Culture Kitchen SF

22 days until Thanksgiving! How will you bring a little Culture Kitchen into your celebration?

Whether you’re a first-time Thanksgiving host or a seasoned pro, we all need a few tools to make a successful turkey-day dinner. As you go out and buy your first basting kit or roasting pan, or simply dust yours off from the back of the cabinet we wanted to share with you some of our chefs favorite tools to accompany you on a successful Turkey-day. Small kitchen utensils to full on serve wear, this list will surely bring new tradition to your Thanksgiving preparation.

Kitchen Shears:

These handy scissors often bundled in standard knife sets are extremely useful and versatile. They can be used to make quick work of a huge range of tasks far beyond opening that pesky bag of cranberries. Aradhita uses hers to easily cut up chilis into pieces for her savory lassi. Using shears instead of a knife helps prevent the spicy oil from getting all over your hands. She also uses them to cut cilantro and other leafy herbs that normally stick to the cutting board when traditionally cut. Try using them this holiday for cutting herbs like basil, parsley, and rosemary and for neatly trimming pastry dough. Make sure to get a good pair of kitchen scissors with sturdy blades and it will last for years.

Asian Peeler:

There are a ton of Potato peelers on the market that claim to offer the best grip or swiveling handle, but once you’ve used this peeler to skin your potatoes, yams, or any other vegetable, you’ll see why it’s Dang’s favorite kitchen tool. Unlike your common peeler it looks a bit like a knife with a guard, but is in fact a peeler. Its simple design allows for quicker peeling of hard veggies like carrots and potatoes. The wide blade surface also gives you a wider surface for cutting. Dang like to hold her veggies in one hand and using a downward fast motion she peels each half of the vegetable.

Copper Dishes:

You know you will impress everyone with how good your Thanksgiving meal tastes, but why not start off by impressing them with how good it looks? Suchitra likes to use hand hammered copper bowls to serve her dishes. These beautiful dishes are extra special to Suchitra and her husband as they are inscribed with her anniversary date. She brought them with her all the way from India years ago (in a very heavy and loud suitcase because she loves them and couldn’t purchase them in the states. Now thankfully these dishes are available here. Most copper serving bowls are lined with another metal to make it food-safe like this one, which is lined with stainless steel. That way, you make sure that your food stays delicious and your copper remains beautiful.