Kitchen Must Have

Tags

best way to impress your guests, best way to serve tea, claras corner, kitchen napkins, kitchen scissors, kitchen shears, kitchen towels, meal presentation, naija blog, naija food blog, Nigerian food blog, Tea Towels

Hi there!

This Wednesday we’ll be looking at three major kitchen must haves.

When it comes to meal preparation, tidying up and presentation there are a few tools in the kitchen that make all three important aspect of food easy to handle. Join me as  I share a few items and tips that go a long way in the kitchen.

Hope your week is going well by the way 🙂 .

I will start off with Kitchen towels which is actually tissue the size of a face towel. Most times we pass it when we get to the tissue section but this seemingly luxury item will save you alot of heart ache…intended and literal.  What do I mean?

Just had an oil accident in the kitchen? Spilled oil all over the place? Rather than use your beloved napkin or rag which will retain the oil stain especially if it’s palm oil, simply use this handy item. 2/3 sheets and the oil is all gone, every one is happy, no need to start soaking with hot water, bleach etc. Just like that, it’s as if the oil incident never happened.

Inexpensive

Another major use for kitchen towels which most of us over look is it’s use in fried goods. It’s great for absorbing oil. Simply line your colander with a sheet or two and allow the tissue absorb excess oil from your dodo, akara, fried yam and fried chicken, turkey and fish before you eat, learnt this from my mum, she never ate fried foods directly,  she always strained them using a kitchen towel first.

Uses:

Useful for absorbing excess oil from fried foods.

Used to wipe out oil spilled in the kitchen so napkins aren’t stained, also saves time because all you do is throw it out, no need to soak or wash.

Next on the list are Kitchen Shears (Kitchen scissors).

The uses for this item can’t be over estimated. I use it for EVERYTHING! Apart from the obvious cutting open a pack of indomie spices with it, I also use it to cut the stalks off moi moi leaves, the fins off fish, yes it does that! I have two, one came in a gift pack and another a heavy duty Prochef shears 🙂 . With these in your kitchen you can snip, cut and shear through anything! Sometimes when I’m picking green vegetables and I come accross a caterpillar (which freaks me out big time) I simply go hands free and start using the shears to snip the leaves off 🙂 . You can also use in when picking Efo leaves so you don’t stain your fingers.

Uses:

Cuts open difficult sealed items like indomie spices etc.

Very useful in picking leaves,  cutting stalks off moi moi leaves and fish tails and fins.

Now to one of my favourite kitchen must haves….Napkins and Tea Towels! Yay! Lol!

You are probably wondering, we all have napkins at home, whats the big deal….well let’s find out.

Napkins come in different colours and sizes. I looove the colourful ones…who doesn’t?  Most are made from cotton and are super absorbent. It’s best to always have at least two napkins in your kitchen at all times. One for wiping dishes dry after washing, the other for wiping hands, one napkin shouldn’t be used for this two purposes.

Napkins can also be used to keep food either cold or warm. Simply put the food item into a cooler, then stuff the remaing space with a clean dry napkin before closing with the lid.

Napkins and Tea Towels

 

While both are of similar material, the patterned one can be used as a tea towel

Plain red one is a kitchen napkin while the patterned one a tea towel

 

Ones I use regularly, plain for hand, patterned for dishes

It’s also nice to have matching napkins,  most times they come in pairs already so no worries.

Now I know what you are thinking, the towel like one I called a napkin then the cotton one a towel, oh well that’s just the way it is. Most patterned cotton napkins are tea towels and make for great presentation when you need to impress that elderly uncle, an inlaw or like me, I was brought up using tea towels for regular meals no explanations lol!

Ok, scratch the above picture, who in this age uses tea pots?

This is more like it!

This is how I was taught to set a tray though.

Lots of tea drinkers in my family, myself inclusive :- D .

Certainly better with the tea towel

But you see, I like to make my life easy, besides I don’t have energy to wash napkins all the time, the regular ones I use weekly is enough. So, how do I enjoy my cup of tea?

🙂

So I buy as many colourful tea towels as I can afford, then simply stash them away lol! Saving them for the nearest future when I have my own fitted kitchen or when my tea loving Aunts come visiting then I can show off my pretty towels letting them know they raised me well.

In the meantime,  I will sit back with my cup of lipton fruit infusion and crackers and admire my pretty napkin collection….hehe!

Uses :

Ideal for wiping plates dry after washing.

Used to wipe hands while in the kitchen.

Makes for pretty meal presentation, to impress a relative, guests, inlaws or perhaps husband to be 😉 .

Hope you’ve enjoyed the post, let me know what you favourite kitchen item is!

Azu 🙂 .

*Tip: using a tray to serve my husband while we were dating impressed him and I didn’t even use a napkin, be wiser than me, use a tea towel today 🙂 .