Tagine Along? (and unusual culinary instruments)

Anyone an aficionado of these North African stews?

I love the spices often used in the region and often pair them with lamb etc. in my cooking. Wondering if having a tagine dish was worth the cupboard real estate.

Anyone use them? Or is it just as good to use an alternative vessel?

[Jenise]

I used one exactly once. Cool looking and to serve in at table, but no, not worth the real estate (for me).

I've given tagines to friends as gifts, but we have a small house with limited storage, I've always found our Le Creusets work well enough to make tagine. But they do look cool, and our friends that we gave have been using for 12+ years

That's kind of what I am thinking. And space seems to be an issue with the trouble and strife, who likes to take it up with things she uses exactly once a year (Christmas cake pans etc.).

Not worth the 'discussion' with the powers that be, I'm thinking.

BTW, she has 'adopted' a rather nice Saiun Damascus finish blade which she says is nice for slicing her cantaloupe (!!).

Nope. As it is, I have an unglazed earthenware pot that isn't holding up its end of the bargain, either.

My upstairs neighbor has a tagine. But, then again, she also owns a tete de moine knife so there's no judging by her.

My upstairs neighbor has a tagine. But, then again, she also owns a tete de moine knife so there's no judging by her.

We should start a thread on oddball culinary tools people have but rarely use.

I've had a hankering for quite awhile to own a sterling asparagus tong - don't ask me why.....

[Jenise]

Can't get that until you get rid of the ice tongs.

Can't get that until you get rid of the ice tongs.

No ice tongs, but what about an olive spoon...or at least that's what they say they are. Looks like something out of Torquemada's tool kit.....

[Jenise]

My gynecologist has one of those.

BTW, bet you have some oddball utensils.

I have one of these (from my mother or grandmother) meant for cutting angel food cakes



Oyster server



Marrow scoops (OK, admit I want these!)



Joint fork (to lock down the bone in a joint of beef while carving - fits over the bone)

My kitchen exotica tend to be tools, not serving implements. For example:

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And the really obscure stuff is too far up in a cupboard to take pictures of this morning.

Olive grabber (looks like it came out of an operating theatre)



I am intrigued by your melon cutter, Jeff. What does the product of that look like?

I have a spiral cutter like that and my wife, who recently thought it would be child's play to roast and peel chestnuts using just a knife would have loved that piercer (I had the foresight to have a jar of ready to eat chestnuts standing by).

I'll fess up that I don't use that piercer anymore. I just cut an X in the flat side (or whatever side is flattest), dry roast them in the oven, peel and eat. Chestnuts are a really frustrating and peculiar food. I don't really understand why people boil them - I'm sure they peel more easily but they already don't have a whole lotta texture or flavor and boiling it is going to perform a miracle of the 1950s on it for sure. And then there's the failure rate: even if you get them immediately when they come to market I find about 2 in 10 are moldy, dessicated, or otherwise inedible. I don't know how the street vendors in Italy get them so good.

As to the V-cutter, you use it to make a fancy edge when cutting things in half. Makes things look nice, whether simple:
http://www.pfannenprofis.de/WebRoot/Store21/Shops/62876489/55A3/B38C/DBFE/33B6/0CD0/C0A8/2AB8/BEC3/DG-8702703-V_08_L.jpg
...or fancy:
http://thehappyrawkitchen.blogspot.com/2010/06/watermelon-basket.html

Blimey!

Jenise - another thing for you to do when feeding the thousands!

[Jenise]

Bill, coming from California, I've seen plenty of watermelon baskets. Not new!

Don't have much at all the way of weird tools, actually; I am absolutely not a packrat and have no patience for storing stuff that's not usable.

I have but two other (real cooks) would think odd, perhaps: an asparagus peeler, and El Kabong.

The asparagus peeler is dandy, and enormously handy if you ever buy white asparagus which I do every time I see it, which isn't often but man I love it.

El Kabong is a wooden thing--long handle with a large club end that's full of lead shot. My grandfather made it for my grandmother to keep in the kitchen and defend herself should they ever experience a home invasion while she was cooking. It's absolutely endearing; I could never part with it. And it's actually quite handy for keeping cookbooks open to a certain page.

And that's about it!

Our place is small-ish, and I haven't got much kitchen cupboard space. My tagine lives in a cupboard in the laundry. (Along with the slow cooker, the toasted sandwich maker, the juicer, and various other cooking-related things that are bulky and not used all that often. I considered getting rid of it when we moved here, but the Francophile talked me out of it on the grounds that his daughter, who gave it to me, would be hurt if I gave it away. As it turned out, I'm glad I didn't get rid of it. It didn't work too well on the ceramic cook top in the previous house, but it's come into its own on the gas cook top here. I use it a couple of times a month, and it does turn out food that is different to things cooked en casserole or in a stove-top pan. I like the drier, intense flavoured dishes it gives us.

Re lack of space, the Francophile has recently bought an electric frypan, intending to use it for roasts and cut down on the electricity needed to fire up the oven. We've had to rearrange one of the kitchen cupboards and there is now a sad little pile of things standing on the coffee table, for which we have yet to find a space. I can see a trip to donate at the Op Shop coming up.

After we started talking about this stuff, I went through my family silver and found a dozen or more oddball pieces that I'll have to lay out and take a picture to post.

And I recalled that a friend just had to have one of these - another item used only once in awhile that would end up being stored with the chestnut roasting pans and Christmas cake tins

Ooh, I love plateau!

Yeah, I thought of using one to present a foie gras assortment but figured I'd have to have the guests sign a release first.....

Bill, that is an impressive display of seafood. I've only seen stands of this general type used for scones, cakes and sandwiches.

They even come with more tiers. Although there would be tears shed if I came home with that!

[Jenise]

Bill, that is an impressive display of seafood. I've only seen stands of this general type used for scones, cakes and sandwiches.

There are parts of France and Belgium where lots of seafood-specialty bistros use these devices for a cold mixed seafood service. Never seen them used in the U.S.

I think Coop has a 3 tier.

Keep your eyes open for a 4 tier......

There are parts of France and Belgium where lots of seafood-specialty bistros use these devices for a cold mixed seafood service. Never seen them used in the U.S.

Me and a plateau at Artisanal, in NYC, for a friend's birthday:

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