Gadgets


These are some of the tools and appliances that I currently use, and find very useful:

Appliances

  • Pressure Cooker / ‘Instapot’ I use a pressure cooker which helps me cooking time by half. But this ‘instapot’ is more useful and value-for-money, as it has extra slow-cooking and frying functions. I’ve used this All-in-One Cooker to develop recipes for Philips for my ‘One Pot Wonder’ cookbook.
  • Slow cooker I use this no-frill and reasonably priced slow cooker mainly to make stock. Boiling inexpensive bones for up to 24 hours produces flavourful and collagen-rich stock which I use as base for soups and stew.
  • 3-in-1 Hand blender, chopper and whisk A versatile and value-for-money appliance. I blend vegetable soup directly in the pot, chop chilli to make sambal belacan in the chopper, and occasionally whisk egg for baking.
  • AirFryer This tool is given to me in the course of my work. I see this tool as a quick-cook oven more than anything. Although a regular oven can do a similar job, it’s very convenient to cook simple dishes (e.g teriyaki chicken, sweet potato fries) or heat up food in it quickly.
  • KitchenAid Standmixer (5KSM150PS) I received a KitchenAid Stand Mixer in Golden Nectar a birthday gift. Having used inexpensive plastic stand mixer before, the quality of this is superb.
  • Slow-juicer I make fresh juice in it, and occasionally extract ginger juice to cook dishes like claypot chicken rice. I am currently using Kuvings slow juicer.
  • Induction cooker. Useful when I run out of gas and as an extra ‘stove’ when cooking for a party. I also use it to reheat food I store in stainless steel pot. It’s perfect for steamboat too.

 

 


Tools

  • Manual chopper I use a lot of shallots, onions and garlic in my cooking, and use this tool whenever I have to mince a substantial amount them. This saved me a lot of time and tears.
  • Lime squeezer I squeeze the harder limau nipis (key lime), and small sized lemons in it. I find it handy that the juice is separated from the seeds and that I don’t need to use much force to squeeze the last drop of juice. It also allows me to squeeze lime directly into a glass of water.
  • Tongs (16 inches) I use a 16-inch long metals tongs to fry food. It’s about twice the length of regular tongs, which allows me to stay further from the wok and protect myself from splattering oil.
  • Granite pestle & mortar I inherited a half-a-century old granite pestle and mortar. I don’t pound chillies or shallots in it as it’s easier to use a blender. But I occasionally use it to crush small amount of herbs such as whole black pepper and coriander seeds, or other things like biscuits and meat (to tenderise it).
  • Stainless-steel soup bowl I have a similar soup bowl at about 20 cm. I find incredibly handy to cook in, eat with and store food. It can be used on the stove or induction cooker.
  • Egg pan I have a small and round pan to cook eggs, which I also use to fry small amount of food like shallots and garlic crisp.
  • Apple corer I use the onion corer to cut apples and onions into pieces in one swift motion.
  • Digital kitchen timer I have an electronic timer. Since I always multi-task in the kitchen, I almost always time my cooking to remind me when a food is ready. I got mine from Muji, its magnetic so it could stick on my fridge and the quality is very good.