Food Preparation

Fish is a great base for a delicious meal, as it is low in fat and high in omega-3. Not just this, but it’s easy to prepare it in many different ways, making it an extremely versatile ingredient.

One of the best ways to prepare fish is to smoke it. In fact, smoked fish is a dish that has been popular all around the world, for centuries.

One of the reasons that smoked fish became so popular was that as well as tasting great, smoked fish is also preserved, allowing it to stay fresh and delicious for much longer than unsmoked fish. Before fridges and freezers were commonplace, smoking fish was a great way to make sure that you could enjoy it for weeks to come.

Nowadays, we don’t need to smoke fish to preserve it, but it’s still a great way to prepare a delicious meal that you and your whole family can enjoy.

Read moreBest Smoker for Fish

Everyone loves adding noodles to their dishes, but unfortunately the classic ones are not very healthy! Luckily, there’s a great alternative in “zoodles” — noodles that are made out of zucchini rather than typical starchy pastas.

While pasta-based noodles are generally high in carbohydrates and low in nutrients, zucchini noodles are the opposite. They are very low in calories (just 17 calories per 100 grams), and also have lots of nutrients including folate, potassium and vitamin A.

You can easily substitute zucchini noodles into any dish that you’d normally use pasta or starch-based noodles. Stir fries taste great when mixed with zucchini noodles, and you can even fry them in a wok as per usual. Or, you can make delicious salads and sides with your raw-sliced zoodles.

It’s such a great way to add additional vegetables to your diet, without hardly noticing.

Although noodles are easy to cook and prepare (especially with the right tools), you do need to put in a little bit of work up-front to make sure they’re ready to use.

Read moreBest Julienne Peeler for Slicing Zucchini

Gone are the days when kitchens were isolated places where the chef would slave away preparing a meal alone. Today, it is common for families to gather around the kitchen, chatting and sharing stories about their day.

Since the 50s, kitchen islands have been a popular and common addition to American (and international) kitchens. It’s perhaps no wonder, given how they are such a great space for sharing informal meals and bringing the whole family together.

The other great thing about a kitchen island is that it can double as additional work space if needed. If you’re entertaining and have several meals on the go at once, the additional bench space to prepare ingredients, can be a brilliant addition.

To make kitchen islands more practical and useable, bar stools are a great addition. Not only do the stools look great, but they also make your kitchen island more practical. They offer up a great space where family members can sit and gather to chat with the chef while meals are being prepared. Or, you could even joy an informal and cozy meal up at the island.

Bar stools are also great for entertainers, as they add more seated space without taking up too much room with bulky furniture.

So, how do you choose a great bar stool? Well, you need to consider the look of your kitchen as well as the bar stool itself. You want the style to match and flow cohesively, so that your kitchen looks fabulous.

You also want to make sure that the bar stool you choose is practical. Considerations like its heigh, and how stable it is, are also important.

To help you choose the ideal bar stool for your kitchen island, let’s take a look at some of the most popular offerings on the market today.]

Read moreBest Bar Stools for Kitchen Island

Sushi is an incredibly delicious thing to cook and eat, however it is not easy to get it right. We have all been disappointed when our sushi has not turned out the way we’d hoped.

One of the main problems with making your own sushi is choosing the appropriate rice. What kind of rice you use in sushi can make all of the difference — you can’t just use regular rice and expect your sushi to be restaurant quality.

Why, you may ask? Well, because sushi rice requires a higher starch content so as to allow the rice to absorb more water and become “sticky”. Sushi rice should be soft and moist and melt in your mouth — regular varieties like Basmati rice are too dry for sushi.

That’s why it’s important to get proper sushi rice to make sure you get great results. By getting special “sushi”, “japonica” or “calrose” rice, then you can make sure that the sushi you cook at home is delicious.

However, not all sushi rice was created equal! Even if you buy the right type of rice and prepare it to perfection, bad quality rice can still ruin your sushi. You want rice that will soak up water and become sticky (but never soggy), and stay fresh and light, even if you don’t eat the sushi right away.

Therefore, it’s very important you pick the best rice for sushi. Here are some of the best options for sushi rice, and which one is our most favourite.

Read moreBest Rice for Sushi

Sushi is a delicious and healthy meal, but it can be a challenge to prepare it at home. It’s always disappointing to discover that your sushi doesn’t taste as good as what you’ve enjoyed in restaurants. One of the biggest reasons for the discrepancy is the quality of seaweed wrap that is used.

The seaweed wrapping is one of the key parts of sushi, and what brand and type you choose can make or break your sushi. At its best, seaweed wrap for sushi is healthy, delicious and the consistency is just right — but poor quality sushi wrapping lacks flavour, and can be too chewy.

Read moreBest Nori Sheets for Sushi

Tortillas are a staple of many households. They’re a necessary component of many delicious dishes like chicken wraps, quesadillas, burritos, and tacos. You might try to find the best available tortilla in the store, but the best tortilla is one you make by hand. Whether you want corn or flour or whole grain, this remains true.

Read moreBest Rolling Pin for Tortillas

Anyone who’s cooked fried chicken, sausage, bacon, or any other dish involving hot oil is familiar with two key concepts. The first is that oil can reach ridiculously high temperatures and do untold damage to your skin. The other is that grease is almost impossible to clean from the stove top.

And the stove top isn’t the only place the grease ends up. It can splash onto the counters, floors, walls, and the cracks between the oven and your cabinet. If your microwave is situated over your oven, grease can sometimes even end up inside that.

But there is a simple, innovative way to make sure grease stays in the frying pan and out of the fire. It’s called a splatter screen.

Read moreBest Splatter Screen for Fry Pans

Chances are, you’ve heard about how great cast iron is for cooking. But carbon steel is an alternative that gives you much of the same properties at a lighter weight.

Carbon steel is an efficient heat conductor, and it heats and cools faster than cast iron. In addition, carbon steel is a durable enough material that it’s likely to outlive most humans. Since carbon steel isn’t brittle, there’s no risk of shattering it when you drop it.

Carbon steel pans are made completely from composite metals. They don’t have any rubber or plastic, so you can use them in both the oven and the stove. Since carbon steel pans are made from naturally occurring material, they don’t have any of the unknown risks you’ll find with chemically synthesized cooking instruments.

However, carbon steel pans also don’t start as non-stick pans. Because of this, you need to season your carbon steel pan to make it non-stick. Thanks to the smooth surface of carbon steel, you shouldn’t need a great deal of resources or time to season it.

Read moreBest Oil for Seasoning Carbon Steel Pan

Peeling potatoes is a task that can become boring and monotonous. It takes a long time, especially if you have a lot of potatoes to peel. Hand-peeling potatoes means you don’t get uniform peels, and it also causes a significant mess in your kitchen. Plus, potato peeling can become downright painful for people dealing with arthritis or other joint conditions.

But electric potato peelers are changing the game. As the name implies, these peelers use electricity to peel your potatoes for you. They wield the blade themselves so you don’t have to. They’re faster and more efficient than hand peelers, and they’ll make you excited about cooking again.

There are a multitude of electric peelers currently on the market. The best one for you will vary depending on your needs. Different peelers come with slightly different construction, accessories, and benefits. We’ve broken down our top three favorites to help you choose.

Read moreBest Electric Potato Peeler