Kitchen Gadgets

Are you one of the many individuals who likes kitchen gadgets? Most people who cook are very fond of or even hooked on kitchen gadgets. Naturally, some kitchen gadgets are more useful than others and some are positively essential.Who could do without a cooker, a kettle or a coffee maker? Mixers and blenders are common items too and electric tin openers and knife sharpeners can be found in many kitchens. How much cooking would you be able to do if the electricity was cut off?

Cooks have always loved gadgets, the only thing that has altered is that the majority of the contemporary kitchen gadgets are electric these days. We had a water-driven potato peeler when I was a child. It was attached to the tap by a hose and the water drove a wheel which span an abrasive wheel which took the skin off a pound or two of potatoes.

We also had a manual apple corer and a garlic squeezer, but that was about it. On the other hand, our kitchen has quite a few electric gadgets, including a juicer, a rice cooker and a bread-making machine.

My wife's favourite kitchen device is the rice cooker, but then she is Thai and eats quite a bit of rice. In fact, the rice cooker is only switched off to wash and refill it. It leaves a beautiful sweet smell in the air which is not dissimilar to fresh bead, if you use Jasmin rice, which is Thailand's finest.

When I lived in Britain, my kitchen was full of labour-saving devices, but some of the things I used to use just once a month over there, I now see being used every day. For instance, I had a wok and a bamboo steamer which I used once in a while, now all my food is cooked either in a wok, in a bamboo steamer or on a barbecue.

Similarly, I had a pestle and mortar which looked good on the top of the cupboard. It gave the impression that I was a proper cook, but I never truly found a use for it. Now my wife uses a huge granite pestle and mortar to prepare every meal. It weighs about ten pounds and is large enough to mix a cake in; the broad end of the pestle will fill half an orange (I use that as a juicer, that is how I know).

My favourite kitchen gadget is the bread maker, but then I am European and am very partial to bread. Where I live though, in northern rural Thailand, the bread is quite sweet by Western standards and took me a few years to get accustomed to. Now I can bake my own and I love it, although obtaining strong flour is not so easy.

I like to put the ingredients in the bread machine before I go to bed and set the timer so that the bread is cooked when I wake up. You do not need an alarm clock with the smell of fresh bread wafting from the kitchen! Now all I miss is cheese, but I have not seen a cheese-maker yet.