The Mighty Kenwood restored

The images and words are for grown ups. If you end up cut or electrocuted you're not really grown up enough.

>> New part from eSpares <<

>> Grease and silicone sealant from Lana's <<

Brilliant service from both companies and the bits were delivered within a couple of days.
The support webs on the new casting are much larger than the original. I wonder how many failed...design fault?

Here's a closeup of the fracture

If you took it apart then reassembly is just the reverse.


Another thing that was past its best was the little grindery thing otherwise known as AT320A Multi Mill Attachment. The clips on the nylon drive coupling had busted and it kept falling out so I bought a new unit from eSpares. I took the old one apart out of interest and found it full of gunk, this is a cotton bud that had been soaked in meths.

I rebuilt it with the food grade grease and found it better than new. So much so that I did the same to the new one. The assembly comes apart easily, a Mole grip on the blade and a strap wrench on the rotor, grip the flange that's arrowed not the nylon drive coupling, it's a left hand thread.

Here's a scrap section of the bush, notice how the new one has a groove in the centre, I filled that with grease.

Finally, instead of slinging the old one out, I used blobs of silicone sealant to hold the coupling in, it's early days but it's working.

Couldn't resist the final picture,

left = new                               right = old

 

weird or what?

The Mighty Kenwood fails

This is about a KM070 a.k.a.Cooking Chef but it's probably similar for other models. The images and words are for grown ups. If you end up cut or electrocuted you're not really grown up enough.

If your Kenwood sounds like this

then the gearbox is up the chuff.

Take it apart and remove the drive assembly. The hard bit is how to remove the large drive belt sprocket.
Credit to http://www.thebigchef.nl/kenwood-a901-opknappen/ advising that you lock the low speed outlet with a mincer attachment and turn the wheel anti-clockwise
Credit to me for how to lock the mincer

Jam a piece of steel between the screen and the blade, I used a short hexagon key
Don't worry, it bears on the trailing edge of the cutter

Everything looks ok here

so undo the nut in the middle of the planetary thing from underneath

Oops, chewed teeth

and silvery bits where there shouldn't be any

Inspect the mating gear, mine was fine

Clean this lot up and order the spares:

• gearbox lower cover assembly
• grease
• silicone sealant

Click here to continue

Burnt butter icecream

Never heard of it until a couple of weeks ago.
There are many recipes around, this is what I did:

125	g	butter	масло
300	g	cream	крем
300	g	milk	молоко
6		egg yolks	яичные желтки
100	g	soft brown sugar	мягкий коричневый сахар
½	tsp	salt	соль
½	cap	vanilla	ваниль

Cook the butter until dark golden.

Make the egg custard.
Mix the lot together, blitz and churn.

Brisket

Rather than fire up the egg for a long, slow cook at this time of year I thought I'd pre-cook it in the oven.
To sort of mimic the egg, but without the smoke, I decided to dry cook it in a casserole using some canolli tubes to support the meat above the base of the pot and the inevitable drippings.
Initially dry rubbed, usual suspects, and left overnight in the 'fridge, this has had four hours on the oven's slow setting. The outside of the pot measured 104°C, which is similar to the 100°C that I target in the egg, and the internal temp was just under 80°C.

It's now back in for another fours hours or so then it'll be finished off in the egg, probably for another four hours or until it has fallen apart.

---

I forgot about it and left it in for ages, maybe 8 hours.

Plan 'B'
It was a bit dark and firm around the edges but it shredded easily with a fork

 and ended up in a bucket of ratatouille

so it turned out ok albeit without the smoke.



The casserole is Le Creuset's finest big marmitout, it cost me a lot of money a lot of years ago but is no longer made; this one has seen some service.

Web space

Thanks to Virgin doing away with the webspace as part of the deal I am now on the hunt

Lots of options, here are a few UK companies, November 2016
Most of them have various plans, the following are generally the cheapest on offer from each company
The parameters listed are not exhaustive but what were important to me at the time
Any ∞s, multiples and unmetereds probably have limits explained in the T's & C's. May containg mishtakes; be warmed, allus cheque for thee sen
ns = I couldn't find it

	hostpresto starter	easyspace Pic'n'mix	webhosting basic	123-reg essentials	unlimited webhosting web hosting	1and1 basic	uk2.net essentials	ehost
webspace	1GB	3GB	2GB	10GB	∞	∞	∞	unmetered
bandwidth	∞	∞	10GB	∞	∞	∞	∞	unmetered
domains included	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
domains allowed	y	ns	∞	10 subs 3 ext.	∞		∞ subs	∞
cPanel	y	ns	y		y	1&1 CP		y
websites	2	ns	ns	multiple	∞	multiple	10	ns
mailboxes	∞	2	∞	100 x 5GB	∞	100 x 2GB	∞	∞
site builder		ns	y	y	ns	y		y
php	y	ns	y	php7	y	y	y
cost £pcm			2.29	2.49	2.75	0.99 for 1yr then 4.99	2.98 for 1yr then 5.95	2.75 intro then goes up
1st year	24	27	27.48	29.88	33	11.88	35.76	33
2nd year	24	27	27.48	29.88	33	59.88	71.4	119.76
2 years	48	54	54.96	59.76	66	71.76	107.16	152.76
more than cheapest	0	6	6.96	11.76	18	23.76	59.16	104.76
			no min contract	no backup/ restore	no min contract

Tubular bread

Never seen these before so had to have'm

Three shaped loaf tins about 70mm across and 217mm long
I meant to fill them ½ way but they ended up about 80% full which was rather too much and this is what happened as it proved

The instructions suggested 30 minutes proving horizontally then 180°C for 30-35 minutes baked horizontally which I thought was a bit cool and brief so I went for 190°C for 40 minutes. Took them out, waited a few minutes then removed the loaves.
Not at all nice looking so they went back in at 210°C for another 5 minutes then heat off for the final 5 minutes. Thermometer indicated 95°C in the centre.

 

So, a bit of a pallava but it turned out pretty well in the end for a beginner.

Oh yeah, the tubes were buttered using a pastry brush before loading and the finished bread slid out easily.

Interestingly the makers website currently recommends, "close one side of the tube, place upright on a baking tray, put in the dough and bake" ie leaving the top cap off.

There's quite a bit of info out there as they seem to have been around for yonks in the U.S.A.

An old manual for a Valtrompia bread tube states, "Always bake in a vertical position. Most mixtures bake for at least 1 hour (375° degrees to 400° degrees)."

So that'll be 190 -  200°C or gas Mk 5 to 6 as we say in Ruislip.

Other advice is to bake straight after the tubes have been filled ie no prove.

Incidentally that manual is Form No. 228  6/88 which implies June 1988 so the U.K. is miles behind the baking technology times.

So next go will be 50% full, Mk 6 for one hour and, now that I'm an expert, I'm going to put them in a cold oven so that the dough heats up more slowly in lieu of the prove.

To be continued....

Krka Lakes, Hrvatska

Water, water, everywhere

Fish

Caught, fortunately in the shadows

Lots of cyclamen

Tesla's hydro power station, remember the bridge

It's a cave but it doesn't really work and should've been deleted

Looking along the valley from the middle of the bridge that you remembered

Now from the other side walking up the h  i   l    l

Part of the original machinery

No more waterfalls

Apart from this

Café

Local band practice, be sure to watch the video

More fish

Oops, another waterfall

Merde, yet another

Visovac Island and Franciscan Monastery

Now we're off to Šibenik