Kitchen Basics 101 ~ My Holy Grails
Every kitchen needs the basics. These basics are the foundation of good food that is good for you. Here are my 5 holy grail items I can’t live without.
- SALT. I am very serious about salt. It’s part of my brand for Pete’s sake! I use 2 kinds of salt and two kinds only. First, I use Diamond Kosher Crystal Salt exclusively while cooking. It is the least salty salt with the perfect shaped crystal that really sticks to food. It feels different in your finger tips and just tastes like REAL salt. None of the ionized stuff… Yuck. I use DKCS to season all my food from salad dressing, to chicken, to pasta water and beyond. The second salt i use is Maldon flaky sea salt for finishing a dish. Its the perfect topping to chocolate chip cookies, sliced medium rare steak, a hard boiled egg, or a fresh heirloom tomato salad.
- My Le Creuset Braising Pan and dutch oven. I will use one of these pans almost every day that I cook. The dutch oven is my go to for making an kind of sauce, braising meat, making soup, chili, stew- so man things. I love the braising pan for roasting chicken, making a casserole dish, chicken pot pie, searing something, making a pan sauce. Point is- both are so versatile and key to cooking something properly.
- Good Olive Oil. I like a few. Baroncini Imports Olive oil is my favorite. I like Graza and California Olive Ranch, too. Speaking to good olive oil is good butter. I use Tillamook butter for everyday and French Butter for bread and fancy things.
- A nice microplane. I’ve cut my thumb… BADLY… using a cheaper microplane. Don’t make that mistake!!!! Invest in a good microplane. I use mine almost everyday for zesting citrus, grating garlic and grating Parmesan cheese. Its KEY to a kitchen!
- Citrus/Acid. I always have lemon and/or champagne/white wine vinegar. I find that all food needs balance to truly be delicious and one way to achieve that is to add acid. Too salty? add acid. Too bland? add acid? Missing something? Add acid. I find a simple squeeze of lemon to anything can truly just make the dish.
with love & salt,
em.
