3 Essential Kitchen Items

   Ok, you're stranded on a desert island and you're allowed three things, what would they be?  Well that's easy, a hot girl (if you're a guy), a case of scotch and a copy of the Kama Sutra, and/or a box (big box) of condoms!  NO, NO, NO!  Kitchen things, or we'll call them items. Might have taken a bit more thinking, but here's what I came up with.  A microplane, an immersion blender, and an 8" chef's knife. Hmmmm, what about electricity?  Oh, forget the dang desert island, lets say for every urban kitchen, and leave it at that.  

   The first item on my list, the microplane or zester, is an amazing little tool.  Its sort of like your mother's grater on steroids, or bumped up into the 21st century.  It almost has the feel of something created for space use on a Mars mission-all high tech plastics and razor sharp blades seemingly made of platinum or diamond but is actually high tempered stainless steel.  It zests effortlessly.  You can denude a lemon leaving it looking like a sheared sheep while in your pan or drink lies the essence of lemon zest, just the yellow stuff and not the bitter white stuff! I use it for grating the most feathery pillows of Parmigiano-Reggiano over my Penne pasta and sausages.  You can grate garlic, chocolate over your cappuccino and ginger for Thai food.  Its best to buy a name brand-I use the one called simply, Microplane.  Get one, you'll never go back to mom's big 3 sided grater again. 

        Next on my list is an immersion blender.  Have you ever made a soup and its consistency is not smooth enough but you don't want to pour this very hot pot of, say, squash soup into the blender?  Or you've added bacon in this soup but you don't want to serve up a bacon, chewy pumpkin soup, you just want it to have the bacon flavor?  Well, the immersion blender is the answer to your dilemma. For those of you who don't know what an immersion, or wand blender is, its simply a hand-held blender.  A motor with attachments like whisks, choppers and blades that enable you to blend sauces and drinks with a wand stuck right into the pot or beaker, as opposed to having to pour into a blender.  It is also a food processor, a motorized whisk, a chopper, and a grinder.  And chicks dig it.  So do I.  It makes heavenly guacamole, smooth-as-silk smoothes, and simplifies soup making saving a lot of burned fingers in pouring into a blender as well as a big fat mess.  The brand I chose was the Cuisinart Smart Stick.  There were others- KitchenAid, Sharper Image.  But I chose the Cuisinart because I liked its bad 200-watt motor and the way it felt in my hand.  Solid.  

   Last but certainly not least is the 8" chef's knife.  This tool is invaluable in the kitchen.  There clearly are many other knives that I use.  The carving knife, paring, boning, and I also like and use the Japanese Sudoku.  But I always end up going for my Henckel chef's.  Its heavy, its tip is sharp, I can deftly use the tip to slice down a garlic clove or use the broad weight of the blade flat side to crush a clove of garlic.  Either way to remove the skin.  I use it to chop parsley, onion, garlic, shallots-you name it-in a rocking motion utilizing the weight of the blade as I roll over whatever it is I'm cutting.  I can slice a clove of garlic into razor thin slices simply by feeding it into the line of cut and then letting the blade do the rest.  As you've probably surmised by now, most of what I'm saying is I use the knife's weight to do the work, never forcing or chopping per se, but in an almost zen-like way.  Plus it comes in handy for sword fights, one time...oh never mind.  The brand I chose is the Henckels.  I actually bought this knife over 20 years ago and with a few sharpenings, its as good as new.  One rule I have adhered to is never to submerge it in water, I simply wash the blade.  The reason is because you do not want water to seep into the wood and compromise the contact with the blade which is full tang, meaning that it extends to the end of the handle which is two pieces of hardwood affixed to it.  

   So these three gadgets are my choice for essential items for the Urban Kitchen.  Invest in them, I promise, you will not be disappointed.  And with proper care they will last a long time and make cooking easier, more enjoyable and the dishes you make will be delicious!  Oh bloody hell, I'll add one more item-WINE!  Enjoy.