Some of the best designs for kitchen tools often turn out to be the simplest and the most inexpensive. Nilanjana S Roy picks out her personal favourites for the year
At the back of any experimental chef’s kitchen, there’s usually a dirty-little-secrets closet. This is the one that houses unwise purchases — bread makers that were too complicated to use, the amazing tomato slicer that took your thumb off along with the peel, the ultra-expensive Italian coffee maker that doesn’t work in Indian conditions.
I’m wary of gadgets that do just one thing and take up too much space on the counter, like the ridiculously large device someone gave me several years ago. About the size of a elephantine mixie, it contained a vacuum pump that was supposed to suction the air out of a set of hi-tech Tupperware-style bowls. The idea was that this would help you store leftovers and fresh vegetables for a longer time in the fridge; the reality was that the lids of the bowls were easy to lose, vacuuming your veggies is a pain-in-the-neck and if you really want to store stuff in the fridge, a set of rewashable food bags with plastic sliding clips (so that you can squeeze out the excess air) gets the job done.
Among 2010’s rash of raclette makers, cupcake bakers and carbonators, there were a few really useful ones. And here’s the surprise—some of the best designs of the year were also, often, the simplest and the most relatively inexpensive. Here’s what’s on my list:
Silicone, for eggs
EGG POACHING CUPS
At first glance, this looks like another kitchen swizzle, but if you really like poached eggs (and I do) buy these, from Chef’s Toolbox. They’re stackable, funkily designed and they deliver on the Holy Grail of perfect poached eggs. I grabbed the last two in a Gurgaon mall, but they should be available at food specialty stores. If you can’t get the Chefs Toolbox ones, try experimenting with silicone muffin pans —they’re quite good as substitutes.
The jury’s out on the uses of other silicon ware — many bakers find that cakes don’t come out quite the same in silicon ring cake moulds, for example — but silicon or Teflon baking sheets are positively revolutionary in terms of the soaking and washing they save.
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Handling act
LONG HANDLED MEASURING SPOONS
This is such a simple idea — and it’s only when you use them that you realise what a difference they make. Normal sized measuring spoons tend to sink to the bottom of spice jars; using these made me realize how often I’ve just grabbed a table spoon and then transferred the contents to a measuring cup. I’d just been given some fancy ones, manufactured by Vollrath, when my nephew produced a cheap and very serviceable set from one of the Noida malls.
Some like it steamy
THE FOOD POD
I came across this on the Conscious Cook blog — it looks like a lotus seed pod in plastic. A friend brought me one from Fusionbrands, and it’s like a really fun, funky steamer — you insert vegetables inside, as you do with the conventional stainless steel steamer found everywhere in Indian markets, but what makes the Food Pod rock is that it has a handle, in the shape of a stem, that hooks on to your cooking pot and makes it easy to dunk in and out. Also, it’s really, really cute — the Smurf of kitchen gadgets.
Cut to the chase
THE MINI-BONTI
This can be found in New Delhi’s Chittaranjan Park: Most Indian households have one of these — a cutting board with a serrated knife set at a slant. Delhi’s Khan Market sells uber-expensive versions that I’m not very fond of, because the blade seems to dull very fast and requires a lot of sharpening. But if you ask around at the local fishmarkets, you might find the miniaturised version of the large fish-seller’s bonti. Mine was manufactured in Bengal and has a wicked little knife that can cut through bone, and yes, I know this the hard way.
One hot dip
HANGER TEABAGS
This one’s not really a kitchen gadget, but it’s on my lust list anyway — Korean designer Soon Mo Kang’s hangar teabags. This designer’s worked out a way of folding the tea bags so that they look like mini-T shirts on a tiny plastic hangar. You take the hangar, dip your shirt into hot boiling water — and you’re done. I’m up for this if they can fill the “Tea Shirts” with some high-grade jasmine green tea.
Pressure points
THE FRENCH PRESS
My guess is that the French press is the Continent’s answer to the Japanese tea ceremony — there had to be some way to make a bad caffeine habit seem more exalted. The first great French press I bought was Italian; the next was French and worked beautifully if you discounted the fact that the coffee always spilled everywhere; and my favourite French press is currently Indian. Good Earth’s version has the style and the substance, and has stood up to abuse from the kind of guests who don’t know how to handle a French press because they drink — shudder — instant decaf.
Shred inhibitions
HERB MINCER
Chefs will counsel you not to buy one of these, because the job can be done so easily with a kitchen knife. They’re absolutely right, unless you have the knife skills of Captain Hook with a sprained hand. After years of struggling to chiffonade parsley, I threw in the towel; this makes the job much easier. If you do buy a mincer, look for a nice grip and sharp rotary heads, prepare to hide it in a drawer when your chef friends do drop by.
(Nilanjana S Roy is a Delhi-based writer)