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10 Items You Need In Your Kitchen

One
question I get asked about a lot is what equipment do I use in my kitchen at
home. As a Home Economics teacher I get to see a lot of equipment and try out
lots of cookery techniques. I do not believe you need to spend a fortune or
have lots of fancy things in the kitchen to cook. Simple, reliable equipment is
needed. Here is a list of the things I absolutely have to have in my kitchen:

1. Good knives
You don’t need to spend a fortune to get good knives, but having
the right types of a variety of tasks is important. My advice is do not go and
buy a knife block with the knives already in them. They look nice, but are
often useless.
I have a 20cm Victorinox Chef’s knife. It is the same type as our
Hospitality students buy. They are not expensive (lets face it unless you are
a superchef, $300 on a knife is a bit excessive), but are easy to keep sharp
and well balanced. Regardless of the brand, get one that feels balanced and
not too heavy
I also have a few small serrated knives – also Victorinox – that I
think are meant to be steak knives but are perfect for peeling fruit, dicing
tomatoes. They cost about $6 each so when they accidentally get thrown out
with the compost, it’s not the end of the world. Having a few the same is
handy when the kids want to help too. That way everyone has a safe knife to
work with.
The last knife I have is a large bread knife – for cutting bread
(oh der) and cakes. Honestly, unless you are a keen butcher (a new weekend hobby??) you
don’t need a butchers knife, and unless you love to fish you can do without a
filleting knife (I use them at work, but rarely at home).

2. Magnetic knife rack
If you have spent time and money buying decent knives, then you
need to look after them. I have a magnetic knife rack stuck to my splash back,
and I put all our knives on it. Throwing the sharp knives into a drawer will
dent and dull the blade. Keeping them above the bench is also good for keeping them safe from little fingers (unless you have a junior mountaineer like Toby).
3. Steel
Again you have bought the knives, so keep them sharp. A sharp knife
is less dangerous than a blunt one because, you don’t have to push hard to get
the knife through the food, so there is less chance of slipping and cutting
yourself.
4. Plenty of bowls
There is nothing more annoying than having to mix food in a too
small bowl, because you don’t have one the right size. My personal preference
is stainless steel bowls, because they are easy to clean, and don’t retain
flavours/ colours.  I have about 15
stainless steel bowls in a variety of sizes with several of the most used
size. Clearly you don’t need that many, but I would recommend 5 or 6 as a
minimum. I would also recommend having several of the same size if you use
them a lot.

5. Japanese mandolin
I love my mandolin. It looks like it was made in the 1970’s, but it
is so useful. It slices and shreds beautifully (and quickly), though you need
to be careful to use the guard or it will slice and shred your hand. Get one
of the cheap plastic ones. We have a full stainless steel professional one at
work and it is a pain to use, so I bring in my cheap plastic one in from home
when we need it!

6. Plastic scrapers

We call these half moon scrapers at work, and we love them. They
are useful anytime you need to scrape food out of anything. I use them to
scrape sauces out of pots, to load up piping bags, and to pick finely chopped
food up, just to name a few. They cost about $2 each so buy half a dozen at a
time – they do tend to be accidentally thrown out from time to time.
7. Stick blender
My stick blender came with a whisk and small food processor
attachment, and not a week goes by without me using it. Whether I’m blending
sauces and soups, or making bread crumbs, or chopping herbs. It is sooo fast.
It is worth getting one that has multiple attachments.
8. Disposable piping bags
I know this is crazy in amongst all the other equipment, but I love
disposable piping bags because they make messy jobs neater and faster. When I
make cupcakes, I pipe the mix into the patty pans. I then ice them with
another piping bag. When you make cupcakes in bulk, it is always faster than
using teaspoons and knives to portion them out.
9. A large pan that can go on the stove top and in the oven.
I have a large sauté pan which has oven proof handles and a close
fitting lid. Perfect when making a casserole than needs to be started on the
stove top and finished in the oven.

10. Utensil rack

All the utensils I use regularly (slotted spoon, whisk, egg flip
etc) hang on a utensil rack above the bench. This way they are all easy to
grab when I need (no scrabbling through a drawer while the food is burning).

I have several more posts in the pipe line about kitchen equipment etc, so let me know if you want to hear more about something in particular.

What are the ‘must have’ items in your kitchen?

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Comments

  1. tinsenpup says

    November 11, 2011 at 9:44 pm

    I think you've just about covered it. My only other 'must have' in the kitchen is a coffee machine. I've never used a mandolin. I'll have to give it a try.

    Reply

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Hi, I’m Jo

I'm a city girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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Team work makes the dream work. We were asked rec Team work makes the dream work. 
We were asked recently whether we “make” our kids work on the farm. The answer is “of course not”. Having said that, all three love to help out whenever they can. They all work hard because they want to; because they take pride in working hard and contributing in a meaningful way to our family life; because they love living on our farm and don’t remember life before we moved here. Whether it be planting trees or doing sheep work or feeding animals, they all want to be involved. As a parent, nothing is better than watching them grow in skill and confidence as they work along side you. We’re so glad that we get to spend time with our three, working together.
We’ve had an unexpected addition to the family ☘️🐑. She is a lot easier to look after than the other family members but she does try to escape her yard and head butt people. Poddy lambs are super cute but they tend to think they are a human. Clover the lamb is sure that Meg is her mum. Can’t think why… 🤔🤣
The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: toge The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: together, cooking damper around the remains of the bonfire.
It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got through shearing without a hitch (thankfully 🙏) but we’ve had a run of the flu followed by Covid run through the family since then. The kids and I have tested positive (this is my second time getting it 🦠) though so far C has managed to avoid it. There has been a lot of lying on the couch feeling pretty ordinary. Han had to reschedule her driving test for a 4th time due to Covid, which is disappointing for her because she wants her freedom and for us because it would be so much more convenient if she could drive herself places. Just to add in to the mix, our hot water system has chosen now as a good time to die so we’re on cold showers until we’re all out of iso. This is not meant to be a whinging post but sometimes life just sucks a bit and it’s good to be real. Fortunately, the sight of the fire going with a stack of wood next to it cheers us up. Things will improve soon. Onwards we go…
A picture perfect Autumn afternoon to end the scho A picture perfect Autumn afternoon to end the school holidays. We’ve been busy spending time with friends and family, harvesting the last of the summer produce, as well as a short escape to explore the big smoke. After the craziness of last term it was the break we all needed. It’s back to school for me tomorrow, and the kids are back on Wednesday. Shearing starts soon and so it’s all systems go over the next few weeks.
Covid has made some late changes to our weekend pl Covid has made some late changes to our weekend plans so we are embracing the unexpected and doing not much at home. Plenty of time for hanging out on the dam and enjoy the perfect weather.

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Hi, I’m Jo

City girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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