Cooking Corner - Essential Tools

Continuing the Cooking Corner Series I thought it might be a good idea to list out what I feel are my essential must have kitchen tools not only for general cooking but to support my VSG lifestyle as well. Please feel free to add yours to the thread as well:

#1 Absolute Must Have - a Sharp Knife. I use a chef's knife and I keep it very sharp and I sharpen it before each use. I can easily slice through anything and dicing is a breeze. Most people do not use a sharp enough knife. Once I figured this out cooking became 200% easier for me.

The rest are in no particular order:

- A large cutting board

- A Food Processor (doesn't have to be expensive) and I use the S Blade 98% of the time

- Good Pots and Pans (at the very least 1 good pot and 1 good pan (12" round). You need to cook the core of what you are making in a a pot or pan that distributes heat evenly. We can debate the merits/issues with non-stick versus regular, but having a good pans with heavy bottoms is essential. I don't use anything fancy but they work great.

- a full set of measuring cups and measuring spoons

- storage containers (my new favorites are the round zip lock containers with the screw on lids)

- Roasting Pan - must have for anything you need to put in the oven

- Wooden Spoon Assortments. I prefer wooden spoons because they are cheap and I can toss them if I need to.  They also stand up and get better with age.

- A collinder for rinsing and draining

- Vegetable Peeler

- Various Size Mixing Bowls

- Essential Spices. While technically not a tool per se, it is essential to good cooking: sea or kosher salt, black pepper, garlic powder or garlic salt (I prefer fresh garlic 95% of the time), onion powder, basil, oregano.

That is my list of essentials, here are a few more things that I use regularly but if I didn't have them I would be fine without them:

- Magic Bullet blender

- Chef's Pan (a versital pot/pan hybrid)

- Baking Dishes

- A large variety of spices. While technically not a tool per se, it is essential to good cooking: cumin, white pepper (one of my favorites), paprika, chili powder, dill, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, and some blends (Mrs Salt makes some interesting combinations), jerk seasoning, italian season, BBQ rub (I make my own), anything that sounds intersting.

Let's hear what you find to be essential

I love my "stick blender" for making cauliflower mash, soups, etc! I also have a silicone muffin pan that is AWESOME for making "egg bites" etc. with no oil, no stick..LOVE IT!

Those are both good. I have been hearing more about the silicone pans and the silpats. I need to pick them up and add them to my collection.

What kind of chef's knife do you use? I was just saying the other day that I wanted a new knife set because mine suck. lol I have the cheap kind and it shreds things more than cuts. I LOVE the silicone pans.

My favorite one I got at Walmart, it is a Chicago Cutlery. I think it was like $15 a couple of years ago and it has stood the test of time for sure. It holds a sharpening pretty well but I sharpen it every time I use it. I just use the cheap black sharpener you can get at Walmart by the knives. I sharpen it 10 to 20 times depending on what I am doing. If I am doing a lot of slicing particularly tomatos I will do it 20 for sure.

I also have a whole set of Farberware knives that I found on the pfaltzgraff.com outlet site. I think the set was normally like $160 I got it for $35 with free shipping at christmas time. This is the one I have:

http://www.pfaltzgraff.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Pfaltzg raff-Site/default/Product-Show?pid=5042312&green=31D13285-BF 3B-53F0-A8E3-B4B5E0D7D6C8

This looks like a pretty good deal too:

http://www.pfaltzgraff.com/Contemporary-11-Piece-Cutlery-Set /FWC11TRP,default,pd.html?cgid=kitchen_cutlery

Great! Thanks Keith!

I love my hand blender/mini processor duo from cuisinart.  I can't live without it!  Also, a GARLIC PRESS!  Where has this been all my life?  I recently got one and it is AWESOME.  You know when a recipe calls for crushed garlic?  I used to use the jarred kind (bad Italian girl, I know) but I just wasn't very good at mincing my garlic.  Now I have the garlic press and I put fresh garlic in EVERYTHING.  Seriously, everything.  I.love.garlic. 

As a baker, I cannot live without my kitchenaid mixer.  It puts a big dent in your wallet which is why I am forever grateful that my MIL bought me one for my shower.  I haven't looked back since.  And, I found out recently that you can use it to shred chicken!  YAY!

Oh, oh, and one more thing, a ZESTER.  Good for baking AND cooking.  I love zesting lemons for a fresh taste in ANYTHING.  Yummo!  Love this thread!

Garlic press is a good one. I have found lately that I am more likely to chop my garlic by hand than to use the press. Not sure why.

The kitchenaid mixer is a good one too.

Garlic (and onions) taste very different depending on the method used to "process them."

America's test kitchen did a thing on onions that showed that they tasted different depending on the direction the were cut! 

Garlic tastes much different if it is smashed (eg with a press) vs. cut with a sharp knife. It has to do with the amount of cell damage you cause.

I take my lunch and breakfast to work, so I have 1/2 cup and 1 cup rubbermaid premier containers for my protein coffee mixture and my food to be reheated.  I also make my protein podwer/fage mixture in these, so I have snack sized servings.

I also make my Miralax KoolAid (hey, it works!) at work -- so I mix the Miralax and sucralose in those very small salad dressing size containers and keep those at work.  So when I make my KoolAid, I just dump in the KoolAid and the contents of the container into the pitcher, fill with water, and I'm set for several hours!

In the early days, I used my pressure cooker more than I do now!  But it is great for quickly braising meats!