There were several nominees that were fairly suitable for this assignment. However I was looking for more; more than ‘just enough’: The very first toy in the kitchen had to be pretty, but yet sedulous and keen. It had to be small enough, that was for sure, to fit into our every day lives. However, I did not want it to disappear among the rest, so it should have been big enough to fulfill a lot of expectations despite to its subtle appearance.
That is how my Japanese Mandolin made its way here, into these pages.
The first time that I really used mandolines was when I was in Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts in Vancouver. Until that time, I always assumed that mandolines were specialty gadgets and just belonged to the most comprehensive kitchens. What a misperception! These toys can really convert ordinary preperations into fun and can perform very precise results; unfortunately with the high risk of being hurt.
There are several types of mandolin for kitchen use, designed for commercial kitchens and households. The commercial ones are really durable, quite big and expensive while some of the models developed for household use appear to be less reliable. Japanese mandolins are designed for both commercial and household use, hence easy to use and clean, but yet durable.
The mandolin has one permanent blade and 3 blade attachments. With the permanent blade you can slice patatoes, beets, cucumbers, carrots, and any other root vegetable as well as bulbs like fennels and onions. It is easy to adjust the thickness from 0.3 mm to 2 mm and you can slice your vegetables thin enough to make beet flowers or patato chips.
The interchangeable blades are of varying thickness and can be attached to the body easily. These blades can be used to shred vegetables to garnish salads and main dishes, to make stirfrys and vegetable tempuras, to decorare plates and tables.
The gadget requires a great care though: The blades should be washed right away after each use, as vegetable pieces can easily stick and dry on the blades. You should also pat-dry the blades throughly after the cleaning to prevent rusting and keep the blades in a safe place, preferrable secured with a paper towel, a cloth or a freezer bag, in order to prevent accidental cuts.
What can you make with your Mandolin?
The dishes that you can prepare with your japanese mandolin is countless and the limit is your imagination. The followings are just the examples of its several use
1. Healthy and Presertives free Vegetable Chips
2. Shaved Fennel and Orange Salad3. Vegetable Tempura
4. Needle Potatoes
5. Anna Potato Ring
6. Beet Carpacio
7. Gratin Dauphinois
8. Dried Pear and Apple chips
BE CAREFULL! The blades are extremely sharp. Either use finger guard or cut resistant gloves to prevent injuries.
No comments:
Post a Comment