Victorinox 10" Fibrox Chef's knife

Victorinox 25cm Fibrox Cook's knife

A great bang-for-buck knife that's easy to find to almost everyone, Joe Average probably goes for smaller sizes.

Here’s it with a little upgrade, I rehandle it with Grey Ironbark, laminated with Mangowood…

KF post on the rescaled knife

Original Post:07JUL07, Updated:19OCT08

Hiromoto AS 210mm Gyuto

210mm gyuto from Hiromoto’s Tenmi-Jyuraku AS series is a super value priced, high performance kitchen knife; is Aogami Super core steel with soft stainless cladding blade with a stainless steel bolster and pakkawood scales.

 

Rescaled with Holly Banksia, secured with SS corby screws and epoxy. Hand rubbed blade to 1200x wet-dry sandpaper and 0000 steel wool and polishing paste.

I sold this knife to a KF member to take good care of it, I don’t have much use for 210mm gyutos nowadays.

The KF post

Tojiro DP 270mm Gyuto F-810

High quality stainless steel chefs knife from Tojiro DP series, softer stainless cladding over a hard core steel. This is my backup stainless steel knife to my go to Hiromoto HC 270mm gyuto.

Nice big handle, with Tojiro’s signature blocky shoulders on the knife’s handle; scaled with “ecowood” staminawood which suppose to be resin impregnated wood but it’s looks and feels like plastic but even more brittle and susceptible  to chipping. Still one of my favourite handle shapes though.

 

 

Went straight from the box in the vice for rescaling.  Red-Black Linen Micarta, 3x SS corby screws, epoxy bonded and bolster reshaped.

KF posts:

• Tojiro DP 270mm gyuto rescaled
• The tutorial posted on KF on the process

Original Post:17OCT08

Tojiro 240mm DP Yo-Deba

   -New Old Photos- Tojiro DP Warikomi 240mm Western Deba (Yo-Deba)

Great for lazy mirepoix ; brilliant for chopping up chicken, cuts cleanly through bones, no tearing or splintering.

Has never been sharpened , not even stropped, still going strong on factory edges.

Current planned rehandling ideas: Holly Banksia scales, two rows of 4x 1/8” Mosaic pins and brazed on Nickel Silver Pommel for balance.

Original post: 29JUN07 Updated:17OCT08

Fresh pasta (Whole egg version)

This is basic simple as, fresh pasta. 100g high gluten (bakers') flour to one whole egg and a little salt. There is the 'special' egg yolk version if you were in the mood for some biscotti, souffle or meringue to make use of the egg whites., it goes something like 7 1/2 Egg Yolks to 125g ”00” flour.

Ingredients: Yields 900g of pasta, 6x 150g mains serves)
600g High gluten Flour (I used bakers')
6x Eggs
Sea Salt
Extra flour or fine semolina(which hope to try), for dusting

Equipment:
Strong stand mixer
Dough hook
Sieve
Bowls
Cling film/plastic bag
Pasta rolling machine
Racks to dry the pasta on.

Method:
1. Sieve flour into mixing bowl
2. Crack one egg at a time in a small bowl; checking for spoilage, blood trace or shell fragments before adding to the collection of egg mix. (Especially important if you're doing a big batch, one bad egg and you'll have to throw the whole lot out or waste more time swimming for shell fragments.)

-Machine mixed-
3a. Add eggs to the machine bowl and swirl to coat the bowl so the machine doesn't just spin around dry flour with the wet mix.
4a. Add flour and some salt (~1 teaspoon per 300g flour) and start mixing at minimum speed with the dough hook, until a smooth dough. Don't add water to make it easier for the machine, you'll get limp/sticky dough that is crap to put through the pasta machine. When done skip to Step 6...

-Hand mixed-
3b. Create a 'well' in the bowl of flour.
4b. Add eggs and some salt (~1 teaspoon per 300g flour) in the well and work the flour into the eggs by running your hands through the edge of the well.
5b. Once there is some sort of dough formed, tip contents onto a steady bench and knead into a smooth dough. May take 10-30 minutes of hard work. Also don't cheat by adding water, limp/sticky dough is crap to run through the pasta machine.

6. Once a smooth, firm dough is achieved; wrap in cling film or a plastic bag and let it rest in the fridge for an hour. If done right, the dough will not stick to the plastic. And use fairly soon, no overnight business you'll get grey dough.
7. Prep rolling area, clamp machine down and dust down with copious amounts of flour.
8. Divide dough in small portions, say 100g.
9. Dust with flour, thin down and square up the dough and feed in through the thickest setting (#1 on this Marcato Atlas), crank away.
10. Crank it through at #2.
11. Set the rollers back to #1, feed the sheet through leaving a bit left of the tail.
12. Moisten with a spray or dap of water to 'glue' the head of the sheet back onto the tail. Crank through to join. This way allows you to get even sheets of pasta, no stretched heads or tails.
13. Work you way down to thickness settings, dusting to prevent sticking, one hand in the loop or someone to help to lift the dough away and apart to prevent sticking.
14. I stop at #6 for general noodle pasta, or #7 for lasagne sheets.
15. Slice off the dough at the input end and crank out the tail.
16. Hang on a rack to dry the sheets out while you proceed with the rest of the dough. Helps provide drier, less sticky sheets to cut into strands.
17. Proceed with Steps 9 to 16 with the rest of the dough.

Wide strips (Linguine I guess)
1. Fold the sheets of drier pasta over themselves to gauge a good length to divide the sheets into.
2. Crease on the divisions and slice off the right lengths, dust with flour and set aside.
3. Dust copiously with flour to prevent strands sticking together, crank the small sheets through the cutters and hang on rack to dry.

You can dust the pasta again with flour and portion it up, wrap, bag it and freeze. You can cook pasta noodles straight from the freezer into boiling water. And since it's your own handmade pasta, it only takes less that 5 minutes (depends of denseness of the pasta and your capability to keep the water boiling quickly) to cook, not 10-15 minutes for dry packet pasta.

For all you hand kneaders out there, I've been there before. Limp dough is crap to work it in a pasta machine, maybe (I mean if you're lucky and persistent) a limper dough with a sprinkle of water added may be used for lasagne sheets. It's painful but worth it IMO, but a stand mixer helps reduce fatigue.

Linguine with a simple creamy, tomato and pancetta sauce.

Original recipe: Pappardelle, tomato, pancetta; River Cafe Two Easy by Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray, Page 72
Yields 4x portions (Entree/mains?)

320g Egg Pappardelle
6x Plum Tomatoes
150g Pancetta slices
2x Dried Chillies
100g Parmesan
150g Unsalted Butter
150ml Double Cream

Method:
1. Concasse tomatoes.
2. Cut pancetta into 2cm pieces.
3. Crumble chilli and grate parmesan.
4. Melt butter in heavy pan, add pancetta and chilli and cook gently and pancetta colours.
5. Add tomato, season and cook gently for 10 minutes.
6. Add cream and cook for another 10 minutes.
7. Cook pasta, drain and add to cooked cream sauce..
8. Stir through half the parmesan.
9. Plate then top with parmesan.

My variation: Yields one serve for my hungry self

Ingredients:

150g fresh Linguine
2x Roma Tomatoes (I tried with simple salad tomatoes, darn sour due to short cooking time in my recipe)
50g? Pancetta, pre-sliced or slice it yourself if you've got a powered slicer or you like your pancetta chunky
30g? Parmesan, shaved
EV Olive Oil
One heaped tablespoon dollop of Double Cream

Method:
1. Get a pot boiling with water.
2. Cook Pancetta slices- Oven if it's on, on top a rack to let the fat drip away OR in a heavy pan on low heat and some olive oil to get the frying action started. Once done, remove and set aside.
3. Tomato Concasse: Remove Tomato core and score a cross on the other end to aide peeling after blanching.
4. Once the water is boiling, plunge the Tomatoes for a few seconds to loosen the skin.
5. Refresh the Tomatoes when done, and add in the Pasta and cover with a lid if needed to get the water boiling again.
6. Peel the Tomatoes, halve, squeeze the inner pulp and seeds out and quarter each half again. Don't crush the tomatoes to death please.
7. Heat the pan (if it has been used to fry the pancetta) high/medium-high, sauté the Tomatoes, season it a little.
8. Cook on heat for about 2-3minutes.
9. Add in most of the Pancetta and Parmesan. Add Double Cream, taste and season. If the pasta is done al dente, drain and toss it through the sauce. If not take the pan with the sauce off the heat until the pasta is ready.
10. Plate, top with Parmesan Shavings and strips of Pancetta.

 

Note: Please wait for photos update.

Sanetu ZDP-189 165mm santoku

165mm santoku made by Sanetu. Softer stainless steel cladding over a ZDP-189 core; it boasts some crazy numbers, 3% carbon and 20% chromium powdered steel hardened to HRC 64-66. ZDP-189 is more or less identical in composition to the Crowy-X used in Hattori KDs. Fitted with nice cocobolo scales and a solid stainless steel bolster.

It’s my first santoku, and I was hasten about using such a short knife. And I’m not wrong about my foresight, my personal preference is still to over-9” blades as a main go to knife.

But having said that I’ve only used it once, not tried to sharpen it the tough ZDP-189 core; I will say it I like the cocobolo scales which is so much nicer than the resin-impregnated staminawood and pakkawood scales usually installed on Japanese knives. This has become my first collector’s knife, may or may not use it in the future.

I paid USD$146.70 for it during JCK’s annual X’Mas sale, they sell at $163; a 180mm KD santoku while being a very different knife compared to the Sanetu, sells for $940 (as of 24SEP08).

Hiromoto HC 270mm gyuto

My current go to chef’s knife, made of solid SK-4 high carbon (tool?) steel with a stainless steel bolster and riveted with pakkawood scales.

The HC series has been discontinued from production by Hiromoto, and I will miss this series’ ability to offer a great; easy to sharpen to a fine, clean edge; for a bargain price and acceptably high levels of fit and finish.

I paid USD$49.05 for it from JCK and is more or less that one would pay for in a Victorinox Fibrox locally, what an excellent deal. And they like to make them thin…. goooooood!

Photos of the knife new in the box and oiled up.

I had force patina on this knife by slicing lemons, then wrapping the blade in lemon juice soaked paper towel and cling film for an hour, which resulted in a ‘tiger stripe’ pattern patina development.

After 3/4 of a year’s use; patina set, spine and choil rounded, name and other markings engraved, rebeveled and sharpened to my liking.

Rehandling ideas: Exhibition Grade Desert Ironwood scales, 3x SS corby screws with Mosaic Pin inlaid over, Nickel Silver bolster brazed on, Black Canvas Micarta spacer and DIY pinless saya.

This grand old girl’s replacement will some distant day be a 270mm Fujiwara Kanefusa FKH gyuto also western pattern and a nice, bigger handle and the same SK-4 steel; itself to be rescaled with Lignum Vitae scales, Mosaic pins and brazed on tang extensions.

But superseded by a custom Moritaka Hamono Blue #2 300mm wa-gyuto next year, damascus cladding is a maybe since it will drive the price up from JYN13,500 to JYN26,000 from the kurouchi version… still a bargain for what you’re getting.

Original post:24SEP08, Updated:20OCT08

Hiromoto HC 120mm Petty

Here's is my Hiromoto HC-1 120mm Petty; high carbon steel (SK-4) blade hardened to HRC60 with a stainless steel bolster and Pakka wood scales. Does all the crazy sharp things carbon steel can do and easy to sharpen as always. This becomes my standard paring knife with the Victorinox sheepfoot paring knife for those skin tingling manoeuvres.

I forced patina on these little baby overnight with some leftover cider vinegar, even after one hour it got some matte black patina. This knife is certainly more reactive than HC-5 Gyuto for some reason, could be the different forced patina methods. Update: Date of commissioning: 14DEC07 Date of death: 23APR08 In an attempt to reduce the blade height and straighten the edge profile, I bent the very thin blade just ahead of the bolster while bearing down on it on a DMT D8XX diamond plate. I had noticed the bend and tried to correct it by bending it the other direction... thus snapping my favourite petty. Lest we forget.

Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

Sticky Date Pudding with a not so good but acceptable Butterscotch Sauce (almost going to split if pushed), with a ring of contrasting Brown Sugar Sauce Ingredients: Sticky Date Pudding (Yield 6x Dariole moulds)

• 75g Dates, coarsely chopped
• 75ml Water
• 3g Bi Carbonate Soda (Proper accurate weighing scale needed)

• 1x Egg (55g standard)
• 100g Sugar, Caster

• 115g Flour, Cake and sifted
• 8g Baking Powder
• Sensible pinch of Salt

• 30g Walnuts, coarsely chopped
• 75ml Milk, proper full-cream please
• 30g Butter, Unsalted and melted
• 3ml Vanilla Essence

• Oil Spray

Butterscotch Sauce (3 ingredients- Fat, Sugar and more Fat... Yum. Yield 300ml, plenty)

• 60g Butter, Unsalted
• 120g Sugar, Soft Brown
• 225ml Cream, Whipping (35-40% fat content)

Optional Brown Sugar garnishing sauce

• 1 part Butter, Unsalted
• 3 parts Sugar, Soft Brown
• Water (I used Cream but I think water will work better to emulsify the sugar with the butter)

Equipment:

• Stove
• Saucepan depending on yield
• Cooking spoon
• Steamer oven (Or a stove top steamer)
• Roasting/baking tray (Can be substituted with a flat plate)
• 7x Dariole moulds
• Cling Wrap
• Sieve
• Mixing Bowls
• Knife (At least a paring, plus a proper chefs knife if the nuts and date aren't already chopped up)
• Cutting board

Optional equipment:

• Large piping bag (At least 340mm long)
• Plain piping nozzle (wide enough to allow the chopped nuts and dates to pass easily, but can still be covered with your thumb/finger. I use a No.11 but still depends on how coarse you process you nuts and dates. You too small a nozzle without and quick interchange unit and the mixture jams in the nozzle, you lose yield cleaning out the bag)

Cooking: Sticky Date Pudding 1. Preheat your steamer. 2. Heat the 75g chopped Dates with the 75ml Water in a saucepan to soften and until almost all the sitting water is gone. 3. While the dates are heating up, Cream together the the Egg and the 100g Caster Sugar until smooth and light... creaming until white is optional. 4. Sift together the 115g Cake Flour with 8g Baking Powder and add the sensible pinch of salt. 5. When the Dates are dry enough, take the pan off the heat and add in the 3g BiCarb Soda and mix together. 6. Mix the Egg-Sugar mix into the Cake Flour Mix, add in the Milk and Melted Butter into help thin the mixture as you combine everything together including the Dates and Walnuts. (You don't have to be gentle with folding the mix together, the bicarb and baking powder are your rising agents) 7. Spray generously with Oil into your Dariole moulds. (Generously, not deep-frying) 8. You can spoon or pipe into the mould 1/2 way up. HALF WAY UP! Too much and you get a muffin base when you invert it for serving. 9. Place the mould onto a roasting dish/tray or a plate, and cling wrap the whole assembly with slack tension but fully covering the mould tops. 10. Make sure the mould tops are sealed and you can pierce holes in the cling wrap surrounding the moulds to give the cling wrap more chance to relief tension as it shrinks in the heat and not vacuum down onto the moulds. 11. Steam for 30 minutes or until it probe tested clean. Butterscotch Sauce 1. Place all sauce ingredients in a saucepan, heat up then simmer for 2-3 minutes. The more you cook it the richer it gets, then splits if pushed too far. Optional Brown Sugar garnishing sauce 1. Melt the Unsalted Butter in a saucepan. 2. Add the Brown Sugar. 3. Reconstitute the Sugar and Butter together with Water or Cream, and simmer together to melt the sugar completely(as the sugar will not melt naturally into the butter without burning.) 4. Use immediately as it's more or less just brown sugar liquid paste and will set if left to cool. Soft steamed pudding, chew of the dates, bite of the nuts, moist warm sauce. Add in praline snaps for added crunch. Plating: 1. Butterscotch Sauce base on a Warm Plate. 2. Optional Brown Sugar ring drizzled on. 3. Pop on the Pudding by inverting it from the mould, then placing it on the place. Another nice garnish is a nutty praline snaps or nut brittle, both sugar and nut snaps. Since it's a warm dessert, garnishes like chocolate motifs will not work since they will melt on the pudding. Over vibrant Technicolor jpeg picture.