A Contrary View to "10 Kitchen Tools You Can't Live Without"

Long term readers of the L&TM5K will remember Phineas, one-time frequent commenter who even today stops by to dominate the occasional Wednesday Quiz. Among his other mad skillz, Phineas is a serious amateur chef, and has been keeping a, a -- what? a blog? a weekly newsletter? -- on fancy home cookin'. It's called Be a Better Cook - I'll Help -- Cooking Advice from a Passionate Home Cook. Much of what he writes goes a little over my head, frankly, since I am of simple peasant stock and prefer foods that can be prepared, consumed, and, if necessary, cleaned up after in less than a quarter of an hour. But it is well-written stuff, and is getting some critical acclaim out there, so I do recommend it for those of you burdened with sophisticated palates.


Recently, though, he happened to write a post about something which I just happen to have a rare expertise in. It was called "10 Kitchen Tools You Can't Live Without." Now it so happens that, many years ago, I found myself marooned on an island -- Great Britain -- for the better part of a year, and was forced to assemble the kitchen tools that would see me through this time period. So I know, from cruel experience, exactly what Kitchen Tools You Can't Live Without. Let's take a look at the list that Phineas -- who, probably to protect his privacy, is calling himself "Tom McGuffey" on this new project -- came up with, and see how well he did.

Here's his list:
1: Chef's Knife 8"

2: Cutting Board

3: Peeler

4: 10" and 12" Non-stick Saute Pans

5: 8 Quart Stock Pot

6: Largish sauce pan

7: Paring Knife

8: Strainer / Colander

9: Microplane Grater

10 Dutch Oven

Now, here's the actual list -- as I say, forged from real, cruel experience:

#1: A pot. This is very useful for heating up anything liquid, from boiling water for noodles to preparing a nice can of soup. It is also good for heating up refried beans -- now generally available in the UK, but at the time something I had to special-order by the case from a specialty shop -- or dahl, much more widely available in the UK than here.


#2: A pan. This is good for frying things, such as eggs or pancakes. If you are doing fancy cookin', you can "saute" in it.


#3: A spatula. A necessary companion for the pan.


#4: A spoon. Useful for transferring liquid, runny, or granular foods to the mouth. Also useful for stirring things cooking in the pot.


#5: A fork. Useful for transferring foods that need some kind of stabbing to the mouth.

#6: A knife. In addition to a serrated knife capable of getting through a block of cheese, I also splurged on a table knife. This latter is a rarely used appliance, but it's generally considered part of a culturally appropriate trio with the fork and knife.

#7: A bowl. Good for containing most foods made in the pot while consuming them. Not a strict necessity, as it is perfectly workable to eat out of the pot, but a nicety.


#8: A plate. Much like the bowl, for foods made in the pan. Plates are more important than bowls, as pans can be difficult to eat out of.

#9: A cup. For containing liquids, such as tea or water. This was eventually supplemented with some of the pint glasses that one can find for free in the neighborhoods around British "pubs," or bars, if one is out and about early on weekend mornings.

#10: A cheese grater.

So, we see that although Phineas didn't do a BAD job -- he realizes, for instance, that it's tough to run a kitchen without a pan, a pot, a knife, and some sort of way to grate your cheese -- he perhaps forgotten to think through the final stages of the dining process. As far as I can tell, he's going to be transferring food directly from the pot or pan to his mouth using either a chef's knife or a paring knife, which is not only inelegant, but raises significant safety concerns.

He also includes on his list one item that I can not only live without, but that I can live without knowing what it is: a "Dutch Oven." I was initially baffled by "Microplane Grater" as well, but I'm thinking that's a cheese grater, and having a cheese grater on the list shows Phineas to be a man of good sense who will be able to deliver the nachos when the chips are down. Which is especially good for him, because with nachos you don't need a fork or spoon.


Mind you, the above list cuts close to the bone. I do not recommend living without the following supplementary tools:



Extras



#11: A blender. Used to make the banana/orange juice/fruit concoctions that one has for breakfast, and the carrot/orange juice/spinach concoctions that one sometimes has for lunch.



#12: An air popper.



#13: A baking sheet. Cookies!



#14: A cooling rack. Cookies!



Be a Better Cook - I'll Help -- recommended for you foodies out there!

Kitchen Tools I Didn't Realize You Needed

An online friend of mine writes a quirky and highly intelligent blog, updated almost daily. Though he is admittedly not a cook, except a weakness for baking I've discovered, he's been reading my weekly cooking advice newsletter for a while now.

When my Top 10 Kitchen Tool issue came out a few weeks ago, he was inspired to write about the list, to a degree. I expected all kinds of debate and contradiction to ensue - "You don't need a peeler if you have a paring knife" - and that line of thought. Try peeling five pounds of potatoes with a paring knife - you'll know why I recommend the Kyocera Perfect Peeler.

But I digress. This highly educated and eloquent blogger, who goes by the name Michael5000 and lives in Castle5000 in Portland with his wife, Mrs5000, an architect and artist....I'm continuing to digress.

M5K's thesis can be summed up as "You forgot about dishes and silverware", then he adds other entertaining musings from a non-cook. You can read his rebuttal here, on his blog. Kindle readers - I'll publish it in the next post.

By the way, in his blog The Life and Times of Michael 5000 he writes about nearly random and disparate subjects: film criticism, Bible review, quilting (yes, quilting), college football, literary criticism, postcard collecting and much more. I once was a finalist in his annual Dorkfest, which is what it sounds like - a dork contest. He's currently trying to win a game of online chess against someone from every country in the world (he's up to 50 countries, 21% of the world) and he started a vexilocriticism project - that would be critical analysis of the flags of the world.

In my estimation, Michael5000 is more entertaining than TV, of which he owns not a one.

I'm not forgetting the primary purpose here......recipe advice follows shortly.......Homemade Lemonade

Just A Recipe This Week, But A Good One

I've already been cooking a bit for a big birthday party two days from now. Today the cooking is getting serious, and it does smell good in here. If you care to learn how incredibly deranged I am about cooking, you can review the menu 50th Birthday Party - Caribbean Theme.

So this week I'm just going to share a quick recipe that's unique and downright simple.

With warm weather already upon most of us,this recipe can be done on the grill or in the kitchen. Add some pasta (try this recipe from my website, Simple Pasta with Herbs) or rice, and you've got a complete meal.

 

1 large or 2 medium zucchini
1.5 pounds boneless chicken breast (skinless or skin on)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves

1/4 cup white wine or vermouth

1/4 cup water

1. Trim ends of zucchini and slice into paper thin slices - 1/16 to 1/8 inch thick. They'll look like wide ribbons. If you have an adjustable blade slicer, such as a mandoline, this will take about 30 seconds. If not, try a cheese slicer. Last resort - very carefully slice with a large chef's knife. Trim one edge to make a long flat surface. Place flat end down on cutting board. Trim the skin from each side, then cut long slices down the length of the zucchini.
2. Place zucchini strips into a large bowl.
3. Cut each chicken breast crosswise into thirds. Season liberally with salt and pepper.
4. If grilling, add oil to chicken. If sauteing, heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat.
5. Add chicken and 7-8 minutes, turning only once or twice. Keep heat high enough to allow the chicken to brown.
6. Remove chicken pieces and cut each in half and immediately place in bowl with zucchini. Gently toss together. Cover with foil.
• Note: if chicken is not cooked through fully, return to pan for another minute, placing cut side down.
7. If grilling, add garlic and one tablespoon olive oil to a small pan, and place on a hot corner of the grill.
8. Add garlic to pan keeping heat med-high. Stir for 1 min to soften garlic.
9. Add wine and scrape bottom of pan to pick up any remaining browned chicken bits. Add water an continue to reduce. When liquid is reduced to about 1/4 C, pour sauce over chicken and zucchini.
10. Season with additional salt and pepper if desired.

 

Why this recipe is good:

• Heart healthy. Just chicken breast and zucchini with a few simple flavors and very little oil.
• Simple technique - a pan sauce made in this manner is surprisingly flavorful.
• Unique look of zucchini - the ribbons make for a dramatic presentation.
• Not cooking the zucchini - the heat from the chicken and small amount of sauce is all that's needed to wilt the zucchini. Raw or overcooked zucchini will kill a dish and this approach is easy and effective.

How Long Does It Take to Make a 30 Minute Meal?

This week we’ll explore a cooking show that sets a precise expectation. Rachel Ray’s 30 Minute Meals comes close to delivering on it’s promise – if you add a few more minutes.

You’ve got to be pretty jaded if Rachel Ray’s enthusiasm doesn’t infect you. OK – I watched a few extra episodes this week – she’ll get on your nerves after a while. Yet her 30 Minute Meals show is one of the most genuine depictions of cooking you can find on TV. She really does cook her two or three course meals in 30 minutes actual time while taping her shows.

Here’s how she does it, which can also help us in our own kitchens:

Planning and Recipes

• She is carrying out a very precise plan – from the recipe itself, to the order in which she preps and cooks every component of the meal.
• By not improvising, and following her recipe, she doesn’t introduce any guesswork, testing, problem solving or needed “repairs” into her cooking.

Note: the first time you make something from a recipe, you’ll spend some extra time reading and re-reading the instructions. But if the recipe is good and you make it several times again, you’ll cut that overhead down to almost nothing. The initial time investment is worth it if you’re using a good recipe.


Great organization

• Have you noticed how Rachel makes one or two monster trips through her kitchen from fridge to pantry to prep area, loading her arms up with ingredients?
• All her final serving dishes, as well as needed pots/pans are out in advance on the counter and stove. I do this for big parties, but it saves time for an everyday meal too.
• She follows the French concept of mise en place – essentially “things in their place”. Her raw ingredients are in front of her or to her right, then she preps / opens / cuts in the center of her work area and all her scraps and leftovers are placed to her left.
• She uses a “scrap bowl” in front of her work area for all peelings, packaging and whatever trash she generates. No trips to the sink or trash can. I use a plastic bag from vegetables so I can throw it away directly and have one less bowl to clean up.

Expert Level Proficiency....Rachel’s been coking seriously for decades, and is expert with her knife skills. She can peel and dice a vegetable or trim meat, or separate chicken parts far faster than the average cook.


But like all cooking shows, there are some real world aspects missing. It’s these things that allow Rachel to prepare that meal in 30 minutes but it will take us an hour. Other cooking shows are far less realistic, as they rarely prep all the ingredients during the show, they pre-cook portions of the meal and generally just summarize the cooking process.

Most of us are not “expert level’…..We wash, peel and chop slower than Rachel. By the way, notice that all her vegetables are pre-washed? So even a little rinsing time is not part of her 30 minute window, giving her another edge over our actual cooking time.

You can improve your prep skills by cooking fresh ingredients frequently and using sharp knives. You also improve by learning and focusing on the fastest and best ways to prepare an ingredient. You can pick that up from Rachel quite readily.

Interruptions….Rachel never has to deal with phone calls, homework questions, letting the dog out, breaking up skirmishes among the children and opening a bottle of wine for the cook.

I don’t make too many recipes from Rachel’s show or books, in part because I think there are many higher quality recipes out there for everyday cooking. But, I’ve found a few I like. Almost all her recipes are straightforward, uncomplicated and use very fresh ingredients. So I respect her approach and her recipes a great deal. Just count on spending almost an hour for her 30 Minute Meals.

In the next post I share one of my favorite dishes from Rachel, One Pot Sausage, Potatoes and Fish. This is an example of a recipe that I first thought would be “just ok”, but actually has some real magic in it. I hope you like it as much as my family does.

One Pot Sausage, Potato and Fish

This recipe seemed unusual to me at first. The combination of sausage, potato and fish didn’t seem quite natural. Then I thought of my favorite gumbo which starts with sausage and finishes with seafood, so I gave this a try. I didn’t expect much from this recipe because there are literally no herbs and spices in this dish, just S&P.

Boy was I wrong. Despite the simplicity of the seasoning, this dish develops rich, multilayered flavorings from the vegetables, with the starch from the potatoes combining with white wine to create the simple sauce.
Not only that, everyone in my family (from age 6 on up) liked this immediately and wanted me to make it again soon.

3/4 pound bulk Italian sausage

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 pound potatoes, halved then sliced, or a variety of fingerling potatoes

½ cup white wine

4 plum tomatoes, diced

1¼ to 1½ lb of fish fillets, such as salmon or cod. Fish should be cut into 4-5 pieces, approx. 1" thick at center.

Use a large, covered pot, such as a Dutch oven or a ceramic baking dish that can be used on a stovetop.

1. Over medium high heat, brown the sausage until cooked through, breaking it into small pieces, about 4 minutes. Add a little olive oil if needed to keep from sticking.
2. Add onion, garlic, potatoes and half of the white wine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
3. Stir tomatoes into the potato mixture.
4. Place fish fillets atop the potatoes. Season with S&P then add the remaining white wine. Cover and cook for 6-8 minutes, 4-5 minutes if fish is less than 1" thick.
5. Drizzle lemon juice and a small amount of olive oil over top of fish.