Elements of the Filipino Kitchen - Part III



I thought I would feature here some of the basic elements, aside from the usual kalderos, pans, spoons, etc. that I use in my kitchen. This is by no means complete, and I may add more equipment from time to time.

A coconut grater (kudkuran). You really don't need, it's more of a decorative thing for me now. When I was growing up in the province, each home I knew had this appliance to grate coconut. What you do, is you actually ride on this and then you grate the coconut meat from the halved coconut by scraping the white coconut meat from the shell using the 'head' which has these sharp tines. But they have electric graters now in the wet markets and here in the US, coconut meat is already flaked for you. So as I said, this is just for decorative purposes in my kitchen.
Not Available on Amazon but try this hand grater:


You have to invest in one heavy duty strainer (salaan). In my kitchen, I actually have three of these - one very large one, this one and a colander. Filipino cooking involves a lot of straining.

I love these! These are molds (holma) that are specifically desinged for leche flan. Of course you can use any molds but the traditional leche flan shape is oval and these are designed for that use.

Bamboo steamer. These are not usual in the Filipino kitchen BUT since you can buy this in the diaspora, you might as well invest in one. Very good for steaming anything that needs to be steamed - like those frozen siopao that you bought in your last trip to the city.

Here is the k'wale (kawale) that is similar to what we have back in the Philippines. It has a handle and have a flat bottom so it can actually sit smug on the stove. The ones in the Philippines are made of aluminum.

That's it for me right now!



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