Kitchen Kapers

Rating: 5 stars

Best Feature: Heats and froths milk perfectly and quickly

The Low down: There are many “stand alone” milk frothing tools out there, but none as good as the Aeroccino. It’s small for an electric frothing unit, so it’s easy to store. It’s also very fast at preparing frothed milk, 50 seconds and steamed milk, 80 seconds. The interior, where you place the cold milk, has a fill line for frothed milk or steamed milk. DO NOT fill over these lines. The milk will come out the top and create a mess of things. Yes; I did this a few timesJ. There are also, two magnetic pieces; one for frothing and one for steaming. The magnetic pieces fit onto a stem, one inside the machine, the other on the lid. The stems are also magnetized, so that you can only fit the pieces one way. One piece has a coil for aerating the milk, the other dopes not. So, if making cappuccino, you would place the aerating piece inside the machine and the other onto the lid. I believe the piece placed on the lid is for storage purposes only, so you don’t lose it. CleverJ. The machine also has a non-stick interior for ease of clean-up. The froth that it makes is smooth, dense and creamy. The steamed milk is hot and has some frothed milk on top.

Bottom Line: A great machine! It makes frothing/steaming milk easy. The froth is also of the quality that a seasoned barista would make. Polished stainless good looks, it also gets points for the “cool” factor. A great tool for its purpose and a fun gadget you’ll want to show off to friends.

Tip/Favorite Recipe: I like to add a little cinnamon to my milk, then froth it and serve over coffee. Use skim milk, 1% or 2% for better frothing. Although skim froths better, 2% froths well and has a creamier texture.

More information at KitchenKapers.com

I was recently invited to a Halloween party and wanted to make my own ghoulishly good dessert to bring along. I searched around on the web for some inspiration and found different variations on an awesome idea: Vampire Cupcakes. Vampire Cupcakes?!? I found several links on the web for this gore-inspired sweet, but thought there might be a few easier ways to shortcut it, since I’m a bit pressed for time. I used our Barefoot Contessa Vanilla Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting mix. I bought the cherry pie filling and the red gel icing.

Vampire Cupcakes
12-24 vanilla cupcakes (made from boxed cake mix or from your favorite scratch recipe)
1 can cherry pie filling
1-2 cans white/vanilla frosting of your choice or a white buttercream
2 red gel writing icing tubes
toothpicks

Normally I would make this recipe from scratch, but I was short on time, so I went the easy route this time. I used the Barefoot Contessa Vanilla Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting mix, though white cake mix would work as well. You bake up the cupcakes according to the directions on the box or your favorite recipe and let them cool.

Once cool, cut little cones out of the top of each cupcake, so you have a hollow spot for the pie filling. Cut the points off of each of the tops and set the tops aside. Next, transfer the cherry pie filling to a bowl and mash the cherries up with a fork a bit. This will help make it easier to fill the cupcakes. Fill each of the cupcakes with a teaspoon or less of the cherry pie filling, being careful not to overfill them. Place the tops back on the cupcakes, gently wiping off any excess pie filling that might seep over. Frost the cupcakes with with the white icing. Using the toothpicks, poke two holes in the top of each cupcake and drizzle some of the red gel icing out of each hole. Of course you can have fun by decorating the plate or serving dish they’ll be presented on.

Rating: 5 Stars out of 5

Best Feature: Outstanding Performance

The Low Down: The beauty of the Chantal Copper Fusion is what first grabs your attention. Then, when you pick it up for inspection, you notice how well made, heavy duty and balanced it feels. For me, this was the beginning of a wonderful love affair.
On a very recent evening, I got a first hand view of just how well Chantal’s Copper Fusion performs. Chef Tre Wilcox of Abacus restaurant and contestant on TV”s America’s Top Chef prepared dinner using this marvelous cookware. Chef Tre prepared some awesome food, but I was no less impressed by the performance of Copper Fusion. Chef Wilcox heated his fry pan over high heat on a gas burner and seared sea scallops for his first dish. The pan became hot very quickly, attesting to the quick heat distribution of the copper core. He then added grapeseed oil (when searing meat/ fish, you must use high heat, so you also need an oil with a higher smoking point) which began to smoke soon afterwards. At this point, Chef Wilcox added the scallops and a wonderful sizzle ensued. Oh, the aroma was divine. He cooked the scallops on one side for 2 minutes, then turned the scallops to sear the other side and to my surprise promptly removed the pan from the heat. The scallops finished cooking using what Chef Tre called residual heat. Most pans that heat up this quickly do not have residual heat! I was really thrown by this. He was right though; the scallops were seared on the other side too and cooked to a succulent medium rare. Later, Chef Wilcox employed this same searing method on a fillet of sole. The texture and taste was marvelously buttery, although no butter was used. I have seared fish on many occasions myself, but not to same result. It’s my belief that the ability of the pan to get very hot and remain non-stick allow for the better texture and flavor.

After such a wonderful meal and enlightening demonstration, I was dying to get home and try this cookware for myself. My first experience was breakfast! I love breakfast food. Bacon was the first food to touch my new pan. The pan heated quickly and evenly and the bacon turned out superb. The bacon was crispy yet not charred, almost as if I had cooked it in a cast iron skillet! Next I wanted to fry some eggs. I tried to make over easy eggs without oil in the pan. This was not a good idea. Although the pan’s enameled inside is very slick and stick resistant, it does require oil for some cooking. I did try to cook chicken cutlets without oil and that turned out fine. So, I tried to cook my eggs again over medium heat and using butter. The eggs came out simply marvelous! Later in the day, I prepared dinner of sautéed chicken and mushrooms. Over medium high heat, then added canola oil until very hot. Then, I added the chicken cutlets and they seared beautifully to a nutty brown color. I removed the chicken and added the mushrooms. The mushrooms were sautéed until tender. Then, I added white wine to deglaze the pan and let the sauce reduce by half. The pan performed beautifully and quickly without a hint of sticking. Consequently, the cleanup was a breeze. I don’t have a Chantal saucepan, yet, so I used my fry pan to boil water. Again, the pan performed very well, coming to a rapid boil in less than two minutes on high heat.
The last test was fried chicken. I heated oil in the fry pan until very hot, 360 degrees. This took all of 6 minutes. I added four pieces of chicken and let it fly. While the chicken cooked, I used a digital thermometer to track the temperature to make sure that it didn’t drop below 340 degrees. It didn’t and the chicken came out crisp and juicy. I was impressed.

The Bottom Line: The Chantal Copper Fusion cookware is superb! The copper core is actually fused with the steel to create an alloy that has the same heating properties as the copper itself, meaning a quick transfer of heat. Also, unlike copper, which also loses heat quickly after you turn off the burner, the Copper Fusion retains heat similar to cast iron. It is also easy to clean, as the enamel is very hard and smooth. The handles never got hot even when I was frying chicken, so yeah, they are stay cool. Other things I liked are the helping looped handles. They make it easy to remove the pan from the stove without mishap. Also, the beauty of the cookware plus its heat capacity will allow you to take the pan to the table to serve! The enamel coating is also non-reactive, so cooking with tomatoes, lemons and other acidic foods presents no problems. There are also no rivets on the interior to catch hold of food and stick to. The bottom line, this cookware takes the best aspects from many types of cookware and rolls them into one very useful tool. They are so worth the money. If you want to cook like a professional chef, get the tools the professional chef uses. It makes all the difference.

Recipes: If you are interested in any of Chef Tre’s recipes or my own, please feel free to contact me.

More information at KitchenKapers.com.

Autumn always seems to make me nostalgic, especially when it comes to food. After all, it is practically the comfort food season. Since we’ve had quite a few cool fall days here in New Jersey lately, I’ve been having fun getting back into the kitchen. Of course, this time of year also means looking forward to the holidays and the planning and preparation of family get-togethers. At my house, we are very rooted in tradition when it comes to food and family functions. We have to make Cranberry Relish for Thanksgiving and Christmas isn’t Christmas without Kiflis, a traditional Hungarian cookie. The Kifli recipe is a true family favorite, one that has been handed down through generations. My great-grandmother taught my father how to make them and he, in turn, taught me. Of course, I do have quite a few of these favorite hand-me-down recipes. Ones that have come to mean so much, that I wish I could stockpile them all into one volume. Perhaps some day I will have the time to organize them all into one recipe binder. For now I use the eighty different recipe books in my collection, including the most dog-eared (and most-loved) ones that have been passed on to me. The recipe cards are smudged, cookbook pages are written on, magazine and newspaper clippings are beginning to lose their ink, but each recipe has been tested by the generations of our family. What are your favorite family hand-me-down recipes? Are there certain dishes that are a must at your family gatherings?

Rating: 5 Stars

Best Feature: Best One Touch Cappuccino/Latte maker available

The Low down: In my opinion, this machine offers the best espresso available with an awesome frothing mechanism. At the touch of a button, a wonderful cappuccino is delivered into your cup. There is no clean-up, no mess and no waste. Did I mention that the froth it creates is as smooth as silk, simply decadent?

Let’s talk about espresso. Espresso is the coffee created using a pressure brewing process. It is not, as some believe, a very dark roasted coffee or some sort of caffeine fortified bean. The pressure used to make espresso should be at a minimum of 15 bars to develop a good crema. The crema is created by emulsifying the natural oils in coffee, not enough pressure equals less crema. The Nespresso system builds ample pressure, 19 bars, to create an espresso with a thick and aromatic crema. Even the decaffeinated espresso has great crema!! The pods are offered in a variety of strengths and characteristics and they now have flavored pods as well. This system offers great coffee at great ease. Some don’t like the idea of having to use a pod. They would rather be able to use any beans they wish. This is certainly a good argument against pod style espresso makers, but in reality we humans are creatures of habit. Once we find something we like, we usually stick with it. There are many grind and brew coffee makers on the market that make great coffee, some are very expensive and some require a greater amount of preparation, time and skill. For my money, I want a machine that makes a great espresso quickly, consistently and without all the preparation and clean-up. The Lattissima makes as good an espresso as any high end café!

Now, let’s talk about frothing our milk for cappuccino or latte. The Lattissima system uses a pitcher that you simply “plug in” to the machine. The lid of the pitcher has two fittings that align with ports in the machine; steam from the machine flows through these into the lid. There is a hose that attaches to the lid and goes into the bottom of the pitcher. On its way through the lid, the steam will siphon the milk through this hose and heat it. It is then dispensed into your cup waiting at the end of the frother nozzle. This nozzle swivels to allow you to maneuver it to a variety of cup sizes. On top of the lid (in the front) there is a sliding adjustment piece that will regulate the amount of milk that can flow into the hose. When fully open, the maximum of milk will flow and mix with the steam to create steamed milk for latte type drinks. If you slide the adjustment piece to the second setting, it restricts the flow to about half. This will allow the milk to be frothed and become hotter and creates milk for cappuccino. If you slide the adjustment all the way in, the flow of milk will stop. This setting is to clean the nozzle of milk. When you are finished with the milk simply use this last setting to clean and then remove the pitcher and place it into the refrigerator. This frothing system is easy to use; there is no mess and no wasted milk.

The Rest of the Lattissima: There are many other features to this espresso machine that warrant mention. There are four (4) programmable buttons. There are two (2) for coffee only buttons, one for a small cup and one for a large cup. Typically the small cup button is used to make espresso of 1-2 ounces. The larger cup button is typically used for a Lungo coffee. Nespresso created these to be more like an Americano style coffee. The Lungo pods are filled with a greater amount of coffee that is more coarsely ground. The other two programmable buttons are also large and small. These are used for cappuccino and latte drinks. You will program both the amount of coffee and the amount of milk for these buttons. Program the coffee as you would the first two buttons. Then, program the milk quantity simply by pressing and holding down the button until you reach the correct amount of milk. You can change these anytime you wish or override them while in use.

Another great feature is the warming tray. Not many espresso machines have this feature. It’s nice to have your coffee brew into a pre-warmed cup, so that it loses none of its heat.

I love the water container. Most often, you have to remove the water vessel to fill it. The water container on the Lattissima fits into the base of the machine, which simply slides out. You can remove it to fill if you wish, but it’s easy to fill while in the machine. There is also a water level indicator that shows black when full and red when low.

Another slick feature is the cup shelf. It allows you to place small cups closer to the dispensing nozzle(s) so there is no splash-back. If you are using a taller cup or a travel mug, simply slide the tray inwards and this will avail you more room.

The Lattissima also has dual thermoblocks. This means you can brew coffee and steam milk without any down time. Why would you have any down time? Well, most machines employ a single thermoblock or coil to heat water for both coffee and milk. Water is heated to boiling to steam milk, which would be too hot to brew coffee. This creates down time, since you have to wait until the machine cools to again brew coffee.

There is one last wonderful thing I should mention about the Nespresso Lattissima. For all the wonderful features it offers, this machine is not very big. It won’t take up a great deal of room on your counter and it looks really cool.

Bottom Line: It does all the things more expensive and much larger machines do. The coffee is great, the froth heavenly and the price affordable. It would be my machine of choice!

The Lattissima is available in Black and Red.

One of my favorite hobbies is baking. For me, it has always been a lot of fun and it makes me happy when I see someone enjoying something I baked. Knowing that this is a busy and stressful time of year for my older brother, I decided to put my baking skills to use this weekend and whip up a batch of his favorite treat, Whoopie Pies. Whoopie pies are a northeastern US dessert/snack food that consists of two rich chocolate mini-cakes that are filled with a creamy, buttery filling. It’s generally believed that they were created by the Amish or Pennsylvania Dutch and go by a variety of names including: gobs, black-and-whites, bobs, and of course whoopie pies. If you’ve never had a whoopie pie, they are truly a delight unto themselves and we usually only make them as a special treat or for a family occasion.

Since we recently got the Stonewall Kitchen Whoopie Pie Mix in at the store, I decided to try it out and see how they stack up to the homemade kind. The cake mix and filling were easy to whip up, requiring only a few ingredients to be added to the boxed mix. The directions were clear and easy to follow and turned out some surprisingly good whoopie pies. Each box makes about 12 whoopie pies, which is perfect if you’re baking for a small family. My brother gave them a thumbs up, saying he was surprised it was from a mix. The rest of the family enjoyed them as well. Have you ever had Whoopie Pies or tried the Stonewall Whoopie Pie Mix? What are some of your favorite treats to bake?