Kitchen Equipment – Part 1

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Before I start sharing some of my favourite recipes, let me share with you guys some of the cooking equipment that I use. As a general cost-saving tip, always check sites such as Hot UK Deals, Quidco, Top Cashback, Perks at Work for deals and offers before making a purchase to see if you can save some buck. Retailers I generally purchase from are your typical High Street shops such as Argos, Tesco, John Lewis (recommended for appliances if they don’t cost more due to their 2-year warranty), Nisbetts, Ikea as well as online shopping giants like Amazon.

Non-Stick Pans

Non-stick pans are probably one of my most frequently used pieces of kitchen equipment. I usually get mine from Tefal while sticking to a budget of roughly £10 – £20 per pan and expect them to last me 2-3 years before I replace them. I am aware that I probably could get a pan that would last me longer for a higher price but I personally choose not to. This is simply because I don’t want to risk feeling scammed if I spent too much money on a bad purchase and I also do not want to have to take super good care of an expensive pan. When it comes to the size of the pan, I recommend a 24cm or 28cm depending on the number of portions you cook. A bigger pan is often ideal to prevent overcrowding when stir frying. Overcrowding occurs when there’s too much food on your pan and the food can’t ‘breathe’ properly, ultimately resulting in your food being steamed rather than seared, preventing them from obtaining that nice brown caramelised crust. These two are the ones I bought most recently from Argos when they were on offer for £15 and £17 pounds respectively.

  • Tefal Jamie Oliver 24cm Non Stick Stainless Steel Frying Pan
  • Tefal Jamie Oliver 28cm Non Stick Stainless Steel Frying Pan

General Care – Unless you’re using a super expensive non-stick pan like Hexclad, your pan will most likely need to be hand-washed and shouldn’t go in the dishwasher. I generally get scouring pads/sponges which explicitly say they are designed for non-stick cooking equipment.

Stainless Steel Pans

I would also recommend getting a stainless steel pan. I don’t use these very often but the main advantage of these pans are that they can go into the oven so they are ideal for dishes which are started on the stovetop but finishes in the oven. Their bigger diameter also lends themselves well to cooking soups with larger ingredients (e.g. Bakuteh or Pork Rib Soup) which may require you to play a bit of Tetris to arrange them properly in medium sized stock pot. Additionally, I find them ideal for hotpot. We eat hotpot approximately once a month in our household and I’d rather use a larger pan than a deeper one. We’ve been using this one from Ikea for a few years now and it’s still going strong.

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/ikea-365-saute-pan-stainless-steel-00484253/

General Care – The beauty of stainless steel is its durability! It can go into the dishwasher with no issues and for persistent stains, you can simply use a steel scouring pad like this one.

Stainless Steel Pots

Due to the perks of stainless steel mentioned above, I would also recommend having 1 or 2 stainless steel pots. I usually use them for pasta, noodles, and soup. I would suggest having one that is slightly smaller in diameter if possible. This comes in handy when cooking dishes which requires immersion (e.g. instant noodles or an egg) as a pot with a larger diameter would require more liquid volume that may not always be available. Other p[These are the ones I am currently using:

General Care Instructions – Same as the stainless steel pans above.

Wok

Personally, I treat my wok as just a giant non-stick pan with a bit more depth. The depth of the wok allows me to stir fry bigger portions of food at the same time which is vital when I’m cooking dishes like fried rice, char kway teow, or hor fun. It’s worth noting however that I don’t strive to generate wok hei when I cook on my wok because I simply don’t think that my stove is capable of generating sufficient heat to do tso. For those of you who may not be familiar with the term, wok-hei is a Cantonese phrase which translates to the breath of a wok. It is what is generally referred to the smoky taste imparted onto dishes cooked on a very hot wok that is normally beyond what you can get from a typical home gas stove. I’ve used two Ikea woks before, one being the TOLERANT and the other, an OUMBARLIG that is longer being sold but but unfortunately, none really lasted very long before their coatings started to fall apart so I wouldn’t really recommend them.

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/tolerant-wok-black-70247319/

If you’re researching on woks, you may have also stumbled upon the different base types for a wok. For the average home cook with a normal stove, we’d generally use the flat bottom base but if you do have a wok ring, the round base will work as well.

Given how my main reason for using a wok is simply for food real estate and I’m looking for something relatively low maintenance, I would recommend just getting a simple Tefal wok. An alternative would be a carbon steel wok but that requires regular seasoning and maintenance which I simply cannot be bothered to do. I’ll create a new post if I ever want to create

General Care Instructions – If going with a non-stick wok, hand wash with a non-stick sponge.

Utensils

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