Play A Food Tune On Your Mandolin!

Slicing vegetables is really quick and easy, especially if you are going to toss them into a stir-fry, or add to a soup or stew.  Uniformity of slices is not as important for stews, soups, or broths. Sometimes sliced vegetables may be taking center stage on your table. Perhaps for a relish tray, a ratatouille, or a dipping vehicle as part of your appetizer. These are instances where I like my vegetables uniformly sliced. I mean really uniform! Granted a sharp paring knife does the trick. A kitchen mandolin does even better!  A musical instrument may come to mind, but that is not what this type of mandolin is. A kitchen mandolin is a sharp cutting tool meant for foods of many types. For years found only in restaurant kitchens, upscale kitchen stores, or yes, in home kitchens where the people using the mandolin were classified as ‘staff’, mandolins are now quite common. The mandolin provides fast, perfectly uniform slices for just about any fruit or vegetable, peeled or unpeeled.  To say slicing with a mandolin is fast does not do it justice. Insane fast! The blade is super sharp (be very careful!) and is adjustable to alter the thickness of your slices.  My mandolin comes with a blade for straight cuts, a blade for crimped, or ruffled cuts, and an attachment to cut perfect fries which I love for sweet potatoe oven-fries. Mandolins work by simply pushing the item you want sliced back and forth across the cutting blade.  Included with any mandolin worth purchasing is the guard you easily poke into your vegetables which prevents your knuckles and finger tips from being shaved as your slice. After all, who wants ‘meat’ on their veggie tray anyway? Truthfully  a good kitchen mandolin is not cheap, about $35.00.  Yes, there are much, much cheaper ones but not worth the plastic they are stamped from.  If you invest in a mandolin invest in a good one. You will be happy you did. Please keep a mandolin out of a drawer where anyone may be rummaging, and of course out of reach of young ones. Then the next time you serve apple torte with perfectly sliced apples, or a vegetable tray filled with perfectly and uniformly cut vegetables for your creamy dip, your guests will think you slaved for hours.  If they only knew!