© Ashy's vegetarian recipes.

Kitchen equipment for Ashy's vegetarian recipes

If you've had a look at any of the recipes you'll have gathered that you don't need much in the way of specialized equipment - all my recipes have developed through making do with what's available and spending the minimum amount of cash when it's necessary to add to the existing collection of utensils. Things only get left behind when you move on if you start buying lots of things. Having said that, there are a few things which you might not find lying around when you move into a furnished rented flat and which don't spring to mind immediately when you're down the local bazaar trying to mime 'frying pan' and stuff like that, but nevertheless are things which I would consider fairly essential for my style of basic day to day cooking. Now, that might not turn out to be your style and we should celebrate the difference, but if you're working through my recipes, trying them out, it might get frustrating to find the same utensils, which you don't have, cropping up in every second or third recipe.
Here's a list of all the things I've got in my kitchen which I would rather not be without. The accompanying notes explain, on the one hand, why I feel some things are indispensable (if it's not immediately apparent) and on the other hand, how you can get by if you don't have them (after all, when we look at things from a wider perspective, how can we ever say that any material object is truly indispensable?).

Enough of the verbal meandering - here's the list.

Frying pan(s)

At least one. Most of the recipes in this book involve using a frying pan at some stage if not for the whole cooking process. This isn't coincidence - a good frying pan is the most versatile and useful cooking implement. A lot of my recipes were discovered when I had nothing to cook with but a frying pan, a spoon and a Swiss army knife. Your pan should preferably be fairly large and heavy - if it is too thin the things you cook in it will tend to burn and if it's too small you won't get everything in. It's good to have a lid so that you can simmer things in the pan - if you've got one great, if not you can use a plate but watch you don't burn your fingers lifting it off. If you have a second frying pan then all the better - it's handy for roasting spices and a bunch of other things.
Large pot(s)

For soup, it's good to have a really big pot which can hold 4 or 5 litres. Smaller ones are good for pasta and rice.

Saucepan(s)

Good for making sauces in and for reheating small portions of soup etc. Also good for transferring things to when they're cooked if, for example, you have only got one frying pan and you need it for something else.

Kettle

Not just for tea. When your cooking it's handy to have a kettle of water just off the boil close to hand. If you need to add more water to something, using hot water saves you having to muck around with the cooking temperature.

Wooden spoon and spatula

Of course I've cooked without a wooden spoon and stirred with a soup spoon or a fork - nobody died. Using metal things to stir with is not a good idea, however, as microscopic bits of metal get stirred into your food, which can affect the taste and might not be so good for your health. Using wooden spoons for stirring is one of the important rules of Cordon bleu cooking (though any comparison with that and my cooking starts and finishes there)

Potato masher

For much more than just potatoes. You'll need this for making cutlets and humus too.

Metal or plastic fish-slice/spatula

Not for slicing fish - why would anyone want to do that? A fish-slice or patula is, however, very handy for turning, lifting and otherwise manipulating cutlets of various kinds (see the 'Cutlets' page for good reasons why such things should preferably not be referred to as veggie burgers). Be careful with greasy cutlets when your transferring them to the plates. They can fly off your spatula without any warning. This utensil can also be successfully used for unsticking the first few chappatis when you're still trying to get the temperature right.

Big sharp knife

It doesn't need to be huge but it should be very sharp (it's a good idea to invest in a knife sharpener - the cheapo ones with the little wheels are fine). Sharp knives are safer to use than blunt ones, and they cut the vegetables better. As far as size goes, think about having to deal with a large cabbage, a pumpkin or a turnip. A Swiss army knife will work, but you'll be much more comfortable with something bigger and you won't be as likely to cut one of your fingers off. Having two or three knives of different sizes is best, but then we're starting to get into the realms of luxury.

Wooden chopping-board

This keeps your knives sharp and is safer to use than plastic or Formica ones - the knife doesn't skid (and you don't get wee chunks of plastic in your food). Don't ever let anyone near your chopping board with pieces of dead animal. This, ideally, goes for all your kitchen equipment though if you live with carnivores it's not always practical, but sharing should never include your chopping board or wooden spoons. If necessary defend them with the big sharp knife mentioned above.

Grater

It's difficult to work without one of these. The best kind is the square metal sort which has different-sized holes on each side. The small holes are good for grating nutmeg, and carrots and beetroots if you want juice from them.

Sieve

This is mainly for draining things - rice, pasta, washed vegetables etc. You can do most things without it but you'll end up with loads of pasta down the sink. Where the sieve is really necessary is in straining tomatoes from their skins and semi-liquidising soups and stuff (you may notice a general Luddite-ish hostility to electrical food processing machinery throughout this site). At a pinch you can use a plastic net bag for straining things. The kind which onions from the supermarket come in is fine.

Pestle and mortar

My favourite kitchen thingy. Before I had one, I didn't think I needed one. Now I've got one I can't do without it. There are different sorts, ranging from small, delicate spice grinders through the big heavy Turkish brass coffee and garlic pounders, to really giant heavy-duty stoneware or marble jobs. I've got two, but the larger one is fairly general purpose and could be used for everything. It's about 15cm wide, glazed on the outside and rough inside and the pestle is wooden with an unglazed earthenware head. The other one is steel, about 6cm wide and used mainly for crushing and pounding spices (the nice thing about it is that it just crushes the spices rather than blasting them to a fine powder). If you want to crush spices without a pestle and mortar, you can use two dessertspoons, one inside the other, if you've got strong thumbs. For other things like crushing nuts or garlic, using the bottom of a spice jar has been known to produce results. In either case you won't have the fine control over texture which you get with a pestle and mortar.

Cheese-cloth

For obvious reasons. If you want to make paneer (Indian cottage cheese) or tofu you'll need this. It's also handy for squeezing the juice out of grated beetroots, carrots etc. - not something you do often, but it's nice to be able to when you want to. Cheese-cloth is probably easier to buy in remote parts of Asia than it is in Britain but you can probably find it somewhere. You can use other kinds of thin, loosely-woven cloth and once I used a cheese-cloth shirt. I tied a knot in the sleeve (at the cuff end) and poured curds and whey into it - it worked just fine and I washed the shirt afterwards and my friend wore it none the wiser.