15 June 2010
NEW POTS AND PANS
The question I am asked most often is “which saucepans should I buy?”
I have always answered that anyone considering purchasing a new saucepan, pot or frying pan should buy the best and probably the most expensive hardware they can find. “Think of it as an investment,” I say, “for if the pots and pans are really good you should be able to pass them on to the next generation.” And if you estimate how much you’re going to spend on the food that will be cooked in those pans over the years you will very quickly realise that spending $200 or $300 is a mere fraction of your forthcoming food bills.
When I completed my Cordon Bleu training I visited the Elizabeth David shop in Chelsea, London and purchased some Le Creuset ware from her that is still in constant use in my kitchen more than 35 years later. I love them and even more love the fact that I have a copy of the one commercial booklet Elizabeth David ever wrote, “Cooking with Le Creuset” published in 1969 in which she extols the value of the Le Creuset range and gives a few recipes. They’re quite avant garde recipes and include such timeless ideas as ‘purple sprouting broccoli with oil and lemon’, ‘shin of beef stewed in red wine’ and ‘pears baked in their skins.’
Recently I have needed to purchase a couple of new pans as I am tired of carrying things backwards and forwards between my beach house at Matakana and home where I am stuck during the week. My guava tree was dripping with fragrant red guavas and even after family, mates and Facebook friends had gathered the little fruits there were still plenty falling on the ground. I needed to make guava jelly and of course my large stockpot was at Matakana where I had been cooking crayfish. I had always bought cooking stuff from Epicurean (now closed) so it was with utter joy I spotted Teresa Le Clerc at the Homestore in Newmarket.
Teresa is the most knowledgeable kitchen equipment sales person I have met since Elizabeth David (and not as grumpy either!) Teresa found me the amazing J. Henckels Zwilling stock pot pictured above. It seemed really ugly with those handles that look like wings ready to fly, and the diddly little bunnies’ ears clasp on the lid. But having used it I now consider it a thing of beauty. It has a very heavy base, can be used on gas, electric and the wondrous induction elements and is amazingly easy to lift and tip. And it was priced at 50% off as others had shunned it too. I feel like I have won the jackpot and look forward to many years of stock making and preparing jams and jellies in this gorgeous pan.
The second purchase has been the Jamie Oliver saucepan. My husband has a penchant for freshly stewed fruit each morning, preferably apple and rhubarb which he cooks up with no added sugar or water. Not how I would do it. He puts it on to cook, goes away to play his piano, and invariably lets it catch and blacken. That means the saucepan burns too. So we went out shopping to find a small saucepan for his daily culinary exercise. There was quite a range to choose from, and he was won over by the heavy base of this pan, the long handle with a sort of heat resistant ‘padding’ on the underside and like my new stockpot, it can be used on any sort of element including induction. It is shiny and looks fabulous. The husband doesn’t even seem to mind me using this pan, as it is now my first choice for sauces and anything that requires slow and gentle heat. And he hasn’t burned his fruit once since then, but this is probably due to his other purchase; an old fashioned timer that rings loudly to alert us to the completion of the stewing time. Now I have to convince him to take the timer into the lounge and place it beside his piano!