Tuesday, July 09, 2013
my kitchen aids - styled by stef
There is an onslaught of fancy (exorbitantly expensive) kitchen gadgets on the market and almost every cookbook I pick up requires at least one of them. Do we really need advanced technology to cook good food? No, definitely not.
I've been scouring my local op-shops for hardwearing, good quality kitchenware. It's hard to find but occasionally I stumble upon a gem. A cast-iron pot is a treasure I discover once a year, sometimes the wooden utensils are in abundance and at other times I return home with nothing. When I pop into little boutiques I'm drawn to tea strainers, handcrafted spoons and textured linen.
My essential kitchen ingredients include:
- ginger - in tea to boost the immune system, with fruit & veg juice to revitalise and a pungent addition to an Asian-inspired meal.
- fresh herbs - I've just planted my essential herbs after neglecting them for a fair few months. I love society garlic (you can eat the flowers, too), flat-leaf parsley, thyme, rosemary, chives and mint. Aesthetically pleasing and an absolute kitchen staple.
- wooden utensils - I have a jug full of them in all manner of shapes and sizes. Some are stained with the red of tomatoes, others wear the burn marks of a rushed cooking session.
- beeswax - I light a candle in the kitchen each afternoon/evening; it sees me through preparing, cooking, eating, cleaning, contemplating.
- eggs - preferably from mama + popa's chooks who roam through the herb patch, these beauties are a meal in themselves and taste best when gooey and met with toast soldiers. The ultimate comfort, they truly make a fluffy batch of pancakes, a celebratory cake, a hearty quiche.
- loose leaf tea and a pretty strainer - a necessity for a tea ritual and therefore a necessity in my life.
- honey dripper - because swirling golden honey from the jar onto hot toast is one of life's simplest pleasures.
- a tea spoon - with a curved handle it happily sits on the side of the teacup in case a little more stirring is required.
- big handled scissors - for cutting herbs and flowers stalks.
- sea salt + pepper - enough said.
- garlic - always organic because nothing else compares, it's probably best when roasted with dutch cream potatoes; or sautéed with onion and bacon; or when it infuses good quality olive oil, or.....
- lemons - for a citrus-inspired roast chook, or sprinkled over steamed greens, with cream cheese for delectable cake icing or with ginger in that immune-boosting tea mentioned previously.
- linen - absorbent and soft to touch, linen pretties the kitchen setting (thanks to small batch for my glorious aqua dish towel)
- berries, fruit or flowers - bought, gratefully received or found, a touch of decoration on the windowsill completes the scene.
What are your kitchen essentials?
32 COMMENTS
Labels: simple food
What a gorgeous photo! Stef is amazing.
ReplyDeleteWe love our wooden spoons and wooden chopsticks here at Casa Mason. That, and a non-stick frying pan along with a rice cooker.
In terms of ingredients, we mainly use soy sauce, sesame oil, salt, sugar and cornflour for flavouring and marinating.
And rice. Lots of it!
Ronnie xo
what a glowing photo, the patina on that table is beautiful.
ReplyDeletei love to op-shop kitchenware too and have found a couple of things recently that i didn't know i needed that i now use all the time. a cherry pitter which also de-stones olives very niftily, and an old jar opener with a worn green handle x
My beloved dining table, discovered in the kitchen of the 100-year-old cottage across the road. The owner had just passed and her daughter invited me in and told me everything was for sale. It was $50 (I know!) x
DeleteWe op-shop the majority of our kitchen ware but I did splash out this year and buy a thermomix. It is my biggest and most lavish kitchen purchase ever but I use it every day and on the weekends I make all our dough, jam, butter and yoghurt for the week. I know you can do all these things without a thermomix but it saves me so much time and Audrey can easily help me.
ReplyDeleteI cant believe it is only 17 days until the creatives, I am on major countdown mode! I have not stopped talking about it, I think my hubby will be glad to get rid of me for the day. x x
My toaster and my slow cooker are the only electronic appliances I have in my kitchen...no mixer makes life difficult sometimes and makes cream cheese frosting lumpy all of the time!
ReplyDeleteWhile I enjoy doing everything by hand this isn't necessarily my preference...my kitchen is tiny and I have literally no storage for anything else and I have a hard time justifying the cost of something I know I can do without.
What a sublime picture and I can't wait to drink tea in at your place.
ReplyDeleteI can't live without my tea strainer, although yours in much pretty and I have strainer envy.
x
I really enjoyed this post, I agree that we do not need expensive kitchen gadgets. I don't own a Kitchenaid and mostly don't even get out an electric beater to mix my cakes, I just give them a hard mix by hand; they seem to turn out ok! I can't believe some of the latest gadgets cost in the thousands!
ReplyDeleteMy essentials are very similar to yours, love your collection. Mine are lots of wooden utensils, a Bamix, a whisk, vintage cutlery and unmatched vintage plates and serving dishes (a pleasure to use) and a large Le Creuset pot we were given as an engagement present, which has seen many a slow cooked stew, curry or soup. Ingredients.. herbs, good spices, lemons, tomatoes, veges, garlic, plain organic yoghurt. x
Slightly tarnished old silver cutlery, with bone handles, found in a car boot. Thrifted plates of blue and white chinese pattern. Coconut oil to cook everything. Green tea, loose leaf. Garlic, in every dish. Wooden spoons in a tall 1940's biscuit barrel. Fresh herbs from my back door step.
ReplyDeleteIt is funny, as I was celebrating my birthday... my friends and I got talking about our silver spoon collections. I think a series is coming out of that on my blog.
Love your tea strainer!
Lou x
A very fine assortment of essentials! Mine include:
ReplyDeleteChilli - it seems to grow very well in our garden and gets added to many of our meals!
Eggs - my husband makes a mean omelette and I bake all the time (I have an insatiable sweet tooth). It's a sad day if we are without an egg.
Chocolate - does this need explaining?
A large Dutch oven - for making stews and stock.
An electric wok - stir fry is a firm favourite round these parts and we don't have a gas stove.
Kitchenaid stand mixer - this is the latest addition and has already paid itself off in my opinion... I was able to whisk egg white for a cake while making dinner and feeding my baby. It meant there was a chocolate cake for dessert on a 'school night'. Winning.
Beautiful post and photo. My essentials are the same as yours....my most favourite things to use in the kitchen are those 'pre-loved'...although I wouldn't be without a block of parmasen and a microplan!
ReplyDeleteexcuse my ignorance but what on earth is a microplan? x
DeleteYou'll know it when you see it :) Microplane
Deletea rather fancy grater/zester- I use it at least three times a day! x
ReplyDeleteI'm considering buying a mandolin slicer after seeing Rachel Khoo from Little Paris Kitchen beautifully slice a carrot in mere seconds. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll find one at the op-shop x
DeleteMy favourite kitchen purchase was my bamboo cutting board. At the time I thought $60 was so very expensive, but ten years on it still does not have a single mark and does not hold the 'smell' of anything you chop on it.
ReplyDeleteMy other favourite thing s the dishcloths I have made. If you add up how much money is spend on chux and other kitchen wipes you would be surprised. For less than five dollars I made half a dozen cloths that have been on the go for almost two years. Once used, I simply pop them in the washing machine. Coloured coded for different cleaning purposes.
A beautiful collection, Jodi - this image is lovely (top job, Stef!)
ReplyDeleteAn assortment of herbs & spices are essential in our kitchen - chilli, ginger, bay, rosemary, sage, basil, cajun, green pepper, paprika, curry, cloves, oh the list goes on!
Canning & preserving jars are also on high rotation - during the summer we make any array of relishes & chutneys & preserve stone fruits, in winter it's all about stocking the fridge with chicken stock for soups & broths.
xx
Bonne Maman jars are my favourites - they measure exactly 1 cup - perfect for stock! x
DeleteThis is beautiful. I admit that I prefer the sensory experience of cooking with a few wood spoons and my own two hands. But my hands have arthritis and I would not be able to bake bread if I didn't have my expensive (and, fortunately, beautiful) Kitchen-Aid mixer to do the kneading for me. So I do make that one exception for technology. :)
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. I like to keep the kitchen simple.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely beautiful photo, and beautiful sentiments, Jodi.
ReplyDeleteI also like to keep the kitchen simple. When we first got married, we had a kitchen full of the latest gadgets, most of which have since been given away or donated. If there's one I consider to be a necessity, it's a simple toaster!
Lots of love. Thank you for your beautiful space.
Beautiful photo and I totally agree with your sentiments. We also have a simple kitchen. My high-tech must-haves are an electric kettle, slow-cooker and standing mixer. But I also love my whisks, wooden spoon and sharp knives.
ReplyDeleteOlive oil, milk, red wine, basil, pasta and home-made marmelade and tomatoe sauce
ReplyDeleteOh, and I was almost forgetting: my kitchen-aid, not so useful (if you think about how much it costs!) but it makes me cheerful, just to look at it!
ReplyDeleteSuch a lovely glimpse of your kitchen Jodi! I love simple utensils too... I got used to using very little in our tiny Paris kitchen. And am pretty spoiled for space back here. Currently loving daily - whole butter and coconut oil for cooking and frying, cold-pressed olive oil for drizzling, glass jars for holding and fermenting kefir and sourdough starter, big ceramic mixing bowl for letting bread rise, and a discarded tile (picked up at reverse garbage) for cooking pizza and bread on, quinces and rhubarb from the produce markets, beetroot, sweet potatoes, fresh ginger, rosemary, haloumi cheese...
ReplyDeleteand I love love my old-fashioned stove-top whistling kettle.. it guarantees I use the water when its boiled instead of forgetting about it (and re-boiling tonnes of times, which I would surely do with an electric one)
ReplyDeleteNice picture x
ReplyDeletelove this post. i saved up all my rewards points from my cradit card and bought myself a really nice tea kettle. i use it all the time. i recently found a beautiful linen tea towel with a map of vancouver on it. it is my newest treasure.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photo. I think my essential ingredients are garlic, salt and cumin, and essential utensils are wooden spoon, tea pot and giant tea cups. Visiting from Maxabella Loves. Zanni Louise.
ReplyDeleteIt is so very fitting that a honey dripper is amongst your kitchen essentials. It makes me want to ditch the butterknife and buy a dripper immediately.
ReplyDeleteThanks ever so for linking up. x
I love wooden utensils and those scissors are to die for. Seriously I'm drooling over the simplicity and beauty of them. Is that even possible in a kitchen scissor? Sure, why not.
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice post, I love your list. I'm glad to hear someone else has recently planted herbs, after I planted mine recently everyone has told me they won't take because it's too early. We shall see.
ReplyDeleteThat tea strainer is absolutely darling!
ReplyDelete