing the way it is. But like toast is just as amazing, you know. So yeah, toasters indispensable. And wasn't it you told me about this, about heating up croissants on top of toast? Yeah, I did. I talk about it on the sandwich episode, which is it was quite a revelation, like putting croissants on top of the toaster. And then you have this effect of freshly baked croissant, which is crispy on the outside and it's amazing.
I've also tried it like with this cheap bag croissants and they get better, like a lot better, but they're still cheap croissants. Yeah, I've lately been on a craze for like frozen croissants, you know, from a food supermarket. Just like, man, they've gotten really good, honestly, you know, what a time to be alive. They're frozen and raw for you to bake? Yes. Oh, nice. And you just pop them in the oven like 20 minutes and the croissants that come out, they're actually really decent.
They're better than like 80% of the croissants you buy at bakeries. But they're pre-baked or like the raw dough that you need to let proof and everything? You don't need to let it proof, but they're raw, completely raw. Like, okay. So they're like frosted when they're proofed. Literally, you just like you pop them in the oven from frozen and they puff up crispy, nice, fresh, gooey on the inside. Super, super nice. Sounds really good.
Yeah. And my flatmate used to have like a sous vide cooker, how do you call that? Immersive cooking device. And that's actually pretty cool to have one at home. You could do your tea there, for instance, if it needs to have like a specific... But there are so many applications that you can use for it, for instance, making these perfectly boiled eggs where the egg yolk is still liquid on the inside. You know, and it's like a two step recipe.
You just put things there and you push a button and go away, you know? Yeah. Like I very rarely use sous vide machines ever. I use them for exactly what you said. I use them for infusions. For example, if I want to make like infused oil, I like, you know, backpack, for example, like, you know, tarragon leaves stems with oil and just put it like 60 degrees and let it go. Or for eggs, you know, like you said, onsen eggs, you know, it's amazing.
Although you can do them in a... if you have a professional kitchen, you can do it in a steam oven also, is very good. But yeah, but like apart from that, I don't really sous vide that much anymore, you know? Okay. Like I like it, for instance, I remember once here at home, like making pork bellies, like for a bowel dinner party. Yeah. It's good, you know, because these kind of things are like just a few steps.
Xander, the producer of the show, he's like, he doesn't have one anymore, but he used to have one and he was obsessed about it. He would come to grill parties with pre-cooked meat like, hey, it's my sous vide meat, you just need to grill it and it will be cooked to perfection. That's the power move. I love that.
Yeah, I just like, I don't know why, but like at some like when I think back, you know, like everything used to be sous vide, you know, like the fish, the meat, you know, just fucking everything, even vegetables. And then at some point it just all switched. And like, I think since I was like, just before I went to Fabriken, I like changed the way that I approach cooking meat. And now like for years I've been doing it just like fire sauce. Old school style.
Yeah. Hey, you know, like another thing that for me falls into the same category as microwave is a pressure cooker. It's the kind of thing where I'm like, I know it's very useful. Oh yeah. But for some reason I don't want to have it in my kitchen. You don't. I mean, dude, for making like, which is very, very common here as you know, braised ox cheeks. Yeah. Or chickpeas. Like those two, I would have one just to cook those two things. Yeah, it goes really well together actually, braised ox.
And there's also, again, Sander's mother gave me the tip of, I just did it once and it went out really nice. Throwing an octopus into a pressure cooker. Oh yes. Not even without, not even liquid, nothing. You just throw the whole thing there and you cook it like for 20 minutes and then it has like three fingers of its own juices. And the chicken is cooked soft to perfection. Really?
Yeah. I mean, I prefer doing it the traditional way, but this is like a way to, you know, have an octopus in 20 minutes without, you know. That's the thing. It's like I see the point of it. But for example, like ox cheeks, you know, like if I'm making ox cheeks at home, you know, I see myself much more like searing them off, putting them in a roasting tray with like the vegetables, the liquid, putting it in your oven low and slow. Like I, I don't know.
Like I, it's not like I'm hating on pressure cookers. I totally know. And like, for example, like in Indian families, I know. Right. It's like pressure cookers indispensable, you know, for like cooking, braising, mutton curries and stuff like that. And like, I get it. I totally get it. And like I'm... Here's also super common here in Spain, probably because of the chickpeas and the stews. But here you will find one in every single home for sure.
Lentils, these kind of things are very commonly cooked there. Maybe I should get one, you know, for stuff like brisket. It's really nice. Braised brisket. Hey, and we forgot about probably the Ferraris of home appliances that we know from professional kitchens, which is a KitchenAid. KitchenAid. Okay. I thought you... No, no, no, the KitchenAid. I was thinking about the thermobricks. Sorry. But also the KitchenAid is also like, well, what about the KitchenAid first?
KitchenAid, like I've never had a KitchenAid at home and I think I wouldn't use it that much. It's more like a restaurant equipment or I mean, if you're someone who bake a lot or... Because you can do a lot of things. You can make pasta or rind meat of these kind of things. But these kind of things I never do at home. I personally. Yeah. No, I totally see what you're saying. Like I think the KitchenAid is very nice for somebody who cooks a lot.
Because the cool thing, like you said, is that you can have all the attachments. So for people who don't know KitchenAid, it's like a device that is basically like a mixer where you can knead dough or whisk with a bowl attachment. But the thing is that you can open like a little hole in the top and you can add loads of attachments, a pasta sheeter, a meat grinder.
I think just for the meat grinder, for example, it's like if you're really into cooking, you do this sort of stuff, you know, and you're somebody who wants to like grind meat. You want to make sausages. Like I think the versatility of it is very cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Well, you can even and for me, that's the best way to make ice cream at home. Did we talk about this at the ice cream episode as well or didn't we?
You just freeze like a tray with your ice cream mixture, but it has to have a specific amount of sugar. You cut it into cubes and you throw it there and you just let it knead like a dough and you get like a perfect ice cream. But you will have it just, you know, like for a banquet service where you have like 200 people and you do the whole thing because it's not, you know, like you put it in the freezer, it will get super hard. Yeah. But in that moment, it's super creamy and nice.
Yeah, that's cool. I've never actually seen that. But like, you know, the dough kneading thing, the whisk is, I mean, useful for meringues and whatnot. Meat grinder, pasta sheeter, you know. Mooses, that kind of things. But I was talking about the Thermomix. I won a Thermomix with a contest.
So I had one at home and after a few months I gave it to my mom because I just know she will give it lots more of use, you know, like, because I was, I use it, I don't use it as much and I use it just to blitz stuff, you know, like most chefs, you know, most chefs just add heat and speed and that's it. Nobody uses programs, nobody steams, nobody stews, but you can do all that on a Thermomix. You can. I've never in my life done anything else but just mix with a Thermomix or like...
At temperature. A few times I've added temperature. A few times temperature. But like so fucking rarely, you know, like, I don't know. It's like for me it's kind of like, you know, at one point we, in a restaurant I was working and we got a new ice cream machine and the ice cream rep came to like to explain this fancy ice cream machine and he was like, okay, so here the freezing programs, ice cream, sorbet, blah, blah, blah.
But you have loads more programs, you know, here you can also add heat, you can make, here all the programs, the recipes, you can make bolognese, you can make ragu, you can make stew, you can make bechamel. And I was like, man, I don't care. I don't care about it. I just want an ice cream. Like this is great. Well done. But I'm never going to use this ever. And it's kind of like, like this with Thermomix. I think Thermomix is good for mixing.
It's a good mixer, but it's kind of just too much for what I use it for, you know? Yeah. I mean, it's a super, I'll just say for me it's the best mixer in the market. And yeah, like everything else is extra because, no, but I have used the heat settings. I've never used a program, not a single time. And I know the new ones even have like systems where you can program your shopping. So you get, you know, groceries and you do it all through the Thermomix interface. That's crazy.
But yeah, that was working in some cities in the United States. I don't know if it's still working, but I remember reading an article about it. Yeah, that's just crazy. It's super interesting. But I've done like lentils and that kind of stuff on Thermomix. Yeah. Oh yeah. And yeah, because I had one at home, I had one at home and it was, you know, but actually I prefer doing those things.
Traditional metal, you know, those things are mostly for people who don't know how to use a knife, you know, or how to make lentils the normal way. Yeah. Or super busy, you know, home cooks that have families and are super busy, you know, handling a lot of stuff. Ah, come on, man. You know, my grandma used to cook like fucking bang vids, you know, while working two jobs. I don't know. Like, it's not like too busy. And I don't know, you know, these appliances are really cool.
But it's like put a pot on the stove, make a, you know, make a sofrito, make some lentils, learn how to do that and then program your mixer afterwards. You know, that's it for this week's episode of potluck food talks. If you like what we're doing, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode. You can also find us on Instagram and TikTok as potluck food talks. The show airs every Monday.