5 must have kitchen gadgets!

Having a well equipped kitchen is every foodies dream! I've spent a good number of years now, since starting University and essentially moving out of my childhood home, building up my collection of kitchen utensils and gadgetry. So today I bring you, in no particular order, my top 5 must haves that any budding cook and foodie should keep in the nearest cupboard or drawer at all times!

1. A (really) good knife set.

A great set of knives is an absolute essential for any kitchen, so us extra keen food lovers should always make sure we have a fantastic set. I also know, however, that these things don't come cheap. My Wüsthof set (that was actually a present for Jason) set me back £250 odd - a number that would make many a person cringe - but they've been worth every penny. With 5 knives (bread, and a steel) there's everything me and Jason need. They're high quality, robust and easy to look after. Those are three things you really want from your knives, as well as good handle shape, so if you're heading out to get a set, keep everything above in mind and you should be ship-shape to get a fabulous set that will keep you chopping for years!

2. Four chopping boards.

Or five, or six! No one can ever have enough chopping boards! I recommend so many because I like to use a different one for different types of food. The colourful set of Joseph Joseph boards are my absolute favourites as there's four different ones in there for meat, veg, fish and a final one for resting hot bowls on. I'm a stickler for not using the same chopping board for meat and veg (my mum has knocked it hard into me to be as hygienic as possible in the kitchen always!) so having one for each, and fish, is a dream. The resting, white one is a great thing to have also, as I'm careful with hot pans on my surfaces (renting makes you very vary of damage, eek) so it's an easy thing to have to hand to pop hot things on.

The drawback of these boards though, as much as I love them, is how easily they scratch. As they're plastic, a good, sharpened knife can scrape into them easily, and mine are scratched to pieces. I change them pretty often because of this (which isn't a cheap venture...) as I don't have a dishwasher and am wary of the meat one harbouring germs in the scratches (I know, I know, paranoid!). Don't let that put you off, though! They're robust little boards, otherwise, and feed my need for neatness wonderfully!

3. Squeezy oil bottles.


These are only small little things and may seem quite insignificant in the grand scale of things in the kitchen, but they're amazingly handy. You can get a set of two from Lakeland for around £5, and you get two different sizes for two different oils (I have olive in one and sesame in the other). Long gone are my days of trying to tip just a smidgen of oil into the pan and getting a massive great puddle instead! They're great for getting that small amount of oil you want and perfect for drizzling when you need a splash on something you're putting in the oven. I recommend getting a pair of these ASAP!



4. American cup measures.

Being a Brit, I can't get to grips with those pesky American measurements in cups, so I was so happy when one of my best friends got me a set of four adorable little cups that, yep you guessed it, measures cups. This set measures from a 1/4 cup to 1 whole cup, with a 1/2 and a 1/3 in between, so they're super useful for a number of different measurements when you're using a recipe from across the pond. And aside from that, they're also nice to use as condiment holders for the table, like when you're having pancakes and need a little tub of golden syrup or sugar. Multi-purpose kitchen gadgets are my favourite!


5. Hand Blender.

A hand blender is a cheap solution to not having a food processor. I can't afford a big, expensive, whizzy food processor, so instead I popped down to Argos and picked up a little hand blender for just £6.99, and that wasn't even the cheapest model! Now, a hand blender won't mash up everything, but it will do almost everything, from carrots to potatoes to all fruits. I made a gorgeous carrot and coriander soup yesterday that took less than a minute to blend, and I'll be making many more soups and smoothies that I have no doubt will be just as successful!

Do you have any favourite kitchen gadgets?