Must have kitchen gadgets

MRSMCAWBER

Looyates...

The pasta maker is great... mind you the frist time i used it ,i got the mix wrong-the machine stuggled to push it through the cutter, and ended up firing the cutter out of the end and shooting my mum..:rotfl: good job there were no kiddies about they would have ended up looking like a cyclops :eek:

Skint_Catt

Excuse my blondeness but whats a pressure cooker?

I couldn't do without my huge flat frying pan thingy (handles on each side instead of one) - great for batch making currys and chilli!

Hapless_2

My Kenwood, my rayburn, my vacuum sealer (a bargain from Westfalia), my wok, my breadmaker, my electric tin opener, my huge collection of wooden spoons...can't live without them!
I have so many gadgets, all essential when my arms flare up, that the council are putting me some more cupboards in!

lbt_2

I have just started using my slow cooker again too - I love it and can't believe it was hidden away for so long. I love my french knife and sharpener, and my electric whisk.

What could I do without? Well, to be honest ... anything that produces a lot of washing up!!! I can't bear washing up and now it's a consideration anytime I buy something new.

Hope this helps

My hubby is less than impressed with the amount of kitchen bits I have accumulated too

rockie4

Stick blender, processor, kenwood chef (for batch baking cakes) and my set of Club heavy duty pans - now 28 years old and used every day!!:D
I could live without the mandolin slicer - used once and I cut myself :eek: and the potato ricer which looked so nice but is a b*gger to clean. Oh, and the electric steamer since I bought a cheapy aluminium one from Morrisons.

ceridwen

Where's the wok?!! Couldnt do without my wok. Also use my electric steamer constantly. Also useful (but in secondary league to me personally) are a slowcooker and pressurecooker.

culpepper

My favourite is the food processor closely followed by the bread maker,the processor is great for making pasta dough, pastry ,biscuit mix etc and the breadmaker is only used for bread. I got the bread machine as it can handle a whole loaf worth of bread dough in one go whilst my processor motor would struggle to knead that amount of dough..
We have one of those hand cranked slicers with the big round blade a bit like a circular saw. That is excellent for slicing the bread evenly and also handy for slicing meats really thinly.
We have a dishwasher that we were given from a freecycle list which is super handy as it stops me thinking about how much washing up is generated from OS cooking. I have seen quite a few on the list ,I think people replace them when they replace their cabinets.

Irisheyes648

My slow cooker
3 tier steamer.......gets used nearly every day
Toaster
Kettle
Wok

Not in any order of preference.

Olliebeak

Skint_Catt wrote: »

Excuse my blondeness but whats a pressure cooker?

Hi Skint_Catt

A pressure cooker is a large pan with a strong lid that forms a seal. You only need a small amount of water in the pan because once it starts to build up steam you place pressure weights on top of the airvent in the lid. This causes a build-up of high pressure steam inside the pan which really speeds up the cooking time.

Normally a 'pan of scouse' takes around three hours to cook on top of the cooker. In my slow-cooker it takes around 8 hours (but uses very little fuel). In the pressure cooker it takes around 20 - 30 mins! It can take longer to prepare the vegetables for the meal than it takes to cook them!!

I think they have been considered a bit 'old-fashioned' for a few years now - but I learned to cook using my grandmother's back in the 60's and also had one for many years when my children were young. When my eldest was a baby - I used it for sterilising his bottles - wonderful because cheap to use and NO CHEMICALS only steam!!!

I bought my present one last Christmas (a present to myself!).

kittyscarlett

The person that said they'd be buried with their wand blender made me laugh, that's my exact attitude :P I really am not a gadget person but I get a LOT of use out of mine - I love making soups of all kinds and that comes in very handy, also for making up smoothies/fresh fruit shakes at a fraction of the shop cost. Also my electric steamer - again I get a lot of use out of, mainly steaming chicken and veggies, and cos it has a timer, very safe and no danger of anything boiling over.

Apart from that I would very much go with a couple of really good quality knives, a good sized sturdy saucepan and as decent a frying/saute/wok pan as you can afford. I can understand the people that swear by food processors, and I imagine they can be pretty handy especially when trying to prep food in bulk quickly, but have to admit am lazy and can't be bothered with the faff of cleaning all the bits afterward :P

Have never got on well with breadmakers and still retain mediaval stylee fear of pressure cookers going kaboom. I keep thinking from time to time I'll get a slow cooker again... had one years ago but I don't think I used it very much.