Enjoy cooking Chinese at home, but want to take your skill set to the next level? Then get yourself one of China's most integral cooking tools: a wok.
"A wok is essential to Chinese cooking," said Ching-He Huang, host of the Cooking Channel's brand-new Easy Chinese: San Francisco. But, she warned me, it's just as important to find the right version for you, as there are many different selections on the market. Here's what to look for.
If you're obsessed with making on-the-go smoothies like some of us, chances are that countertop blender will be in heavy cleaning rotation. But don't worry, these kitchen electrics are among the easiest of cooking appliances to clean.
I have my mother, a longtime Vitamix devotee, to thank for this tip: the quickest way to clean a blender is to add water and then blend it!
Fill your blender a little over halfway with hot water, add a drop of dish-washing liquid if desired, then blend on low first. If the water level's not reached high enough to clean the blending container, raise the power level to high. Rinse (and repeat, if necessary). Is this how you clean your blender, too?
Source: Flickr User adpowers
Hard as it is to believe, until recently I didn't own a standing mixer! While everyone else was talking about the color of their KitchenAid, I was at work with a good ol' hand mixer. Now I have the Breville 12-Speed stand mixer, which I positively love for its hands-off efficiency. But there are times when I reach for the hand mixer, simply because I can't be bothered to lug out its much heavier counterpart. Which do you prefer?
Tongs: they might not sound like the subject of titillating conversation, but in the culinary world, they're actually quite a contentious topic. On the Top Chef DC finale, Michael Voltaggio described them as "white trash," and Momofuku's David Chang has known to have had an outburst or two about the utensil: cooking with them, he explained to The New Yorker, displays "disrespect for the entire restaurant."
David Chang, call me an irreverent home cook, but with all due respect, I'll use my tongs all day long. Tongs in the kitchen: are they trashy or classy?
Over the last few weeks, I've spent some serious time downsizing the amount of clutter in my house — and I'm here to say that it gets worse before it gets better. Ultimately, I did cut down on the number of products in my kitchen, but it wasn't until I'd combed through every last gadget and gizmo that I was able to recognize the diamonds in the rough. So here's my ode to key pieces I rely on nearly every day — fork, knife, and spoon excluded.
Over the weekend, I made scones using my food processor, and the blade got stuck. I thought my machine was broken and would have been devastated, considering I use my food processor all the time. After all these years in the kitchen, I can't imagine my life without one — although I've always fantasized about getting a larger version. Do you have a food processor at home? If so, do you use it often?
