Don’t you love kitchen gadgets that save you time and energy in the kitchen? Some appear too good to be true, but the 12-in-1 Chef Basket does a dozen tasks just by virtue of its ingenious design.
This new kitchen tool is a colander, a steamer, a fry basket and a serving dish. It can be used for rinsing, steaming, straining, cooking and deep frying. And there are two other great selling points:
1. Its steel handles will not get too hot to touch - even when you’re pulling it out of a deep pan of grease or boiling water.
2. And best of all, it folds flat for storage.
Unfolded, the Chef Basket is about 9¼ inches in diameter and about 9½ inches deep. When folded up, it’s a mere 1½ inch deep. When you are ready to use it, pull it out of storage, pop it open and let it hold the food while you boil it, fry it, poach it or steam it.
On the stove top, you can use it to:
# Deep fry fish, French fries, onion rings, battered mushrooms, mozzarella sticks or other fried snacks
- Poach eggs or salmon
- Boil pasta, potatoes, ravioli and pierogies
- Steam broccoli, greens, shrimp, chicken
- Par-boil potatoes, vegetables, ribs, chicken
- Blanch any vegetable, including corn on the cob
When you are using it as a colander, it can be used to:
- Rinse hot foots
- Drain the water from boiled potatoes or pasta
- Wash fresh fruit or vegetables
- Strain the grease from fried dishes
- Store anything from bananas on the kitchen counter to tomatoes while they ripen
Hard Boiled Eggs
If you are looking for a great way to hard boil eggs, here’s how the Chef Basket can make it easier:
1. Place the raw eggs in the Chef Basket and drop it into a pot of water that is deep enough for the eggs to be in a single layer. The water should come up 1 inch above the eggs.
2. Heat the water until it is just at the boiling point.
3. Remove the pot from the burner.
4. Cover the pot and let the eggs sit in the hot water (12 minutes for medium eggs, 15 minutes for large eggs and 18 minutes for extra large eggs).
5. Lift the Chef Basket and let the water drain off.
6. Immerse the eggs (still in the Chef Basket) in a bowl of ice water. Voila! Perfect hard-boiled eggs. Because you are cooling them down so quickly, the eggs should not crack.
Steamed Vegetables
If you want to steam your vegetables, just invert the Chef Basket and it turns into a perfect steamer basket.
1. Put enough water in a pot so that it just reaches the bottom of the Chef Basket.
2. When the water comes to a boil, add the vegetables and loosely cover the pot lid so that some steam escapes.
3. How long you let your vegetables steam depends on your preferences and the vegetable you are preparing. Here’s a quick guide:
Asparagus: 4 minutes for thin spears and a minute or two longer for thicker spears
Broccoli: About 5 minutes on the stove or until you see that the broccoli florets have become bright green
Brussels Sprouts: About 10 minutes
Carrots: For carrots about 1/4-inch thick, steam them for 6 to 8 minutes
Cauliflower: About 6 minutes
Green Beans: About 5 minutes
Peas: About 3 minutes
Zucchini: About 6 to 7 minutes
The original premise of the Chef Basket is that it will cut your cooking time in half. It will definitely deliver - not because it speeds cooking, but because it serves so many functions. You will not spend needless time switching from pots to colander to serving bowls. Instead, the Chef Basket can do it all.
Many new kitchen gadgets pop up every year, but few are as transformational as the Chef Basket. It is a tool that the everyday chef can appreciate and use - on a daily basis. Imagine cooking pasta, and instead of using a water pot, strainer and serving bowl, you are able to simply place the raw pasta into the Chef Basket, cook it in hot water, drain off the water and serve it directly on the plate. It does not get any simpler. And the same applies when you are using the Chef Basket to fry food. The Chef Basket serves as a fry basket, drainer and serving bowl.
