Kitchen Gadgets

Sometime back, when I wrote couple of posts about tips, one of the readers had asked about a post on kitchen gadgets. So, here it is.
We all have too many kitchen gadgets that we might not use often. I am just writing about the stuff that I have and how much use I make out of these.

I would not live without my pressure cooker any day. This cuts down the cooking time and is very energy efficient too. Since the cooking is done by steam, it retains nutrients better compared to stove top cooking. A pressure cooker is a must in any kitchen if you ask me.

Next gadget that gets used the most is my blender. I have a blender that I brought from India. It comes with three jars which have different uses. I wouldn't say this gadget is a must unless you are pureeing and grinding a lot of ingredients. It is a must if you are a smoothie lover and make a lot of them or if you are Asian Indian.

I would definitely suggest a spice grinder or a coffee grinder in every kitchen. A small inexpensive coffee grinder saves a lot of time in powdering spices. It actually saves you money in the long run. Spice powders are expensive compared to whole spices that you buy. You make a powder yourself and save money on that.

Then comes the food processor. I use food processor for making hummus, pie crust, pesto and some times to make chapathi dough too. I have used it for chopping vegetables but I do not like the consistency of the final chopped vegetables. I use this extensively when I make Pav Bhaji in which vegetables are all mushed up. I wouldn't say you must have it, but it does save some time. (Sometimes you can do many of the tasks by hand faster if you consider time taken to wash them up) You can use this to make fruit purees where you do not want to add water.

I do have a wet grinder which I do not think is required in every kitchen. So,we'll not talk about it here.

Coming to the stand mixer, I have one that can mix up buttercream using 7 pounds of confectioner's sugar. It can also mix enough cake batter to bake 2 13 X 9 cakes or 4 9" round cakes at one time. Is it a must? definitely not. But if you are into baking cakes regularly, you might consider investing in this. A hand mixer does a pretty good job except that it incorporates too much of air into the baked goods. I do not prefer using hand mixer for making buttercream since it creates too many air bubbles which will make smoothing the surface hard.

I do have a mandoline slicer with many different blades. I do not use it very often. Is it a must? no. But will it save you some time? Yes. But be very careful when you use this. I have cut my hands too many times while using this.

I have many friends who use lot of slicers and choppers, but I find it easy to do it with a knife than use these choppers. I will have to clean the whole bowl after I am done. If you are one of those who do not mind cleaning up the gadgets, have fun shopping around for these if you don't already have them.

And I am not mentioning another most used gadgets in my kitchen, my bread machine. You can read all about it here.

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