Essential Kitchen Items can be hard to identify. When you first leave home, or move into a new apartment, you invariably end up with too many kitchen utensils or not enough, and you're missing all the most essential kitchen items. Eventually, you realise either that your kitchen cupboards are groaning under the weight of items you'll never use, or that you're still trying to cook with nothing but an aged saucepan and a blunt knife. Here is my guide to some absolutely essential kitchen items.
1. Quality Knife
Cheap knives are a false economy; if you really want to cook well, it's better to spend more on a versatile, good quality knife. Not only will it make preparation easier, but will last a lot longer.
2. Sieves
Sieves are definitely one of the essential kitchen items. Anyone who has tried to drain pasta without one, and watched half of it disappear down the sink, will know what I mean. You need a couple of different sizes: one sieve with small holes for rinsing rice etc., and a larger one (or colander) for draining pasta and rinsing salad.
3. Pots and Pans
Again, this is something that is not worth buying cheap, as they will soon scratch. Buy a large and small frying pan, plus a small, medium and large saucepan (assuming you don't have lots of people to cook for). That should cover most possibilities, and having a large saucepan will allow you to cook soups and large quantities to freeze.
