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MY KITCHEN
The stuff I cook with is nothing special. What's makes my kitchen solid is that everything I need to work with is close at hand. Besides the usual assortment of pots and pans, spatulas, spoons, whisks and knives, there are really only five things in my kitchen that I find really useful to have on daily basis.
1.) A Great Stove.
The oven I have is relatively new and has superb temperature
control. I didn't go out and look for one that had that feature...the condo
we bought just happened to have it when we moved in. The digital display
tells me exactly what the temperature is inside the oven, and keeps it steady,
even when I open the oven door! It takes all the guesswork out of baking,
roasting and broiling. However, I wish it gave more heat on the electric
stovetop. Its seems to take ages to boil water, and stirfrying is difficult.
I envy all of you out there with gas ranges!
2.) A Wok
If I was stranded on a desert island and could have only one
pan or pot to cook with, it would be a wok. You can do almost anything with
a wok! Stir-fry? That's obvious. Make soup? Sounds good! Deep-fry? If you
must. Braise? A little advanced, maybe...but sure! Who am I to argue with
3000 years of Chinese cuisine?
3.) A Sharp Set of
Knives.
Good knives make chopping less of a chore. The right knife for the right
job makes life even easier. Small paring knives are great for garlic and
shallots, and taking out the rotten spots from vegetables. Larger carving
knives give you the precision cuts of meat you want, cooked or raw. Bread
knives can slice through fresh bread without destroying the loaf. And, for
the raw power of deboning and chopping through frozen meats, nothing beats
a well-balanced cleaver!
4.) Automatic Handy
Chopper.
This is like a mini-food processor. They're relatively cheap, made by several
companies and you can usually find them in any household goods store (mine
is a Braun, but they're also made by Cuisinart and Black and Decker). For
garlic and fresh herbs, it can't be beat! It chops garlic much finer and
in far less time than it would take by hand. It pulverizes tomatoes, onions,
cilantro and jalapenos instantly for small amounts of quick salsa. It's by
far one of the most useful kitchen gifts I've ever received.
5.) A Dishwasher.
Hey! There's nothing funny about the mess I always seem to make
in the kitchen! And frankly, I'd rather spend more time enjoying my cooking
than cleaning up after it! When I got my first portable, apartment size
dishwasher five years ago, I quickly became convinced that this was the answer
to all harmony in the universe. If everyone in the world had a dishwasher,
the divorce rate would tumble, gang violence would be eliminated, and we
would have no more fear of nuclear war. That's how good dishwashers are!
I now have a bigger, built in model.
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