Tuesday 24 May 2011

Good Pots and Pans need Good Homes Too!

This past weekend was lovely, and Sunday, my husband and I decided to go roam around for some things we’d been needing, and partly to shop for a bag that I’ve also needed. Turns out I don’t have much luck on eBay. I bought a bag in March and it was exactly what I wanted until the lining started ripping and falling apart and now the leather that holds it together is just trashed. Well we looked around and nothing caught my eye, and of course we ended up in the home ware section (my favourite of any store), we found some tea spoons that we’d needed and then we went to the pans. There’s always something culinary that I want, but I’ve been looking for a certain type of pan. My cooking equipment at the moment consists from handed down items, and the one pan I use the most is a £5 non-stick pan from Sainsbury’s (which has done me well over the 4 years we’ve had it I might add). I’m in no way complaining about the items I use every day but sometimes it’s time to update the classics. I have wanted a pan with a lid that could securely hold in moisture to allow ingredients to cook inside without having to add any extra oil to the mix, a very important thing for low fat cooking.


I walked over the section maybe 5 times and just didn’t see anything in my price range that I was willing to settle on. My husband had been having his eye on this beautiful John Lewis cast iron grill pan for £33, which I think in the future it will be mine, but for now, I have a cheaper £5 non-stick one that I don’t use that often that can stay around. Then we saw on the bottom shelf seemingly hiding but at the same time ready to come home with us, a Tefal 26cm frying pan with a lid that you can turn the knobbly handle thing to let steam out or keep it in. This is excellent for stewing things and keeping that steam pressure in there to cook it faster and make it extra tender. Most important it’s non-stick! Non-stick means little to no oil! My first meal I made out of it was simple, I had some things in my refrigerator that needed eating, spring greens, wet garlic, kohlrabi and I sautéed those all up with onions and extra garlic, and added a can of black eyed beans and let it stew down to mush. It was delicious. What’s good about this non-stick pan is it can get to really hot temperatures so you can sear steak on it which I’m looking forward to trying. You can also finish things in the oven in it as its handles are made for the heat of the oven. All in all I think I got a good deal at £41. Most other pans that didn’t have lids were upwards of £60. When replacing items in your kitchen I feel like replacing a broken piece of crap, with another cheap piece of crap isn’t going to help you any in the long run. Invest slowly on small things one at a time and that way in the future you’ll have a kitchen full of the utensils that you love.

1 comment:

  1. This is really good advise. It's often hard to appreciate the difference good kitchen equipment and pans make, until you try them! I recently got an upgrade to my saucepan set and the difference it has made astounded me! The heat settings on the gas hob now work in harmony with my new pans, meaning at last I can get the perfect simmer, or the perfect rolling boil with pans with the proper thickness to their base, and the heat distribution is more even. Who would have thought when it comes to pans, you really do get what you pay for, and you really will notice the difference.

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