Kitchen must-haves

MANILA, Philippines - With our busy lifestyles, anything that lets us do our work faster is sure to be a big help especially when it comes to food preparation.

Chef Mitchie Sison, who used to host Ka- Toque on QTV 11, shares essential tools that will help us whip up great meals quick and easy.

• Chef’s knife. A good knife not only allows you to do slicing, cutting, or chopping quickly, but also preserves the quality of the food you are preparing. A dull knife tends to crush the food instead of slicing them.

• Wooden cutting board. Wooden boards are the best because they are the least dulling to knives. Always have two cutting boards — one for raw meat and another for vegetables and cooked food. This prevents you from contaminating vegetables and cooked food with bacteria from raw meat. It also helps you avoid food poisoning. Always wash your boards well with soapy water after use.

• A good pepper mill. “Pepper imparts a warm taste to food, so it’s great for many dishes,” says chef Mitchie. Unfortunately, crushed pepper turns stale quickly. The quickest and easiest way to always have freshly ground pepper is by getting a pepper mill.

• Pressure cooker. Pressure cookers can soften meat items quickly, compared to a regular pot. It can also double as a regular stockpot.

• Aluminum-lined stainless steel pans. Stainless steel is a great cookware material because it does not affect the taste of food. “The problem with stainless steel,” chef Mitchie explains, “is that it heats up slowly.” To make stainless steel pans heat up quickly, manufacturers line the pan’s bottom with aluminum, which is a good heat conductor.

“Personally, I prefer pots and pans with silicon covers on the handles, because that saves me from having to look for pot holders or having to wash them,” chef Mitchie adds.

Taking chef Mitchie’s expert advice, Sunnex has designed its Mitchie Chef’s Classics line of cookware. This collection is composed of lightweight stainless steel pots and pans with aluminum-lined bottoms and silicon-covered handles and lid knobs.

Sunnex head James Tan Sy emphasizes that the pots are die-cast from surgical grade stainless steel, and the silicon grips have been shown to withstand up to 200 degrees Celsius, so you can use them for baking in your oven without any problem at all.

“With proper handling, these pots and pans will look as good in 10 years as on the day you bought them,” Sy assures. “They will neither crack, warp, or discolor.”

Mitchie Chef’s Classics by Sunnex line of cookware is available at the kitchenware section of SM Homeworld.

To learn more about Sunnex products, call 713-9435 to 38 or “like”Sunnex Philippines page on Facebook.