Rolling garlic crushers
Impulse buys. I'm sure we all succumb at times. Well, I hope so. I'd hate to be the only one!
Being rather budget-conscious, impulse buying is usually either dangerous or plain impossible for me — but when I saw this $9.95 rolling pin-like garlic crusher in Kitchen Warehouse a few months ago, I couldn't resist.
One of my favourite kitchen toys is also one of the cheapest.
Now, I'm a total convert. It's not perfect, but it's by far the best garlic crushing gadget I've ever used. I love it.
The literal crushing of the garlic means that so much more of both the flesh and the juice of the clove/s is retained in comparison to every garlic press I've tried — where it seems a significant amount of garlic tends to get left in the bowl. In comparison, the rolling pin-like crusher enables you to use every last bit of garlic including the juices.
What I do is use the flat of a knife to press down on the garlic clove until I feel/hear a crack. The clove has then broken open and I can peel it in a jiffy. There is a flat section on the garlic crusher which can be used to further crush the clove, then it's a matter of rolling the ridges of the crusher over the garlic in every direction. I usually need to get a knife and remove any garlic stuck in the ridges at least once during the process, in order to go over them again, so it does take a little longer than using a garlic press. However, when I'm done I simply give the crusher a quick rinse, and then at washing-up time it's super easy to clean and dry.
This is the garlic crusher I have, but there are also stainless steel versions like this one at Amazon.com and elsewhere which, folks claim, can remove the garlic smell from your hands with a wipe on the stainless steel.
Posted by Vicki on Saturday, October 10, 2009 at 09:11 PM in Equipment and Gadgets.