Cooking Tips When You Have Little Or No

cooking tips ============ when you have little or no sight, or can’t see as well as you used to, the kitchen can seem rather daunting, b

Cooking tips
============
When you have little or no sight, or can’t see as well as you used to,
the kitchen can seem rather daunting, but don’t give up! By adapting
how you work in the kitchen and using special equipment, you can carry
on enjoying cooking. The following suggestions, given by people with
sight loss, may help you if you want to get back into the kitchen with
confidence.
Setting the scene
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Arrange your kitchen so that everything is easily to hand with things
kept in a consistent manner so that you can find equipment and
ingredients in the same place each time. It helps to keep your
worktops as clutter free as possible.
If you have some sight then good lighting and ensuring there is as
much colour contrast as possible can help a lot. If your work surface
is dark use a light chopping board. If the chopping board is light use
a dark handled knife and so on. Choose bowls with dark interiors to
mix light coloured foods and vice versa.
Often you can adapt standard equipment to work for you by adding
bumpons and Tacti-Mark. Bumpons are self-adhesive dots, which come in
different colours and sizes. You simply peel them off a strip and
place them on buttons, around dials etc to give a highly visible and
tactile indicator.
Tacti-Mark is a liquid plastic that sets hard. It is excellent for
marking tools and appliances or can be used as a teaching aid for
writing letters, numbers, drawing pictures or outlining maps. This
comes in black and bright orange. This also can be used to mark
buttons, dials etc.
You can buy both these products from RNIB.
Chopping and peeling
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Use the right knife for cutting and slicing. A blunt knife is not
safer than a sharp one because you need to exert more pressure and the
knife might slip.
Keep your knuckle against the side of your knife as a guide – this way
you can also measure the thickness of the slices you want.
You can also buy bread cutters. RNIB sell a manual one, it enables you
to slice bread evenly and at different thicknesses.
A chopping board with a funnel end is very useful when directing food
into a pan or bowl.
You could also use a food processor – with the appropriate chopping or
slicing attachment – to deal with fruits or vegetables.
It is helpful to use a “D” design peeler with a free moving blade or
you can avoid peeling by scrubbing vegetables thoroughly – especially
as some vegetables have more nutritional value with their skins left
on.
Weighing and measuring
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Some people find talking scales useful, whereas others prefer balance
scales with weights on the side. You can add braille or tactile
markings to weights to indicate amounts.
Consider recipes that use cups or spoons as units of measurements or
purchase a talking measuring jug. Alternatively you can adapt a
standard measuring jug with seed beads glued on to the inside at
various levels (100ml, 200ml and so on). Use a heat-resistant,
non-toxic glue such as araldite.
You can buy both the talking scales and tactile measuring jug from the
RNIB shop.
Hot liquids
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You can avoid having to drain hot liquids by cooking vegetables in a
chip basket or vegetable steamer then simply lift it out of the pan on
to a plate when cooked.
You can also buy pasta pans with lock down lids. They have two handles
and this allows you to tip the whole pan up knowing that the lid is
locked secure and the water is poured out through a drainage hole. You
can use this pan for pasta and vegetables.
Liquid level indicators are useful when pouring hot liquids. This is a
gadget that either vibrates or gives an audible signal when the glass
or cup is almost full with liquid.
If you’re worried about using a kettle to make a cup of tea or coffee,
you might like to try a hot water dispenser instead. You can make hot
drinks easily using a “one-cup” kettle. These kettles automatically
dispense a mug’s worth of boiling water straight into your mug.
When boiling vegetables, you can place a water boil alert at the
bottom of the pan to help detect when the water is bubbling.
Using a microwave to cook vegetables is often easier and safer. You
can also fry chips and other food using an air fryer. These often
require just one tablespoon of oil, and fry the food in a sealed
container which doesn’t get hot to the touch.
When stir-frying use a bigger pan than a sighted person would use as
it gives more room to stir vegetables around without losing them from
the pan.
If you are concerned about using a hot hob or oven, a slow cooker can
be helpful. A slow cooker is like a casserole pot with a small
electric heater that slowly cooks your food. Put all your ingredients
into the cooker on your work surface whilst the cooker is cold and
then leave them to cook in the enclosed pot.
Shopping and labelling
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When shopping for food, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Many large
supermarkets have specially trained staff to help. Once the food is
home then labelling the food can be difficult, particularly if you
don’t have enough sight to read the labels clearly. Having someone to
help you label the food when you get home can be useful though there
are other ways of marking your tins and boxes.
*
Tear part of the label off of a tin to identify it.
*
Put one elastic band around the tinned tomatoes, two around the
peaches and so on.
*
Put a magnetic plastic letter (available from toy shops) on top of
tins.
*
Braille labels are often used by those who can read braille.
*
Use large postage labels with a thick black marker to write the
contents
of tins on. You can then tie these on to the correct tin.
*
Talking tin lids are available. Record the contents of the tin and
then play it back with the touch of a button. They are magnetic so
stay with the tin that you have labelled.
*
Try the RNIB PenFriend audio labeller. It is simple and
easy-to-use and enables you to record your own label for a wide
range of items in and around the home, at school and work.
Use the PenFriend to:
*
label food items – even freezer food – and include “use by” dates
and cooking instructions
*
label items as you put them in your shopping basket, so that you
know what they are when you get home
*
add labels to your film and music collections
*
place notes on medicine packaging and organise household paperwork
*
label clothes using washable laundry labels
The PenFriend works with self-adhesive labels which are uniquely
numbered so that the PenFriend can recognise each individual recording
and read it back to you.
Useful products and gadgets
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The following kitchen products are all popular products that will fit
in to kitchens with ease and can help you to cook safely.
Talking kitchen scales
This mains operated talking kitchen scale is just one solution to
weighing food. It announces the weight measurement and also features
an adjustable volume control. It comes supplied with a large plastic
bowl. It is RNIB product code DK96 priced at £44.95 excluding VAT,
£53.94 including VAT.
Manual food processor
A great alternative to using an electric food processor that can cut
all kinds of vegetables and also blends and mixes. Try using a
non-slip mat under the processor to help stabilise the processor
whilst you are mixing in the ingredients.
Coloured chopping boards
Choose from a selection of chopping boards in a range of colours –
black,
green and red. They are ideal for offering contrast on your worktop
and are priced at £7.79 each including VAT.
Dycem products
Dycem is a material used to make a number of non-slip products for the
kitchen and around the home. Dycem is not sticky, but it grips on both
sides of its surfaces to prevent movement on dry, slippery surfaces.
Ideal for holding plates and glasses in place whilst eating and
drinking, it can also be used for holding mixing bowls and chopping
boards in place too, which makes preparing food much easier. All Dycem
products are non-toxic, latex free, colour fast, odourless and easily
washed. The full range includes non-slip mats, tray liners, jar and
bottle openers, cup holders and adhesive strips and discs.
A number of Dycem products are available through the RNIB shop priced
from £4.79 to £14.99.
Talking measuring jug
The talking measuring jug measures hot and cold liquids and gives a
talking output. This is available from RNIB, product code DK89. Cost
is £45.95 excluding VAT, £55.14 including VAT.
Talking microwaves
A very popular model is available from Cobolt Systems for £299. The
talking combination microwave oven speaks all of the functions of a
standard microwave and allows you to cook a wide variety of food.
t: 01493 700 172
e: [email protected]
www.cobolt.co.uk
A standard talking microwave is available from RNIB for £225 excluding
VAT and £270 including VAT. Product code is DK140. Other microwaves
that may be easier to use are those that only have two dials, one dial
for time and the other for temperature. You can then mark these dials
using Tacti-Mark or bumpons. This is a cheaper option to the talking
microwaves.
For further information on all the products featured here, contact the
RNIB Helpline on 0303 123 9999, email [email protected] or visit
rnib.org.uk/shop.
Updated November 2015
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