Posts by: gastrosurf

I use a garlic press to extract the juice from fresh ginger.

Cut the ginger into small cubes and press it as you would garlic - the fibres will stay in the press head and you will extract a high percentage of the juice, leaving dry fibres in the head which you need to hook out between each pressing.

As you posted on the 25 June I expect you have sorted this out by now, but a few thoughts anyway:-

Could there be a mechanical problem with your machine - perhaps the rollers are not engaged correctly, or, if there is an adjustment, perhaps it's not set as it needs to be?

Are the rollers absolutely clean - I don't wash mine, I just wipe them with a cloth made damp with anti-bac and dry them well. So if in any doubt, make sure there is no oil or grease or residue of pasta on the rollers. I would suggest sprinkling a little flour on them to ensure they are dry and there is no stickiness present.

There is a certain knack to handling fresh pasta that involves letting gravity do the work for you. When you feed the pasta in to the rollers hold it up high so that the weight of the pasta keeps it aligned and then make sure that as it comes out of the machine that it has somewhere to go without getting tangled. The best way to handle pasta that has been shredded is to let it hang from the machine and then use a rod (I use a long flat skewer) to pick it up with. So I would suggest you position your pasta machine on the end of the table so that when the pasta comes through it can hang down for at least 30cm. Then pass your rod under the batch of strands and lift them up so that you have an equal amount hanging on each side. You can then hang your pasta up to dry until you are ready to cook it. There are pasta-drying trees on the market, but any kind of stand that you can drape it over will do.

I would also suggest that if the problem persists, getting someone to feed the pasta into the machine slowly, while you look up from underneath to see how it is getting tangled.

It might have something to do with the way the pasta is made, but if it's going through the first rollers alright, then I would have thought it should be OK.

I make pasta with semolina flour and eggs which produces a very rich pasta that is by no means dry, but it has never tangled in the rollers. Once mixed, I leave it in the fridge for at least an hour before rolling out.

If all else fails don't give up. Many traditional pasta makers role their pasta out with a rolling pin - near the end of the rolling process they stretch their pasta by holding it in the air and letting gravity do the work. During the rolling out process some will let it hang over the edge of the table so that gravity helps the stretching process.

When they have a sheet of pasta the right thickness they roll it up from each end towards the middle - as a scroll would be rolled up. Then they turn it over, and slice it up with a knife - Linguine, whatever. They then pass a rod under the pasta, i.e. under the middle of the scroll, and then lift, which leaves them with long strands of pasta perfectly draped over their stick.

Once you get the hang of it, it can be quite good fun (the ultimate play-dough machine I call them). I can imagine that cleaning it must have been a right chore, as it's surprising just how hard pasta goes after a few days.

If you want to try another pasta recipe, I recommend using some semolina flour and eggs.

Tip out however much flour you need onto a flat surface and make a well in the middle. Crack an egg into the middle and start mixing with a pallet knife or a large spoon handle. Working in a circular motion bring in flour from the mound so that the inner mix becomes thicker - add further eggs and keep mixing until you have a stodgy dough that is enough for your needs. Then mould into a ball. If you have tipped out too much flour, you can use that for dusting

Wrap the dough in clingfilm or greaseproof paper and press down to form a 'tablet' shape. Refrigerate for an hour, then on a lightly floured surface knead the dough for several minutes. Then refrigerate again for at least 30 minutes. The dough will keep in the fridge for two or three days.

When needed, roll out by hand or in the pasta machine.

You could run it through your machine to form a long sheet, then roll it up from each end into the middle, like a scroll (and as described in my previous post) then turn over, and slice up into whatever width strips you want. Then thread your rod (a skewer or wooden spoon handle will do) underneath the middle of the scroll and lift - you will have bright yellow pasta that is rich in colour and flavour.

Hang it somewhere (perhaps a cup-tree) until you are ready to cook it in well salted boiling water for 4 to 5 minutes - if it's very thin, 4 minutes will probably be enough.

It will be deliciosso!

I would check through your recipe to make sure you have the right balance of ingredients - maybe you have used too much fat? Have you chilled the dough long enough?

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I would suggest you use an oven thermometer (they are not that expensive if you don't have one) to take some readings, e.g. of how long pre-heating takes, what the various temperatures are, and how stable when reached, and make some comparisons with the data given in the handbook.

If it seems the oven is definitely faulty, put your findings in a letter to them, and if it was me, I would insist on a replacement oven, or a refund, if that's what you would prefer.

Just a further thought - whatever is set on your control panel should be the temperature within your oven - so 160c on the dial should = 160c once the oven has time to heat up and level out (assuming an empty oven).

If the oven has energy saving properties, then it will have used less energy to reach those temperatures compared to other ovens.

If the oven works more efficiently than other ovens and cooks food more quickly, then the cooking times will be shorter.

So lets say you buy an oven ready meal that states that it needs to be cooked at 200c for 25 minutes, you would set and pre-heat your oven to 200c, and cook it for a shorter time, perhaps 20 minutes.

An easy way to do a practical test is to buy a good quality sponge mix and prepare and cook it exactly as the instructions, then see how well it rises, how evenly it cooks, etc. Keep your eye on it (through the glass) and see if any reduction in cooking time matches what is stated in the handbook.

I'm not suggesting your oven is OK, I'm just thinking about the point the engineer made.

As mentioned above, you can do a simple test yourself by getting an oven thermometer (about £5 from an ironmonger or cook-shop).

Obviously the pre-heat times will depend on what temperature you have set, i.e. 140c is going to be reached more quickly than 240c - which is the highest temperature on my oven - yours is probably higher.

If the oven is not reaching its maximum temperature, it might be leaking heat, possibly at a seal, or the thermostat might be faulty, or, the burner or element may be at fault. My first guess would be the thermostat.

When you are actually cooking something, things get a little more complicated, because as soon as you open your pre-heated oven and put cold food into it the temperature drops down. This drop in heat is then picked up by the thermostat and the heat source then opens up again (increases) until the temperature set on the oven control panel is reached, then the thermostat creates a cycle to keep the set temperature stable.

The bottom line is that whatever the problem they should sort it out for you.

So often nowadays, s/he that makes the most fuss, gets the best service.

Putting some solid facts in writing is usually the best way forward.

Good luck.

I would go for stainless steel every time.

They do seem a bit pricey for what they are - probably because the demand is limited.

If you want to keep the price down and you don't want to lift anything too heavy, how about going for a large stainless steel pot - such as a casserole pot? I saw one in TESCO with a copper base a few weeks back which was about £20 - 8 litres I think. It was a lovely pot. Or the encapsulated alloy based ones can be picked up for about £8.

5. Be sure to make the pasta before downing the chilled bottle of Rosé - lol - using such machinery while under the influence can be tricky - good luck!

Hi Lisa

I had a look at the Neff website this afternoon.

I have a lot of respect for German engineering and it may be that your oven is very good, but I think their claims need to be taken with a pinch of salt.

With the model you have they seem to have taken the concept of a fan assisted oven a step further than most. Your oven would perhaps be better described as 'fan driven' - imagine your Sunday joint being surrounded by half a dozen powerful hairdryers in a metal box with hot air being blasted at it from all directions.

By using this method of heating the food, they have been able to cut the usual pre-heat time right down.

But to say the food cooks at lower temperature is, in my view, misleading.

Food cooks in a convection oven by heating up from the outside in, and it may well be that the Neff oven does that more efficiently and more quickly that many other ovens, but if you lower the temperature of the food, it is bound to take longer to cook. The important issue is how long it takes the oven to raise the temperature of the food. Whereas the internal temperature of most ovens will drop when cold food is put in, it would seem likely that the Neff doesn’t suffer such a drop, and so a higher average temperature is maintained. i.e. it has a flatter temperature curve, particularly over shorter cooking periods: 30 minutes or thereabouts..

Presumably what they are saying is that because their oven has a much tighter form of temperature control, that the peak temperature is lower, i.e. it doesn't cycle up and down as an ordinary convection oven does, and the average temperature remains more constant than most ovens.

However, if you are following their instructions and the oven doesn't cook the food as it should, then the problem needs to be put in their lap. If the cooking instructions say 7, but their chart says 6, then it should come out just cooked.

Baking a sponge cake is a very good test of any oven. If the oven's temperature control system is inaccurate it will show up in the results.

For the money you have paid you should be getting top grade results.

As far as energy saving goes, I wonder how it compares to an ordinary electric oven, and to a gas oven? I doubt there is any saving over a gas oven.

I would send their customers services a strong letter, or fax, saying you want it replaced, or your money back.

Lisa

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The graph on this link illustrates the the range of temperature curves that occur in relation to the type of food being cook.

If they send an engineer with a laptop (surely all their engineers have the necessary test equipment to do their job?) then maybe they can monitor the thermal curve while something is actually cooking in the oven.

Without food in the oven, all that monitoring will show is how quickly the oven temperature rises to the set level, and how well that level is maintained.

The ultimate test of course would be to monitor what happens to the temperature of the food itself through the cooking cycle, rather than the environment surrounding it. Personally, I would put my faith in the 'baking a sponge test'.

Are you dealing with Neff direct, or a dealer?

If you are dealing with Neff UK and getting the response you mention above, I would suggest you fax the Divisional Manager at their UK office.

Hope you get some joy soon.

I watch Market Kitchen and I quite like the format and the educational cooking elements, but I think it is let down by the choice of presenters, who appear to have been chosen for 'who they are and who they know' rather than their skills in presenting or cooking.

Jeni Barnett was great as a presenter, but her personality seem to grow and grow and she seemed to take over the show. But then she did bring a fantastic amount of fun and humour to what otherwise might have been a very dry and staid show. A lot of Chefs take themselves so seriously that unless you are charmed by their didactic qualities, or what they look like, the presentation can be quite boring. Jeni was the ingredient that made the show what it was - like the cream on strawberries.

Perhaps the UKTV producers are now wary of appointing presenters that might take over the show, but if that is the case, I think they have gone too far the other way.

It will be interesting to see if the UKTVFood producers take any notice of their viewers - if they do, then I look forward with some optimism and hope that the show will grow better with time.

There is a dearth of female cooks within the foodie shows, so perhaps UKTVFood can take up the challenge to find more female talent?

I think Ching He-Huang would make an excellent show host, she has the intelligence, the knowledge, social skills and charm, to put Market Kitchen where Good Food Live was. Paired with a compatible co-host (which I think would need careful thought) I think Ching would flourish and the show would really take off.

Hi Lisa

Sorry if the link looked confusing - it was just the graph that I thought might help to explain the relationship between temperature curves and different foods, and give you some "ammunition" if the engineers brushed your concerns aside again.

It's good to know that your oven handled a sponge cake ok, but like you say, you can't live on sponge cake.

However, it may help to narrow down the cause of your problems.

Is it certain types of food that are problematic - perhaps frozen ready meals?

Or, is it only foods that need to cook at the top end of the temperature range - perhaps again, when frozen?

Presumably the engineer did check that the oven reaches the maximum temperature as given in the handbook? If an element is weak, maybe it struggles to achieve and hold the higher temperatures with things like frozen meals? It could be that such a fault doesn't show up unless the oven is put under load by having food in place.

200c is equivalent to gas mark 6, and 250c is 9+, which is a huge jump.

Have you tried roasting a chicken by starting off at high temeprature and then reducing the heat down, to see if you get nice crispy skin? Something like this:-

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I also wonder if any oven trays or dishes that you are using are causing any kind of problem - do Neff supply or recommend anything that is different from the norm?

Can I make a suggestion (although you may have done this already) on the day of the engineers next visit, cook one of the problematic dishes as the Neff instructions, and as near as you can to the time the engineer is due to arrive. It's usually impossible to get any company to give you a precise time nowadays, but you could request that the engineer telephones you say an hour prior to arrival - stressing the fact that such a move should save the engineer time because they won't have to hang around so long.

If you can arrange things so that the engineer arrives in the final stages of cooking (or perhaps more correctly: 'nearly' but not quite cooking) that would be great, but even if that's not possible and the dish has cooled down, you will have some evidence of your complaint - be sure to pick something that will show up as uncooked.

Btw, I don't have a Neff oven - prior to reading your post I would have been very tempted by their marketing though. Some years ago I bought a free standing cooker that had a double oven, it was top of the range and quite expensive (but not Neff), but it never delivered what the handbook promised. We had the engineer out at least a dozen times.

These days I use an ordinary gas oven, which works well, and is relatively cheap to run.

Quite recently I purchased a Panasonic combination oven, which I am very pleased with. I use it mainly for convection cooking, although it can be programmed to include a microwave sequence within any one setting.

During the pre-heat stage it uses fan driven heat and also the halogen grill - but even then it does take about 5 minutes to reach something like 200c, the top end being 250c, which takes a little longer.

But it does deliver what it promises and cooks food very accurately and switches itself off at the end of the sequence, which is really useful if you are multi-tasking and tied up elsewhere - just a thought in case you get really brassed off with Neff and want a second (much cheaper) option for getting ready meals cooked quickly and easily.

I agree with you when you say that most people that get onto out screens are 'in the loop' and often have travelled by using social networks to their advantage.

However, most of them do have some kind of talent, training, skills, whatever, to justify their arrival on our screens.

As far as I am concerned, being the wife of Gordon Ramsay deserves sympathy, but not a cushy job for which she quite obviously has no aptitude for.

Tom Parker Bowles is clearly trying to make the best use of his past experiences: ie, of noshing his way through all kinds of foods in the most expensive restaurants around.

'Who they are' doesn't bother me - the fact that they have exploited their family links does. There are lots of talented people just waiting for an opportunity to show what they can do, and this kind of network-nepotism ensures that they don't get an opportunity.

Of the main presenters mentioned, Matt Tebutt is about the only one who shows any signs of knowing what he is doing, however, unfortunately he doesn't seem to have the personality to project himself with any great effect. If he was working with other professional cooks and getting their support, maybe that would increase his self-confidence and ability to create an identity on screen.

I suspect there will be changes in the not too distant future – perhaps depending on how long contracts have to run.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and in the longer term public opinion will no doubt prevail, because viewers will vote with their remote control. I suspect there are a lot of people that would disagree with you, but we will see.

Good Food Live created a substantial following and Market Kitchen enjoys the benefits that follow from taking over that slot.

At the moment the programme doesn't really have that much competition, but broadband TV is not that far off, so who knows how things will go?

Personally, my favourite foodie program is Master Chef, followed by RSC and Daily Cooks. I don’t like the foul-mouthed bullying and egotism that Ramsay portrays.

I like the camaraderie between the Chefs in programs like RSC and Daily Cooks. Master Chef is competitive, but everyone is pleasant and acts maturely.

I can see the potential in Market Kitchen, but to be honest I find the presentation off putting, even when the general content is interesting.

Hello Rosti

I'm not surprised to hear that Market Kitchen gets good viewing figures in the evening - foodie programs are very popular at the moment and during peak viewing times it's only to be expected that such a show gets a lot of attention.

The daytime audience can be seen as a separate sector in itself, and yes, I do think MK reaps some benefit from following in the footsteps of GFL.

However, it could be said that GFL is a 'hard act to follow', so maybe there is also a downside.

My guess would also be that the daytime audience is perhaps more 'cooking savvy' and perhaps more critical of the presentation than the evening audience - which might be more 'entertained' by watching people who have well known names demonstrating dishes that anyone could do. So maybe daytime foodie viewers represent a different 'market audience' and have higher expectations when it comes to foodie programs. Just a thought, which I don't have any statistics to support.

I've never suggested that MK is a failure, just that I think it would be more of a success with more able presenters.

Plus, I don't have anything against the presenters as individuals in their own right, my criticism is that they have been favoured for reasons other than their ability. Which I can appreciate does happen in the world of TV, i.e. ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know’. But in the case of MK it shows up rather obviously.

I do feel sorry for Tana Ramsay, because by now she must surely be thinking: "why did I ever get into this?" She is so very obviously out of her depth.

But generally I do think the show has potential, it just needs developing!

Hello Jack

I'm quite happy to agree to disagree - no problem at all.

When thinking about the possibility of differences between audiences, my thinking was along the lines that working people had less time to spare and so might have less interest in cooking dishes that require a considerable investment of time.

Whereas people who are retired or those who are at home and are involved in domestic issues 'full time' might have more time to try out the more time consuming recipes. In my personal experience, people under 40 who work full time are generally more likely to chose ready meals, or recipes that are quick to prepare - Gordon Ramsay has recently targeted such a market.

I hadn't really thought about chefs on shift work, but I suppose there is that audience too. But I was thinking more about the seriously interested "domestic" cook, ie, the non-commercial cook who may have built up their knowledge and skills around cooking.

Aside from cooking skills, there may also be some room for suggesting that people who spend more of their time watching cooking programs become more discerning and develop higher expectations.

As there are so many cook shows now, I would think producers are challenged more and more to find something new, i.e., with a format or theme that hasn’t been done before. Maybe as that challenge grows, it becomes harder to get it right, and ultimately: you can't please all of the people all of the time.

Also, as a viewer, the fact that a TV program gets a large viewing audience does little to impress me - I can think of many very popular programmes that I wouldn't bother to turn over for.

I am looking forward to broadband TV, because I might just give up the highly overpriced SKY subscription and watch pay-per-view on a more discriminating basis. The reality of paying for more choice is that you get more and more repeats to choose from. Paying for something you actually want to watch, seems to make more sense to me.

At the moment, if I watch Market Kitchen it will be because there is nothing better on, which I guess will be the same for many other people who like watching foodie shows. At least it doesn’t involve foul language, oppressive behaviour, and grown men acting like hysterical kids, which I find a real incentive for reaching for the remote, although a great many people find such antics entertaining, which has made Gordon Ramsay a few million quid richer and kept a few TV producers in work.

I do wonder whether Gordon Ramsay has some interest, financial or otherwise, in Market Kitchen. It would explain quite a lot - for me anyway.

I didn't say it was "drivel" jack, or any of the things you mention in your last few paragraphs.

All the best.

The gadget in the link appears well made, but it looks like a 'ricer' to me, and if it is, seems rather expensive.

If it's a ricer, this one is much cheaper and it comes with three discs:-

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I would like to see Mark Hicks on Market Kitchen - who is the very talented Chef who won the Main Course, and the Dessert Course, sections in the Great British Menu.

Apart from being one of the most up and coming Chefs in the UK, he is a great guy with a very dry and self-effacing sense of humour.

That should have been Mark Hix - apologies for the misspelling.

I checked it out, and yes, it is the same tool - it comes with three interchangeable discs that produce (extrude is perhaps the right word) different sizes and quantities of noodle, or whatever you chose to put in it. You can make noodles, rice potatoes, mash eggs, squeeze the juice from fruits, etc, etc. It's a very handy and versatile kitchen tool.

To be fair, the German one looks much stronger than the one I posted at Lakeland’s - but then Lakeland tell me that if it should break (providing it is being used for the purpose intended) they will replace or refund the purchase price no matter how long after the purchase date - so it does seem a very good buy at around a third of the price of the German one - if you include P&P in the comparison that is.

Yes, absolutely Mary.

Yet another use, if you make burgers, is to put some cling film in first and then press your meat into shape.

Excellent for making Purée of various types - smooth applesauce, etc.

Ideal for anyone who makes their own lemonade or fruit drinks - if seeds or pips need to be removed, wrap the fruit in muslin.

ReedW

Yes, the Lakeland Ricer has two discs with larger holes than the third.

One of the discs with larger holes has about twice as many holes as the other - so it will extrude twice the amount of noodles as the other at any one pressing.

Presumably, the disc with half the amount of holes also enables more pressure to be applied to the dough.

Wow what a price!

I've just thrown a load out - should have put them on ebay...lol

Actually, I would have been more than happy for someone to have taken them away.

I buy pickled onions, usually the value brands, which by the looks of it, cost not much more than some suppliers charge for an empty jar.

I just took a look on ebay and 24 X 12 oz jars are selling for £8 + £8 pp ?

How do you feel about pickled onions?

Semolina flour is ground durum wheat - which is one of the hardest of all wheats.

If you have bread flour, which is also quite strong, I would suggest using that.

If not, by sound of the ingredients, it will taste delicious whatever flour you use.