I can be a minimalist if needed - I once cooked a spaghetti dinner for five with one deep frying pan, a bowl, a crappy plastic knife, and a spoon - but I prefer not to. If I had to pick one pan, it would be a deep-ish frying pan with a lid. Other than that, one decent knife, a wooden spoon, and a bamboo rice paddle (which is my favorite spatula). And it’s not at all essential, but I do love my Crock-Pot.
I’m not at all a minimalist, though. It’s ridiculous how much kitchen equipment I’ve accumulated. Moving sucks.
My big chef’s knife, whisk, tongs, meat pounder, the flat disk type with the handle sticking up out of the middle (I rarely use it to pound meat but it has all kinds of other uses), mortar and pestle, dehydrator.
Now if we were talking about things that I couldn’t live without at the time I bought them and haven’t once used in years, the list would be endless. I have gadgets and gizmos that I honestly am not sure what the hell they were even supposed to be for. But at the moment I saw them, I knew my life was incomplete. That’s why I’m not allowed at the “cooks corner” area at fairs, or to look at a Pampered Chef catalog anymore.
Chefguy thanks for the tip on Accusharp. Right now I am using a Farberware ceramic stick sharpener. It worked great for about 6 months but seems to have lost some bite and I’ve been looking for a new sharpener that wouldn’t destroy the good knives, and didn’t cost an arm and a leg.
It’s just a plastic handle with two reversible carbide steel hones placed at the proper angle. If your blade needs to have the edge rehoned, it will do that, as well. The thing will probably last ten years. Great for fishermen and the kitchen. Gee, I sound like an infomercial.
Chefguy, I’ve seen them around but haven’t picked one up because I’ve ruined many good knives with other inexpensive sharpeners with carbide blades. They worked great on the soft steel “war club” knives, and in fact I still keep one around for those, but they always hacked up the edges on decent steel, so I kept going with what I knew, stones and ceramic.
If you say that an Accusharp is good enough for your Henckels, then I’ll trust that they are good enough for mine.
But I better not find out you work for Ronco or Chef Tony:)