# Ultimate Minimalist Kitchen



## inventivefficie (Oct 14, 2009)

My Main Cooking Method: Steaming
My Diet (in order of frequency): Vegs, Fruits, Whole Grains, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Seafood, Legumes, Nuts & Seeds, Spices & Herbs, Lean Meats & Turkey, Soymilk, part-skim mozzarella

Kitchen Gears Objectives - Healthy cooking-oriented, Minimalist & Mobile, Energy-Efficient, Environmentally-Sound, No need for Dishwasher, Scalable up to family size, 

1 A Steamer
2 A 2 quart? Saucepan (for pasta, and other grains, beans)
3 Bowls - 3 nonreactive stainless steel bowls (or glass, cleans easier)
4 A single really good Knife (forgot the name, but it's that really good one for fish and can be used for steaks, etc.)
5 Cutting board (hardwood)
6 Blender (not a core necessity, but extremely convenient and useful) 
7 other stuff, a few storage containers, 1 spoon/fork, plastic wraps, and.. paper towels)

For family size, we could add:
A 8 quart? Pressure cooker

Need? Extras?? (Don't know what I would use them for)
2 wooden spoons
can opener
tongs
Spoon Shaped Spatula
Sieve

Advice to Improve?

Ultimate Minimalist Kitchen


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## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

I must speak..............or I should say , I am speechless.....

Minimalist ?

Then, why do you need *" tongs " *when you can use the two spoons ?

I know.................spoons for mixing..................inside joke here !


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

A wok would make sense here.


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## duckfat (Aug 7, 2008)

For a minimalist you already have too much! :lol:


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

It really depends what you mean by "steamer." If you mean one of those foldy things you drop in the bottom of a pot, you need a pot too; if you mean one of those sets with a perforated tray that sits in the top of the pot and so on, I'm not convinced that's the cheapest option, but it works fine. For cheap and simple, I'd buy a biggish pot -- 8qt or so, light aluminum, Vollrath or something -- with a lid and get one of those little stands you put in the bottom so you can put a bowl or whatever on top. You could also go a long way with a much smaller pot and a big stack of cheap bamboo steamers.
I'd make that a 3 or 4 qt saucier, so you can use it more easily for cooking mirepoix and so forth at the start of a dish.
Chef's knife. 8". Try Forschner, Dexter, or F. Dick for cheap and excellent.
If you're only using one board, you may want to consider SaniTuf instead. If you prefer hardwood, you want end-grain (butcher-block), not side-grain. You probably do not want bamboo -- the glues used to bond them are usually too hard. No matter what, you're going to need another piece of equipment based on this one board....
This does not belong in a minimalist list, if you ask me. Replace it with a small spray bottle. Fill this with dilute bleach solution (the formula is on the back of a Clorox bottle). Use this to sanitize your cutting board after cutting any kind of meat or fish.
If you want to be really environmentally sound, you could replace the paper towels with a stack of cheap bar towels, and certainly you should be using storage containers with lids rather than a whole bunch of plastic wrap.

I should note that Martha Stewart: Living -- the Thanksgiving issue -- just did a column about this very question. I was positively impressed by the list, which was rather longer but struck me as an eminently reasonable balance between convenience and minimalism.


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## kuan (Jun 11, 2001)

When my wife isn't around me and the boy love to eat right out of the pan. "Cowboy style" he calls it.


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## kcz (Dec 14, 2006)

I would add a vegetable peeler. Not a necessity, but for the type of foods you cook, it's a lot of bang for the buck, and for the space.


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## inventivefficie (Oct 14, 2009)

One of these,
Amazon.com: Joyce Chen 10-Inch Bamboo Steamer Set: Kitchen & Dining
Amazon.com: Norpro Deluxe 3-Piece Bamboo Steamer Set: Home & Garden
And the saucepan as the pot.

"make that a 3 or 4 qt saucier" - ok ^_^

So the knife I was thinking off is call a "Santoku" and since I eat a close to Mediterranean diet, with more seafood over meats, I'm likely going with a Santoku.

* "This does not belong in a minimalist list, if you ask me." - the blender is for smoothies. I know but I just like smoothies so much! so much yummy nutrients! ^_^

ohh, so these are bar towels -
bar towels - Google Search

"eat right out of the pan" - I don't think I could do that because the fork would damage the saucepan

* For a vegetable peeler, should I go with
Amazon.com: Oxo Good Grips i-Series Y Peeler: Kitchen & Dining

or this one?
Amazon.com: Oxo Good Grips i-Series Swivel Peeler: Kitchen & Dining

Lastly, I don't know what I would need a wok for. I plan to steam or boil the lean meats.


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

Unless you have very strong reasons to want a 7" or shorter knife, a santoku won't be all that much help. Buy one only if it's dirt cheap, is my advice. The only thing it's got over a chef's knife is that it works passably in a shorter length. As to the diet, that's got nothing to do with it: either way, you're talking about an all-purpose knife, not one with any special strengths. Don't be fooled by the notion that the santoku, being a Japanese knife design, is better for fish: it's not, nor was it designed in that way.
I much prefer a swivel peeler, which is faster and defter when peeling things like carrots and cucumbers.
Everyone needs something to saute in, for one thing. Besides that, if you got a wok you could use it as your base for the steamers, and thus as a saucepan, killing two birds with one stone. That said, I'm not myself much of a fan of woks unless they're carbon steel, which makes them rather less effective as saucepans or steamer bases.


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## inventivefficie (Oct 14, 2009)

"nor was it designed in that way."- It's based on what I read a while ago. I don't know if this part is true. I'll read up on knives later on.

"something to saute in" - I don't plan on, or need to salute.

"if you got a wok" - I meant that I would use the saucepan as the base for the steamer, so a 4qt saucepan may be big enough.

Here's some related fun!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/09/dining/09mini.html

Stocking the Minimalist Kitchen : Ban clutter: All you need are these 10 basic tools - CHOW

Outfitting a minimalist kitchen | Unclutterer

Must-Have Utensils for the Minimalist Kitchen - Cooking - Lifehacker

The Simple Dollar The Minimalist Kitchen: What You Need (and Don't Need) to Set Up Your First Workable Home Kitchen

Flex 1 a Minimalist Style Kitchen from Strato Interior Design, Decorating, Furniture, Architecture, Home & House Design Magazine


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## inventivefficie (Oct 14, 2009)

Also, I don't think I'm going to get the other stuff:


"Need? Extras?? (Don't know what I would use them for)

2 wooden spoons
can opener
tongs
Spoon Shaped Spatula
Sieve"


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

Jeepers. You have got to be kidding me. What's so hard about tossing a skillet that we have to spend a lot on another countertop appliance? inventivefficie is, I am sure, too smart to be gulled by something like this -- especially as an addition to a "minimalist" kitchen!


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## chrislehrer (Oct 9, 2008)

So as not to totally derail your interesting and valuable thread, I've posted a lengthy explanation in this thread here. It's a complicated question, I'm afraid, but at least to me an interesting one.

But totally off-topic....


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## chongski (Oct 27, 2009)

good for you! you organize your stuffs in the kitchen. i practically throw any kitchen supplies in the grocery cart and end up not using them at all. maybe i'll start organizing now. :thumb:


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