Good Kitchens

A well-stocked kitchen can allow you to make a wide variety of tasty, healthy food without too much fuss.  There are slews of gadgets out there, but think about it.  For hundreds of years, people have made incredible food without the entire contents of the kitchen sections of upscale department stores.

Grandmas in Provence and Tuscany regularly made grown men cry with happiness over food cooked in old stone kitchens with a minimum of equipment. So for Good Life Menus, we’re going to follow their example.

You’ll need some good knives that you can sharpen: a good chef’s knife most of all.  I rarely use a paring knife myself, but you may.  I have a butcher’s cleaver I use for things like squash and larger, harder vegetables, as well as cutting up chickens.  Bread knives and serrated knives can be useful for things like tomatoes and things you need to cut without crushing.  Oh, and obviously, a couple of cutting boards: one for meat and one for produce.  At least.

Pans: most frequently I use four, all stainless steel with clear lids: one very large, very deep pan about 15″ across (because I’m cooking for 5); one 12 quart stockpot (although I also have a 16 qt.); one 5 quart saucepot; and one 8″ skillet that has a lip for pouring.  Once in awhile I’ll use the double-boiler insert for my 5 quart sauce pot, or I’ll use a tiny little saucepan with a pouring lip.  And I do have a cast iron paella pan and a wok, but barely ever use them.

Baking pans: I have textured aluminum baking pans, including a square 9″ x9″ pan that gets the most use.  I also use ceramic “French” style Corelle casserole dishes, both round and oval, with covers.

Other kitchen equipment:

Colander/strainers–steel mesh and pierced steel

Zester

Baster

Brush

Large and small steel spatulas

Rubber spatulas

Slotted spoons

Wooden spoons

Ladle

Mandoline

Whisks

Measuring spoons/cups

Digital scales that measure in ounces and pounds

Candy and meat thermometers

Tea ball

Almost everything else I never use.

Larger equipment I use: I frequently use a slow cooker in the fall and winter, until it gets warm enough to grill outside.  Mine is a programmable 7 quart model with a lid that latches on for travel.  It also has a temperature probe.  If a company would make a similar model with different sizes of inserts, it would have every feature I’d ever use. I have a combination toaster oven/breakmaker that gets daily use, as well as a glass-container blender and a food processor.  And a good burr coffee grinder and an Aeropress.   Because there is not a tabletop grill big enough to make 6 servings at once, I don’t have one.  Nor do I have anything else, other than a toaster.

Pantry Staples:

There are a few items which are going to come up repeatedly in the menus.  Rather than going out and buying them all at once, just buy them as they come up, and spread the cost out.  A good principal to remember is that the better the ingredients, the better the dish will taste, and the less you’ll need to eat to feel satisfied.  This is the principle that your European grandma tried to drill into you, and one of the prime lessons of the book French Women Don’t Get Fat. Just buy the best quality you can afford.  I have a section in the links on how to eat well frugally.  Eating in-season and from local sources is much less expensive than eating processed food.  And you’ll be eating this way using Good Life Menus!

Spices (mostly used October –May):

Thyme

Rosemary

Oregano

Marjoram

Tarragon

Curry

Dry

Mustard

Fresh-ground pepper (peppercorns and pepper grinder)

Cinnamon

Cloves

Allspice

Ginger

Condiments:

Dijon and spicy brown mustards

Balsamic, white balsamic, cider (raw if possible), white wine with tarragon, rice and red wine vinegars–Trader Joe’s has most of these inexpensively

Soy sauce

Worcestershire sauce

Lemon juice

Tomato paste (get it in a tube and you can use the very small quantities the menus call for)

Blackstrap molasses: adds a deep flavor without much sugar or carb content.

Olive oil, in two varieties: everyday, which should still be a good quality, but which you’ll be using to saute’ and to oil pans with; and “the good stuff”, which should be something you really like, because you’ll use it for dressings and sauces.  My favorite is sold at Trader Joe’s; the Kalamata Olive from Greece.  It tastes like fresh olives (“fruity”, it’s usually called) and not too peppery.  The Santorini brand they carry from Sicily is also great, but it’s so peppery it actually makes me sneeze!  I also have had brands from the Middle East that are quite good.  And the cool thing: these all cost the same or less than the cheapo brands sold in most groceries in the U.S., but are so much better in flavor.  I use Trader Joe’s plain Extra Virgin for the olive oil that gets heated.

Broth: if possible, make bone broth yourself by first overnight soaking the bones in water with a little cider vinegar added, then adding herbs, mirepoix veggies etc. and slowly simmering for 6 hours.  This stuff will almost raise the dead.  If not possible, use boxed, hopefully free-range broth, again cheap at Trader Joe’s.

Wine: Used sparingly; if you have dietary or religious objections, can be skipped, but will add a depth of flavor.  Could use grape juice with some vinegar instead.  But if using wine, don’t use cooking wine!  Use at least a table wine–something you could actually drink.  Again, Trader Joe’s has good, inexpensive “Two Buck Chuck” (Charles Shaw) wines in several varietals, as well as a number of slightly more expensive imported and domestic wines in an ever-changing selection.

Reading all the recommendations I’ve made for Trader Joe’s, you’d think they were paying me.  They aren’t.  But it’s worth making a monthly trip if you live within a couple of hours of one.  Several years ago there was a bad winter storm in the northern part of my state that wiped out power lines for over 60,000 people.  When it was open and the roads were clear again, the Trader Joe’s near me had almost-empty shelves, because people from over two hours away had come in to restock what they’d lost in the outage.  They also have inexpensive, high quality spices.

Special items for low-carb/gluten-free/diabetic:

Stevia.  I use bulk stevia powder from Sweetleaf (or the Trader Joe’s equivalent) but you may find a brand you like better.  For some things, I use Truvia or Purevia packets because I know they work and I know the conversion to sugar.

Thickeners: guar or xanthan gum, or Xpert Food’s Thick n’ Thin Not Starch.  Put it in a special salt shaker you can tell apart by sight, and whisk it in when you want to thicken juices.  These are natural plant extracts, not chemicals.

Nut meals: mostly in some desserts.  Trader Joes always has almond meal and sometimes has hazelnut and walnut meal.  You can always do it yourself in a food processor.

Almond milk: unsweetened and usually unflavored: used in place of milk.

Cream: in the form of heavy cream, cream cheese and sour cream.  Used for creaminess and thickening.

Pork rinds: not as fatty as you think.  They’re mostly protein.  I use them sparingly in place of breadcrumbs where breadcrumbs are being used as binders.

Vegetables:

There are a lot of vegetables in these recipes! Most of the ones I use frequently keep well.  I do use a lot of seasonally-available vegetables.  The ones you’ll see throughout the year are:

Lettuces and other salad vegetables

Mirepoix vegetables: carrots, onions, celery

Garlic: just buy a jar of crushed garlic–Trader Joe’s keeps a long time

Ginger: again, a jar will last longer

Cauliflower: used in place of potatoes for mashing, and in place of rice as a base

October – May only: Turnips, used in place of potatoes in roasts