Work Wonders In The Kitchen With These Utensil Tips

Work Smarter In The Kitchen With These Tools Of The Trade

If you watch cooking shows, you may see the star doing a lot of peeling and mincing and slicing and dicing. Well, that's all nice to watch while the soothing background music plays and the oil is heating in the pot and the camera pans away to the lovely fresh herbs on the counter, etc. etc. But... let's move on to reality.

While all this looks nice in front of the camera, the heavy-duty work is being done by a team behind the camera. And, to get even more real, you never see Junior or Sissy interrupt the star with school papers to sign. Nor does Fido or Fluffy ever wander into the kitchen and throw up on the rug.

Anyway, you get the point. In real life, mealtime doesn't have gentle music playing in the background while scraps of food and dirty dishes magically disappear as we mince and chop away happily.

Since you probably don't have a production team of sous chefs to help you through your mealtime mayhem, I thought I'd share a few ideas for handy tools that make meal prep easier. Let's take a look.

Garlic Slicer

If you had a garlic press, you know that much of the garlic remained in the press and had to be scooped out. Then you can either throw it out or chop it up with a knife, making double work out of what was supposed to be a simple process. Switch to a garlic slicer and you will actually get the whole garlic sliced into either slivers or into tiny minced pieces.

All you have to do is peel the garlic, set it in the slicer, lower the cutter, push, and release. Most slicers have a catcher basket so your garlic pieces are in a container ready to be dumped into the pot. Graters tend to clog up and catch your fingertips, and mincing is just fussy knife work that takes time. Get a slicer and your garlic will be in tiny pieces in a flash.

Flexible Plastic Cutting Boards

Buy a half dozen of these little wonders and you'll never be searching for another cutting board again. Most come color coded, making it even easier to reach for the one you need. I like the flexible design because you can curl them and dump the chopped ingredients easily into the pot, food processor, or blender.

 They are inexpensive enough that you can throw them in recycling when they get beat up looking without worrying about wasting money on new cutting boards. And, since everyone knows you should replace cutting boards often, this is a good thing to remember.

Colanders

Do you still have one colander in your kitchen? For some reason, there are many people who resist the idea of buying more than one or two colanders since, after all, you only use one at a time. But, think of it; how many times do you rinse or drain ingredients during food preparation? Doesn't it make sense in order to save time to have several colanders to grab when you need to quickly move on to the next step in a recipe?

 If you have someone standing around to wash and rinse your colander between uses, you probably don't need another colander. But, I suspect, like me, you don't have that cooking show staff in your kitchen, right? Buy a half dozen inexpensive colanders so you have one ready when you need it.

Measuring Cups and Spoons

I'm sure you have a set of measuring cups and spoons, but, you need two sets, or more. You need dry measure and wet measure, plus a 2 and 4 cup glass measuring pitcher. However, if you also buy larger measuring pitchers (8 and 12 cup size) you will be able to use them as mixing bowls.

 You don't have to spend a lot of money. You may even find a nice selection at thrift or resale shops. The idea is to have plenty of variety in measuring tools so you can grab what you need, and like, easily and quickly, and not have to spend a lot of time cleaning them in between recipe steps.

A Great Knife

You would think this would be a no-brainer, but many cooks continue to struggle along with bad knives they've had forever. The knives may still 'work' but have long ago lost their edge. Invest in just one new great knife. Be choosy and get the best knife you can afford. 

A good knife makes shorter work of cooking tasks and is actually safer to use. Dull, poor quality knives can slip while you try to push it through the food, making them dangerous to handle. Get at least one chef knife and one smaller paring knife and you'll see a big difference in your food preparation.

Chopper

Once upon a time, these little tools were in every newlywed's kitchen. They fell out of favor simply because they were not designed well. Now, with the new emphasis on ergonomics, you can find nicely structured choppers that don't crush your onions into a mush (like the old choppers), are easy on the hands, and do a dandy job on lots of types of foods.

If dicing and chopping a bunch of onions, celery, carrots, radishes, herbs, nuts and other foods doesn't sound like a fun way to spend time in the kitchen, these new and improved time savers are just what you need.

Immersion Blender

This is a tool that should be considered, but only if you are going to follow the safety directions and can keep it out of the reach of children. It is crazy dangerous; you have been warned. Now, moving on. If you cook a lot of soups, and like creamy soups, this is a very handy device.

 Pureed soups and sauces are a snap with an immersion blender. You no longer need to ladle liquid into a blender, pulse it, pour it out into a bowl, repeat, and repeat, and repeat, then pour it back into the pot to reheat. You just stick the immersion blender into the pot, give it a whirl, and you're done.

This is a short list of a few time-savers that I find useful in the kitchen, especially when my sous chef has the day off.  Just kidding. If you don't have a production team working behind the scenes in your kitchen, you may want to give this list of equipment some consideration.