In this post I would like to share with you my thoughts about bigger and smaller kitchen equipment.
Let’s start with the small tools. One thing I can’t live without is rubber spatulas. The best are heat-resistant ones you can use with your pans and not destroy the non-stick layer. They are great at scraping everything out of a bowl. Next are vegetable peelers. Both vertical and horizontal. are good at different tasks.
Microplane, very sharp, very useful kind of a grater. Perfect for hard cheese like parmesan, for mincing garlic, ginger, horseradish. and super good for nutmeg.
A scale, obviously you need a basic scale. Three types of strainers: a basic sieve, a fine one like chinoise and a colander. If you work with any kind of dough, it’s nice to have a plastic or metal bench scraper.
Last but not least, what all home cooks and restaurant chefs need, are good frying pans. What I want to share with you is that spending a lot of money on expensive pans makes no sense. There is no difference in performance, if you compare it to cheaper non-stick pans. When your pan wears off just get a new one which would probably be needed every 3 years.
The only one solid pan for generations, is a cast iron pan. A good indicator of a good pan or pot is a thick bottom, that’s all. If it has it, there is less risk that your food will stick to it and burn. The heat is also distributed more evenly.
If you’re equipped with all the above, you can do magic in your kitchen.