Thin Is Better, When Looking for Flavor

Found a treasure I had forgotten in my kitchen. It has become my new favorite kitchen toy.

When I was growing up, I loved to go to the grocery store with my dad. Mom did most of the shopping and I often went with her. But that wasn't all that much fun. She would buy all the staples: milk, bread, meats, canned goods, etc.

But, when Dad went shopping? That was usually a treat. He didn't do the regular shopping. Occasionally, though, he would go for something special. I remember going to the Handy Andy grocery store that was in Wonderland Mall. Back then, it was a fancy store. It had a gourmet section that included live lobster!

Slicing For Flavor

Dad would buy lots of different fruits and cheeses. And he taught me about the importance of how foods were sliced and how that could enhance any dish. The secret? Slice things very thin. In that way, you get all the flavors to merge together better.

In a salad, for example, slice the cheese thin, and the onions, if you add them. It's all about having subtle flavors in your salad.

For example: I had a salad the other night when we went out to dinner. It had very thinly sliced red onion in it. So you experienced a bit of the onion flavor in nearly every bite. Compare that to another restaurant that we used to frequent. Their salad had big chunks of red onion. As in 1/4" wide slices that were up to an inch long. And it seemed like there was at least one fourth of an onion in each salad. That was not subtle. Not even close. In fact, I found myself picking out the onion because it was just too much.

An experiment in thin slices.

We've been sorting through every bit of our house, in preparation for moving. Last week we did the entire kitchen. As a result, we found many things we hadn't really used much. Some I could tell you exactly why we hadn't used them. You know those things that seem like a good idea but they just didn't live up to the hype? Yep, we had those and they are now in the 'garage sale' pile.

Then we got to other things that we had just frankly forgotten about. Like this mandoline.

We bought it back in 2008. If you don't know, they are tools for slicing food and will even do french fries and carrot sticks and such. I know I had tried it shortly after we bought it. But hadn't used it since.

I decided that I wanted to try it before deciding its fate. My first attempt, slicing bell peppers, didn't work well. Then I decided to seek out videos on how to use it. Then I tried it again. I sliced onions paper thin. And then sliced some potatoes. I have a recipe for roasted onions and potatoes that I made.

I also used the serrated option to slice some zucchini. I have a sauce that I make with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and some other ingredients. I do it often for veggies. I mixed that up and poured it over those thinly sliced zucchini. Then into the oven.

The best part of that meal was my husband's reaction. He couldn't believe the flavor. In truth, neither could I. Each slice had more of the flavor b/c it was so thin.

Needless to say, the mandoline is definitely not for sale.

If only I had taken pictures, though.

Roasted Yellow Squash

So, I decided to make another dish using the mandolin to show how well it slices. We had these 6 yellow squash:

My hubby really loves yellow squash so I decided to roast them.

First, I sliced them using the mandoline. Here’s how the slices turned out:

Nice, even slices. I’ve been told that I can cut with precision, but I’m not near as good as this mandoline! Plus, it’s much faster.

I threw all the slices in a bowl, added olive oil, salt, pepper and some parmesan cheese and then mixed it up real good:

Then I threw it all in a pan.

And roasted at 375 for 30 minutes:

It was delicious.

I’ll be here sporadically for a bit.

Moving activities are in full swing at our house. We have been sorting and packing and preparing for a garage sale. That happens next weekend. Plus we’re working on selling our house and planning our move!

We’ll still be eating, so I’ll still be cooking. But I may not get to write as often.

Wish us luck!