Kitchen Skills

Must-Have Kitchen Tools

With these kitchen items in hand, cooking will be easier than ever

BY JASON ROSS

The kitchen collects gadgets and tools like no other room in the house. Cabinets fill with pasta rollers, silicon mats, air-fryers and whatever nifty tool is in vogue at any given moment. But the tools we’ve outlined here won’t collect dust in the back of your pantry. Use these must-have, affordable items in the recipes that follow.

A cast iron pan will quickly become your most-used pan. It holds heat like a dream without temperature fluctuations—when it gets hot, it stays hot, making it the best pan to sear steaks and fish or anything else, and also makes it perfect for pan-frying. Once properly seasoned (see below), it maintains a non-stick surface great for eggs, pancakes or cornbread. Cast iron is nearly indestructible and goes straight from the stove, to oven, to tabletop (as in the recipe, below, for seared salmon and zucchini). Stove-to-oven capability makes cast iron the right choice for braises and slow-cooked foods, too. Incredibly, cast iron looks and performs better with age.

To season, rub the pan’s surfaces with a neutral oil like canola or vegetable. Follow by baking the pan for 30 minutes in a 450°F oven. Allow the pan to cool, and repeat, oiling and baking a few more times, until you notice a shiny and smooth patina building on the pan.

PHOTOGRAPHY TERRY BRENNAN FOOD STYLING LARA MIKLASEVICS

Cast Iron Pan-Seared Salmon with Zucchini and Herb Butter

MAKES 4 SERVINGS

The cast iron pan skills used in this dish— searing on the stove and finishing in the oven—can be applied to nearly any meat or poultry.

¼ stick soft room temperature salted butter 2 tablespoons minced fresh dill, divided ½ teaspoon minced lemon zest ¼ teaspoon granulated garlic 1 tablespoon olive oil 1½ pounds skin-on salmon filet ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper, plus more to taste 1½ teaspoons salt, divided 1 pound zucchini, halved and sliced in ½-inch pieces ½ red onion, halved and sliced in ½-inch pieces ½ lemon juice 1. Heat oven to 350°F. 2. In a small mixing bowl, use the back of a spoon to beat and soften the butter. (You could also use a mixer, but it’s not really worth the trouble for a small amount of butter.) Add 1 tablespoon dill, plus the zest and granulated garlic, and mix to fully incorporate. Set aside. 3. Pat dry the salmon and season with ¼ teaspoon pepper and ¾ teaspoon salt. 4. Heat a large cast iron pan on medium high heat. Add the olive oil. Wait for the oil to get hot and place the salmon filet in

Tools You Need

n A bench knife and bowl scraper make working with dough more fun, easy and neat. Use a bench knife to cut butter, brownies and doughs. Since you grip it from above (not from the side like a regular knife), cutting items in sheet trays is much easier. It might not seem like a big issue, but you would be surprised how much faster and more accurate it is to cut things using a bench knife. It’s also helpful for cleaning up a work surface or shaping breads, especially wet doughs. And a bowl scraper is the absolute best tool for getting batters and doughs out of a rounded bowl. It’s also a fun tool for cutting in butter—check out the recipe for scones on page 8 for more on that. n A professional kitchen would grind to a halt without piles of hand towels. Use them to clean and sanitize the kitchen, handle hot foods out of the oven and to dry hands after washing. You can even use towels underneath soufflé dishes to keep them from sliding around in their water bath or when making gently cooked foods like crème brûlée or cheesecake. n Sheet trays, parchment paper and a wire rack might be the combination you use most in your oven. You probably already have sheet trays, which can be used for just about any roasted item—from vegetables, to croutons, to an entire turkey—but there are two accessories that unlock their potential, depending on what you’d like to achieve. For better browning, a wire rack elevates roasted foods, making for better airflow and browning on all sides. Racks can also be used for cooling breads and baked items, or to drain fried foods of oil. Parchment helps keep your pan clean and protects foods like brownies from discoloring or sticking.

the pan skin side down, cooking for about 8 minutes, or until the skin is browned and crisp. Look at the sides of the filet and wait until the fish develops an opaque ring of doneness ¼ inch up the sides of the filet from the pan. Use a fish spatula to lift the fish out of the pan and onto a plate, skin side facing up. 5. Turn the heat down to medium/medium-low and add the zucchini and onion. Make sure all vegetables are coated in oil, drizzling on a little more if needed. Sprinkle the remaining ¾ teaspoon salt and pepper to taste on the vegetables. Use a wooden spoon to toss and coat the vegetables in the residual oil in the pan, picking up any browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Cook for 2 to 3 more minutes. 6. Place the salmon, skin side up, on the vegetables in the pan, and transfer the pan to the oven. Cook in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes until the salmon is cooked. It will be firm and register 130-135°F on a thermometer. If you start to see white bits clinging to the flesh that almost look like cooked egg whites, you know the fish is cooked and heading towards over-cooked. 7. Put the pan on the stove, with the heat off, flip fish to skin-side down, and spoon the butter onto the fish, basting the fish as it melts. Squeeze lemon juice onto the fish and vegetables, and sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon fresh dill on top. 8. Serve immediately. The herb butter can be made and stored wrapped in the refrigerator up to 2 days before and softened at room temperature a few hours before serving.