Vegetable Spiralizers and other gadgets to make vegetable spaghetti or noodles

If you haven't heard of a vegetable spiralizer, then you've almost certainly probably seen food prepared with one somewhere...

...whether in a salad, or in cooked form: Courgettes (aka zucchini) are a common one - so common in spiralized cooked form they even have their own name now, known as 'courgetti' or 'zoodles', as a grain free, low carb, low calorie alternative to traditional spaghetti or noodles. And if you've ever been for sushi, you've quite possibly noticed the pretty spirals of Japanese white radish served alongside slices of sashimi.

Many vegetables (and also some fruits) are excellent candidates for being spiralized to add to salads, stir fries, fritattas, soups etc., or to eat in place of pasta and noodles. With thicker cut strands or plain spiral cut, they can also be tossed in a little oil and roasted, to add to or make delicious warm salads, or as side dishes, snacks or garnishes. Spiralizing vegetables can also make them more appealing to those who aren't keen on conventionally served vegetables or salads - including children!

This blog is primarily about horizontal vegetable spiralizers, as I have almost lost count of the amount of people I've seen wondering which type of spiralizer they should buy, in the current climate of their popularity!

At just over a tenner, why aren't they a kitchen staple? Meat probes / digital thermometers...

Perfectly-cooked joints of meat every time?

Or at least, perfectly cooked to your desired temperature, with a handy alarm that goes off to warn you to take it out of the oven at the right time (just before it reaches the 'perfect' temperature) to avoid residual heat over-cooking it (as it carries on cooking after you take it out of the oven, while it rests)?

Even works on something as small as a chicken breast?

I have to hold my hand up, and say that despite having used thermometers and temperature probes for years to check the done-ness of food (and the rest), I'd never 'invested' in a food probe that you stick in the food while you're cooking it, and leave the unit outside the cooker.

Why not? Well, to be honest, I'd never seen one in the shops in passing, never seen an article recommending them, never had one recommended by a friend, and don't really cook large joints of meat in the oven very often (er... because of the risk of over/under-cooking them!). And in the back of my mind, which never really thought about them, I assumed they were quite expensive.

But when I cooked pulled pork again last week, and was trying to perfect it, one of these would have been so handy during all those hours of cooking at a low temperature, taking the pork out to check how hot it was internally, and letting all of the heat out of the relatively-cool oven each time - I swear it took longer because of this! So I looked them up online, and discovered to my great surprise, that I could get one for a mere £12.99!

Chocolate Heaven...

...since (about) half past seven.

A little bit of a bastardisation of a certain Very Famous Chocolate Manufacturer's catchphrase there, which doesn't do these particular chocolates justice, because their quality far surpasses the clunky, mediocre fayre peddled by the masters of mass production. Not that I don't eat them sometimes, but they're infinitely disappointing compared to the 'real thing'.

By 'real thing', I mean artisan chocolates crafted with love - hand-made using carefully selected high quality chocolate and ingredients, where the balance of flavours has been perfected. I wish I had the words to describe what the perfect chocolate to me is, but I struggle to vocalise it without descending into rapturous eulogising, which may sound somewhat overly sensual (not least because I'm drooling at the thought of it). Besides which, it would be impossible to describe the perfect chocolate, because I haven't tasted them all...

 

I used to be a member of a certain chocolate tasting club, where you'd get sent a box each month, of a carefully chosen collection of brand new, experimental chocolates by various different master chocolatiers from across the globe. You never knew what you were going to get, just that it was going to be good and have things in it that you'd never tasted before. Some of them would blow your mind, and others would, well, mess with it. Not always in a good way, but it would always be exciting trying new flavours that were exclusive to the tasting club.

It's been a while since I've eaten chocolates like that - the occasional food festival/show there might be a few stands of people selling handmade chocolates, some of which are really good, but that happens only a few times a year.

So, I expect those of you for whom chocolate is akin to a religion are dying to know just what transported me to chocolate heaven for an evening - which chocolates? Who made them? Where can you get some too? Read on, and I will divulge all...