Setup Part 2: The Kitchen Utensils and Tools You Will Need

So yesterday we covered The Kitchen and Appliances. Today we are doing cookware.

I'm not going to bother with stuff like chopsticks and forks and spoons since I will assume you have those, but you should have the following in your kitchen cookware collection:

1. 1 large stainless steel soup/stock pot. It doesn't have to be a thick one,  but make sure it comes with a cover and good solid handles
2. 1 kuali/wok with the metal spatula (if you are using gas stove) OR
3. 1 frying pan, non-stick with wooden or plastic spatula. (Don't bother buying expensive ones, just get a decently priced one and change it when it gets scratched.
4. 1 small saucepan. I suspect you already have one for your Maggie Mee cooking
5. 1 stainless steel colander. For draining pasta, vegetables and generally separating wet stuff from dry stuff.

That's all the pots you really need for your stove range really.

If you've taken my advice and invested in an oven, you should also have the following: 

1. 2 baking trays or cake tins (I keep more than 2, but then I bake too)
2. Ovenproof glass/ceramic dish/bowl (These are often also usable on stovetops. Handy for pies and casseroles and roasting, even. You can also use them to cook rice in your microwave)
3. Aluminum foil
4. Oven mittens or cloths (because you don't want to burn your hands)

You will also need these for working at the counter:

1. 1 wooden chopping board for cooked meats and bread, preferably with grooves on the side to catch the meat juices when you cut the cooked meat.
2. 1 set plastic chopping boards, the thin foldable ones are good for vegetables and raw meat, and aredisposable when they get too old. And they are cheap. Try to keep the boards for raw and cooked materials separate, for hygiene reasons.
3. 1 Chinese cleaver or large kitchen knife. Don't bother with buying those large blocks of 6 knives in a set. You'll never really use more than 1 or 2 of them anyway. Instead invest in the best cleaver you can afford and learn to use it well. You can do almost everything with it, from butchering chicken to slicing garlic.
4. 1 small knife. I said almost everything. But sometimes cutting an apple with a cleaver is overkill. Slicing watermelon from the rind with a cleaver is... hard.
5. 1 serrated knife. Because slicing bread with a cleaver ruins the bread. Serrated knives can also be used to cut through bones in cooked chicken, or semi-frozen meat.
6. 1 peeler. For peeling potatoes, carrots and stuff. They cost about RM 2-5, save you a lot of trouble and last forever until you lose them mysteriously. I like the Y peelers best. 
7. Knife sharpener. Keep your knives sharp at all times. I sharpen mine at least once a week, or almost every time before I use them. I can never abide people who try to cut things with a blunt knife, then complain it's tiresome and buy a food processor. If your knife presses the tomato down when you're slicing it, it's blunt. Go sharpen it. A blunt knife is more dangerous to the owner than a sharp one, because foolish people then try to cut harder and cut themselves. With my sharp knives I can dice an onion completely in less than a minute, a task I have seen other people take 15 minutes to do with their silly blunt knives.
8. Potato masher. It may seem silly to own one of these to just mash potatoes, but it does it so well it's worth forking out the RM 5-10. And you do use it for more than mashing potatoes. Such as mashing tomatoes. And pureeing. Basically, reducing plant matter into their mushy versions.
   
9. 1 soup ladle. For ladling soups and sauces. Tablespoons bite for that purpose.
10. 1 large mixing bowl. Plastic, glass, ceramic, it doesn't matter. What's important is that it's big and has high sides. Sometimes this can be the same item as your ovenproof dish.

And that should be most of the equipment you need for your kitchen. None of these things are very exotic, your local supermarket will probably have them.