1001 uses for your Potato Ricer?

[knight76]

Ok, so I have bought one of these and have been using it to mash my potatoes for the last few weeks. I think it is a great tool for this as it makes nice smooth mash every time with no lumps. My wife on the other hand, thinks having a special tool just for mashing potato is hmm, how should I put this, yuppy-ish. Nuts to her I say.

She goes further to allege that she could perform a survey of everyone in our neighbourhood and thinks that %99 of them would not even know what one of these are.

But to help me convince her of the versatility of this item, and to show her the potato ricer is not a one trick pony, lets try to get a nice list of things you use it for going.

So, come one foodies, what do you do with your ahem, "potato" ricer other than mash potatoes.

Mods, was not sure of the exact forum for this so please, feel free to move this.

 

[babetoo]

i have one and it just sits in the cupboard. does nothing, not even potatoes. a lot of trouble, i found. course now i buy ready made mashed potatoes by country crock. very nice ones and no one ever knows the difference.

babe

 

[knight76]

So we are not off to a great start with the Potato Ricer uses. "Dust Collector" wasn't one of the responses I was hoping for. Thanks for that one Babe

Hmm, maybe the wife is right, but the way I see it you either stand there mashing away with a potato masher, or load up the potato ricer and just squish it through. Surely there must be more to use it for than that.

 

[pacanis]

Somebody told me I should get one, but I haven't yet. Nor can I remember the thread where I was told how handy they were, or I would point you to it, Knight. They look like big garlic presses, right?
I can't even see using one for mashed potatoes..... I usually add butter and milk to mine, or in last night's case of twice baked potatoes, sour cream and some other stuff. That all needs incorporated in anyway, so IMO, you might as well do it while mashing. I think someone mentioned using one to press spinach so it was dry.

 

[Andy M.]

I was going to list some other uses for a potato ricer, such as pressing the water out of cooked spinach, then I thought, "What's wrong with having a specialized tool?!". We are surrounded by specialized tools.

Would your wife feel better about shaving her legs with her razor after you used it to peel some potatoes?

Would she feel better about brushing her teeth after you used her toothbrush to clean the bathroom floor?

Tell her you're waiting for the day you come across a very big clove of garlic. Then you will use it as a garlic press.

 

[Michael in FtW]

Would your wife feel better about shaving her legs with her razor after you used it to peel some potatoes?

Better she shave her legs with it after peeling potatoes than trying to shave your face with it after she used it to shave her legs!

 

[knight76]

Oh I agree Andy, we definately are surrounded by specialist tools and I too have no issue with using this one.

But, just for arguments sake (and so I can learn to use it for more than just squshing potato) what other great, ingenious uses are there for it?

Pacanis - I remember that thread, which sort of inspired me to ask what those extra uses were. The person did say about the spinach and that there were loads more uses than that, but not what they were. I use the potato ricer to squash the potato into a bowl, then incorporate the extra stuff into the potato using a fork.

 

[Essiebunny]

Can it be used as a spaetzle maker?

 

[Mama]

1)Run your eggs through for egg salad.
2)To make crispy hashbrowns, after you grate you raw potatoes, put them in your ricer and squeeze all of the moisture out.
3)Press liver through to make chopped liver
4)Make baby food
5)Mash sweet potatoes for sweet potato pie
6)Make gnocchi

That will get you started!

 

[LadyCook61]

When a recipe calls for cold butter to be cut into flour, press the butter through a potato ricer .
Use for drying spinach. Also after peeling and grating potatoes for hash browns, squeeze extra water from potato thru ricer.

 

[Dave Hutchins]

I threw mine away years ago I am a kitchen tool junky but a ricer just was a mess to clean and counter ptroductive so I pitched in the dust bin

 

[quicksilver]

I have one. I used it once. It's heavy duty, and you can switch out different grade openings for different results.
I just don't seem to have the strength to use it. But
great tool, if both hands are free.
How 'boutfor making "hair" out of Play Dooh?
And yes, I did remember being told to use it for spaetzels.
Straining spinach, what a good idea!

​

 

[Jeff G.]

Run tomato wedges through it for pureed tomatoes. Press grapes with it, make baby food from veggies and well cooked meats.

 

[legend_018]

draining water out of tuna fish cans

 

[jabbur]

I had one for about 2 seconds and tried to do spaetzle with it. What a mess that was! The dough squished through but also ended up squishing around through the top and sticking like crazy to everything. I bought it to do spaetzle and ended up donating it real quick. Maybe mine wasn't a good quality one but it sure didn't do the job I wanted it to do! I just use my masher for potatoes when I make them for real. Most of the time though I make Idahoan instant and the family doesn't know the difference.

 

[DramaQueen]

I have a good quality ricer and use it a lot. I love it for making mashed potatoes. It does a super job of mooshing the potatoes so there are no lumps. I also use it for making tomato concasse, and one of my favorite uses is squeezing the liquid out of spinach. You can mash any veggie with it e.g. carrots, squash, etc. and it does a great job in no time at all. I have 3 sizes of extruding plates so I have choices as to how fine I want to moosh veggies. You can use it for spaetzle if you have no other choice because the hopper is the same size as my spaetzle maker. I've never done it but I can imagine you could do it if you had to. Just open it up, pour the batter through the hopper and bingo! Spaetzle.

BTW Jabbur, if you had a problem with the "dough" sticking maybe it's because it was too thick. It's not really dough, it more of a batter and really should be no different than using a spaetzle maker. Batter is far thinner and it should just drip through the holes in the ricer. If you are "pressing" the batter through the ricer it will squish up over the top. Just let it drip through on it's own just like using the spaetzle maker. The batter should be the consistancy of thick cream.
Just a tip here: I use chicken broth instead of water to cook the spaetzle in. It makes a world of difference in the taste.

 

[DramaQueen]

These look pretty much the same to me: Ricer on the left, Spaetzle maker on the right. These are exactly like mine.

 

[DramaQueen]

draining water out of tuna fish cans

Now there's a great idea I never thought of.

 

[ninjazz]

I've read that you can use them in making egg salad to get perfectly sized pieces of egg each time. Having never tried it, I'm not sure... but perhaps you can try it and see?

 

[pacanis]

I just made egg salad. I used a fork. I like mine on the chunky side, but it was still mixed up well.