1001 uses for your Potato 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]

Originally Posted by legend_018

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.