Favourite Kitchen Gadgets

Superb Silicon

Here are two less usual silicon saviours for the kitchen. The first is a silicon oil-wand with a dripless valve. No more moulting brushes leaving bristles on your food. This silicon brush with an oil reservoir and cover is dishwasher safe and incredibly handy for basting or greasing trays.
But of course these colourful silicon cup-cake moulds on the right won't need oiling. They come in a set of 6 for just $12 (might need two sets).

Wiltshire Bend'n Bake Cupcake Mould Packet 6

Skeleton Gingerbread Men for Halloween

For older kids or for Halloween this skelton Gingerbread kit is fabulous. It combines a gingerbread cutter with a stamp to imprint the cookie with bones that you can then fill (or not) with white icing. And it's only $11.99.

One Handed Grinding

chef'n Savvy Dual Grinder Stainless Steel

Chef'n is a clever brand of kitchen gadgets including one-handed grinders. My favourite combines salt and pepper grinding in one meaning you can season single handed - perfect for multi-taskers.
This is a super-stylish stainless steel version but there are also plastic models that are more affordable but equally practical.

Easy As - Jar Key

Don't you hate it when you have to ask someone for help opening a jar! Sometimes it because you have wet or slippery hands but at other times you just have to admit you don't have enough strength.
The ultimate jar opener as this colourful little gadget picked up from Stevens. It operates just like a bottle opener to break the seal on the jar so that you can then open it effortlessly.
We've tried all sorts of other tricks over the years including running the lid under hot water and tapping the jar on its lid.
The benefit of the Jar-Key is that it is reliable and quicker than any other method and costs less than $10. A favourite for our utensil drawer.

Colour Coordinated Food Safety

We all know that for food safty in the kitchen you really should use different chopping boards for chicken, meat, vegetables and bread.
The Joseph Joseph chopping board are colour coded and have their own storage scabbard along with four matching forged Japanese Stainless Steel knives.
You'll know which knife and which board was used for what to avoid cross- contamination.
The knives and boards are dishwasher safe too for thorough cleaning.
The Joseph Joseph range of products also includes a set of indexed boards on their own without the knives, a vibrant range of nested measuring cups and mixing bowls and a colour coordinated range of Joseph Joseph hanging implements.

Home-made Sushi without the Mess

Home-made sushi is easy using the Sush-ezi. Make platters of sushi easily without getting rice under your fingers and sticking to your hands.
The Sush-ezi is a plastic moulding that also compresses your sushi rice to form a long sausage of filled sushi that you simply wrap in nori and slice into sushi pieces.
Save time and make less mess with the Sush-ezi which lets you shape, fill and compress your sushi rice to make perfect home-made sushi that won't fall apart in your hands.

Nice & Easy Nigiri

If your tastes in sushi extend to salmon topped nigiri then there's an easy mould for making that too.

With the mould you can compress your sushi rice firmly to make perfectly firm rice oblongs that you smear with wasabi (or not) and top with your favourite smoked salmon, tuna or other sashimi-thin fish. Too easy.

This nigiri mould was bought on-line from www.countdown.co.nz and amazingly it cost only $5.

Grate the Cheese not your Fingers

Click on the image for more details.

This sleek little gadget is a modern version of the metal contraption my mother had. Instead of metal components this has a tough anthracite body which is dishwasher safe. And clearly the designers have had a major input.
It takes a 500g block of cheese and grates it cleanly and safely and retails for around $29.

Elevated Utensils - rest above the bench surface

The clever people at Joseph Joseph have designed kitchen utensils that creat less mess. The handle is designed with a rest underneath that causes tha handle to touch the bench surface but which elevates the spoon/ladle/spatula end above the bench.
The utensils themselves are silicone so are ideal for non-stick pans, they're dishwasher safe and are heat resistant to 340 degrees.

True Julienne

If you don't have the right tools it's hard to create julienne vegetables like a professional.
The Moha Julienne Peeler makes all the difference. This Julienne peeler has an ABS handle and stainless steel serrated Julienne blade for easy use on a variety of vegetables - and it's just $18.99.

Click on the image for more details.

Elegant Cutlery from Jamie Oliver

Jamie Oliver's kitchenware focus on improved functionality but also are beautifully designed. Elegance in items you use every day, and often with guests, can be worth the investment.
If you love elegant, simple yet modern designed cutlery and this 16-piece set in Jamie Oliver's collection is for you.

Click on the image to enlarge and for more details.

Freeze Up for Convenience

Yes chest freezers are more efficient freezers than vertical ones - but from experience we've learned that the convenience of the upright format means you use your freezer more efficiently.
Chest freezers always end up with product hidden at the bottom that you forget about. In contrast a vertical freezer allows you to organise what's in it more easily and access it quickly. In mine I have one shelf for frozen bakery products another for meats, another for chicken and fish and another for all my frozen left-over dinners.
People are often put off buying a freezer because of how much space they take up but the other advantage of a vertical freezer is that it has a smaller "footprint" and should fit into your garage or house easily.
There are vertical freezers from around 180 litres up to around 390 litres to give you flexible convenient storage for all your frozen needs. Check out www.100percent.co.nz for the Fisher & Paykel and Westinghouse range of vertical freezers.

Cute utensil dog