A Fiend for Food

Don't buy it!

A BRIEF GUIDE TO A HOME COOK'S EQUIPMENT

To cook, first I must shop, right?

No, don’t do it! It might be shiny, it might look good in the Heal's catalogue, but believe me: you are not going to use that seven-tier electric steamer. I promise you, your yogurt maker will – after a few forays into the happy world of runny, white goo – will be boxed up and left untouched for ever more.

OK, I’ll let you have the melon baller. It’s only small and can be hidden in your utensils drawer. But beware the insidious market in kitchen paraphernalia:

• Your kitchen work-surfaces are for work, not enough electrical goods to shame a branch of Comet. Keep them clear of all but the most essential equipment (which for me, is a coffee machine and a wine rack and nothing else).
• Cupboards, similarly, are for cups. OK, not just cups: we’ll extend the definition to: pans, cooking dishes, crockery, and – unless you’re blessed with an actual larder – ingredients. We won’t extend the definition to: anything that comes with a main’s plug and advertises itself as “labour-saving”.
• “Gadget” is a code word. It’s shorthand for something you think you need, but actually don’t. Save yourself an eBay auction in two years’ time and leave it alone.

Instead, let’s look at a short list of things you might actually need:

Wusthof's range of classic German knives	A razor sharp knife. You can't do anything without a decent knife, I'm afraid. So put that bread knife that you've been using to chop onions back in the drawer and get something designed for the job. Try Stellar's good, but affordable range if you don’t have much cash; Wusthof if you do. If you can afford a selection (cook’s knife, paring knife, serrated knife, filleting knife) great. If not, get a medium sized, multi-purpose cook’s knife. Not a sword that’s going to take your fingers off if you have to turn some potatoes; but neither the kind of penknife that’s defeated by a particularly firm carrot.
Something to keep it sharp. Get a sharpener from the same maker as your knife. Try a sharpening steel if you like an element of danger and are not massively attached to your fingers. If not, one of those plastic things with the sharpening steel’s enclosed. In case anyone tells you different: the sharper the knife, the safer it is.		And here's Wusthof's matching sharpener
T&G do a nice line in end grain boards	A heavy, large, wooden chopping board. Not glass (imagine the noise!) and not plastic (imagine the scratches!), but wood. Wash, clean and dry it after every use and it will last for a very long time. You can try just a plain, flat board that's basically planks of wood glued together. If you can, though, try to find the sort pictured: this is an "end grain" board by T&G, which means that the wood is cut across the grain. It's stronger, resistent to warping, and can be sanded down if it becomes too scratched.
A heavy sauté pan and a cast iron casserole dish. Yes, save the money you were going to spend on the sorbet machine and buy some decent cookware instead! Le Creuset stuff is widely available and has a last-a-lifetime kind of feel about it. Their pans - made of heavy, cast iron - get very hot on a low heat, and keep that heat well. You can use them on the stove and in the oven as well for added versitility. While you’re at it, pick up a wooden spoon to use with them as well!		Lot's of fun stuff to be had at Le Creuset This is their large sauté pan in tasteful black
	A metal sieve. Believe or not, this is the only thing you need to make decent pastry and pasta. You can do without a rolling pin (sub with a wine bottle) or a pastry cutter (cup and knife), but you can’t do without sieved flour. It is also irreplaceable when it comes to straining pasta, vegetables, stocks and sauces. Where to buy one? Almost everywhere sells metal sieves, and it doesn't have to be a fancy chef one. Just make sure it's sturdy enough to survive some heavy pressing.
A digital probe thermometer. But surely it’s a gadget isn’t it?! Well maybe, but it will make a surprising difference to the accuracy of your cooking. Doing a roast chicken? Shove the thermometer into the leg to know when it’s cooked, but not dry. Steak? Perfectly rare at 45oC every time. Confiting, making caramel, deep-fat frying, cooking meringue – they’re never going to be right until you use an accurate, digital thermometer. Mine’s a Thermapen, and it is just perfect.		I adore my Thermapen and do use it almost every day

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