Gourmet Meals in Crappy Little Kitchens Read Free Page A

prevent accidents, but if you don’t own a knife sharpener it’s not a necessity, since most places that sell knives can either sharpen them for you or refer you to someone who can. For cooking at home, I do not buy expensive knives. Shop for a comfortable, stainless steal knife priced around $40–$50, and you’ll be pleased with your purchase.
    Bread knife
    Because it has a serrated edge, a bread knife can cut up a whole rib eye or carve a turkey, not to mention slice bread. Plus you’ll need this tool for slicing cake layers whenever you can’t find the dental floss (more on that later).
    Paring knife
    A paring knife, with its compact blade, is perfect for cutting small vegetables like radishes or for deveining shrimp.
    Cutting board
    For years, wood cutting boards received a bad rap because they were believed to harbor bacteria. As the proud owner of an heirloom wooden cutting board, I reserved its use for cutting vegetables, while using a plastic one for meat. New research refutes the old notion that wood is bad, and now scientists claim that wood, especially bamboo, actually has antibacterial properties. Cleaning a wooden cutting board is a breeze, just wipe it down with a soapy rag and give it a quick rinse with cool water. Very Crappy Little Cleanup friendly! Buy one good-size bamboo cutting board, and base that on how much counter space you have to lay it out on when in use. Mine is one by two feet, but if you don’t have enough counter space for something that big, you can set it over two burners of your stove to chop and have very easy access to the pot next to you. If you have too many burners working, just place the board on a towel draped over your sink (the towel is to keep the board from slipping while you chop).
    Bowls
    I recommend buying one nestling set of three or four stainless steel mixing bowls. The very largest is for whipping cream, tossing vegetables in marinade, dressing a salad, or mixing a cake. The smallest is for stirring together the cornstarch and water for thickening your soup or whisking a couple of eggs for a small frittata. I like to have two in-between sizes, because I use them frequently and often need them both at the same time.
    Glass bowls can go in the microwave and work well as double boilers but can also break and send glass shards all over your CLK. Ceramic bowls chip and break easily, are very heavy, and take up more room because of their thickness. Plastic can go in the microwave but can’t go on or in the stove, and looks cheap and can stain. However, stainless steel is best because it won’t break, can be used on the stove, and it takes up the least room when stacked together. A stainless steel bowl gets a good chill in the freezer, which makes it perfect for whipping cream, and if you don’t beat them up too badly, they look very nice as serving bowls. Check out the next section to see what you need for melting chocolate in the microwave.
    Measuring cups
    One four-cup measuring cup set will take care of all your wet ingredient measuring needs. Make sure to buy a non-breakable, heat resistant one. Because of its high tolerance to heat, this measuring cup can go in the microwave for melting butter or chocolate, and you don’t need to worry about glass chipping into any of your recipes. The packaging will let you know if it is resistant to heat and chipping. In addition, you’ll need a set of multisize, fitted, round measuring cups (the material of these isn’t that important), which are usually connected on a ring. You can level off dry ingredients and use these to portion out crab cakes or cookie dough. If they’re on a ring, you can hang them from your pot rack or a nail in the wall.
    Measuring spoons
    They all hang out together on a ring and work out well for precise measurements of baking powder, spices, etc. Make sure to purchase metal ones because you can use them in place of a melon baller, and to hollow out tomatoes