My five favorite kitchen utensils/appliances

So I was in Sur La Table today looking for a graduation gift idea. I know I know-- kitchen stuff don't really have much to do w/ graduation, but my friend just got her PhD, and will be moving across the country to start a teaching position in August. She won't have a new house or anything, (which is probably the more appropriate time to get kitchen stuff-- or if/when she gets married), but nonetheless, she is starting anew.

I actually intended to get her a nice pepper mill (since everyone should have a pepper grinder), but then my eyes started wandering over to the cheese section, the cool silicone baking mats. . . I ended up spending a good hour in the store trying to figure out what would be useful to her.

Which then got me thinking about my favorite or most-utilized kitchen gadgets and appliances. Stuff I cannot live without. So here goes a list of my favorite kitchen tools in no particular order.

1. Microplane grater-it grates Parmesan cheese, chocolate, nutmeg; it zests citrus. . . I think this is probably my favorite kitchen gadget. So versatile, so elegantly simple, and so useful! I mean, it grates three of my favorite food groups. :)

(this isn't a "must have", but if you are going to get a microplane, then you must also get whole nutmegs, so you can grate it over oatmeal, hot cocoa, steamed soy milk, over sweet potatoes, pancakes, sauteed spinach, soups. . . once you go whole, you will never go back to that powdered stuff again, but I digress. . .)

2. Wine opener my roommate got me from Germany-I don't actually use this frequently enough, but I am really fond of this thing and will probably cry if I ever lose it, since I have not been able to find anything similar in the U.S., much to my annoyance. If I ever go to Germany, I will buy 10 of these things. I just love the simple design. Mine has a plastic end, which I could part with, but the rest of it is stainless steel. There is a t-shaped lever on top w/ a nose-like thing that you point down to turn the screw into the cork. Once the screw is deep enough in the cork, the nose-like thing at the top catches on the protruding edge, and automatically gets tipped up, at which point, the screw now starts to travel upward till the cork can't go any further. Every time I use it, I marvel at the engineering and design of this thing.

3. Pepper mill- everyone who is serious about food should have a fresh pepper grinder, imbo. I personally sprinkle freshly ground pepper on almost everything. Well, ok, not ice cream or cake, but I've put it in pies, sprinkle it on certain fruits, use it in vinaigrettes, and pretty much use it to season almost everything that is made on a stove (sautes, stir fries, soups, omelets, sauces, pasta, curry, etc.) and most savory things that come out of an oven. The fresh stuff tastes worlds apart from the pre-ground stuff that you find in the spice section. One of these days, I will upgrade to one of these wooden ones that has 3 or 4 different sizes of grind, but my acrylic one works just as splendidly for now.

4. Immersion blender-this is another thing that everyone should have. Make sure you get one that comes with a chopper and whisk attachment. I am partial to my microplane, but I use this thing several times a week for chopping, pureeing, mincing. . . pretty much everything.

In fact, I used it so much that my original immersion blender, a Braun, broke. Twice. After that, I got myself a Cuisinart, which seems to be doing fine for now. Here are the many things you can do w/ an immersion blender:
-beat egg whites so you can make meringues and souffles
-make tapenade
-make hummus
-make baba ghanoush
-finely chop nuts
-finely or coarsely chop lots of things
-make smoothies
-froth milk
-puree soups
-make breadcrumbs

5. A really good chef's knife- you do not need an 11-piece knife set, but what you do need is one good chef's knife. You can eventually add on other types and sizes of knives, but if you get just one knife, get a chef's knife and make sure it is a J.A. Henkels or Wustof. If you take good care of it, you will have it for life. Forget the $39.99 knife sets they sell at Target. I'm not trying to bash Target, but they sell the kinds of knives that are too dull to cut tomatoes or leave you with a string of onion dominoes, b/c they are too dull to fully pierce the papery onion skin.

6. (if you have 5, then you will want this--) knife sharpener to sharpen #5. Though actually, according to Patita, you can sharpen knives on the back of a ceramic bowl as well.

7. Silicone spatulas-another kitchen tool that gets frequent use in this apartment. They are especially useful for baking, but I use it for sauteeing, mixing, serving, cutting, as well as for many other things.

After all that time spent at Sur La Table, I ended up getting my friend a pepper mill after all.

Next time: essential things you should have in your pantry.
(Peppercorns, whole nutmeg, cinnamon sticks, maldon sea salt, olives, soup stock. . .)