Gadget: Ceramic blade slicer

For a while now I have been wanting to post some entries about some of the handy little kitchen tools I love and use on a regular basis.

I am a big believer in really getting my hands into making a dish, but sometimes the right tool really is a help in the kitchen.

One of my favorite tools is a ceramic blade slicer.

I got this several years ago at Williams-Sonoma.

The brand is Kyocera. Yeah, the same Kyocera that makes cell phones.

Go figure.

I like this took because it makes super thin slices of pretty much any veggie you want.

I used it to make thin carrot slices that I then julienned for summer rolls.

I use it a lot to slice onions for just about anything.

I like the thin, thin, thin slices. They add flavor to a dish without big chunks of onion.

I really don't like biting into something and ending up with a mouth full of onion.

It makes great slices of potato for chips.

It makes great slices of zucchini and mushrooms for the grilled pizzas I like.

The veggies cook very fast this way.

I have used it to slice apples to make a filo-apple tart.

It's not like I couldn't do all these things with just a knife, but this makes it easy and fast to get nice, uniform slices that are thinner than the blade of my chef's knife.