A holiday gift guide for the home cook

One week till Christmas. Are you ready?I’ve blogged about what to get your vision impaired friend or family member, and I’ve written about some useful kitchen aids for the blind cook. Now what about the rest of you sighted folks who like to cook too?For those of you still at a loss as to what to get that self-proclaimed chef in your life, whether sighted or not, here is an extensive list of useful items in my kitchen, without which I would not be able to create many of the fabulous foods in my home. And best of all, most of these products are available at Amazon, whose app from iTunes is accessible for the blind, and which offers second day, even next day, delivery—so when Granny gets choked up come Christmas Eve, it’ll be because your gift was so thoughtful, not because it was late or, worse, nonexistent.

A good set of knives

When asked what is the single most important item in her kitchen, most chefs say without hesitation, a chef’s knife. My first set of knives was Chefmate, which I’d purchased from Wal-mart on my college student budget. A few years later, fresh out of college and with newfound income, I graduated to a set of Henckels. The hubs bought me my first Japanese hand-forged Asai knife from the Epicurean Edge after MasterChef, and that began my addiction to these beautiful Damascus knives of which I’ve since acquired three more.Of course, I don’t expect most people to drop $$$ on kitchen knives, so my advice is always to buy the best knives you can afford. Besides a chef's knife, I also find useful the utility, paring, serrated or bread, and cleaver. A filet knife is on my own personal Christmas list. And don’t forget to procure a knife sharpener, too—after all, a dull knife is both dangerous and frustrating.

An everyday cookware set

The same rule applies here: get the best you can afford. My first set in college also came from Wal-mart, and they turned food from raw to edible, but stuff often stuck to their surfaces, and they’d take a long time to heat up. My next set of pots and pans was a Calphalon set, which were heavier with a tri-ply feature (meaning three bonded layers) for better heat conductivity. The exterior was either stainless steel or nonstick (I had two sets) for easier cleanup. My latest (and likely last) set is from All-Clad, which is both beautiful and highly functional.A well-rounded cookware set should include (note: all sizes are approximate): a small (1.5 qt) saucepan with lid, a medium (3 qt) saucepan with lid, a small (8”) frying pan, a medium (10”) frying pan, a sauté pan with lid (10”), and a stockpot with lid (8 qts). A nonstick frying pan is nice for eggs and 😘pancakes.

Some a la carte cookware

These are additional cookware that will take your basic everyday set of pots and pans to the next level, like a Dutch oven which is fantastic for those winter soups, stews, braises, and roasts (and for the summer fried chicken). I recently added Le Creuset’s French oven to my kitchen, in which I whipped up an easy pork belly and oxtail soup.The pressure cooker is also great for soups, stews, and braises. I use our Presto pressure cooker whenever I’m cooking a weeknight meal involving beans or braised meats—they’ll cook in a third of the normal cooking time. I also save bones and shells from any turkey, chicken, beef, pork, fish, and shellfish we eat, seal them in Ziploc bags, and throw them in to the freezer. Once I accumulate enough to make a particular stock (poultry or beef/pork or seafood), I’ll break out the pressure cooker and make stock (an updated recipe can be found in my cookbook) in a pseudo-New York minute. I prefer the stovetop pressure cookers to the electric kinds due to their versatility and my general affinity for cooking with actual fire (thanks to my gas range), which offers more nuanced heat control.My gas range, however, does have its shortcomings. For one, it is not built for woks. Woks are essential to stir-fries, a cornerstone of so many Asian dishes. The authentic wok has a completely rounded bottom and requires a special burner with prongs to hold it steady. But alas, for the many standard home ranges, we’ll have to make do with a stir-fry pan with its slightly flattened bottom. (That’s how you distinguish a wok from a stir-fry pan.) Yes, the stir-fry pan is not as efficient as its Chinese commercial grade cousin when it comes to heat conduction, but it makes up for this inferiority by being more manageable in functionality and size, both qualities prized by this Blind Cook. I mean, it’s not every day I’m making fried rice or Vietnamese shaking chicken or beef.What we do use in our house quite often is the iron skillet. It conducts heat fantastically, making it perfect for searing steaks or frying bacon (but be very careful with those scorching handles!). Because the cast iron is exposed, refrain from using water to clean it (unless rust is part of your diet); instead, wipe it down and let it dry over a low flame—the more you cook on it, the more seasoned the skillet becomes, and the better the food coming off it tastes. If the zombie apocalypse was upon us, and I had to run away into the wilderness with one cooking apparatus, it would be the iron skillet, because, you know, it would make for a very good defense weapon as well.If the self-proclaimed chef in your life already has all of the above, and he’s got a li’l southern hospitality in him, maybe he could use a humongous pot and basket and outdoor propane burner. Then get him my cookbook which contains a recipe for a good ol’ fashioned crawfish boil and another recipe for deep-fried turkey, both amazing Cajun dishes that require the aforementioned humongous pot, basket, and burner. (Okay, or you can just tell him to visit my blog for the fried turkey recipe.) Remind him to use a fry thermometer to get an accurate temperature reading of the oil.

Some small appliances

My eggrolls used to take a whole day to prep, wrap, and fry. Now with the help of a food processor (or a “food pro,” as I like to endearingly call it or a ”Robot-Coupe” as professional chefs refer to their industrial strength food pro by its proper name), I’m able to cut down that eggroll-making process severalfold. No more chopping all the veg by hand—just do a rough chop and pulse them in the food pro until finely chopped. My first was a Cuisinart food processor, but mine only held 3 cups, so it was overwhelming whenever I had to chop enough veg to make 80+ eggrolls’ worth of filling. When I started shopping around for a new food pro, I’d really wanted the Robot-Coupe but couldn’t justify its hefty price tag, so I settled for Robot-Coupe’s more affordable line, the Magimix. In addition to chopping copious amounts of veg, I also use my food pro to make hummus, mayonnaise, aioli, and pesto (yes, I realize I’m debasing it by not using a mortar and pestle but, hey, sometimes you just want lazy pesto).On the counter next to my food pro sits my Vitamix. The newer version comes with a shorter, squatter container, which makes it fit perfectly underneath most standard cabinetry on the countertop. You can make soups and sauces in your Vitamix, but I mostly make juices and smoothies. I ain’t fancy.The last appliance I’ll discuss under this section is the Zojirushi rice cooker. We registered for this five years ago, got it as a shower gift, and have loved it since. I’ve seen a lot of rice cookers in my day, from the cheap ones that never failed to burn a layer of rice at the bottom of the pot to gigantic ones with pink lavender decals that scream tacky, and the best is our Zojirushi, hands-down. For our family of two, we do well with the three-cup rice cooker; it has various settings to cook white rice, brown rice, quick rice, etc., and even a “keep warm” setting to ensure you’ll never have to unwillingly ingest another grain of cold rice again. I also recently discovered it makes quinoa, too—1:2 ratio of quinoa-to-water, and then cook it on the “quick”setting)—which helps me feel less guilty eating carbs. (Thank goodness, because my Zojirushi was getting no play for months.)

Something sweet

The KitchenAid stand mixer also falls into the former category, but I decided to tuck it into the baking and dessert section. I use the stand mixer when I make cookies, ice cream, and bread; besides pasta dough, I can’t think of any other incident when I’d used the KitchenAid for anything savory. The hubs got me my mixer for Christmas years ago, and in addition to making my baking life easier, it contributes to my growing biceps each time I lift it from and to its upper counter storage space. Who said salted caramel ice cream can't make you stronger?Speaking of ice cream, we make a lot of it at home. Currently in our freezer sit some chocolate with dark chocolate chunks, persimmon, and chocolate chunk and mint. A favorite of our friends is our matcha green tea ice cream. We used to make our ice cream in a Cuisinart ice cream machine, which required the bowl to be frozen prior to running the ice cream base through. But I’ve since graduated from that machine, too, and now love my Breville Smart Scoop ice cream machine with a built-in compressor that does away with the extra long steps of having to freeze the bowl and cool the base. We just make the custard and pour the still warm base straight into the Breville, push a button, and away it churns.Besides ice cream, my other favorite sweets are cookies. I tend to make a huge batch of cookie dough at a time and form them into balls with my medium cookie scoop before wrapping them by the dozen in foil and freezing. That way, any time I’ve got a potluck or have some guests with a hankering for fresh-baked cookies, I can just pull some from the freezer, slap them on to cookie sheets, and bake. In fifteen minutes or so, we’ve got cookies hot from the oven. Don’t forget a food scale is important for the serious baker, as professional pastry chefs follow the metric scale and employ extremely precise measurements.And if, like me, the giftee in your life is not the strongest of bakers, give her this Presto popcorn air popper, and call it a day. Simple to use and pops perfect, healthier popcorn every time, we love it in our home for movie nights and just as a well-deserved snack.***I hope your head’s not spinning yet. If it is, not to worry. I’ll leave you here to contemplate what kitchen toy you should give your chef friend or, better yet, yourself. Before weeks' end, I’ll post the rest of my list, which includes gifts for the sous vide novice/addict and other miscellaneous kitchen gadgets great for stuffing those stockings.What's on your Christmas list this year?