Food and Cooking

Anyone here that hasn't said silicone spatula better get online shopping right freaking now. SILICONE SPATULA SUPREMACY 🙏🙏🙏🙏

Probably just my chef knife. But that's an obvious and boring answer.

My choice would be my hand blender. I use it for making any dips, many sauces (it is made out of metal) and it also got a blender attachment for shredding vegetables. One of the best investments I made for my kitchen.

I got a really simple one, but it's been incredibly helpful. Get the biggest damn bowl you can find, like unreasonably large, that is your new mixing bowl. I always find myself half way through a recipe with no bowl space left, therefore more dishes. My bowl looks like it could be an outside dogs water bowl it's so big. Now with big bowl, I grab it every time and never have to switch, the only downside is finding somewhere to hide it.

My 10" cast iron Lodge skillet. It's great! And don't believe all the people who claim that you have to devote most of your life to taking care of your cast iron. They're cast iron for God's sake! Pioneers took them all the way across America in their Conestoga wagons. Just don't leave them wet or stick them in a dishwashing machine, and you're fine!

I own very expensive knives. I bought them when I was single and had a good income. I have taken very good care of them and they are great knives to this day.

The first knife I always reach for is my $15 Chinese cleaver.

I've been using a Lido 2 hand grinder for coffee every morning for almost 12 years now. More recently (~7 years) I've settled on using a Chemex to actually make my coffee. I'll likely keep using this setup for the rest of my life.

I also have a cast iron and I struggle with seasoning because all the burners I've ever used are just a bit too small for it (common electric ones). Soon I'll buy a torch (like for making Crème Brûlée) and maybe some sunflower oil to experiment on getting a reaallly nice coating on it. Sunflower oil has I higher burn temperature, so I'm thinking it will improve the longevity of the coating, but we'll see.

Appliance: Electric kettle. (they are uncommon in the US) It's well worth the counter space and easier to get boiling water than a pot on the stove, or to pre-heat water I add to a pan.

Non-appliance: Cheapo but sharp chef's knife, spatula, and kitchen tongs (great for grabbing hot lids too!).

An unexpected one for me was my air fryer. I thought it would be very situational and gimmicky, but I use it all the time. It's basically a small second oven that cooks food faster, uses less energy, and doesn't take forever to preheat

My electric kettle is almost always on. One with stay warm function and temperature control is great to accommodate the different temps I may want for various teas or coffee. It's also useful for speeding up cooking when I need to get a pot of water boiling.

I can't necessarily recommend a specific one though, my old gooseneck spout kettle was great for pouring but the screws holding the handle in place rusted out and the plastic clips broke. My current one is insolated to help stay warm longer which is nice but the plastic lid has begun deteriorating. The only advice I could really offer is find something with as little plastic as possible in it's construction, especially where it may touch water or steam.

A ramekin full of salt on the counter.

I've got Zojirushi instant hot-water maker and their bread machine that both get a lot of use. And I recently picked up some random brand one-top induction cooktop that has taken most of the action away from our older electric stove. But the one thing you would have to pry from my cold dead hands would be the rack of cast iron cookware. At least one or two of the pans there get used every day.

I have become an air fryer believer. Yes, it's basically a convection toaster oven, but SOMEHOW it works 100x better. That, my instant pot, and my stand mixer are my life. Air fryer to quickly make chicken nuggets for my picky children, instant pot for rice and beans, and my stand mixer for bread. We love carbs.

In order: Drip coffee pot so old the label is gone and I have no clue what brand it is but the little champ keeps going, the flexible cutting board my brother in law got us, and the kitchen knife with a bent tip that somehow cuts better than all the other knives even when the other knives are freshly sharpened and it isn't.

Microplaner.

I love throwing garlic in my food. Grab two pieces, put them through the planer, and bam, you got fresh garlic paste.

Plus hard cheese, citrus zest, all the good stuff. Cleaning is also a breeze.

Kitchen Aid mixer. Versatile as hell, we use it for so many things. Making pulled meat is a LOT easier to toss into the bowl and flip a switch than it is to do by hand.

My rice cooker! It takes the guesswork out of making brown / mixed grain rice and the cleanup is 123!

After years of thinking about getting one, I got a cheap ($12) japanese rice washer. It's amazing! I make a lot more rice than I used to and the washer is so simple and just works so well. It also doubles as a regular colander whenever needed.

I'm embarrassed, but...my microwave gets a lot of use. I meal prep and reheat a lot, though sometimes I get fancy and finish in the toaster oven. I also bake all my bread, and the kitchenaid is invaluable for kneading all that dough.

The most esoteric tool I use on the reg is probably the whirley pop, it makes the best stovetop popcorn, which I snack on at least a couple times a week.

My carbon steel pans are used almost every day. I've got a 32 cm wok for stir frying, deep frying and blanching big portions. And i got a 28 cm debuyer mineral b for searing meat and fish.

Skillet and sharp knives!!

I’d say aside from my chef knife and various coffee related implements, the MVP in my kitchen is undoubtedly my enamel cast-iron Dutch oven.

My cast iron pan. I use it for everything that doesn't need to be done in a pot. Even things I probably shouldn't do in a cast iron like stir fry I do anyways because it's just already there and convenient.

Chefs knife. It’s virtually the only knife I use outside of a bread knife.

I'll go with: High quality burr coffee grinder.

I bought it in 2004 or so, it gets used daily, and still works like new.

Only thing I've ever done is replace the burrs a few weeks ago cause they were getting dull. Was an easy job and the burrs were pretty inexpensive.

My Breville Toaster Oven. I rarely use my regular oven since it's so much more efficient, and fits 90% of what I cook in a house of 2 people. The air fryer function works really well (obviously not quite as good as a dedicated one).

My coffee grinder, french press, and electric kettle.

My husband was gifted a powerful Ninja blender and I constantly use it for some vegan cooking. I made plant-based cheese sauce, hamburgers, deli slices, and copycat just egg with it yesterday. Also very handy for quick smoothies!

My 10 inch cast iron pan

Probably my gas (well we have LPG here) hob because I suffered with an electric hob for so long in my last place.

Or possibly my stainless steel copper bottom sautée pan but my husband just scoured that with steel wool (you can probably imagine the stunned look on my face). I want to get some cast iron cookware but stainless steel is so versatile for sauces and risotto.

Our Instapots are lifesavers, love them so much

Every morning, we rotate between a Bialetti moka pot + an Espro P3 french press for coffee depending on what level of expression/mouthfeel we're craving out of our beans that day.

For cooking uses, my most used gadgets are:

• a Ninja digital air fryer to toast/crisp things on the fly.
• a Instant Pot to pressure cook beans or meat when meal prepping.
• a Zojirushi for plain or zhushed up rices for meal prep also.
• a FoodSaver sealer is also used on the reg every time we restock on meat in the freezer or need to store leftovers.

Also coffee related now that I'm thinking on it...

• an OXO water kettle to heat water for coffee either way we make it.
• a microwave to heat up milk for coffee every morning + to reheat meals throughout the day.
• a Baratza Encore to flipflop between diff grind sizes.

Holy Jesus, I will be shit out of luck during the next power outage that happens.

My Vitamix blender. (Same one Starbucks uses)

I use it for so many different things but the most popular item is my homemade milkshakes. Kids love them and it’s perfect for them.

Definitely my slow cooker; I don't have a ton of time to actually cook (three birds who stick to me like glue will do that), so I can just throw some ingredients into the crockpot and have dinner done w/o much effort or having to wrangle the flock out of the kitchen.

My most used kitchen items are also my coffee setup. Gaggia classic and eureka mingon. Used at least once a day

Recently made the leap to get a relatively expensive ($60NZD / $40USD) variable temperature kettle. Being able to keep the water warm while I take a shower or get coffee/green tea at the right temperature has been such a quality of life improvement!