kitchen tools – THE DUDE OF FOOD

Cuba’s Most Famous Cook, Nitza Villapol

**https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/06/16/481397800/nitza-villapol-the-woman-who-taught-cubans-to-cook-with-just-about-anything**
For decades, Nitza Villapol hosted *Cocina al Minuto,* a popular cooking show in Cuba. In the decades after Fidel Castro took power, she adapted her cooking, teaching Cubans how to cook without certain ingredients while instructing them with new ways.

The most famous chef in Cuban history is named Nitza Villapol. She was born on November 20, 1923. Nitza was born to Cuban exiles in New York but moved back to Cuba by the time she was 11. She learned to cook by watching her mother, who focused on quick and easy meals. Her mother believed that women should spend as little time in the kitchen as possible. Nitza went on to study nutrition in London but wasn’t a chef.

After reading about Cuba’s very first television station launching in 1948, Nitza wrote a letter to the owner pitching her idea for a cooking show. The owner liked the idea and created a space for Nitza.
Her show Cocina Al Minuto ran on television for almost 50 years, airing its last broadcast in ’97. Nitza featured many dishes from around the globe over the years.

Nitza’s cooking show was very popular in Cuba after the fall of the USSR and her cookbooks are now worth a small fortune. There are many versions of her first cookbook and they are priced anywhere from $650 – 750. I saw one book with 315 recipes where the asking price was $2607! It’s not like these books are everywhere either. Currently they are mostly unavailable. Be warned, there are also many fakes. My curiosity about Nitza definitely has been stirred.

Nitza passed to the big kitchen in the sky on October 20, 1998

Wondering About Vortex Plus Air Fryers?

Being the son of pioneers I’m not well rehearsed in modern kitchen tools. One gadget that has been getting quite popular recently is known as an air fryer and has me wondering about kitchen tools. Questions like ‘How am I this old and have never used one of these cooking devices?’ and ‘Do I really need this thing?’ kept floating up to the top of my head along with all the things I daydreamed that I could potentially prepare. My neighbor ended up purchasing an Instant Pot Vortex Plus from Amazon and I had to go over and check out the unboxing.

Food Network says the following about the Vortex Plus;
“While it’s very similar to the 4-in-1 air fryer, the standout feature in the Vortex Plus is the dehydrator. If you’re looking for a reliable air fryer that can also produce perfectly dried fruits and veggies, the Vortex Plus is for you. Just like the 4-in-1, the Vortex Plus has a roomy, 6-quart basket with a nonstick coating for easy cleanup. Equipped with pre-programmed settings and a temperature-controlling dial, the interface is also super user-friendly. The only downside to this model is the broiler function, which is preset to 400 degrees F for two minutes and didn’t perform well for us in testing.”

The Instant Pot Vortex Plus has 6 cooking options:

             Air Fry (increments between 180°F and 400°F)
             Roast (180°F–400°F)
             Bake (180°F–400°F)
             Reheat (120°F–360°F)
             Broil (350°F–400°F)
             Dehydrate (95°F–175°F)

Chef Carmen Spillette has created 31 Best Air Fryer Recipes that are worth checking out by clicking on the photo below. Thank you Carmen.

I’m still curious and can hardly wait to prompt my neighbor into making some cauliflower buffalo wings and some of the other things that look really good on the Eat with Carmen page.

Bon Appetit, the Dude of Food

The Dude of Food loves his Krups bean grinder

I bought a Krups bean grinder for our work truck office as our crew was making many espressos during our night shoots. Like all Krups products the design is simple and functional. This Krups grinding machine is small but mighty. It doesn’t take up very much space on our countertop and has been totally reliable since the first use. It grinds the espresso and coffee beans perfectly and has been used to grind homegrown Rosemary and some smoking herbs too. One of the Dude of Food’s favorite things to take in is the rich scent of freshly ground coffee beans and the linger of good dank but I digress.

To get your very own Krups bean grinder click on this highlighted area and you will be linked to an Amazon page where you can have one delivered to your team.

Quick kitchen fix – Broken Glass Down Drain

If you ever have encountered the ‘stuff down the drain’ issue in your kitchen then maybe you can get a tip from this little kitchen quick fix tip video. The Dude of Food is here to help.

As far as preventative tips go, a good rule of thumb is to always have a catch screen in place at the bottom of your kitchen sink drain. Also never toss coffee grounds or eggshells down the garbage disposal. Those items are for the trash or composting.

Watch the following video for drain cleaning tips.

It is worth it to be aware of what you put down your sink drains and a simple catch screen helps a lot. They help in the shower too so hair doesn’t build up and clog the drain

Click here to get your own LASSHSWA Kitchen Sink Drain Strainer, for Kitchen Sinks with Large Wide Rim 4.5″ Diameter (2 Pack).

Check and measure your drain size to be sure this size fits.

2022 New Kitchen Tools

This 2022 holiday season I introduced a couple of new items to my kitchen tool box which is important as we grow as chefs.

The paella pan is made by Garcima from Valencia, Spain and is a traditional polished steel paella pan that I plan to use to prepare risotto. The pan seems well made and carries a 2 year guarantee. I look forward to cooking with it.

The Dutch Oven is called Pure Intentions ‘Ecolution’ by Epoca Int’l in Florida. This pan is also stainless steel with a tempered glass top. This item has a Limited Lifetime Warranty and will be good for boiling stuff.

The wooden roller is an Everyday Living item distributed by Inter-American Products and was made in Taiwan. It has held up pretty well so far for helping to thin out homemade pasta for my noodle cutting machine. This item has a quality guarantee or receive a full refund. How can you go wrong?

Whatever your budget or skill level remember that joy comes from sharing and cooking is to be shared, so bring joy to the world and keep cooking. Happy holidays.

What’s inside that sausage?

Ever wonder what’s in that delicious looking sausage. Well the Dude of Food has been wondering and finally took the time to tear one down and see what’s in there. Above is your typical average sized sausage found in any US market. This is not a small breakfast sausage but a regular sausage. This one weighed in at 46 grams as shown.

The first thing I don’t like eating is the intestinal lining that sausage is held together with. There just doesn’t seem like any nutritional value to this stuff. The next thing I noticed was the amount of white fat speckles mixed in the meat so I cut the skin wrap from around the sausage and began to pick the specs out with the tip of a corn holder.

You can see in the photo below that there was a good amount of those white fat particles in there. The other things that were hidden in there are what look like small gristle beads. They are rounded and look like little white nuggets. I am pretty sure these things are about as healthy for you as plastic but who knows. Anyhow, I weighed the pile of garbage that had accumulated on the tin foil and it weighed in at 10.6 grams including the intestinal wrapping but not the weight of the foil. That works out to be roughly 22% useless unhealthy waste in every sausage.

So for nearly every 5 sausages you eat 1 of them is all fat and nasty gristle waste. Granted this was the first one I broke down and the brand was recorded but not given here as I want to test a few more brands and see what the averages are before any brands are named.

I also bought a small, stainless steel kitchen grinder and have been experimenting with grinding various blends of meats and spices for my own sausage patties and meatballs in search of a healthier mix.

Handheld graters with storage drawer

 
Sagaform brings traditional Nordic 
design to your kitchen

So the folks who added the drawer / container to the traditional grater have really done the Dude of Food a huge favor. Say goodbye to the grater sliding off the plate and the paper towel under the grater to catch the gratings. Now we can cut, use and store with little effort. No mess and by simply plopping the top back on the container you are preserving maximum freshness.

Betterware makes this cool grater with a drawer shown here in black. They also have been seen in white, pink and green.

The Dude of Food gets nothing for this recommendation and is not sponsored or connected in any way. It’s just a cool kitchen product that I like.

The Dude of Food is curious to experience your food product.

After years of independent merchandising for surf companies and the Hawaiian Tropic brand, the Dude of Food is switching gears and working on a list of quality food and beverage products to offer in his upcoming market.

If your company is looking to get in other markets, whether domestic or international, then please by all means let’s talk.

The Dude of Food can be emailed at- weallgottaeat (at) g mail (dot) com

Eat well and be happy.

The Dude of Food

Spaghetti squash pasta and Miss Zurich!

From what the Dude of Food understands, you can purchase a device that you stick vegetables in and when you turn the handle it magically turns the veggies into spaghetti! This is a kitchen item that I need to add to my kitchen toolbox.

Right now the Dude of Food is sitting down with a coffee at home, pretending to be served by Miss Zurich in my amber room that overlooks the river. I ask her to dip her finger in my coffee to sweeten it just right. I sip my delicious cup of brew while relaxing in bed watching the ducks on the river. I’m imagining a zucchini pasta with assorted onions and mushrooms smothered in a cheesy white wine glaze served with a side of warmed buttery green beans and 3 poached eggs on sourdough toast and an avocado half is about to arrive. I see Miss Paris has joined in to help and is pushing a cart with food my way. 2 of Germany’s Next Top Models have arrived also. 1 is setting a up tray so I can eat in bed and the other is setting up a massage table so I can relax later. A breakfast for champions, served in bed by beautiful women, is a great way for the Dude of Food to greet the new day.

See what happens to you if you purchase one of these Paderno Spiralizer from Williams-Sonoma.

Bon Appetite.

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Bon appetit!