Kitchen gadgets ...what is/is not essential

Lucie_2

Electric steamer - use it occasionally but the steamer baskets take up far too much room in the dishwasher. For a small amount of food to be steamed I still use my old bamboo steamer over a pan of water (normally with spuds in it). The electric one was my Mum's so didn't cost me anything.

Espresso/cappuccino maker - currently loitering in the garage waiting for a car boot sale. I prefer a cafetiere. Again, it was my Nana's so no cost to me.

Smoothie maker - use it a lot, especially in summer. Costco cheapie.

Ice cream maker - new purchase (another costco special). Maybe just novelty value for now..........

Stick blender - use for blending soup, mixing pancake / yorkshire pud batter. Even more useful is the mini processor that came with it.

Food processor - another inherited gadget. Use it for making coleslaw mostly.

Hand whisk - cost less than a tenner & is used for whisking egg whites. That's about it.

Breadmaker - I did borrow my Mum's for a while & nice as the bread was, we only ever used it on a weekend. Decided not to buy one. We just don't eat enough bread.

Confession time: I don't have a slow cooker!!??? Am I to be cast out from old style forever??

The_Biff

Hand grater - useful for breadcrumbs, grated cheese, coleslaw etc. & only a couple of quid!

calleyw

Lucie wrote:

Confession time: I don't have a slow cooker!!??? Am I to be cast out from old style forever??

well I will have to join you as I don't have a slow cooker and really still am on the fence about if it is really useful to me.


Yours

Calley

moggins

Don't bother getting a juicer, I used mine for the first time ever today and it tooklonger to clean it than it did making the juice. Plus I worked out that I can buy 2 cartons of Asda juice for what it cost me to make 3 small glasses full.

Luckily it only cost me a couple of quid from a bootsale.

nearlyrich

My slow cooker, breadmaker,ice cream maker, toastie maker and contact grill were a waste of time and money, they all live in relatively unaccessable cupboards as we don't use them much.

Electric knife, stick blender, food processor, hand mixer get regular use.

We could live without the coffee maker and the hostess trolley but they are great at Christmas and dinner parties.

In my opinion if the gadget is easy to use & clean and has an accessable home it is much more likely to get used.

My favorite gadget right now is this one.....:beer:

Str4berr3

The_Biff wrote:

Hand grater - useful for breadcrumbs, grated cheese, coleslaw etc. & only a couple of quid!

when making breadcrumbs, does it have to be really, really stale? i hate grating.....

Rebob

Pressure cooker - use it just like I did my slow cooker but in a 10th of the time. Freebie I had given.

Hand mixer - Used whenever I bake which is not too often as we cannot stop eating it! £3 from the car boot. Bought it as it was the same as mums which was still as good as ever at 25 years old.

Hand blender - Use it more than I did my fp and it is quicker to clean and store.

Smiley_Mum

I have a small Kenwood Food Processor with a couple of different blades etc, I use it every day more or less when I'm making muffins, biscuits, chopping veg etc for stuff I'm making in the slow cooker, making milkshakes, grating cheese, carrots, chopping nuts etc etc. It's only a small one but does me fine and doesn't take up a lot of space on the counter. My slow cooker gets used every other day. I do have a stick blender but don't really use it too much, use the food processor more. Have a juicer and that gets used infrequently, so long as it is cleaned straight after use then it is fine. I like carrot juice which costs a bomb in the supermarket etc and is usually loaded with other things, sweetners etc which I don't like. I have a toastie maker which very rarely comes out of the cupboard, it was a free gift years ago.

Link to small FP that I have and it's great for all the mixing, chopping, blending etc that I do more or less on a daily basis.

http://www.eastwestintl.com/proddetail.asp?pid=2593

Sheel

Smiley_Mum wrote:

I have a small Kenwood Food Processor with a couple of different blades etc

I've got one of those too , but I hardly ever use it

my most loved and used gadget has to be my 3 tier electric steamer. It is used 3/4 times a week.

With out I would be lost and spend time hovering in the kitchen watching pans to make sure they don't boil over.

Ditto

I also love my electric egg boiler and my George Foreman grill although I hate having to clean the latter :rolleyes:

raeble

ka7e wrote:

Pressure cooker and another pressure cooker!

Yes, pressure cookers are great. I honestly don't understand why everyone doesn't have them. They cook things in about half the time of cooking on the stove and everything is lovely and moist (unless you let it dry out and burn) - meat just falls of the bone. You've reminded me that I need to get a stainless steel pressure cooker.

I have a breadmaker and braun hand blender kit which I go through phases of using. I have a three tier steamer - electric which I never use. I do have a microwave steamer which I use occasionally. I have a small kenwood blender which I rarely use but I have a very small kitchen and not much worktop space.