Rotary grater (cheese, veg and so on)

[lancashire lass]

It started off as just looking online for a decent cheese grater - I have a hand held one which is fine for cheese and I'll still use it as I usually only need a little bit for a topping or toasted cheese sandwich but useless (or rather, awkward to use) for grating vegetables like carrots for a salad. The biggest problem I've had with other standard cheese graters for grating carrots is the experience of shredding skin off my knuckles near the end.

So the hunt was on. Plenty of electric versions but I'd already managed to destroy one (a Kenwood no less). When Mandolin vegetable slicers were first popular, I had one but I never got on with it (the early versions didn't have a holder for the vegetable and there was something menacing about the blade as I sliced) When I first saw a spiraliser being used, it was so quirky that I just had to get one (cheap off ebay) but it's a bit of a hassle setting it up so yet another kitchen appliance was put into storage.

Then I came across hand cranked rotary graters which comes with 3 blades (the standard grater, small grater and slicer) which is really easy to set up: insert the blade, put the handle on the grater which clips to the blade end and ready to use. I read the reviews and most were positive - the one I selected was cheapest (and on special offer) to see if it was any good (memories of breaking the expensive electric one still hounded me ...) and the only few negative comments were mainly about deliveries, not being dishwasher safe (there's no mention of it being dishwasher safe in the blurb) or that the handle snapped off. I decided to get it anyway.

When it arrived, I could see where the the latter 2 negative comments were a possibility - it is made of hard brittle plastic that can break if stressed and of course is likely to get damaged if placed in a dishwasher. So don't force the handle if the grater can't cope with certain hard foods and just follow the instructions and rinse the blades and hopper after use. So yesterday I decided to use it to prepare vegetables for a Chinese dish - I grated the carrot (so it would cook quicker), then changed the blade and grated garlic cloves and a piece of ginger. I looked at the onion ... oh what the heck, so I re-used the 1st blade and decided to follow that with the sweet potato. The only thing I decided not to use the grater for was the red pepper and obviously the frozen peas (and I use chilli flakes instead of fresh)

My personal review:

- the suction pad on the base worked well and never once dislodged during use

- it was very easy to assemble

- it grated the vegetables with unbelievable ease (no straining when turning the handle (even when grating the sweet potato) which makes me wonder who these people are who had said theirs had broke)

- grating the onion was just an experiment but I can see it being useful if making a cheese and onion dish (like a pie) and I grated the sweet potato because I knew it would cook to a mush in the end (being grated meant it cooked quicker)

- surprisingly, the grating of the garlic and ginger on the smaller grater worked well for the dish I was cooking and I'll certainly do it again

- it was so quick and easy (a fraction of the time it would take to hand grate or chop vegetables)

- changing the blade was easy as it was to assemble

- some pieces still stuck inside the drum of the blade and didn't fall into the dish (you had to use your hand or a spoon/spatula to scoop out, but you'd do the same if using a hand grater)

- rinsing the large grater size blade afterwards was effortless (the smaller grater blade I used for the ginger and garlic did need a scour sponge to dislodge the bits stuck in the holes but was still fine)

- I didn't use the slicer but I bet it will be brilliant for slicing potato, apple and cucumber.

The only downside were:

- the very last of the vegetable pieces didn't grate at the end, even when using the pusher thing down the hopper but you usually get those last bits when using a hand grater anyway

- if I'd read the instructions, I would have probably known how to remove the clear plastic hopper to clean it (again, a quick rinse) There's a little button on the main body to release it and I kept depressing it but I figured out later that you need to slide it down first to release the catch and then press.

So overall, I'm really pleased with my new rotary grater.

If interested, see the link for the best 10 rotary cheese graters

[manda]

I like the rotary graters - less clean up than the food processor (unless I'm doing a big batch of things then I must admit the food processor wins).

Years ago I bought one of the Salad Master rotary thingy's which looks similar but is all stainless steel....I wouldn't pay the price they charge for them but I bought this off TradeMe (NZ's version of ebay) for $25 and it's great.
https://healthcraft.com/products/saladm ... -brand-new

I also like having things that don't require power because (especially in winter) we can get power outages so I don't like to be reliant on power for everything.

[lancashire lass]

manda - I'm with you about using stuff that don't need electricity - not so much because of power cuts but there's that extra element to using something (not just set up to be used but also find a socket ... the previous owner to my house didn't have an awful lot of sockets put in when the kitchen was built) Also, climate change and all that, we should reduce our reliance on electricity (says she on the computer ...)

Yesterday I had the dilemma of a pack of beef mince about to pass its use by date so I decided I'd make myself a spaggy bol and at the same time, I would also cook a curry to eat the next day (I guess I'm having curry tonight)

So armed with all the fresh vegetables, I decided to use the slicer for some apple (I like to add some fruit to my curries. I could have used the grater) With the slicer still in place, I looked at the peeled carrots ... if I stand the carrots upright in the hopper, they should slice crosswise. I had to hold them upright to make sure they didn't fall over but generally I was pleased with the sliced carrots. Next I tried the celery using the slicer - I'd already sliced down the length of the celery stalk ready to hand slice on the chopping board but whether that made any difference or not, not sure. For the most part I got celery sliced crosswise but there were also stringy bits that wrapped the outside of the drum.

The first time I used the rotary grater, I decided to see how any onion would grate. With my little red onions, I decided to use the slicer bit. Thereafter I used the grater (for the sweet potato) and the mini grater (for the garlic and ginger) as well as the chopping board to process all the vegetables for the 2 meals.

Conclusion - I was surprised by how much use I got from the slicer drum on the rotary grater (I originally thought just apple or potato but you could add radish to that list) The carrots and celery were fine but admittedly not perfect ... as the vegetable pieces in the hopper shortened, like before with the grater drum, they stopped slicing or went wonky. At the end of the day, the curry was meant to be a slow cook so all the vegetables would cook together and likely to get a bit mushy so looks were not important.

The only issue I had was trying to work out which vegetables were going in which dish - I grated lots of garlic but had to remember to take the first grated ones out first for the spaggy bol and put the rest on one side before I popped the fresh ginger in the grater for the curry. And that meant having lots of bowls to catch the different grated vegetables. It seemed like a good idea to cook 2 different meals at the same time (and a curry usually tastes better the next day) but I'm clearly not a contestant to make Masterchef ....