Five High Tech Small Appliances You Need to Cook like Heston
The Brief
Write an article for eBayGuides about the Top Five latest kitchen gadgets in 2016 for home chefs looking to take their cooking to the next level.
Staying in is the new going out. And the kitchen, being at the heart of your home, is the perfect place to base yourself and unleash your untapped creativity. Whether you’re cooking for your family, to impress the new person in your life or just for fun, you can easily create Michelin-star-style quality food at home. Here’s some tech that will really help you to cook like a 21st century chef.
The Smoking Gun
It’s amazing how so many foods can have their taste turned up to 11 with a quick blast from a food smoker. Perfect for finishing foods that you would usually not be able to smoke from home, such as cheese, butter, cocktails and even chocolate. Simply sprinkle a few pinches of wood chip into the gun, place the food into a food bag or box and you’re ready to smoke. The wood chips come in a range of flavours such as applewood, hickory or cherry. You can really have fun experimenting with altering the tastes of different foods. Why not create a piece of food theatre and use the gun to smoke the food at the table for a real ‘ta dah’ moment?
The Scraper Mixer Pro
An essential tool in every kitchen is a top notch mixer. The Scraper Mixer ProTM spins three times faster than other standard beaters, which equals lighter, fluffier cakes. And remember, mixers are not just for cakes, they make easy work of dough and meringues too. Even better, the Scraper Mixer Pro can whip up a batch of yummy ice-cream. Replace the bowl with the Freeze & Mix™ Thermal Ice Cream Bowl (sold separately) and you’ll have homemade ice-cream in around 30 minutes.
iSi Gourmet Whipper
If you yearn to cook like Heston, you will love dipping your toes into molecular gastronomy. Take your first step with the iSi Gourmet Whipper, which creates sauces, creams and foams with amazing texture, or ‘mouthfeel’. It does all this without sacrificing any flavour, as you won’t need cream or eggs to create volume. Available in a half litre version, perfect for the home chef, add a nitrous oxide cream whipper charger (sold separately) and get creating. No lab coat required.
Chef's Blowtorch
Whilst blow-torching your creme brulees may be so ‘last century’, don’t resign the chef’s blowtorch to the bottom of your gadget must-have list. There are so many more dishes that can be given a boost with a quick blast from a blowtorch. How about roasted red peppers, seared steaks or yummy lemon meringue pie? Choose a torch that is self-igniting, with an anti-flare flame that will work at all angles. Then simply click in a butane gas canister (sold separately) and you’ll have enough gas for at least 45 minutes of burning time.
Sous-Vide Water Bath
If you’ve seen an episode of MasterChef, then you’ve seen a Sous-Vide. French for 'under vacuum', Sous-Vide cooking starts with sealing the food in a bag using a Sous-Vide vacuum sealer (sold separately). Then the food is cooked for a long time (up to 48 hours) and at a low temperature for melt-in-the-mouth results. With this method, you can enjoy moist salmon, mouthwatering meats and perfectly cooked vegetables.