Salt & Vinegar Grilled Potatoes

Potatoes: the waxier the better

We had some sun and heat (well, it was, like, 70) here in Seattle on Wednesday and Thursday, so I used the rare break from 63-degree temps and rain to attend a barbeque – and I had one of the best potato dishes I’ve ever had.

Grilling potatoes isn’t super common, but the host at the barbecue swore by his mother’s recipe for salt-and-vinegar flame-roasted potatoes. I didn’t take down his recipe, but today I found a similar one on SeriousEats.com. It’s so easy and delicious. Here’s their recipe distilled (har, har) through me:

• 1 pound of potatoes (my favorite are red or “new” potatoes) sliced in thick chips

• 2 cups of white vinegar

• 2 tablespoons of oil

• Kosher salt – as much as you desire

• Freshly ground pepper to taste

Bring the potatoes and the vinegar to a boil, then reduce to a simmer under potatoes are just tender. Remove from heat and let the vinegar and potatoes mingle until cool. Strain, then toss with the oil, lots of salt, and a little pepper.

While the potatoes are cooling, fire up your grill (that is, if you have charcoal – the best way to add smoky flavor). Make sure you oil the grilling grate. I cannot stress the importance of this step. If you don’t oil your grate, you’ll ruin your food! 

OK, now you’re ready to grill. Place the potatoes down and grill evenly on each side until charred and slashed with grill marks. Add more salt, and enjoy with fried chicken, hamburgers, or even a salad.

Getting Ready For July 4

Coming Monday, we’ll be launching our July 4 sale with deals on some great items (sign up for our newsletter for notice as soon as the sale starts). But I wanted to walk through some essential July 4 cooking, barbecuing, and party supplies to whet your appetite. 

Whether you’re hanging in the backyard or staking out a spot at the local park to watch the fireworks, these tools will go great with your July 4 celebration:

• Meri Meri Stars & Stripes series: Everything from bunting to paper plates, cups, and napkins, all with a fun stars-and-stripes theme. In fact, you could put together a pack of essentials: 20 large napkins, 12 paper plates, and 12 paper cups for only $13.85!

• Tovolo Blue Rocket Ice Pop Molds (set of 6): What’s more enjoyable on a hot July 4 afternoon than munching on a red, white, and blue rocket ship shaped ice pop? It’s easy to make tri-color pops with these molds, just like from the ice cream truck. 

• Lucks Edible Image American Flag: This cake topper is perfect for a July 4 sheet cake. Frost your cake with white whipped cream, line the edges with strawberries and blueberries, then top with this edible image – your cake will pop like a Roman candle. 

• Tovolo Steadysticks Wine Glass Holders: For the adults, there’s nothing finer than sitting in your local park under the band shell with  friends, enjoying a glass of wine and waiting for the fireworks to start. With these inventive devices, you don’t have to worry about balancing a wine glass on the grass or the narrow arm of a folding chair. 

• Charcoal Companion Gourmet Corn Grilling Set: Certainly, ChefTools.com offers many essential barbecue tools – and barbecue tools are certainly essential to the July 4 experience. But for me, no tool is as convenient and conducive to deliciousness than this corn basket. Easily roast up to 4 ears at a time, no more rolling, burning or under-cooking. Then, when you're ready to slather on the butter, salt, and cayenne pepper, the little corn grippers help keep your hands clean. Hurry – there’s only 3 left and they’re 35% off for a limited time.

• USA Pans Nonstick Pie Pan: And finally, what’s more American than pie? How about pie made in a pie pan made in America? All USA Pans are made of high quality materials and will last for generations. I dare say using a USA Pan may be the most patriotic way to cook.

Summer's Hottest Sweepstakes

What’s spicier than a pound of dried Scotch Bonnet peppers marinated in a gallon of Red Savina capsicum and seared over spit under the hot Texas summer sun? The Tabanero Spicy Summer Sweepstakes, that’s what.

The folks over at Tabanero – one of America’s finest hot sauces, good on everything from eggs to mangoes – were kind enough to invite ChefTools.com to take part in summer 2012’s hottest contest - and we'd like to take this opportunity to formally ask you to participate.

The prizes include, of course, Tabanero hot sauce, barbecue tools by RSVP, Blue Diamond almonds, acai berry liquor, and lentil chips – and all you have to do to enter is go to the Tabanero Facebook page and hit “like.” Want to go right now? Click here.

Three lucky grand-prize winners (and 5 runners up) will win enough FREE goodies to throw the biggest July 4 celebration since 1776 – except better, because they didn’t have hot sauce or lentil chips back then.  Each grand-prize winner will get:

• 12 bottles of Tabanero hot sauce, 2 bottles of Tabanero bloody Mary mix, 4 backpacks, 2 T-shirts, and 10 hot sauce sample packs
• A ChefTools.com grilling prize pack filled with RSVP  grilling tools, including a basting brush, grill tongs, a fish-grilling basket, and cool grilling goggles
• 3 variety cases of Blue Diamond almonds
• 2 bottles of VeeV acai berry spirits
• 12 bags of Enjoy Life Foods Plentils lentil chips

Simply “like” Tabanero and you could win – and while you’re at it, do yourself a favor, head over to the Tabanero website, and buy abottle of their sauce. Their recipe is simple – the only ingredients are peppers, carrots, onions, lime juice, agave nectar, garlic, salt, and grapefruit seed extract – and they use no fillers:

“Tabanero is 100% All Natural and adds a delicious, zesty flavor to your favorite dish. There is no vinegar in our product or any other cheap filler, such as water. Our unique blend of ingredients gives Tabanero an unforgettable flavor that ignites your taste buds like no other hot sauce. Tangy with a hint of sweetness from the agave nectar, mixed with the perfect amount of heat, spices up your dish without over powering it.”

– From Tabanero

Cooking Tools For Apartment Kitchens

I’m moving in two weeks from a tiny 450 square foot apartment to a palatial 700 square foot place. Even though my new place is larger, it still has an apartment-style kitchen: zero counter space, a refrigerator that takes up too much room, and a sink that can fit approximately 3 dishes, plus many more quirks that can make cooking interesting.  

Most apartment kitchens are compact, so it’s often necessary for renters to find cooking tools that are … compact. Luckily, there are many cool tools that, you know, actually fit in your apartment kitchen. Here’s a quick list of kitchen gadgets that are efficient and won’t take up precious space (leaving more room for Doritos – at least that’s what I would use the extra space for …). 

Bisbell MagMates Knife Pods

Bisbell MagMates Knife Pods (multiple colors): New additions to ChefTools.com, these cute little pill-shaped objects come in cool colors and allow you store cutlery and other tools along your wall. No need for a bulky knife block – or an unsafe knife drawer. Each Pod holds 2 knives (small to large). Mix and match the colors for super storage flexibility. 

Kitchen Supply Toaster Baking Stone

Kitchen Supply Toaster Oven Bakeware: If your apartment is anything like mine, you have an oven that’s a century old and can barely hit 300 degrees. You can’t buy a new oven, so what do you do when you want fresh brownies, pizza, and pie or even roasted asparagus? Use your toaster oven! These bakeware pieces are the perfect size for virtually any toaster oven. The coolest one has to be the pizza stone; you can use it to bake or reheat anything, and you can store it in the toaster oven because it doubles as a heat regulator.

OXO Two Fold Grater: A box grater is an indispensable cooking tool for everything from shredding carrots to grating fresh Parmesan cheese. They can also be a pain to store – too, uh, boxy and big to put in a drawer, and not at all hang-able. This sturdy grater folds flat, which means you can store it in any drawer or cabinet, and offers several grating surfaces. 

Tovolo Silicone Ice Trays: Yuck, I hate moving into a new apartment and inheriting the prior tenant’s old plastic ice cube trays. These silicone trays don’t necessarily save space, but they are flexible and superior to any solid plastic model. Plus, they produce huge, lovely rocks of ice. Invest in one or two for your new place.

RSVP 2 Tier Lazy Susan

 RSVP Two-Tier Lazy Susan: Use counter and cabinet space wisely. This lazy Susan allows for three-dimensional storage. And, with 2 layers, you’re using formerly underused air space.

RSVP Endurance Drainer: If you have room for just 1 strainer, make sure it fits over your sink. It’s more sanitary than placing a strainer on the sink bottom, and you can use it for everything from pasta to washing fruit, or even as a dish drying rack.

OXO Pop Containers

OXO Good Grips Pop Containers: The geniuses at OXO designed these canisters to fit together in a perfect square. Store food and other goodies in these airtight jars to save space on bulky food packaging. And, since they’re clear, you’ll always know what you’re reaching for.

RSVP Endurance Precision Pierced Tool Caddy: Where are you going to put all your spatulas, whisks, ribbon graters, wooden spoons, thermometers and all the rest? It’s impractical and dangerous to stuff them all in a drawer. You want them out on the countertop within easy reach. This crock can hold an amazing amount of tools and the piercings make it great to use as a drying rack.  

New: The Hurom Slow Juicer

Don’t let the name fool you: The Hurom Slow Juicer will deliver your juice as quickly as any machine. It is not “slow” in the speed sense, but in the takes-its-time-to-get-it-right sense. And that’s the difference between a pair of handmade shoes and ones made en masse in a factory. We’re talking about truly fresh squeezed juice here.  

The Hurom, made by Fissler USA, has many bells and whistles, sure. But the one feature to focus on is the auger that masticates your nuts, fruit, vegetables, or whatever. It crushes the food rather than rips, wringing out every last nutrient and drop of delicious oil. You’re left with less leftover pulp, and more juice – tastier juice, I might add. This video explains it best (ignore how they over pronounce "Hurom"):

Last year, we here at ChefTools.com had the opportunity to test out a Hurom Slow Juicer. We dropped pounds of almonds, beets, apples, oranges, and alfalfa into the machine, producing glass after glass of thick, rich juice. We spent a good hour or more with the machine, and every glass turned out delicious (who knew beets and apples complement each other?). 

I was among the skeptics that this machine was any different than the $49.99 model available at Wally World. I was wrong. One of my close friends has one of those bottom shelf juicers (actually, middle shelf, it’s a $150 model).  Hers produces a watery slush full of seeds and little bits; if left to sit for more than 10 minutes, the particles separate into a thick layer and a watery bottom layer – just like the fat and grease at the bottom of your turkey pan on Thanksgiving. Gross! 

If you want to get the most out of your juice – the most value, the most taste – invest in a Hurom.  

Viva la Revol Revolution!

3-3/4 Round Cocotte in Pepper Red

Make this France’s second famous revolution.

The Revol Revolution line of porcelain cookware is truly amazing. These are porcelain pieces - yeah, that beautiful, white and allegedly delicate material – that are safe for use in the microwave, in the freezer or refrigerator, and on halogen, gas, and electric ranges. 

The pièce de résistance, though? This porcelain is induction safe.   

The Revol Revolution line takes the company’s renowned, time-honored made-in-France porcelain and updates it to 2012 standards – Revolution may even give cast iron and nonstick pans a run for their money. 

Revolution pieces come in a variety of quart sizes, from 1-3/4 to 4-3/4, plus 3-1/4 quart tagines (cone shaped slow roasters perfect for Middle Eastern and African dishes). The porcelain is non-porous, so it won’t absorb fat, chemicals, bacteria or anything else you throw at it. The interior is naturally nonstick, so you don’t have to worry about questionable spray-on chemicals. 

You can cook nearly anything in these pieces, from stews to lamb roasts to rice, or sautéing garlic and clams for a sauce, or even baking bread and casseroles – and you can cook that stuff anywhere, from the induction range to the oven. 

You probably won’t have any leftovers, but let’s pretend: throw the lid back on the cocotte and stash leftovers in the freezer or refrigerator for as long as you want. Ready to eat again? Toss the whole thing in the microwave and serve. Repeat, repeat, repeat. 

If you’re looking for a durable, versatile piece of cookware that can do virtually anything, then viva la résistance: Revol Revolution is the new king.