What makes a cooking utensil essential? For a home
cook, that can be as subjective as the type of foods they like to prepare and
eat. Sure, a couple of skillets and a pot can take care of most of the sautéing
and simmering, but it is always worth taking inspiration from kitchens across
the globe to finish filling out our cabinets and drawers.
اضافة اعلان
Every culture comes with its own set of beloved tools that
are inextricable from the foods that define it. Here are a few indispensable utensils
that complete the kitchens of four cooking experts.
A space-saving rice paper dipping bowl
Cookbook author and writer Andrea Nguyen swears by her Mr Spring
Roll — a generic name for a rice paper dipping bowl found in many Vietnamese
homes. The attractive and inexpensive bowl is semicircular and narrow. To use
it, you partially fill it with warm water before dunking rice paper in it.
“It’s a great way to save space on the table and your work
surface,” said Nguyen, who lives in Santa Cruz, California. “It keeps the water
pretty warm because there’s less surface area exposing the water to cooling and
evaporations.”
Andrea Nguyen with her most beloved kitchen utensil, her rice paper dipping bowl, at her home.
The bowl includes a side caddy to store rice paper sheets.
Nguyen admits she’s not a fan of rolling numerous spring rolls, and would rather
let people have fun preparing them in their own style. She suggests setting out
a couple of Mr. Spring Rolls on the table along with all of the fillings for a
do-it-yourself dinner party.
A closet’s worth of mortars and pestlesShayma Owaise Saadat’s collection of mortars and pestles are
essential in her kitchen. “I have been collecting them for years and each one
has a different use,” said Saadat, a Pakistani Afghan recipe developer and
writer who lives in Toronto. She prefers using a large granite mortar and
pestle for a typical green Pakistani- and Afghan-style chutney, rather than a
food processor. The green chiles, fresh cilantro, and garlic break down easier
against its abrasive surface.
Shayma Owaise Saadat, who uses mortars and
pestles to make chutneys and spice blends, at her home.
“What I love most about it is that the oils from herbs and
spices are preserved,” she said.
She also uses the granite mortar and pestle to finely grind
dry spices like coriander seeds, cardamom, and whole cumin for her
Pakistani-style spice mix for curries. Saadat, who is of Persian heritage, has
a dedicated brass mortar and pestle to finely grind saffron and a Japanese
suribachi for crushing cardamom. “I need a closet just for the mortar pestles
in my kitchen,” she said, laughing.
A comal worth traveling with
Karla Tatiana Vasquez depends on her Salvadoran clay comal
every day. The comal, a round griddle, is indispensable in a Salvi kitchen,
said Vasquez, a cookbook author and writer. Made of volcanic clay, like
Vasquez’s, or metal, traditional comals are found in kitchens throughout
Central America and Mexico.
On a recent trip to El Salvador, Vasquez purchased a new
clay comal and traveled back to her home in Los Angeles with it. “I had to wrap
my precious comal very carefully in my clothes so I could have some kind of
assurance that it would make it,” she said.
Karla Tatiana Vasquez with her clay comal, which
she uses to prepare dishes like Salvadoran tortillas, at her home.
Vasquez uses her comal to prepare tortillas, grill
vegetables, toast bread, and to simply reheat foods like pancakes.
She says the comal’s ability to transform leftovers made
lugging it around worth it.
“It gets things really crispy and brings life back into the
food.”
Knives like grandma’s
For Rosetta Costantino, a cookbook author and culinary
instructor specializing in Calabrian cuisine, nonna knives, or grandmother
knives, have always been a part of her kitchen. The inexpensive and colorful
serrated paring knives are adored in Italian, South Asian and Iranian kitchens,
and beyond.
Rosetta Costantino with one of her nonna knives, or
grandmother knives, which she uses daily, at her home.
“Now you see chef’s knives everywhere in Italy,” Costantino
said. “But 20 years ago, you couldn’t even find a chef’s knife to buy. Only the
chefs had them, but all the home cooks, all they used was the nonna knife.”
Costantino, who lives in Oakland, California, brings back a
pack of the knives whenever she visits Italy. They are lightweight and perfect
for chopping, slicing, and peeling just about anything, but especially fruit.
“They’re extremely sharp, and they magically never seem to
get dull,” Costantino said.
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