Featuring three interchangeable, photo-etched, long-lasting, ultra-sharp, stainless-steel blades: fine, coarse and ribbon, this new mill does lots of jobs very well

It’s all too easy to own a surfeit of kitchen gadgets, and yet somehow it’s always hard to find the one you want, just when you want it. So a device that can do three jobs in one is always handy.

This new mill can tackle all kinds of things, including cheese, chocolate, garlic, nuts, seeds, coconut and spices. The three cutting disks easily click on and off, and can be stacked together for storage, either on the mill or to one side, so you don’t have to turn over the kitchen to look for them..

We’re always looking for a good pepper mill, one that doesn’t clog or deliver milled pepper that’s too coarse or too fine.

Usually we use a pestle and mortar to crush peppercorns, this gives us exactly what we want texture-wise, but on the downside there’s always some waste with some left over (which soon goes stale), and in the white heat of a cooking session hand crushing can be too much of a grind.

This mill, being Microplane, doesn’t actually grind the spices, it very finely slices them with its tiny ‘teeth’ which releases more aroma. And because you’re gently pushing the spices onto the blades, and not relying on gravity, it does it very smoothly with no clogging.

The fine blades are good for seasoning at table, the coarse blades better when adding spices to a pot. Other ‘crunchy’ things like nuts and coriander seeds also work well. Nutmeg, which can be hard to grind on a standard grater, also comes out well.

The ribbon cutter is ideal for slicing garlic quickly and finely, far easier than using a knife. There’s a prison scene in Goodfellas where Paulie lectures the other inmates on the importance of cutting the garlic wafer thin before adding it to a dish. He may be a dangerous mafioso, but he knows how to  cook..

After a good wash to get rid of the garlic, the slicer also creates very pretty chocolate curls for decorating desserts, even if your chocolate is slightly soft. However, chilled chocolate works best, of course.

You can also use the Mill to create fluffy parmesan to top dishes, or choose the ribbon cutter to make more stylish slices.

The large black body has a pleasant rubberised feel to it, which gives a good grip, and the silver top unscrews to reveal a large airtight storage area where we like keep our peppercorns ready for when we need them. You could also keep a nutmeg in there as well, as the two are such different sizes.

All in all it’s another Microplane must have

The NEW Microplane Universal Mill, RRP £39.95, is available from John Lewis

www.microplaneintl.com/en

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