A Step Beyond Kitchen Essentials

A recent comment from my daughter, who loves to cook and resides in an apartment, said: "I like coming home to cook". I will admit I was a bit confused because before the holidays she tackled preparing a Thanksgiving turkey (with 24-hour brine) for over twenty of her friends. I consider her a good cook at twenty-two. When asked to explain she said, "Mom you have all the equipment a person needs to make any dish!" Her comment got me thinking about basic kitchen essentials. So, let us define basic kitchen essentials as kitchen tools that you will use nearly every day to make meals.

Essential items

• Knives: 1) chef knife 2) paring knife 3) serrated knife
• (3) Cutting boards–to keep food from cross-contaminating
• Essential pots and pans 1) 9-10" frying pan, 2) 2-4 qt saucepan 3) 6-10 qt stock pot
• Mixing bowls with lids
• 8x8 or 9x13 baking dish, and (2) baking sheets
• Dry measuring cups and spoons and a liquid measuring cup
• Can opener, vegetable brush, and vegetable peeler
• Wooden spoons, rubber, and flat spatula, tongs, and a whisk
• Towels and pot holders
•  Instant-read thermometer

This last item is often overlooked as essential, yet here is a comment from my other daughter who is just learning to cook, "my meat thermometer changed my life by taking the guesswork out of doneness!" This tool is critical to food safety because it ensures you are cooking your meats, casseroles and other dishes to a safe internal temperature in order to destroy microorganisms that can cause foodborne illness.

So we can feed ourselves and the ones we love, but after the essentials, what is the next item to add if you have limited space, are a beginner in the kitchen, or have limited time or interest in cooking. This may be different depending on your cultural food interest or preferred cooking techniques. However, this article will focus on time savers, multi-use items, and healthier cooking techniques. The appliances that are efficient at these tasks and are worth the space they take up include:

• the pressure cooker
• Dutch oven
• toaster oven

Both the pressure cooker and Dutch oven, staples in kitchens for many years, have seen a resurgence of popularity.

Pressure cooker

This item is essential although it makes noise, or you may forget it is on the stove. A pressure cooker is a sealed pot with a valve, as the pot heats up, the liquid inside forms steam causing pressure. The high-pressure steam raises the boiling point of the water in the pot, in essence cooking food faster, and forcing liquid into the food creating rich and complex flavors. This cooking method requires little to no added fat during the cooking process, outside of the browning process. With this pot, one can also brown meats before starting the cooking process eliminating the need for another pan to wash while making a wide assortment of flavorful dishes. I like to use this cooking method because it really infuses flavors during the pressure-cooking process, its quick cooking time, ease of cleaning, and it is one pot.

Dutch oven and the cast iron pan in general

Whereas the pressure cooker is only able to cook on the top of the stove the Dutch oven often starts on the stove and moves to the oven to finish the cooking process. The cooking process is longer than the pressure cooker but worth the time. This kitchen tool's construction provides constant, even, and multi-directional radiant heat which makes it a multipurpose pan great for soup, stews, roasting meats, casseroles, frying, and it can even be used to bake bread. Granted good ones are heavy and I prefer the porcelain coating for easy cleaning, which makes them often expensive, but they are truly worth their weight and price.

Toaster ovens

Not everyone will agree with me on this item since it can take up considerable counter space, however, give it a chance. With a family of four, I use mine several times a week while cooking dinner. It is great at roasting vegetables, baking potatoes, baking fish, making garlic bread, cooking 8 x 8 casserole dishes, and reheating leftovers. You may be thinking my oven can do that, however it heats up and cools down in a quarter of the time of a conventional oven. It is safer when you have little helpers in the kitchen when it comes to pulling items out of the oven. Some toaster ovens even have a magnet tray that pulls out when the door opens. In the summer it will not heat your whole house, again saving energy. Look for a toaster oven with a convection function (blows hot air around to evenly cook items), at least 1500 watts of power, and an actual temperature setting knob making it useful for a variety of uses.

The other essential appliance to complete a variety of meals in conjunction with the above-listed appliances is a food processor or blender. They are uniquely different yet can in some cases be used interchangeably. Before purchasing think through how it will most often be used in the kitchen. For instance, if you make a lot of smoothies you will want a blender strong enough to blend ice or frozen fruit. Whereas if you make a lot of soups and casseroles food processors are more efficient at grating, chopping and pureeing ingredients.

Consider small appliances as an investment and time saver, consider features along with power watts, motor size, and how you plan to use it, before making a purchase.

Of course, I would be amiss if did not mention two additional workhorse kitchen appliances the Crockpot and Microwave so check out past articles on these topics.

Happy Cooking!