Weekend Cooking...A Useful Gadget

I am not one that usually buys gadgets for the kitchen. After re-doing my kitchen a few years ago, I have made a concerted effort not to clutter it up too much, not to have a gadget drawer that needs to be opened with a pry bar. Also I hold to the Alton Brown, he of Good Eats fame, idea that one should not have uni-taskers, tools that only do one job.

But when I was at the Philadelphia Flower Show this year, I saw a fellow in the vendor's area, demonstrating this little item to the right there...and I admit it...I had to have one.

It is a grater. It is a plate with a surface covered with little V shapes that are fired into the plate and glazed. Mine, as you see, is yellow with a little red garlic design, because garlic is something this thing excels at. Peel your clove (at that is what the blue tube is for. Oddly, it really works) hold it by the root end and rub it over the rough surface. It will turn your garlic to a paste, that you then gather together with that little brush and Ta-Da! This is especially great (pun intended) if you want it for a dressing or marinade but I have started using it in most of my garlic applications. Cleanup is simple. Just rinse it off and you are good to go.
You know, the finer your garlic, the stronger the taste, so be careful when using this fresh garlic paste. I love garlic, but this stuff is stronger than a minced clove would be. Which I personally love.

As he demonstrated, it also works very well for fresh ginger. I have not tested that yet, but the niece verifies it is true, and it can also be used to grate hard cheese and chocolate and any number of things I imagine. And unlike a metal grater, it won't take the skin off your fingers, which is always good.

The  Garlic grater  is available from Amazon and you can also buy it online at this site, where you can also see the very annoying man using it. Check out the Winter Special at the bottom, where you can get two for one...way cheaper than I paid.

But it was still worth it.

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This is my contribution this to this week's Weekend Cooking.
"Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend."
Be sure to check out the other entries this week. As always, hosted by Beth Fish Reads.

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