Putting away dishes after dinner this evening... realized I have a LOT of kitchen gadgets. And it fortuitously occurred to me that I also had a nice bottle of 2005 Fat Cat Cabernet. For less than $10/bottle (thanks Frisco's) it is really a good wine. [Disclaimer: I am not a wine snob... I just know what I like when I taste it, and this cab rocks. Plus their Web site is keeping me entertained with funky jazz tunes in the background. I have to admit though... I chose it because, well, the label is cute. A friend who works in marketing at a wine company told me that in this, I am not alone.]
So back to gadgets. Here's the short list of Gadgets I Cannot Live Without for Healthy Cooking:
- Microplane grater. This one is always in the dishwasher. I use it mostly for grating parmigiano reggiano. (It's pricey, but a little goes a long way. Adds great flavor to all the leafy greens from the CSA boxes -- try it if your family won't eat them plain.) I also use it for zesting and mincing. It works really well for recipes that call for minced ginger. [Ginger tip: buy it fresh, remove the skin with a vegetable peeler, then freeze -- grates beautifully from frozen.] I caught my father-in-law, an avid woodworker, eyeing it for his workshop (the grater, not the ginger).
- Cutting boards and a sharp chef's knife. My husband, who still doesn't know where all the "gadgets" live after residing in this house for nearly four years, perplexed, asked, "Do you really need 14 cutting boards?" Strictly speaking, I could live with, say, a dozen. But cooking healthy, fresh food requires chopping. Lots and lots of chopping. I do have one really large cutting board, which I use for things like whole watermelons, but day to day I prefer a bunch of medium-sized ones that can fit in the dishwasher, because as much as I enjoy cooking "manually," I prefer leaving as much clean-up as possible to the machines!
- Citrus press. Not the fancy electric juicer, but a handheld "squeezer." This is in the love it or hate it category. While its only purpose is to squeeze the juice from citrus, which you could do with your hands ala Jamie Oliver, it's worth investing the $15 if you use a lot of fresh lemon or lime juice (another good way to add flavor without fat/calories), or if you have skin issues. (I have eczema on my hands, so squeezing citrus with my hands is not only not recommended... it burns!)
- Blender. A good one that can crush ice. As the weather has heated up, so have my smoothie cravings. The Common Market in Frederick has a great smoothie bar, but I can't make it there as often as I'd like, so I tried to make my favorite "peach dream" smoothie at home. Frozen peach slices, half a frozen banana, about a cup of plain yogurt and enough milk or soy milk to mix it up. It's not exactly the same (probably because I didn't add sugar or honey), but it's darn close. [Bonus: helps use up all those mushy brownish bananas... just peel, break into chunks, freeze, and you have instant smoothie starters.]
- Flour power. Even if I never made anything with it besides my whole-wheat pizza dough, my KitchenAid stand mixer (mixer 3.0) would be worth the investment just for the (eventual) savings over pizza delivery, and the benefit of knowing exactly what's going into this food my family refuses to live without. I'm not the best baker, but even I can make buttercream frosting in this mixer. And real whipped cream. As in Heavy. Whipping. Cream.
Hmmm.... seems my gadget list just took a sharp left into, um, indulgence-land with that last item. But hey, in moderation, real honest-to-god whipped cream is better than that mystery "whip" that comes in a bowl. So let's put it in the healthy category, because it's good for the soul.
Stay tuned for a future post on Yard Sale-o-Rama (Gadgets I Should Have Lived Without).
Comments