I admit…I am a bit of a foody both in regards to hardware but certainly also in regards to “software”. My husband has always joked, that the “gear” is the battle half won.
In other words – Our kitchen is well equipped!
And I do admit that this does help me when cooking up a broad variety of meals. It helps not having to think too much about buying extras and if you have your utensils and spices in place it does open the doors to a larger variation when cooking. However – many of these recipes do focus on everyday produce and the idea is to try to learn to use whatever you have in stock. In general – I would find it a huge success if you could read a recipe think “..uh..I don’t have this but maybe that will work instead… “.
Anyhow – in my kitchen, basics are as follows:
Kitchen utensils
- Asian wok
- Frying pan
- Pots of various sizes
- Hand blender
- Vegetable chopper
- Whisks
- Oven Proof dishes
- Salad bowls
- Good knifes of various sizes
- Wooden spoons (I always use wood to protect the surface of pots and pans
- One metal laddle for the wok
- Potato peeler
- Food processor, – although I don’t use this very often
- Hand mixer
Spices, grains and oils
- Salt and Pepper
- Ground cumin, cardamom, coriander, paprika, smoked paprika, ground nutmeg, curry, oregano, rosemary, thyme
- baking powder
- baking soda
- Olive oil, rapeseed oil, sesame oil (the good asian one)
- Light soy
- Wheat flour
- Rye flour
- Corn starch
- Brown sugar
- sugar
- fish sauce
- Chicken, beef and vegetable stock cubes
- pasta
Fresh and dried produce
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Chili (if I don’t use it immediately, I will hang then to dry)
- a pot of basil
- during summer, I will often plant some parsley, thyme, rosemary and sage (which I will pick and hang to dry in the kitchen in small batches).
- eggs
- milk
- cream
- nuts of various sorts
- dried mushrooms
- sesame seeds
- onions
Freezer
- Smoked bacon
- Chicken breast
Canned foods
- Sun-dried tomatoes
- tomato paste
- canned tomatoes
Of course these basics are not always enough and I buy specifics if I need to cook up a certain dish. But then I add those to the collection as well 😉