Recently, I was cooking in the kitchen of a much-beloved, but not-very-frequent-cooking friend. Rooting around in her drawers for the implements I’d need for our dinner, I pulled out a huge, clunky-looking garlic press.
“Can I use this?” I asked.
“It’s my roommate’s,” she said. “But go ahead.”
So I put 2 cloves of garlic in the HUGE basket of the thing, squeezed the handles, and….broke it. The force of trying to press two cloves of garlic through the (large! Not even very small!) holes of the press was enough to cause the handles to twist and bend.
In that moment, I recommitted myself to my Zyliss garlic press.
The Zyliss press is nothing short of a kitchen miracle. You put garlic cloves in it, squeeze the sturdy, comfy handle, and the thing pulverizes the cloves into beautiful, fragrant garlic paste, ready to use.
Truly, I want to make out with it.
I generally do not endorse single-purpose kitchen gadgets: kitchen drawer space is at a premium in our house, and I just cannot justify cluttering it up with a strawberry huller or avocado slicer or whatever-all gadget Williams Sonoma is trying to convince me to buy this month.
Until I met the Zyliss, I put garlic presses into the “not worth the drawer space” category. They are generally bulky, difficult to clean, and are often not that effective, breaking garlic into too-big hunks, or leaving too much of the clove behind in the chamber, wasting a lot of garlicky goodness. But this press is different. It is amazingly efficient, washes up quickly (and it’s dishwasher safe, too,) and it does the job so much better and so much faster than I could do myself with my chef’s knife. It has more than earned its coveted spot in the drawer.
Zyliss Garlic Press, $15.00 at Sur La Table
Tribecca
I’ve been told Pampered Chef makes a nice one, too. Thanks for leaving out my first comment which was, I believe, “what is that?”
July 6th, 2009 @ 10:50 am
Dianna
I realize this post is almost a month old, but I had to tell you I laughed out loud reading it. I recently did the same thing with my KitchenAid garlic press – a single CLOVE of garlic broke my GARLIC press. Amazing.
I will admit that I immediately wrote to KitchenAid, who issued a replacement. Unfortunately, it’s a newer model which is ridiculously difficult to clean. But, at least I have another garlic press. If (when?) this one breaks, I’ll try a Zyliss…
So…..liking your blog, but curious…do you only post positive reviews?
August 3rd, 2009 @ 9:06 pm