Despite having a diet heavy in fruits, vegetables, and grains (read: carbohydrates), I rarely use a colander when washing produce. Instead, I rely on minimalistic methods that actually cause quite a mess: Pouring water over rice in a bowl then slowly draining it with my hands (which leaves grains sticking to the kitchen sink), or cupping my hands to holdblueberriesunder the faucet (which sends wasted water—and berries!—down the drain).
It's not that I'm against colanders, I just don't have enough cabinet space for one. So when I saw a contraption on Food52 that bills itself as a "modern compact colander," I decided to try it out.
The teardrop-shaped plastic colander comes fromRig-Tig by Stelton, a Danish design brand that focuses on functional yet aesthetically-pleasing kitchen products. The bowl of the colander closes to become a full sphere that can be filled, and the handle doubles as a spout; to use the colander you add water to the bowl via the handle. The water drains through the holes slowly, and with a few shakes the produce is washed and ready. Though the colander came out a few years ago abroad (it won aRed Dot Award for Design Conceptin 2015), Food52 is the first to bring it stateside.
I tested the colander on a variety of tasks: cleaning rice, washing vegetable fillings forsummer rolls, and rinsing berries. It's not marketed as a colander for grains (like this staff favorite from OXO/) but its holes are small enough to keep long-grain basmati rice from seeping out. Transferring the clean rice into a pot is mess-free—the interior of the colander has a smooth surface so you can simply slide your hand through to get all the grains out in one or two passes.
The colander is designed for handling produce that might not require a heftysalad spinnerbut still needs careful washing and drying, like the mint, sprouts, and cabbage my summer rolls called for. I recommend varying the intensity of how much you shake it because mint can't withstand as much force as, say, fibrous cabbage. When I washed a mixture of blueberries and blackberries, fruits that also call for delicate handling, I kept the colander open under the faucet instead of closing the lid and using the handle as a spout. The water didn't drain as fast this way, but pouring it through the handle and shaking it seemed unnecessarily intense.
如果你像我一样住在一个小空间,colander is a smart purchase. It's easy to store and looks nice, so even if you don't have a cabinet to stash it in, it'll sit prettily on top of your refrigerator. It streamlines the rinsing process so your kitchen stays cleaner and it uses less water than a traditional colander—pouring water into the handle before washing means you have a fixed amount of water to work with, whereas with a traditional colander, you keep the faucet on as you wash, invariably leading to more waste. It's a nice-to-have, if notneed-to-have, accessory for your vegetable and salad prep.
BUY IT:Rig-Tig Modern Compact Colander, $24 at Food52
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