That will Make you Feel Like a Professional Chef!
One year for Christmas, my then boyfriend (now husband) got me a bunch of individually wrapped kitchen tools, some of which are on my list here. These are great presents for the cooks in your life. Pair one or two of these with a restaurant gift card and/or cookbook, and you’ve got a great theme going on!
In my opinion, these are items you may not think to necessarily purchase yourself. But they not only make cooking easier. They honestly make you feel like a professional! We watch our share of cooking shows, as if I haven’t said that before, and these very small gadgets and seasonings are often seen being used by the chefs on tv. They are all small, so would make great stocking stuffers too!
As the holidays quickly approach, and you and your family find yourselves in the kitchen more often, I really encourage you to add a bit of sophistication, flavor and ease to your cooking routines by incorporating some of these handy tools!
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1. Oil carafe.
We see people using these all the time on cooking shows. I got this set of two, and use one for regular olive oil and the other for an infused oil with hot peppers. These are designed to give you just the right amount of oil to grease a frying pan. Instead of pulling out your bottle of oil, unscrewing the cap and getting the right amount, just lightly pour from this beautiful bottle. It really seems to get the exact correct amount! If I’m cooking something calling for more than a quarter cup of oil, I’d still use the bottle, so I do have that on hand as well. But for just lightly oiling something on a sauce pan (vegetables, burgers, chicken…) this is perfect, and looks so elegant.
Another cooking show staple, I wouldn’t have thought this special salt would make such a difference in flavor. But so many contestants on shows I’ve watched get criticized routinely for food being “under-seasoned.” When you add just a pinch of these salt flakes after your dish is technically finished, the flavor just comes out so nicely. I love it on steak and chicken, and on roasted vegetables like carrots and potatoes.
‘Chopped salad’ is a thing these days, which is new from the days when we ate salads with some lettuce and veggies thrown on top. At our local salad shop, you can get truly anything on a salad (ahi tuna, yes please), and they don’t just mix it. They chop it very finely to get the pieces into perfect-sized bites and the dressing evenly distributed. SO good. We took inspiration from this idea and got our own salad chopper. It works really well! I think it’s fun to put out a bunch of interesting ingredients- proteins, veggies, nuts, toppings, and dressings. The girls pick out what they want in their salads, and we turn everything out onto the cutting board. Chop away for some delicious and healthy salads.
This is an excellent idea for when kids are home from college or otherwise in town- for the holidays maybe? I love things to be self-serve. So when they get up from sleeping until noon (!), you’ve got a ready made lunch idea that everyone can customize the way they want. Serve with a beautiful salad serving set. It’s a crowd pleaser for sure.
4. Garlic Press.
This little gadget changed my life. Again, something I might never have thought to buy, but here it showed up in the Christmas present. I cannot tell you how often I use this. Right before I got it, I was considering buying chopped garlic (like already prepared), because chopping garlic was truly one of the most maddening things. Many recipes call for it to be diced, meaning they want you to get it as finely chopped as possible. Good luck doing that with your standard chopping knife! And it makes such a mess. This press works beautifully. It gets the garlic the right size/consistency, and there is no mess with clean up. If you reverse the mechanism, it actually pushes the leftover garlic right out and can be cleaned super easily.
5. Salt container.
In addition to the finishing salt, when I use regular salt every day, I love using this special container, very similar to what you’ll see in cooking shows. They always say “a pinch” of salt, not a shake! So this cute wooden bowl has a sliding cover that keeps it fresh but is so easy to open with one hand while you’re in the middle of cooking. I can literally pinch some salt and throw it into whatever I’m making that calls for it so incredibly easily. I just love the design of this too. Anything wooden fits so nicely into my rustic kitchen.
6. Pepper string.
It’s funny, you can buy a fake pepper string, if you want your kitchen to look rustic and don’t care about actually using it. But shout out to my brother who actually sent me a real one that he made from his own home-grown peppers. I’ve since taken inspiration, and added this to the list of my daughters’ home-made presents for friends and family (more on home made gifts as we get a little closer to Christmas!). Having this string of yummy dried hot peppers handy brings some fun to your kitchen, and if you typically use crushed red peppers in your recipes, just chop one of these up- same flavor, just fresher. I use this on pizzas, pasta, salsas, guacamole, and soups, among other things!
7. Pepper grinder.
This is one most of you likely DO have, since they’ve become quite common. But I still feel like grinding fresh pepper elevates the pepper experience! There are so many styles now, but these wonderful wooden grinders are like restaurant-quality, and feel free to get the really BIG ones too. Ha. I love that some of the spice companies now combine various other flavors with the black pepper. This combination of pepper and garlic is PERFECT to have on hand when cooking, since those three seasonings marry perfectly together in so many dishes. So no need to pull out three containers- just grind them altogether and done.
8. Lemon squeezer.
Another more common tool in kitchens these days. I would say I use this WAY more than I ever imagined I might. Lemons, limes, oranges…it works wonderfully. My husband literally just used it and squeezed the lemon the traditional way (ie matching the shape of the juicer to the lemon), and then turned it the other way and got a lot more juice out. Hmm, I’ve used this forever and never thought of that! We make a lot of guacamole and corn and bean salad, which call for fresh lime juice. Lemon juice goes in anything Greek (potatoes, salad, hummus), and is so wonderful on top of baked fish.
I’m sure you’ve been out to a nicer restaurant where they waiters come around with that cool cheese grater, and ask you if you want any on your salad or pasta (Olive Garden!). This inspired me to get one, and I love using it. I put it out on the table for meals, especially if creating an Italian theme. This works beautifully with hard cheeses like Parmesan, Pecorino, or even sharp cheddar. Use it on bruschetta.
10. Indian spice box (Masala Dabba). If you are a fan of Indian food, I highly suggest adding this to your kitchen spice rack.
I felt weird about this cuisine a while back, because I didn’t love some of the dishes with kind of a mushy consistency. If you feel like I did, I urge you to try an Indian buffet where you can sample so many things. When I did this, I verified that, true, I do not like mushy eggplant. But I LOVE curry with cauliflower or chicken. And the tandoori chicken. OMG. There are some great Indian cookbooks, and if you’re perusing one, you will see many, if not most of the spices in this box on the ingredient lists. And they may not be too common in regular grocery stores, so save the aggravation and just have this whole set available in your kitchen. It’s so beautiful with all the colors! The oranges, reds and browns give a warm autumn feeling and brighten up the kitchen for sure.
I hope you enjoy your time cooking with family or friends during the holidays! Open a nice bottle of wine and savor the smells and flavors of the season. Hopefully you use some of these useful tools to make your experience a little easer and elegant. Enjoy!
my3girls 
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