Hello Comidista returns to her menstrual appointment. In this office anything goes: culinary doubts, gastronomic enigmas, psychological problems, metaphysical questions and dramas of contemporary life. You just have to send me an email to elcomidista [at] gmail.com. I'll answer your silly worries again on the first Thursday of every month.
Coral: We want information on the correct cleaning of the coffee maker! Here there was discussion with my roommate, haha.
Dear Coral, thank you for asking for information about the cleaning of the coffee makers, as if you are demanding the resignation of the Government or the freedom for Pablo Hasél.
I imagine that your roommate is the classic mangarran that, in order not to clean, hides himself behind myths such as "coffee tastes better if you wash the coffee maker with just water."
Or maybe you are the dirty one who clears the coffee maker without further ado and remains so dull.
In either case, remind you that coffee is a food that releases a certain amount of oils.
If they are not removed from the coffee maker with soap, these oils will stick to it, eventually going rancid, giving the coffee a foul taste.
Would you rinse a pan with water after frying bacon?
No right?
Well, don't do that shit with the coffee.
It is true that some Italian brands such as Bialetti recommend not using soap for aluminum coffee makers (yes, stainless steel ones), but it is not necessary - nor should it be - scrubbing them like a bad thing, putting them in the dishwasher or using a powerful grease cleaner.
Save the KH7 and the Forza for another time, since the coffee maker is not the oven or the kitchen hood - although I have seen some so churros that they look like it -, wipe it with a sponge with normal soap, rinse and go, just like. as recommended by coffee experts who have passed through this website such as Kim Ossenblok or Claudia Sans.
What if the coffee maker is stained with limescale?
From the Orbegozo brand they recommend water with vinegar to remove them.
To avoid its appearance, it is best to "make the coffee with mineral water (of very weak mineralization), low in calcium, with a dry residue of less than 80mg / l", which will also improve its flavor.
Stains that look like rust can also appear inside the tank, “but they are from burnt coffee”.
“When the coffee is put into the funnel, some grinds are filtered and deposited at the base of the water tank.
When it reaches the boiling point, the steam rises under pressure and again some coffee particles fall into the base of the interior of the water tank.
When there is no water left, these particles burn and those stains appear, which are burnt coffee ”.
According to the lords of Orbegozo, the appearance of these stains is avoided "by turning off the fire as soon as the coffee rises, without waiting for everything to rise."
So now you know, less mistreatment to the coffee maker and more cleaning, mangurrianes.
Inas: Dear Mikel, I am attaching photos of my first attempt to make bread in a bakery, in case they are useful for a future section on culinary disasters. I am not a great cook but not a one-neuronal being either, I read the instructions well and I did not expect this after three hours on the damn machine. Well, leaving the shovel in me is for idiots, but only that. In the end and for not throwing it away, I have crumbled it and I have thrown it to the birds, they have not wanted to eat it, they have broken my heart. A hug, I love you.
Dear Inas, I too am dying to hug you after seeing your bakery catastrophe.
Who knows what you have done wrong so that in one of these machines you get a fistro that even the rats in the air do not want to eat.
In any case, thanks for sharing, that other people's culinary disasters are always a source of joy and happiness for those of us who make this website.
Antonio: As the not always well weighted Ana Rosa Quintana would say, I am fed up. Even the eggs that when I break them, a little piece of shell always falls into the container. I already know that you have to put them in a separate bowl and then transfer it to the pan, the tortilla plate or the container where we are going to use it, but even so, I am outraged that it breaks and I have to rescue the happy little piece of shell. I have to confess that I buy eggs from Mercadona, Carrefour, Hipercor ... and not from free and happy hens. Perhaps you or one of your slaves knows how to guide me.
On the other hand, I wanted to make a confession to you. Since my wife knows that I am an avid reader of your blog, I use you for convenience. He sends me to buy a good white wine, but at the Mercadona I find another apparent one at a good price. Well, I buy it and I tell him that you have recommended it. My sister-in-law buys a Crockpot, tells my wife that she is delighted and my wife asks me for it. Well, I'm going to Carrefour and if I find Cecotec's Chup Chup Matic at a scandal price, I buy it and tell my wife that you said they are all the same and that you opt for Cecotec's. I use you as an excuse for almost anything. Either to avoid buying some absurd whole wheat Egyptian biscuits and six cereals grown by Buddhist monks or for a carbonara recipe to which I put all the cream I want. If it goes well, perfect, if it goes wrong, the responsibility is yours. Greetings from the Canary Islands.
Dear Antonio, thank you for using me to manipulate your wife by putting all kinds of falsehoods in my mouth.
You are a very nice and friendly person, whom anyone would want to have as a friend.
I hope you are content with these twisted games and do not end up killing people, because you have the psychopath profile.
About the eggs, I don't really know what you want my slaves to guide you.
If the question is “what do I do if bits of shell fall into the egg”, the answer is “assume it”.
Or, at best, try to avoid it by breaking the egg with a sharp blow on a surface other than the edge of the bowl, and then opening it on it.
It is not a guarantee of success, but it can help.
If the question is “do free-range eggs shed less shell chips than others?”, The answer is no.
Antonio, Lord of Evil. GIPHY
Javi: I am a regular user of prepared broths from the Aneto brand, because they are very good, and I admit that opening a tetra-brik is less lazy than making it myself. I see that they use a good amount of raw material, and the other day, it gave me to think: what do they do with all those cooked ingredients? There are meats, fish, vegetables, or legumes that I highly doubt that a well-thought-out industry will throw away, because some money is sure to be taken out. Pure curiosity. PS: the article by Beatriz Robles, whom I adore, on functional drinks, distils a lot more bad drool than her usual writings. And it suits her beautifully, congratulate her for me.
Dear Javi, I send your congratulations to Beatriz Robles, with whom I also feel excited when she gets like Cruella de Vile.
I agree with you that Aneto's wines are the most decent among the big brands, although lately I am disengaging myself from them in favor of home-made use wines, which I spoke about in the last Aló.
In any case, we have transferred your question to the company, and this is what its Marketing Director, Núria Reixach, has answered.
“First of all, we would like to thank the trust that your reader has placed in us and our products.
In the cooking process of our broth there is a part of the ingredients that remains in the pots and another that remains as a residue.
The residues of vegetable origin (vegetables and legumes) are passed through a mill and almost all of them are reincorporated into the broth.
Bone-in meats (such as chicken carcasses) mostly come off during cooking, leaving the meats integrated into the broth.
Boneless meats (such as blood sausage or chorizo) are also passed through a mill and reincorporated into the broth.
Finally, the fish and shellfish are pressed to take advantage of all their juice.
What remains unused are basically bones, thorns and shells, with very little meat and / or vegetables, and it is diverted to compost to be used as fertilizer ”.
Eva: My query comes from the recommendations to substitute sugar in cakes, for example. I read the option of using chestnut flour and carob flour, but is it any use to change the sugar totally or partially for these flours? Is it better to reduce the sugar and substitute the wheat flour for chestnut or carob?
Dear Eva, I think you have an important patty with ingredient substitutions.
I think of removing the sugar from a cake and putting whatever flour it is in its place and I see on the horizon a small brick that even the most starving diabetic would not eat.
But Miriam García, collaborator of this holy house and author of the book
Without sugar or butter,
already explains it to you
.
“As far as I know, chestnut flour and carob flour are an option not to substitute for sugar, but to substitute part of the ordinary flour for them.
As they have some natural sweetness, their presence makes it possible to reduce the amount of sweetener required in the recipe ”.
“Both are gluten-free flours and they taste different,” continues Miriam, “so they are not, a priori, to completely replace wheat flour without further ado.
You will need to make adjustments to the recipe because neither the flavor nor the liquid absorption capacity of these flours are equivalent to those of wheat, not to mention the lack of cohesion due to the absence of gluten.
Finally, carob flour has a flavor that is reminiscent of chocolate, it must be taken into account.
It is a good substitute for cocoa if you want to make sweets with a chocolatey flavor, but with less sugar ”.
Eva and her cake without sugar.
MADRID'S COMMUNITY
Isaías: Dear Mikel, dripping cauldron of wisdom, among other things: I want to wear a little Pérez-Reverte and highlight your video recipe for the escudella. In one of the indications of the video the word "defoaming" appears, a sacrilege that the Royal Academy does not contemplate, and that I had never heard. For me, the natural thing is to froth a broth, at least that is how the woman who gave birth to me taught it to me, who retired as a cook (although from a hospital, which is not reputed to be champions of flavor). You, beloved Mikel, foams or defoams?
Dear Isaías, you are absolutely right: the correct way is to “froth”, but those of us who grew up in an environment in which it was said “I have to change this shirt at El Corte Inglés” we have a certain affection for underlining with the prefix "Des".
Thanks for reporting the mistake, we will never make it again (I hope).
Juan: I have always followed your recipes with 100% effectiveness until today. I was getting ready to prepare pasta aglio, olio, and peppercorns "from the video Three plates of Sicilian 'mamma' pasta" with enthusiasm. When using the turmix to emulsify the 4 blanched garlic cloves, 100 ml of oil and 250 ml of water there was no way to bring the two phases together. Any advice to fix this mess?
Dear Juan, to get these three elements together and form a kind of mayonnaise, it is best to first crush the garlic with a little water.
Then, while beating, add a little oil to the thread.
When you see that a cream has formed, alternately add oil and water, always beating to emulsify.
There should be a kind of diluted aioli.
Luck!
Mamma's dishes / EL COMIDISTA
Unai: Although it is about salsa, this question does not have to do with culinary technical issues. Theme: Pino Prestanizzi. You brought him out as a pizza connoisseur, and this gave him a brutal repercussion. I think that from there it began to go viral on YouTube, which, without a doubt, he has taken advantage of by creating his own channel. With that gañán profile that he has, he has hooked a whole horde of worshipers of common sense, true equality, order and law, uncles who go forward and those virtues so in vogue in Forocoches. What an eye, if he has his audience, but after seeing his parody of "Comepicha" I said enough. Is this guy trying to make a homophobic parody of one of my favorite channels in the hope of comforting his target of winners? It offended me (being straight), but I still have very thin skin for what things ...
Dear Unai, more than us, it was Ibai Llanos and Auronplay's responses to our video that made Pino Prestanizzi famous among the YouTube chick.
And indeed, he has known how to take advantage of the push.
From what little I have seen, his section of "El Comepicha" has not seemed homophobic or even parodic: he has taken the idea of our expert tastings, in one of which he himself participated, to make his own evaluations of products and has named it in keeping with his type of humor.
I admit, in any case, that I am not a big fan of yours: with all due respect to Pino, who has always been kind to us, he does not make the kind of videos that amuse me.
I'm probably too thin and too queer to be part of your target audience, or maybe deep down I am angry that your channel has reached 850,000 followers and El Comidista only has 370,000.
Maricarmen: Hello: In case you haven't received this photo yet. I know you are dying to pass through Galicia as soon as you see it. Bicos
Dear Maricarmen, since Mònica Escudero published the article Terror in the Galician hypermarket, I am burning with desire to know first-hand the typical pig decorations of Carnival in this your community.
From the image you send us, I see that this beautiful tradition has been adapted to the times of the coronavirus: if there is any incontestable truth in this world, it is that Galicia never disappoints.
Howiee: Good morning, excuse me, tell me that you guys get loroco, can you confirm?
Dear Howiee, thanks for your email, but we don't sell drugs at El Comidista.
This is the first thing that occurred to me when I saw this email, but then I searched for "loroco" in Google and I saw that it is an edible plant used in the kitchen of countries like Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador.
In any case, Howiee, I don't know who told you that we got it, but it's not our custom to deal in any kind of exotic edible even if it's named after cocaine.
Maillardfilico: I salute you, oh viscount of the vichyssoises, duke of duels and losses, gyrfalcon of pompoms. A few months ago I moved to a flat whose kitchen is indoors. It is for rent, and the owner passes by because he likes the money I give him but does not spend it. Every time I want to brown a meat for a stew, make myself a steak, etc. the fire alarm goes off. One solution is to close the door and seal the alarm with a freezer bag, but I'd rather not get carbon monoxide poisoning. Do you know any trick or any way to get those delicious sealed without the neighbors remembering the family of the fool of the low? Am I condemned to live off boiled, papillotes and sashimis?
Dear Maillardfilico, I have never been called a "big puffball", and I like it so much that I am thinking of putting it in my Twitter bio.
Unfortunately for you, a correct browning of the meat requires a high temperature in the pan or casserole, with the consequent generation of smoke.
In stews, you may be able to lower it a little, cover and extend the time to get a less smoky browning, but with the steaks or any piece that you want to grill, you have no choice but to give it a cane because otherwise they will be cooked.
The only crazy idea I can think of to solve your drama is that you buy yourself a portable induction hob and put it near an open window when you brown meat.
I know it is not the most practical, but if you are so addicted to Maillard's reaction, I am very afraid that you have no choice.
Berta: While cleaning my in-laws' house in France, I have found a set of objects that are PURE FANTASY and that more than one grandmother would kill to have to prepare festive meals. It is an old-fashioned food set that includes the classic cream scoop in different shapes and sizes, a mini sandwich cutter in all shapes, a cucumber corkscrew cutter, and of course a star-shaped cutter for all fruits. and vegetables.
Dear Berta, thank you for sharing this wonder.
I trust that you will take advantage of the discovery and go to death in the next Christmas Viejuna contest: you already have the tools to succeed.
Elena: I have been saving the skins of the vegetables and others as you suggest and I am going to encourage myself to make broth with them but my question is how long do I have the vegetables in the pressure cooker? In addition, I would like to propose that in the recipes that can be tuned and made in the pressure cooker, you will indicate it, especially the cooking time.
Dear Elena, it is usual that cooking in a high-speed pot reduces cooking times by approximately a third, but be careful because it is not an exact science: it varies depending on the food and the type of pot.
In the case of vegetable broth, if the norm is to have it in a normal casserole for an hour, in a pressure cooker it should be ready in 20 minutes (but I, as I am a bit obsessive, admit that I leave it for a little more than half an hour).
The meat funds, which theoretically take four hours, would stay in just over an hour and a half.
In principle, any dish that is made in a casserole and that takes a long cooking time (legumes, soups, stews) can be prepared in less time in a pressure cooker, but in any case, we take note of your suggestion and we will try to indicate it in the recipes where it is feasible.
Pedro: Lately I have been buying more in the market and less in supermarkets. On one of the raids I saw salted cod and I got ready to buy it to make a waking pottage that turned out quite good. The question is: why buy salted cod when you can make it fresh and at a very similar price? Or isn't there always fresh cod? Or is it a matter of flavor.
Dear Pedro, I answer you with a question: why buy cured ham when there is fresh or cooked ham at a cheaper price?
Because it's "flavor issue", right?
Well, the same thing happens with cod: the salting and drying process makes this food transform and acquire qualities that are by no means in their fresh state.
That is why the famous skrei is a bit dodgy, while the desalted cod is pure power.
As in the case of ham, it is an example of how necessity - this fish had to be dehydrated to preserve it because there were no refrigerators or freezers - becomes a gastronomic virtue.
Loredana: Perhaps we are worrying too much about vaccines that do not arrive ... the solution is this restaurant in Barcelona.
Dear Loredana, thank you for sending us this funny sample of hospitality humor, which is not far from some nonsense said seriously about the pandemic by people in the union.
You will give me the address of the establishment: the bravas at two euros and the nachos and the 2.5 salad augur a very high level of quality.
José Antonio: Is powdered freeze-dried fruit healthy? And if so, is it advisable to improve our diet by introducing more fruit to our diet? Or does it not replace the fruit as such?
Dear José Antonio, even Totona herself have me with your determination to substitute fruit for things.
But what have poor oranges, pears or kiwis done to you!
Do you really not have half a minute in your life to wash a strawberry or peel a tangerine or a banana?
As these questions make me want to go to your house and give you a watermelon in the melon, I better let the dietician nutritionist Laura Jorge answer you.
“If the freeze-dried fruit does not contain sugar or other sweeteners, we could consider it healthy, but in no case is it a substitute for the fruit itself.
The benefits of the fruit are obtained by eating chewing and taking advantage of all its nutrients while giving us a feeling of satiety.
Yes, it could be useful for preparing a recipe in moderate quantities or for occasional use such as snacking between meals, but, in no case, to replace the pieces of fruit that should be present in our diet ”.
"We must also bear in mind that when we consume products of this type it is easy not to know how much 'fruit' we are taking, and fall into the error of using the equivalent of four pieces of fruit for a smoothie that we do not take advantage of nutritionally as such. .
In short, freeze-dried fruit in powder will never be more or as healthy as a piece of whole fruit ”.
Documentation:
Carlos Doncel and Josep Navarro Boix.
