Time-saving Kitchen Equipment
I love to cook and could happily cook every meal from scratch. But I am a busy person so rely on some time-saving equipment in my kitchen. Reducing cooking time allows me to be creative in the kitchen regularly. These are appliances/equipment I use to speed up otherwise lengthy cooking techniques. Of course there are more but these are the ones I use most often.
Food Processor
The food processor in my kitchen gets used mainly for making pastry, cookies and cakes. Gone are the days of manually creaming butter and sugar and rubbing butter into flour. A food processor can do it in a matter of minute's even seconds. Perfect also for making bulk pesto when basil is in season. If a food processor feels a bit extravagant or you are limited for space in the kitchen some hand-held blenders now come with a small bowl attachment useful for grinding nuts and seeds and making spreads.
Hand-held Blender
An absolute kitchen ‘must-have'. It can be used to puree soups, baby food, root vege mash and more. Combine banana, frozen berries, yoghurt and milk in a jug, insert blender, whiz, and you have a smoothie in a minute. Whip cream in seconds - for a change try coconut cream, it whips to the consistency of soft whipped cream.
Slow-cooker
This may not sound like a time-saving appliance, but believe me it is. In the morning simply fill the ceramic bowl with a selection of meat or beans, vegetables, stock and herbs and spices. Secure the lid and press go. As you work (or play), your dinner is being slowly cooked. Come home to a gourmet stew with melting pieces of meat and vegetables. Delicious, I cannot rate a crock-pot more as a healthy kitchen appliance.
Slow-cooker recipes
Moroccan Lamb and Prune Casserole
Pressure Cooker
This is an appliance which can seem a little overwhelming with its erratic bursts of steam. But really it is probably one of the most ‘make your life easier' pieces of equipment you could ever own. Cook beans in 10-20 minutes, compared to the 1-2 hours they usually take on the stove top. Poach a whole chicken for stock and soup. Make root-vegetable mash in minutes. Truly a time-saver, though be sure to read the instructions thoroughly and follow them closely.
A note on microwaves
You might be curious as to why I didn't mention a microwave as a time-saving appliance. As a trained and experienced chef I have an appreciation for the age-old method of cooking with direct heat. A microwave heats from the inside out. Call me old-fashioned but personally I prefer to use direct heat as a way to cook my food and retain some degree of freshness. I do agree a microwave is handy for de-frosting food and reheating. If my kitchen had a microwave I would use it for these jobs. In the meantime I think ahead to defrost food, speeding it up by placing in a bowl of water - try this, it really works.