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December 13, 2012Cheap and Useful Kitchen Tools: 8 FavoritesAll Clad cookware makes me swoon as much as cheap cooking gadgetsfound at Asian markets and thrift shops. I love the high and low-brow as wellas the in between. You don’t have to spend a ton on cooking equipment to cookwell. In fact, the eight tools highlighted below are inexpensive and they canelevate your cooking quite a bit.
Here’s a round-up of metal kitchen tools that I reach foroften. (I chose metal as a way to group things and hope to progress to plastic,wood, and the like.) You can find these handykitchen helpers at Asian markets, houseware shops, mainstream retailers (even Target!)and online too.
I have a stainless steel steamer as well as bamboo steamertrays. With the bamboo ones, I rig up a pan for steaming using a set of perforated pizza pans. This is one in a threesome and is good for small tomedium steamer trays. Set it atop a pot and put your bamboo steamer on thepizza pan.
You won’t have to worry about flames burning the bamboo orsteam escaping from below the steamer tray. The pizza pan is like a perforatedlid. On occasion, I use the pans for reheating pizzatoo.
Quarter sheet pans are great as prep trays, cooling and draining friedmorsels, and baking small quantities of food. I got several about a year ago atSurfas in Culver City and use them as much as I do regular half-sheet baking pans.You don’t have to use much parchment paper or foil when cooking with thesesmaller baking sheets. They’re sturdy and well sized. I can separately roastpotatoes on one and asparagus on anoother on the same rack in the oven. Thereare regular and perforated ones, which are terrific for food to a crisp.
This past year I also fell for small roasting/broiler racks (above, right). Costing less than $6 on Amazon, they were purchased to fit inside thequarter-sheet pans but work well for large roasting pans and baking sheets too.The clever design lets you choose the amount of elevation; just flip. The racks are also easy to clean -- no grids,corners or folding parts to deal with. They’ve been so useful in my kitchenthat I bought some for my mom and stylist Karen Shinto – two people with whom Ishare kitchen tool tips.
I never thought I’d buy one of these vertical roasters but Idid for roasting Peking duck, a story and recipe I wrote for the Los Angeles Times. It works extremely well to mimic theroasting conditions of professional Chinese duck roasters. The skin crisps andbrowns and the fat melts downward. I’ve roasted chickens on the roaster too but it’s my go-totool for roast duck.
Japanese markets and dollarish stores like Daiso are where Ifind these lightweight stovetop grills.
I started using the foldable grills for tofu and it workedlike a charm. Yes, you can do some of thatkind of light grilling in a toaster oven but there’ssomething wonderful about direct exposure to the flame. This one fits rightover the griddle burner on my new stove, which I suppose means I found a usefor that burner.
For DIY dumpling making, take an Asian-Latin approach. Agood tortilla press will instantaneously made you a good Asian dumpling maker.I stressed over rolling out basic dumpling wrappers by hand until I realizedthat I could leap frog a tiny bit – and cut down on the work by half – bypressing the dough first in a tortilla press. The aluminum ones are not tooheavy so they won’t smash your dough too much. A tortilla press buying guide was posted on Asian Dumpling Tips.
There’s barely a week that I don’t reach for this scum skimmer.It’s sold at Asian markets and housewhare shops, as well as online. The fine mesh efficiently capturesa raft of scum from a bubbling pot of broth. It’s does a decent job with fatthat’s coagulated too. Shallow fine mesh skimmers like this work very well.
Asian vertical handled strainers are used by professionaland home cooks alike for reheating or cooking noodles for individual bowls ofpho, ramen, etc. You can dunk, shake and dump the noodles into bowls and getthem set up for the toppings and broth.
Aside from making Asian noodle soup, the strainer is also fabulous for blanching small amounts of vegetables in a pot of water. For example, if I need to parboil green beans, carrots and pasta, I use the vertical strainer for each vegetable. The pot is still full of boiling hot water for the pasta, which I then boil as usual and drain the pasta in a colander. Strainers come with mesh, perforated metal, or wire. Match the size to your needs. I have medium and large.
I love these small tongs, which I call “tiny tongs” becausethey measure only about 7 inches long. This fall, I was invited to cook with corporateR&D chefs at a major food manufacturing company. When I was looking for tongs,all they had were these:
The tongs, which cost little though you typically have toorder a dozen or so to get a deal, are great for grabbing small pieces of food, turningdelicate foods over, and plating. Rosle makes gorgeous surgical-like tongs forchefs but Vollrath’s tiny tongs (mine are model 47007 but these look the same) are the poor man’s clever answer.
If you haveinformation to add or favorite tools to share, don’t hold back. These cheapand cheery tools make great gifts to your friends and yourself. I often get theholidays going with a little shopping for myself.
More posts on metal kitchen gadgets:
Vietnamese coffee maker buying guideWater spinach splitter (very clever design)8 Mighty Mini Kitchen Tools (small yet strong!)Posted in Cooking Tips & Tools | Permalink | |
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Comments Cheap and Useful Kitchen Tools: 8 FavoritesAll Clad cookware makes me swoon as much as cheap cooking gadgetsfound at Asian markets and thrift shops. I love the high and low-brow as wellas the in between. You don’t have to spend a ton on cooking equipment to cookwell. In fact, the eight tools highlighted below are inexpensive and they canelevate your cooking quite a bit.
Here’s a round-up of metal kitchen tools that I reach foroften. (I chose metal as a way to group things and hope to progress to plastic,wood, and the like.) You can find these handykitchen helpers at Asian markets, houseware shops, mainstream retailers (even Target!)and online too.
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Asian Tofu in the News"A whole cookbook devoted to tofu? Yes, please."— Kate Williams, Serious Eats 2012 Favorite Cookbooks
"Cooking with Tofu (Are You Serious?!)"
— Michael Rulhman on his tofu conversion
"This book should be a priority for anyone with the slightest interest in Asian cuisines."
— Anne Mendelson, Taste & Travel
"The most gratifying part about cooking from Asian Tofu is that all the recipes work the way they’re written."
— T. Susan Chang, Boston Globe
Book info, reviews, radio & TV . . .2013 EventsHands-On Classes @LoveAppleFarms, Santa Cruz
Sun, Jan 27, 12-4pm:Asian Dumplings (CNY is Feb 13)
Sun, Feb 24, 12-4pm: DIY Asian Tofu ++
Sat, Mar 16, 12-4pm: Get Into the Viet Kitchen!
More soon on 2013 classes...
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