WHAT-DOES-WHAT IN YOUR KITCHEN? By Brendan Reilly.
So you have either recently moved away from home or you have become a student and living away from your parents making you all 3 meals of the day. That sound about right? This is actually the start for you learning how to cook. I don’t just mean pot noodles, You have to learn how to turn on the oven and how to open a fridge and look after yourself. This seems a daunting task, doesn’t it?
Don’t worry! Help is at Hand! This little handbook will teach how to use all the equipment that will be in your kitchen! It will also teach you what should be in your cupboard and fridge to help you get started with your cooking!
Lets start with the kitchen. The typical kitchen should have these items: (SEE next page FOR IMAGES) Cupboard Fridge Freezer Microwave Oven Sink Toaster Kettle Check that you have these items in your kitchen. Cross the items out once you have them. NOTE: everything in this booklet may not be exactly the same as the equipment in your kitchen. This will just give a general overview of how to work your equipment .e.g. A Microwave may have buttons or a knob to turn. Anyways, I am sure you can work it out! We all have common sense!
Toaster
SINK
MICROWAVE
KETTLE CUPBOARD
Usually the Fridge and freezer is a unit on its own or integrated into the cupboards in the kitchen, SO I HAVEN'T DRAWN IT HERE.
OVEN
Cupboard The cupboard is the storage facility for your pots and pans and for your food and drink to go. The Cupboard is a place to put items in and prevent your kitchen from looking untidy and protects items from dust and dirt. To access a cupboard, you usually pull a door open using a handle. The next page shows what should be in your cupboard. Open the door.
This is what should be in your cupboard!
What food should be in your Cupboard! Cross them out once you have acquired them. DRY PASTA rice potatoes Tomatoes porridge oats
noodles onions salt herbs soy sauce oil
What Equipment should be in your Cupboard! Cross them out once you have acquired them. colander
bowl or a plate measuring jug mug scissors sieve wok tupperware box
wine glass and pint glass
sauce pan peeler and tin opener spatula lemon squeezer and a masher
knives
weighing scales
Now you have everything in your cupboard. Lets see what else is in the kitchen.
Fridge
When it comes to your fridge, PUT THE FOOD THAT NEEDS TO BE KEPT COLD IN THE FRIDGE. THESE ITEMS ARE usually PRODUCTS that have come from an animal or SOFT VEGETABLES.
Make sure you always read the label to see if it should go in the fridge! There is no need to put your porridge oats in the fridge as there is no point! They will be okay in the cupboard!
Freezer The freezer is just like the fridge but a lot colder! The whole point of the freezer is to ‘freeze’ the food you put in! So if you buy something that you want to last for a while! Put it the freezer! Word of warning! Remember, when it comes to cooking it, you will need to let THESE ITEMS defrost! You don’t want to be eating a frozen chicken now do you!
OPen the fridge and freezer doors.
WHat should be in your fridge?
cheese milk eggs ketchup yoghurt butter
Microwave
you use this to warm things up that have already been precooked or to reheat SOMETHING YOU WANT to eat. You rarely cook anything with a microwave. nOW WHEN IT COMES TO THE MICROWAVE! There is usually a dial that looks like a calculator to choose how many minutes you want your food warming up for. There is sometimes a dial that you turn for how many minutes for how long you want your food to cook for. There is usually a second dial that shows what heat settings you can warm your food up at. There is usually titles saying “defrost” or “hot” and “very hot”. There is usually a ding sound to indicate when your food is ready.
Open the door to the microwave!
CUT
CUT
CUT
CUT
This is where the food goes to warm up! Put food in the microwave. Close the door and type/turn how long you want the food in for. Close the door and wait till it 'dings'. Your food is ready!
OVEN
So you have found the oven in your kitchen. It is usually that bog cube thing that has for rings on the top of it and has two, sometimes two, doors on it. Now the rings at the top of the oven are called “HobS�. This is where you will boil your pasta or fry your eggs! at the FRONT of the oven there are four knobs. These are to turn the 4 separate rings at the top of the oven. Turn the knob to the required heat. You will usually find a diagram to which knob operates which oven ring and to how hot you want the ring to be.
the oven has 2 doors to 2 separate compartments to place food in. ONE of THEsE is a grill and A fan oven. The other is the main oven. The smaller oven you use for grilling your bacon or for food that doesn’t require that long to cook. The second oven is to cook your roast dinner or food that takes over an hour or two. open the smaller door for the top oven/grill. open the bigger door for the main oven.
CUT
CUT
Kettle If you need some boiling water, this is where the kettle comes in! If your wanting to boil water: 1) Place the kettle underneath a tap and turn the tap to the amount of water is required. 2) Place the kettle on the electric element which transfers electricity into heat. 3) Press the lever down or push the button depending on the type of kettle. 4) Wait until the button clicks to say it is done. 5) Your water is ready. Use the water for whatever you need.
Toaster The toaster is so you can have toast or burnt bread. This is where you place your bread in the toaster, pull the lever down so the bread is fully inside the toaster and then wait until it pops back up! You then have the toast! Depending how burnt you want your bread. You can adjust this by there is usually a knob with numbers surrounding it to indicate how burnt you want the bread. Word of warning! Never put a fork in a toaster to get your toast! Unless you want to be toasted!
Sink after you have eaten or drank something and you need to wash something, this is where the sink comes in handy. The sink is to wash all your utensils that you have used during cooking or making a drink. The idea is: 1) Put the rubber plug in the bottom of the sink to prevent losing water. 2) Turn the tap to allow water to flow into the sink until no more water is needed. 3) Then squirt some form of washing up liquid into the sink full of water. 4) Get the utensilS and wash it using some kind of sponge to clean it. 5) Place the utensil onto the side of the sink to allow you to wash more utensils.
6) Once you have fifinished cleaning your utensils. Grab a tea towel and dry them. 7) Then place the utensil to the cupboard that you had the utensil in originally.
Once you have eaten your food or your food has gone out of date, Throw it in the bin!
I hope this book has helped you get started with your cooking. All the best on your CULINARY journey. Brendan Reilly www.brendanreilly.co.uk