This week I started thinking about Christmas. The TV adverts have started, the lights are going up in the high streets and my family have been putting their Christmas lists up on the fridge at my parents house.
I haven't started putting the food ideas together yet, but it did get me thinking about any new kitchen kit that I wanted to ask Santa for.
Having a well equipped kitchen can make a big difference to the food you are cooking. Blunt knives wont chop or slice things properly, cheap pans don't hold heat in the same way that good quality heavy bottom ones do, and a food processor that can't cope with what you ask it to do, or just snaps when you try and take the lid off it (ask Esther . . . . I'm not saying anything!) is pretty useless. To be honest, these 3 areas are the ones that in my opinion people should be spending decent money on, and will prove to be a lasting investment at the same time. There isn't really much to gain by spending a fortune on a mixing bowl for example, as long as you have some good sized ones, they will do the same job no matter how cheap they are. If they break? Who cares, they were cheap anyway.
With this in mind I thought I would share with you a few things that I have and use in my kitchen all the time, and if you don't have them already, you might even consider putting them on your Christmas list. For my money, everyone can and should be cooking at home more, it's cheaper, healthier and is good for the soul, and a nice new shiny piece of kitchen kit might be a push in that direction, you never know!
I've mentioned them already, so a great place to start is knives.
Great knives will last you a lifetime if you look after them properly, and will make your cooking life a complete pleasure. You really only need 3 or 4 knives, so stay away from the huge sets with 10 or 12 knives in, as I promise you that you'll never use them all. The 3 that you will use are pictured below. The chef's knife, the small paring knife and the bread knife. 95% of the time I use my chef's knife and I love it.
So what makes a good knife? Well you want a decent weight, with the balance in the right place, the handle should feel good and comfortable in your hand, and the blade should be solid and not bend. To keep them sharp you'll want a decent sharpener that you use regularly to maintain that sharpness. Blunt knives wont do you any favours.
The revelation of the past 12 months for me was my garlic crusher, and now I don't know how i survived without it. Peeling garlic is one of those jobs that I don't enjoy so much, especially if I am doing a lot of it. All I do now is place the unpeeled cloves in the crusher and squeeze out all of the lovely garlic - brilliant! It saves so much time and also gives you an intense garlicky paste, similar to grating it, which gives a tiny bit of extra spark in your food that chopping doesn't always have.
A brilliant thing to have in your kitchen arsenal is a variety of boards and plates to serve things on. Good presentation wins you half the battle, and there are lots of "sets" of food things that are around at this time of year that come either on a wooden board, or in a basket that you can use years after you've eaten the cheese or jams or whatever else it came with. It makes a difference, I promise.
I use my pestle and mortar all the time. I make dressings, rubs and curry pastes amongst other things in it and it is fantastic. Food tastes better when you put love and attention into making it, and that is what the pestle and mortar is all about for me. I love bashing up herbs and spices, mixing in oils and other ingredients as the smell you get is incredible.
So what do I want for Christmas? The same thing I've wanted for the last few years, a Magimix food processor in silver. I tried to make a meringue in our old Kenwood processor a couple of weeks ago and it couldn't cope with mixing the egg whites and the sugar. In fact it was jumping around all over our kitchen surface and turning itself off, as the force of the vibrations were loosening the lid!
The meringue turned out lovely in the end, but lets just say that the whisking attachment for the processor ended up in the bin . . . . . . . . . which was the best way round for that story to end.
Happy shopping!
All images in this blog belong to me and cannot be used without my permission.
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