What is Go-Green Cookware?

We are always being told we should eat healthier and start recycling food scraps into compost but have you ever thought about how you could cook greener?

Here’s 5 top tips for Greener Cooking:

1. Choose your cookware more carefully based on longitivity. The longer your utensils, cookware and knives last the better for the plant. Try a cast iron or stainless steel pan as these will last you a lifetime and are a trusty investment.
2. If you can get cooking on Electric, better yet induction. As these transfer electromagnetic energy directly to the pan, leaving the cook-top itself relatively cool and using less than half the energy of standard coil elements.
3. Learn how quick the oven you use heats up, when you know that, the quicker you can put your food in the oven, and the less time and energy waste there is thinking the oven needs heating.
4.  Cook fresh, scrap keeping it all frozen till you want to east it. Make us fresh and avoid the microwave. This is good for you and your energy bills.
5. Buy and cook in bulk.  Buying in bulk means less packaging and less cooking time as well as financial savings.  Just make sure you can eat/store it all.

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Tips On Choosing The Right Stock Pot

As your grandmother will probably have told you, the reason her food tastes so good is because of the tools she uses to create them. All of your grandparents had frying pans and stock pots, baking trays and cake tins; all that looked like they had been in the family for a hundred years. In reality, they probably had. That’s the thing - once you’ve found the perfect kitchen utensils such as stock pots, you won’t ever want to stop using them.

The stock pot will help you to make the perfect stocks and soups. It will be prove perfect for pasta and rice dishes, meat braising, sauces and more. When you’re using one thing to do all of these jobs, it pays to get something that’s going to stand the test of time.

There are a few things that you are going to need to think about before you hand over your hard earned cash. What’s the point in you buying a stock pot that can easily make a meal for a family of five, when there is only one of you that lives in your house? Unless you are planning on freezing the leftovers, or eating them for lunch the next day, only buy a stock pot that works for what you need. You are only going to end up wasting food otherwise.

The shape of the stock pot will be pretty generic - they all have round, flat bases, usually fairly large in diameter, high sides, and are often accompanied by a lid. This shape makes them great to create casseroles, curries, pasta dishes and more. You must remember, however, that these are pans that will usually be held over the heat for a long, constant period of time. This means that you are going to need a thick base on the pan to ensure it doesn’t burn out. The thicker will normally mean better so if you can afford to pay a few pounds more for that slightly better quality one, you’ll have a much happier time of things.

Of course, material is going to be important when it comes to picking the perfect stock pots for you. With cast iron, aluminium, copper, Non Stick Pans, stainless steel and more varieties on the market, the right one for you will depend on the type of cooking you like to do. Soups, for example, will need constant heat throughout the entire pan so a material with a high conductivity of heat is better. Things that will take a longer time to cook and will perhaps need to be placed in the oven will probably be better in a cast iron style.

With a lot of variations on the market, choosing a stock pot can be hard work but once you’ve figured it out, you will soon find that it could be the best kitchen implement you ever purchased… Aside from the coffee maker of course!

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If You Could Only Have One Cooking Pan- Which Would You Choose?

So maybe you've just had a new kitchen fitted and fancy some stylish cookware for your new cupboards? Perhaps that old frying pan has finally surrendered itself to the scrapheap? Or maybe you just never seem to have enough decent pans to cook that big family meal? Whatever the reason, most people need to consider the possibilities of new pots and pans at some point in their adult life.

The first question you need to ask yourself is: what am I going to be cooking? This is crucial as the type of cooking you intend doing will obviously greatly influence your choice. Probably the most essential item for most kitchens is a decent set of saucepans in varying sizes. You will need a small milk pan with a spout and around three or four larger saucepans for boiling vegetables etc. Often, these saucepans are available as a set, making them an economical choice.

A large stock pot can be added to the list if you intend making large amounts of stock or soup. A casserole dish is also invaluable as a large pot that can be used both on the hob and in the oven, due to its small handles.

If you enjoy healthy cooking, then a steamer will be great for vegetables and a poaching pan is useful for eggs. However, while these are useful additions, the one item you probably can't do without is the humble frying pan. Used for all types of cooking, it would probably be good to have both a small omelette pan and a larger one for those big fry-ups.

Combining the allure of frying with the speedy cooking of healthy ingredients is probably the most popular type of pan in these current times - the stir-fry pan or wok. Due to the ever-increasing popularity of Asian cuisine, this is definitely an essential item for the modern kitchen.

Once you have decided what type of cooking pan you need, remember to give some thought to what type of material it should be made of. There are many options available, from stainless steel which is light and stylish, to cast iron which is heavy and durable. Anodised aluminium features good heat distribution which minimises the chances of burning; whilst induction cookware has been specially designed for use on the new induction cookers that are becoming more widely available. Carbon steel cookware is good value and is often used for woks and stir-fry pans. An essential feature, however, for frying pans in general, is that they are non-stick as this feature will enable you to cook your food with the confidence of a master chef.

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