The Cookware Blog

When the time comes to saute the vegetables, blanch the tomatoes and boil our mason jars, we pull out the stainless steel cookware set. From beginning to end we know the process takes time and patience. The fruits of our labors will determine the ultimate success of our tomato harvest.

Turning our kitchen into a cannery doesn’t mean we have to turn it upside down. Having the stages of the process thought out and prepared for can make the experience enjoyable. This is the time to teach our children why gardening will always be an essential element to human survival.

Whenever I’m starting a new project or experimenting with a new recipe I automatically reach for the stainless steel cookware. Often before completely reading the recipe, the pots and pans are in place ready to go. If the recipe lists the ingredients separately this task is even easier because I know what size sauce pan will be required.

First choice doesn’t just mean for sauces. If at all possible they’ll all get involved from the stove top to the oven. My greatest challenge is not running out of stainless steel cookware before I’ve finished. Being a sequential person I don’t like mixing my cooking and my cleaning.

I love southwestern chicken and rice soup, and it has to be spicy. Not everyone in our home likes their chicken soup spicy which means at some point we need to compromise.

Having several stainless steel stock pots makes this task easier. The chicken stock with the bones can be prepared in the first pot which will eventually be divided between my favorite soup and possibly chicken noodle. Another possibility is simply dividing the same soup into a portion to be eaten immediately, and some to freeze for a rainy day.

I am just convinced that fried onions make almost every dish more interesting. We’ve done steamed veggies with the fried onion mixed in. I just finished a burrito which was incredibly enhanced by the taste of the fried onion even though the salsa was loaded with onions.

Just chop and throw an onion in the fry pan with a little oil and saute to desired texture. Everything from eggs to grilled chicken, burgers to steak, all seem to spring to life. Even the aroma of the onion cooking (I have a fry pan specifically for my grill) gets the digestive juices flowing.

When we place a standard of excellence on the food we create the tools to maintain that standard have to be of equal or greater quality than what we expect to serve. Having a priceless stainless steel cookware set doesn’t mean that we could swap it for the hope diamond. What it means is that we couldn’t swap it with anything else and expect to maintain our standard of excellence.

All of the characteristics of quality cookware come to bear when we expect to achieve a higher standard in the kitchen. If the cookware is of the highest quality we know that any goals we set are obtainable.

We’re calling it red leaf because that’s what our friends gave us. The stainless steel stock pots are essential because we don’t want to lose any of the natural flavor from the fresh garden vegetables going into the soup.

Taking the cabbage, carrots, potatoes and onions to the chopping block we’re ready to simmer these with a little salt and a lot of pepper. We have some fresh dill and garlic that might get thrown in there as well. Then it’s up to the stock pot to simmer until tender.

All of our soups are better in stainless steel cookware, even those we’ve never made before. We trust that with the right pot, the soup should be as good as the chef who invented it.

1 1/2 tbsp oil; 2 med. Leek, trimmed and cleaned thoroughly &chopped; 1 med. Onion sliced (1 c); 1 tsp Fennel seeds, ground; 1 1/4 lbs. Potato, peeled & coarsely cubed; 3 cups chicken broth; 1 1/2 cup Water; 10 46 oz. Arugula, washed, trimmed to yield 4 cups packed; pepper and salt as needed; 2 tbsp Ricard or Pernod; 12 tbsp Yogurt; 4 Arugula leaf, finely slivered (garnish)
1. Heat oil in large pot.
2. Add leeks and onion; cook over moderately low heat, stirring often, until softened – about 10 min. sprinkle with fennel and stir 30 seconds.
3. add potatoes, broth, and water.
4. Simmer 25 min, until soft.
5. Add arugula and cook about 10 min longer, or until stems are soft.
6. Add salt, pepper and liquor to taste.
7. puree to rough or smooth texture, as you like.
8. Adjust seasoning.
9. Serve hot or chilled, topped with yogurt and garnished with arugula slivers.
10. As watercress changes potato soup into something that doesn’t taste quite like any of the individual ingredients, so arugula transforms this traditional soup base.
11. flexible, the soup can be pureed to a chunky or a smooth texture, and served hot, as a main dish, or chilled, as a first course.
From “Uncommon Fruits and Vegetables” by Elizabeth Schneider

When we’re the one who cooks and cleans we don’t usually separate these tasks. If we’re cooking for one or two the cleanup often coincides with the cooking. When we get more adventurous in preparing a large meal, or even cooking an entire weeks meals in one session, the tasks are usually divided and the pots and pans tend to pile up.

Having a complete stainless steel cookware set lends to accomplishing both ends of the routine without extra work in either. When everything can be prepared at the same time the cooking doesn’t drag on and on. With dishwasher friendly stainless steal cookware cleanup can be finished just as fast.

Recipes abound for stews and soups full of fresh garden vegetables and herbs. Some include fresh game or farm raised meats and poultry. Whether our love of a nice simmering stew comes from a need to be out working on the farm, or an easy way to prepare a meal during washing day, this tradition isn’t likely to die off soon.

When we have the right stock pots for the job we know that even clean up won’t add a burden to an otherwise easy meal. While our stew or soup spends the day simmering in stainless steel stock pots, we smell what’s cooking and our work becomes less of a burden knowing the reward awaiting us at the end of our day.

Recipes that are handed down from generation to generation survive because they work. The slightest alteration can affect the integrity of the dish in dramatic ways. Sometimes if we’re lucky, we can actually make the recipe even better.

What we never want whether experimenting, or simply recreating an historic masterpeice is cookware that can interact with the food. True nonporous stainless steel cookware will never alter the taste of your food which is why it is trusted in the greatest kitchens.