Welcome back! So, January arrived and barged it's way into our lives, opening all the windows and letting the fresh white light illuminate our kitchens. With the exciting prospect of a new year beginning we've rolled up our sleeves, tied on our aprons and are in the midst of making our kitchens look fabulous.
We've sorted all our utensils, and our cupboards are looking marvellous with bowls and colanders sitting pretty... now it's time to take a look at all those pots and pans!
Whether you keep them stacked on the shelves, or hanging from an overhead rack, I think we can all say that we have way more than we use..or would ever use even if we had three lifetimes...
You don't need mountains of pans to produce good food, they only produce good washing up!
So keep it simple, think quality not quantity and invest in a small selection of good pans that will allow you a wide range of cooking possibilities.
Lets start small and work our way up.
The Milk Pan is very useful, and not only for heating milk. This little gem is perfect for cooking small amounts of food, like eggs or peas and carrots. Or even to help judge single portions of pasta or rice. Take advantage of the pouring spout and use it for sauces and custards, and of course the classic hot chocolate.
For Hot Chocolate lovers...
Heat full fat milk in your milk pan, allow in to warm through and add three heaped teaspoons of your favourite hot chocolate. Using a balloon whisk, whisk the chocolate powder into the milk as it heats up. To create a frothy texture, position the whisk so it's standing straight up in the centre of the pan and place the palms of your hands together with the whisk handle in the middle. Roll the whisk in a quick motion between your hands. (Alternatively, you can use a hand held electric milk frother when the hot chocolate is in your cup.) When the hot chocolate is almost at boiling point (you will see it begin to rise) pour it straight into your favourite mug. Spoon the rest of the froth onto the top of the hot chocolate and sprinkle over some cinnamon sugar. If you're feeling extra decadent, which you always should be, try using Rice Milk for an even creamier taste and adding grated chocolate!
Kitcheners Tip Look out for Milk Pans with an all round pouring rim. This allows you to pour from any angle without messy drips, handy if you're making a thick custard that inevitably doesn't want to fit through a small pouring spout. This Le Creuset Milk Pan is a great choice, it's part of the 3-Ply range that has an aluminium core. This means the heat can spread through from the base to the rim of the pan with an efficiency that cooks your food gently and evenly.
A Sauté Pan is handy for when a frying pan is no good and a larger saucepan would be too much and too heavy. Choose a nice deep sauté pan with a lid, great for when you're frying large pieces of food or a lovely risotto. Le Creuset have this 3-Ply pan which is deep enough for poaching as well as benefiting from the all round pouring rim. However if you're after non-stick this one by Green Pan is also a good choice. It's very tough and great for high heat cooking thanks to it's ceramic non-stick coating.
How beautiful is This Sauté Pan? And because you're lovely... it's on sale!
Now, with all this talk of frying in sauté pans you might be starting to think you no longer have the need for a Frying pan. But just hold on a second. The frying pans slopping, shallow sides make flipping food over easy as you can use your spatula or fish slice to get underneath the food.
There are so many different types of frying pan, from beautifully chunky cast iron to sleek stainless steel, large and deep to small and shallow, non-stick to toughened non-stick. Click here for a great selection.
Kitcheners Tip Choose a frying pan with an oven proof handle, this means you can use your pan for recipes that need to be baked as well.
If the thought of all that oil in the frying pan leaves you a bit panicked, then it's time to grab a healthy Grill Pan. You can fry on them with very little oil and use them for searing food when you want the grill marks visible, it's a bit like barbecuing your food in the comfort of your pretty kitchen. You can buy electric grill pans or ones for the stove top. My favourites are the heavy duty cast iron grill pans for on top of the stove, easy to use and easy to clean.
Kitcheners Tip Season cast iron cookware well and avoid cleaning it with harsh soaps as they will strip it back. Some warm water and a cloth or kitchen towel is all you need.
Crepe Pans may seem slightly decadent at a first glance. I was the one every pancake day stubbornly clinging to my frying pan, batter thrown around the kitchen and dripping from my hair in my attempt to flip the pancakes with the same ease as my favourite chefs on TV.
However, I have since come to realise that the fact of the matter is, if one eats as many pancakes as I do then one deserves to be able to flip them without hurting ones back.
So maybe a crepe pan is a little bit unnecessary if you only bring in out once a year, however if you're prone to the regular urge for sweet and savoury crepes and pancakes, this is a pan it makes a lot of sense to own.
Ask for this pan as a gift, or simply buy it for yourself for being so wonderful!
Kitcheners Tip check out our website for yummy recipes! And please tweet us (@cheltkitchener) with any yummy recipes of your own!
It's good to have a couple of Meduim Sized Saucepans. For everyday use when you're boiling vegetables or pasta, mashing potatoes or need to have a lot of different things cooking at the same time. Remember, even if you're only cooking something simple in them, good quality saucepans are much more pleasant to work with, making cooking so much easier and quicker.
Here's a wide range of saucepans to inspire you!
The Casserole Dish is probably my favourite pan. Why? Because of it's large size, making it perfect for all those warming soups and thick stews. Because of it's double handles, making it easy to lift from the top of the hop into the oven. Because of the fact that they can transfer so happily from hob to oven, they're so versatile. Use them to fry onions, garlic and peppers and carrots, then add pulses and water and use it to simmer, and finally smother on mashed potato and paprika and use it in the oven to finish off your pie. Mmm, perfect!
And did I mention how pretty the Le Creuset Cast Iron dishes are? So homely and welcoming! We have 15% off Le Creuset Cast Iron at the moment too! Choose from beautiful colours, from the classic Volcanic Orange to the sleek Nutmeg and more!
And finally, a Roasting/Baking Dish is a must have. Now I know it's not technically a pan, but a good baking dish is just as important as a good saucepan. Choose the size that's convenient for you, ideally you could have one for everyday use and a much larger one for when you're cooking to feed lots, like at Christmas. Use it for roasting all the vegetables and meats that take your fancy!
Ceramic dishes can be beautiful when using them to roast and then serve in. However if you choose a dish that's suitable for direct heat source, it makes it easy to bring it from the oven and onto the hob when making gravy. This Roasting Dish is great for oven to hob as it's tough so won't warp and the non-coated surface means it will last much longer.
Stay tuned for the next part of A Good Year For Cooking! Where we'll be looking at which electrical items are handy to have sitting pretty and which are handy for gathering dust...
All of the products mentioned above can be found in our shop and many on our website!
http://www.kitchenercookware.com/
Millie Fraser
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