15 Kitchen Utensils That Will Give You Abuela-Status Cooking Skills

Taking those first few steps away from the family home into some sort of adulthood is a painful process. As the keys on our ring multiply, things get complicated: there’s the expense, the responsibilities, the interminable laundry. The cruelest gut-punch of them all may well be having to abandon all that good home cooking: the rice and beans, the tostones, homemade salsa. If you work all day or live on your own or — gasp! — are the one in charge of getting dinner on the table, there is nothing more comforting and nostalgia-satisfying than the smells of home from your own kitchen right now.

Of course, you don’t have all day to simmer stock for the pozole or fold tamales, so make sure you grab a box of stock and pre-ground masa at the store. Below, we’ve got you covered with all the gadgets you will need to make the dishes you crave at home. Some of them are the same the same utensils the abuelas use, while others are updated versions of classic tools that will make your life even easier. No one is suggesting that it is even possible to top your abuela’s ajiaco, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying

3 Comal

Comal Kitchen BeLatina

Pressing out beautiful disks of carb-y goodness taken care of, where will you actually cook your tortilla? The comal is essentially a low-sided, cast iron pan that has been seasoned enough not to stick to food. The comal’s high heat conduction makes quick work of griddling tortillas and arepas or sizzling meat and vegetables for fajitas. Since the comal is a shallow pan, frying Colombian empanadas, buñuelos, yuca, and tostones require a deep fryer or a deeper pan with a few inches of oil, reserve your comal for dry work, like making individual pizzas, flatbreads, crepes or chapatis.