Alex's Tips - Kitchen tools
Our cook Alex is here to answer any questions you may have, to ask your question click here.
Q. My question is about cling film. I've seen recipes and TV chefs wrap food (e.g. roulades of meat) in clingfilm and then poach or even roast them. Is this safe? Is it necessary to use a special type of cling film?
A. I often use clingfilm for wrapping meat and other things that I am going to poach, which works well. But I have never roasted anything in it. I think the poaching works well because it is an indirect heat, whereas I imagine roasting would just melt the clingfilm.
I can not vouch for all clingfilm, but the one I use is called Benedetti which comes in a reusable plastic box, which is why I bought it as I get really annoyed with hard to unravel clingfilm.
I am not aware of any safety issues but that is not my area of specialty. All I can say is that I have been poaching things in clingfilm for about 20 years and it hasn’t given me any problems so far.
Q. Can you recommend a good food blender?
A. It depends what you use it for most, the one I use most frequently is my Braun Handblender which has a chopping attachment, i.e. a little food processor that you can attach to the end. The more modern ones have two sizes of chopper and a whisk attachment as well. If you are looking for a blender to make larger quantities, just shop around, but buy one that you can attach both a blender and food processor to, so you have the blender for soups and smoothies and the food processor for pastry and the like.
Q. What is the best way to store knives in my kitchen at home?
A. You can store them on a magnetic wall rack or in a knife block on your kitchen worktop. Knives kept loose in a drawer can get damaged by the blades knocking against each other, to avoid this just put a tea towel underneath them and the inside of kitchen paper roll at the top of the drawer to push the tips into.
