This article is a follow up to my earlier articles, Surviving Maidless Days...Months and The Art of Coping in a Maidless Existence. Hopefully this will be my last article on the subject of "domestic survival'. I have a housemaid for a week already and I am counting the days to liberation from housework.
Housemaid or no housemaid, there are kitchen equipment I couldn't live without. Topping the list is my microwave oven. My microwave oven is a remnant of my food cart business days. It reheats both food prepared earlier and left overs or pangat, short for pangatlong luto (literally means thrice recooked). Another function that it does is to thaw frozen meat or fish. Thawing becomes a necessity when I spend more time outside doing errands that I failed to move meat or fish from the freezer to the refrigerator hours ahead.
The rice cooker has been around for more than thirty years already that I haven't learned to cook rice the usual way. If I don't use a rice cooker in cooking rice, chances are the outcome is not fit for eating as it always comes out charred. Having a rice cooker is a big help as it eliminates the time waiting for the rice to be cooked when using an ordinary cooking pot otherwise it will be burned. Just wash the rice, put the desired number of cups of water and switch on. Once the rice is cooked, it will turn off on its own while keeping it warm.
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| Rice Cooker |
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| Portable Induction Cooker |
The only downside of using the induction cooker is not all cookware are compatible with it. It requires cookware with magnetic bottom. Fortunately, I purchased earlier a cookware set that I paid in 90 days because of its steep price. I intend to get the most from this pricey cookware by using it regularly.
Another gadget that I can't do without is the turbo broiler. I just replaced my first turbo broiler with a new one last month as it conked out already after ten years of service and countless Turbo Chickens. With my new turbo, I still cook Turbo Chicken using different marinades (depends on who among my three children is requesting), pork belly barbecue and other fried recipes and eat minus the fat. Talk about eating "unhealthy" food without the guilt.
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| Turbo Broiler |
My list will not be complete without my old reliable pressure cooker. It tenderizes beef and other meat that requires more time to make tender. Aside from tenderizing, my pressure cooker comes in handy in making my Portuguese sardines.
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| Pressure Cooker |
What about you? What kitchen gadget can't you live without?
