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Top Ten Kitchen Tools and Gadgets!

Hello and thanks for reading my article.

Here are my top ten favorite kitchen tools that I think every cook should have!

1. A cake tester: When I cook, I always have a cake tester and use it almost as much as I use my knife. You can use a cake tester to tell if a steak or piece of fish is medium or well done, or you can use it to tell if something is hot inside, like a meatball or crab cake. I explain exactly how this is done on my website.

2. Tongs: Cooking without a pair of thongs and a towel in hand is to me like being on a battlefield without a gun. The obvious use of flip flops is great, you can’t grill without flip flops! With a strong pair of tongs, you can slide the baking sheets closer to you so you don’t stick your arms in the oven. You can reach into the oven for something that has been dropped, and one of my favorite things about tongs is that you can gently drop a piece of chicken into the frying oil without splashing yourself with hot oil.

3. Knives – My chef’s knife is by far the knife I use the most. I always say don’t buy a complete set of knives, but invest in a good chef’s knife that will last you. You can use the top edge to crack open lobsters or crabs, you can use the flat side to mash garlic or scoop up what you’ve minced, and unless you’re going to fillet fish or slice meat, a bread knife and paring knife would do the trick. you need. There is no need to spend a lot of money on a bread knife, in fact my favorite bread knife that I only ever use (dexter-russell) is a $20 knife. It’s toothy, it’s sharp, it has a good grip and it’s solid, what more could you ask for? A paring knife will cost no more than $10, whichever you are more likely to pay for a name or get ripped off.

4. Peeler – My favorite peeler and the only one I use is a Kuhn Rikon. They are made of plastic and cost $2, I usually pick up 2 or 3 of them. They are cheap to make but are sharp and do their job well. Peelers work great not only for peeling, but also for shaving very fine things, like Parmesan cheese, chocolate, carrots, or cucumbers.

5. Microplane: A microplane can grate hard cheese, chocolate, nutmeg, cinnamon, and even grate citrus fruits for all sorts of uses. The microplane creates a beautiful grated parmigianno regianno on top of a caesar salad, pasta or risotto. Citrus zest is also very presentable for a nice topping for cheesecake or angel food cake. One of the other benefits of a microplane is that it grates much finer than a regular grater, it can also be used to grate garlic, ginger, wasabi or onions.

6. Fish Spatula – A fish spatula is a spatula specially designed to allow you to get under the skin of the fish and allow excess oil to drain through the slots in the spatula. You can use this design to your advantage in a variety of ways. Use it to be able to pick up a piece of cheesecake or cake and put it underneath so as not to damage the visible part. You can also use it for something like a chocolate cake where you can drip chocolate and the grooves will keep it from slipping.

7. Rubber Spatula: Even though it’s called a spatula, I never use it to pick up or flip anything. However, I use it for pretty much everything else on the planet. Perfectly folding egg whites so they don’t go flat, mixing mashed potatoes, working with chocolate, making eggs, cooking in a nonstick skillet, risotto, scraping the bowl to make sure you get every last bit out of the bowl. The best thing is that they clean in 2 seconds!

8. Japanese Mandolin – A dangerous but extremely useful tool. This is what all the pros use to create a perfect brunoise or little cubes every time. The blade is very sharp and can shave or cut things finely. Makes beautiful grated parmesan, you can grate garlic, carrot, ginger, cucumber, etc. for a nice presentation.

9. Food Mill: A food mill is a tool designed to make purees, like mashed potatoes, but it can be used for other things as well. You turn the handle which forces produce (potatoes, carrots, beets, etc.) into holes of different sizes. This is how restaurants get super smooth mashed potatoes every time. I also love using it to make ground black pepper, for steak, or mignonette for oysters.

10. Spice Grinder: A small spice grinder is something I can’t live without when cooking. When you roast and grind spices, it really brings out the flavor and is very simple to do. Simply take your spice mix, be it cumin, cinnamon, or sesame seeds, and place them in a dry skillet over medium high heat. Stir continuously to prevent burning, which will create a bitter taste. The spice will finish roasting when it is golden and/or the smell is more vibrant. Then put in the spice grinder and grind until fine. You can also use a spice grinder to grind spices with salt, and use the spiced salts to season fried foods when they’re fresh out of the fryer (sesame salt, black pepper salt, cumin salt, the list goes on and on).

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