Favorite Cooking Utensils

[liminal_luke]

This is a thread for recommending favorite kitchen tools.  One of my favorites is the Blendtec blender, a super powerful blending machine similar to the Vitamix.  Suggestions?  @Taomeow

[Sketch]

My food processor 

Edited January 11, 2021 by Sketch

[liminal_luke]

55 minutes ago, Sketch said:

My food processor 

 

I love it!

[thelerner]

I am the modren man, with parts made in Japan.

 

I get an awful lot of use from my Instant Pot.  Being a pressure cooker it infuses flavors nicely.  I tend to saute onions and veggies, put'em to the side.  Brown the meat, put in a sauce, set for 15, and I get interesting one pot meals.  Today made some nice Texas Chili.  Fast and worked well with less fatty meat.  Versus slow cooker where I'd use fattier chuck, would take 6+ hours and I'd dirty more pans.  

 

domo arigato 

[Taomeow]

I use my two Chinese cleavers more than anything else.  Number Two is the stainless steel one from YanCanCook (not my choice, a present), specifically designed by Chef Martin Yan as a gateway/initiation to the most versatile kitchen implement in existence, which it is based on but not without cutting some corners (pun accidental.)  There's youtube videos of Yan teaching its use.  I'm not good enough to use his cleaver the way he does -- but with the real thing in my hands I can manage...  and the real thing is my second one --  --  Number One:

 

The classical Chinese cleaver, carbon steel, much bigger and heavier and nearly rectangular.  Extra caution is advised, I would definitely practice the techniques on something safer first, like the one mentioned above.  And watch the videos for techniques too.      

 

https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/12/chinese-cleaver-kitchen-knife.html

[thelerner]

On 1/11/2021 at 2:52 PM, Sketch said:

My food processor 

I'm sure that makes for healthier, deeper, wholer, slower, better foods.  

We have a thread on food porn.  And the Almazan youtubes always take first place.  As a man travels the wilderness w/ his trusty knife, making the most amazing food ever.  

 

[Taomeow]

1 hour ago, thelerner said:

I'm sure that makes for healthier, deeper, wholer, slower, better foods.  

We have a thread on food porn.  And the Almazan youtubes always take first place.  As a man travels the wilderness w/ his trusty knife, making the most amazing food ever.  

 

 

I've made that sexy pie many times.  With sour cherries and some walnuts.  Even a gluten free version of it for the New Year.  

 

But back to utensils.  A cast iron frying pan, a copper skillet, and a yixing clay pot see much action here.  Before I chanced upon those yixing ones, I had a Römertopf (which didn't survive a fall when a careless underfoot "what's for dinner" intrusion propelled it to the floor, may the Kitchen God rest its soul), and a couple of different kinds of clay pots too.  Some can be used on stovetop (I cook herbs in those), others are just for the oven.  So, for slow cooking, I use a clay pot in the oven, except in summer when I don't want to turn the oven on.  Which is just as well, because my oven-cooked meals are typically hearty and best suited for colder weather, and my summer meals are on the lighter side. 

 

Cast iron pans are superior to everything else for frying, in my experience.  They require "seasoning" before use (videos available on youtube) and then maybe re-seasoning once a year, and they will stay good as new till the archeologists of the distant future dig them out from under the sediments of our collapsed civilization.  For cleaning them without disturbing the tempered protective layer created by "seasoning," I use a chainmail scrubber (available on Amazon).