10 steps to (better) cooking: Gear up!

10 steps to better cooking, On the Spotlight, ,

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If you want to drive a car you need an engine.

If you want to hike a mountain, you need the right shoes and equipment.

If you want to bike, you need a working bicycle.

But if you want to to cook most people is convinced you don’t need anything if not a few pan. That is not true! Especially if you are not a trained chef, you need much more, at least to speed things up.

Basic kitchen equipment

Pans

  • At least 2 pan for sauté and fry: low edges, flat bottom, non-stick (better ceramic or glass), with lids
  • 1 Dutch oven or cast iron casserole, with lid
  • 1 big pot, with high edges, to cook pasta, with lid
  • 1 medium pot, for sauces and creams, with lid
  • 1 little pot to boil water, with lid
  • 1 cast iron griddle, heavy, to grill meat, fish and veggy

Some pans are not essentials but will come handy, such as:

  • a wok, perfect for quick stir fry, with lid
  • a pressure cooker

Small home appliance

  • 1 stand mixer, with all the good attachments, like cutter, grater, whisk… It will save you so much time!
  • 1 hand mixer, to blend anything anywhere
  • 1 electronic scale that can weight at least 5 kilos

Knives

  • 1 little knife, with a blade long 15 centimetres
  • 1 big knife, with a blade long 25 centimetres

Divers

  • 2 plastic chopping boards, 1 little, 1 big
  • 3-4 mixing bowls of different measures, better in glass
  • 1 funnel
  • 1 measuring glass
  • 1 rubber spatula
  • 2 glass or ceramic oven dish
  • 1 oven-tray
  • 1 hand whisk
  • 1 masher
  • 1 colander
  • 1 round baking tin with a high side
  • 1 medium sieve

Quality

Do not buy cheap pans, appliances or knives!

Cooking with a good quality pan and cutting with a good knife will save you time and give you much more pleasure then cooking with a low qaulity pan where everything sticks and cutting yourselves along with the onion!

Believe me when I say that a very heavy griddle is much better than a light on: it will substitute the BBQ during winter, cooking everything perfectly!

For the home appliance, do not go for anything with less than 700kw of power, even the hand mixer: you’ll see the difference!