Food for Thought with Alex Bielak - But wait, there’s more Kitchen Kit

Marc the Garlic Grater Guy

But wait, there’s more Kitchen Kit 

Do you remember “It slices, it dices…”? It was, of course, the pitch for the Veg-O-matic? But wait, there’s so much more...

Partly prompted by the catastrophic failure of my trusty stick blender, and partly by several recent acquisitions, this edition of Food for Thought deals with some pieces of indispensable kitchen kit, most of which you can see by clicking on the pictures link at the end of the column or the various hyperlinks.

The stick (or hand) blender is ideal when you don’t want to take out a larger blender or food processor. It allows you to blend soups or smoothies right in the pot or measuring beaker and is a snap to clean. Ours (a Cuisinart Smart Stick) had been used daily for a couple of years, but its gearing was frankly over-taxed by
some semi-frozen berries.

I will be replacing it after doing some due diligence to find a model that is considered “best” these days. A stainless steel shaft and blade cover is a must, and based on my experience I’d prefer one that doesn’t have plastic gearing driving the various attachments.

Cooking recently with the Chef Murray Zehr, Head of Technological Education at Burlington’s Robert Bateman High School, I was re-introduced to the “Cook Help” spiral slicer. It is an amazing piece of kit made out of nylon with very sharp blades. While several variants are out there, the version by Benriner, a Japanese company, is the one I have seen several chefs use.

The instructions are suitably quirky (“helps your cooking fast, joyfully with wonderfully edged strings!”), but with some tips from online fora you too can be making lovely salads and radish garnishes worthy of the best sushi restaurant.

I obtained mine via a link from a fellow-member of the Food Bloggers of Canada, Helene Meurer. Her post (and great pictures demonstrating what this gizmo can do) took me to Knife Pro in Victoria BC. They quickly shipped my unit at a promotional price that is still available as I write.

I’ve been using it with abandon, making huge salads from single carrots and beets, and preparing zucchini “spaghetti” that my wife loves, and I’ve been craving since real pasta is rarely authorized as a dish in the house these days.

The promotion also stretches to Benriner Japanese mandolines. These are great and you’ll often see them being used on cooking shows by the pros. I have a small one in my kit and use it often and when I don’t want the cleanup associated with the larger, and more complex/fiddly, V-Blade Oxo Mandoline Slicer. (That bit of effective all-in-one kit lurks in the back pantry ready for big jobs.)

Incidentally a cut-resistant glove - such as that made by Microplane - is not a bad investment when using mandolines.

But wait!

Finally, I was at the Greater Hamilton Home & Garden Show recently and did actually buy a piece of kitchen gear being pitched there. I can write about it as you CAN obtain it via the website whereas some of the other nifty stuff was only available from the product demonstrators at the show, which does readers little good.

Mark is the owner of a company that sells the garlic grater plate, peeler and brush. It does ginger too, not to mention nutmeg, chocolate and parmesan. And yes, it really does work as you can see on his website video. It’s not something I’d usually have purchased except for the fact that a friend had gifted us a set a few years back. It has been used regularly since then and I welcomed the opportunity to buy a couple more as pay-it-forward hostess gifts.

There’s more!

As a special bonus to readers who have come this far, I just got a pair of very sharp Wusthof kitchen shears (model #5558). They come apart for easy cleaning and were a great buy at $20 at the Healthy Butcher in Kitchener. I also continue to be delighted by how well my X-line knives from the same company are holding their edge.

No need for that bargain sharpener I saw at the home show!

For more pictures, click here

Alex (Alex can be reached at fft@thehamiltonian.info ) or on twitter @AlexBielak

Food for Thought logo, designed and kindly donated by Ninka Bielak. Ninka can be reached at ninka.bielak@gmail.com.