I often get asked the question, “What should I have in my kitchen?”

One of my earliest posts was about kitchen knives and frying pans. Most people I assume will have the basics such as a selection of mixing bowls and a variety of pots. But there are a couple of small items that I have in my kitchen that I just couldn’t do without.

My kitchen utensils drawer is virtually exploding! My husband would love to throw that drawer out, no matter how often it gets organised it still ends up an absolute shambles (to be fair I probably don’t tidy it often enough, but I think it would be fair to say that he has never done it so…….) So yes, I have a tool for almost everything, but here are my absolute favourites that get used nearly every day.

So working from left to right we have:

A Chinese Spider Strainer

You can pick these up really cheap. They are generally sold in your local Asian Supermarket and are useful for performing so many functions but best for if you want to flash something but don’t want to drain the pot. For example - you have a large pot of boiling water on the go, and you want to blanch multiple vegetables that cook at different lengths in time; rather than tip that water out after each one and start again, you can work in batches and scoop the vegetables out instead.

A Citrus Squeezer

I love love love this one!!! Bought from Williams-Sonoma, so it’s heavy duty and has been going strong now for around 6 years or more. Guaranteed to squeeze every little drop out of your lemons and limes without the mess of getting juice all over your hands. Sure I’m happy to get my hands dirty, but nowadays I can’t stand getting citrus all over my hands. I have tried all the other tools and this one is by far the easiest, fastest, cleanest and most effective.

A Microplane

I would be lost without my microplane. The conventional grater very rarely gets used in my house. This little tool performs so much faster than a grater and has a much finer result. You also don’t lose half your product. For example - if you need to grate a piece of ginger you’ll be done in around 10 seconds and you won’t be spending any time picking all the ginger out from between the grooves, simply tap it out and bam! No waste, no fuss, move on to the next job. My favourite thing to do with the microplane is grated Parmesan - use one of these guys if you want that picture perfect, powdery mountain top look.

Spatulas

Undoubtedly a kitchen essential in every house but what I love the most about using a spatula is they will get right into the edges of any container and scoop almost everything out, leaving behind a minimal amount of waste.

Julienne Peeler

I am always thinking about the presentation when I am cooking and that often starts right at the very beginning when you are prepping a dish. I have always loved the perfect uniformity of a julienne slice, and while I can very quickly do this with a knife, I have been converted and now will happily cheat and use my peeler instead. It saves me 5 minutes which these days is gold but I am a touch faster than most with a knife so this little tool could save you heaps of time, and the result is perfect looking strips of veggies. Just don’t buy a cheap plastic one, spend an extra $5 and get a good stainless steel one that won’t fall apart on you.

A Few Great Tools