Cheap and Useful Kitchen Tools: 8 Favorites

All Clad cookware makes me swoon as much as cheap cooking gadgets
found at Asian markets and thrift shops. I love the high and low-brow as well
as the in between. You don’t have to spend a ton on cooking equipment to cook
well. In fact, the eight tools highlighted below are inexpensive and they can
elevate your cooking quite a bit.

Here’s a round-up of metal kitchen tools that I reach for
often. (I chose metal as a way to group things and hope to progress to plastic,
wood, and the like.)  You can find these handy
kitchen helpers at Asian markets, houseware shops, mainstream retailers (even Target!)
and online too.

I have a stainless steel steamer as well as bamboo steamer
trays. With the bamboo ones, I rig up a pan for steaming using a set of perforated pizza pans. This is one in a threesome and is good for small to
medium steamer trays. Set it atop a pot and put your bamboo steamer on the
pizza pan.

You won’t have to worry about flames burning the bamboo or
steam escaping from below the steamer tray. The pizza pan is like a perforated
lid. On occasion, I use the pans for reheating pizza
too.

Quarter sheet pans are great as prep trays, cooling and draining fried
morsels, and baking small quantities of food. I got several about a year ago at
Surfas in Culver City and use them as much as I do regular half-sheet baking pans.
You don’t have to use much parchment paper or foil when cooking with these
smaller baking sheets. They’re sturdy and well sized. I can separately roast
potatoes on one and asparagus on anoother on the same rack in the oven. There
are regular and perforated ones, which are terrific for food to a crisp.

This past year I also fell for small roasting/broiler racks (above, right). Costing less than $6 on Amazon, they were purchased to fit inside the
quarter-sheet pans but work well for large roasting pans and baking sheets too.
The clever design lets you choose the amount of elevation; just flip. The racks are also easy to clean  -- no grids,
corners or folding parts to deal with. They’ve been so useful in my kitchen
that I bought some for my mom and stylist Karen Shinto – two people with whom I
share kitchen tool tips.

I never thought I’d buy one of these vertical roasters but I
did for roasting Peking duck, a story and recipe I wrote for the Los Angeles Times. It works extremely well to mimic the
roasting conditions of professional Chinese duck roasters. The skin crisps and
browns and the fat melts downward. I’ve roasted chickens on the roaster too but it’s my go-to
tool for roast duck.

Japanese markets and dollarish stores like Daiso are where I
find these lightweight stovetop grills.

I started using the foldable grills for tofu and it worked
like a charm. Yes, you can do some of thatkind of light grilling in a toaster oven but there’s
something wonderful about direct exposure to the flame. This one fits right
over the griddle burner on my new stove, which I suppose means I found a use
for that burner.

For DIY dumpling making, take an Asian-Latin approach. A
good tortilla press will instantaneously made you a good Asian dumpling maker.
I stressed over rolling out basic dumpling wrappers by hand until I realized
that I could leap frog a tiny bit – and cut down on the work by half – by
pressing the dough first in a tortilla press. The aluminum ones are not too
heavy so they won’t smash your dough too much. A tortilla press buying guide was posted on Asian Dumpling Tips.

There’s barely a week that I don’t reach for this scum skimmer.
It’s sold at Asian markets and 
housewhare shops, as well as online. The fine mesh efficiently captures
a raft of scum from a bubbling pot of broth. It’s does a decent job with fat
that’s coagulated too. Shallow fine mesh skimmers like this work very well.

Asian vertical handled strainers are used by professional
and home cooks alike for reheating or cooking noodles for individual bowls of
pho, ramen, etc. You can dunk, shake and dump the noodles into bowls and get
them set up for the toppings and broth. 

Aside from making Asian noodle soup, the strainer is also fabulous for blanching small amounts of vegetables in a pot of water. For example, if I need to parboil green beans, carrots and pasta, I use the vertical strainer for each vegetable. The pot is still full of boiling hot water for the pasta, which I then boil as usual and drain the pasta in a colander. Strainers come with mesh, perforated metal, or wire. Match the size to your needs. I have medium and large.

I love these small tongs, which I call “tiny tongs” because
they measure only about 7 inches long. This fall, I was invited to cook with corporate
R&D chefs at a major food manufacturing company. When I was looking for tongs,
all they had were these:

The tongs, which cost little though you typically have to
order a dozen or so to get a deal, are great for grabbing small pieces of food, turning
delicate foods over, and plating. Rosle makes gorgeous surgical-like tongs for
chefs but Vollrath’s tiny tongs (mine are model 47007 but these look the same) are the poor man’s clever answer.

If you have
information to add or favorite tools to share, don’t hold back. These cheap
and cheery tools make great gifts to your friends and yourself. I often get the
holidays going with a little shopping for myself.

More posts on metal kitchen gadgets:

• Vietnamese coffee maker buying guide
• Water spinach splitter (very clever design)
• 8 Mighty Mini Kitchen Tools (small yet strong!)