I'm in love - there, I said it! I was recently lucky enough to be sent a
Kambrook Speed Serve to trial and review and I've been wanting to share about it ever since :-)
It's amazing! I've never owned a food processor although there has been one on my Christmas list for a few years now. The
Speed Serve comes with 4 drums (grating, shredding, slicing & potato) and to be honest it hasn't left my bench top for the last three weeks! I've either been slicing or shredding (which is what I would normally call grating. I will call it shredding in this post to save confusion - does that make sense? It is 1am) almost everyday. Yes, admittedly that is partly due to the novelty of being able to shred a zucchini in 17 seconds. . . and yes, I do have a little helper who get excited with the noise. . . and yes, it is small enough to fit into one of many nooks & crannies in my kitchen cupboards. . . but seriously, how many times do you slice things as part of your dinner preparations? Hundreds! If not more :-) (well, I do anyway)
The first thing I tried was slicing cucumber (for Melbourne Cup sandwiches). I pulled out my trusty old mandolin slicer and shot off a few pieces (on thin setting), then tried with the Speed Serve to see how they compared. As you can see the Speed Serve did a fantastic job! (Manual slices are the oval ones)
The second thing I had to try out was slicing & shredding cheese. I normally have a block of mild cheddar in the fridge that I slice off daily for snacks. No more! Now I have a box of sliced cheese in my fridge, ready to be served. (A note to the wise - slicing tasty cheese does not work so well. It's a little too crumbly in texture & tends to fall apart.) I also now have a box of shredded cheese rather than the bag I would normally have floating around. While the savings from shredding your own may not be newsworthy (buying from Aldi you're looking at $6.49/kg for a block, or $7.98/kg shredded), the savings from slicing are certainly worth it (again from Aldi sliced is $11.98/kg). Shredding your own also means you get a much nicer texture without the floury residue that most pre-shredded cheese have.
Next on my list of trials was a good Zucchini slice (you can find my recipe here. You know the ones where you spend more time shredding the ingredients than you do mixing & making it? For purely scientific purposes I set a timer for manually grating a zucchini & then timed doing the same task with the Speed Serve. Wow! Ok, so 21 seconds doesn't sound like much, but 3 zucchinis & 2 carrots in I can tell you which method I'll be using in the future!
Clean up was a little odd, finding a shredded out shell of a zucchini in the machine, but all in all not much waste and no shredded knuckles
While I was at it I thought I'd try shredding an onion. . . this is not recommended. I ended up with an onion mush rather than onion julienne which is what I was hoping for. I tried the potato attachment as well with onion. . . another don't try this at home moment. Very good if you want minced onion, not so much if you want a little texture left.
Also not recommended is using the slicing function for tomatoes. . . Live & learn :-)
By now I'm looking for things to slice & shred in the kitchen & while packing lunch I think - 'Sure, why wouldn't I be able to slice some of our favourite Pepperoni from
Walkerston Country Meats'. . . It worked out well for pizza, but not for nibbles. (You can see some of the sliced mild cheese in the container too)
I gave the mashed potatoes a try too - how could I not after seeing
this video. The first time I made them I'd boiled the potatoes, then got caught up with Miss M & they were rather cool (and a bit moist) when I finally got around to processing them. They turned out rubbery and not very pleasant, even after adding butter (which did help a little). Lesson learned, next time I tried I made sure my potatoes were still hot/warm and hadn't been sitting in boiled water for an unreasonable amount of time. OMG! Super quick and
so smooth!! I mixed through a little butter, but then stopped. I normally just use butter to lubricate the mashing process, so I moved on to my 'fluffy' step. . .add in a raw egg. Yep, I thought it was crazy the first time my husband let me in on his secret to wonderfully creamy mash, but there you have it. Add a raw egg, but the trick then, is to whisk (with a fork is fine) it in as quickly as you can. The residual heat from the potatoes cooks the eggs & something magical happens to the potatoes. Light & luscious. If you're looking for a way to reduce the fats in your food, this could easily be a help for you.
About this time I began to wonder if I was just trying too hard to find things to use with my new toy, so I decided to have a crack at some of the recipes in the book (since I've prattled on quite a bit already, you'll have to wait until later in the week for the recipes sorry ^-^), but here's a teaser for you anyway. . . .
Carrot cake. . . well, not so much a teaser as you've already seen the finished result in my
Frosty post.
And everybody's favourite 'bring-a-dish'. . . Potato bake!
Now the serious part.
Loving:
* Dishwasher safe (or easy hand wash if you're like me)
* Compact - Bench top friendly
* 17 seconds to shred a zucchini!!!
* Slice/Shred/Grate/Mash directly into a bowl or onto food
* Kambrook is a trusted name in Australian household appliances
* The potato mash is heavenly!
* No more shredded knuckles!!
Loving a little less, but liveable:
* Unfortunately this will not be replacing my mandolin slicer. I do like the julienne piece on my mandolin, & this is one attachment that the
Speed Serve doesn't have. Another feature of my mandolin is the large slice option which I use for tomatoes amongst other things. I'm not sure that even if an attachment were available that it would work with tomatoes due to the speed of the machine
* The drums are a little bulky & don't easily stack for storage. I have mine in an overhead cupboard right above where my
Speed Serve now lives on the bench
Overall:
Did I say I'm in love? I don't think we've ever eaten so much shredded carrot in this house before! What used to be a chore is now a pleasure.
Now, on to the best bit - the giveaway!
The wonderful people at
Kambrook are giving you the chance to win one of these fabulous appliances just in time for Christmas (delivery not guaranteed in time, but we'll do our darndest!) All you have to do is follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter widget below to go in the draw!
* As per Terms & Conditions entrants must be subscribed to at least one of Loving Lunches' social media or email updates. You may subscribe to as many as you wish. It is highly recommended that the email address you enter the give-away with matches the email address/ID you follow with, otherwise your entry can be difficult to verify
* If the winner does not reply to claim their prize within two (2) working days, they will forfeit and a new winner chosen
* As we are so close to Christmas, Kambrook are happy for this prize to be transferrable so it can be sent on to family or friends as a gift (We can deliver to all states, but due to legislation NSW residents are not eligible to enter, sorry)
*Full Terms & Conditions can be found here
Note - Open to Australian residents only
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post and no monetary compensation was provided nor offered. This post was written for Loving Lunches & Kambrook Australia who generously provided the prize/s for this competition as well as a complimentary sample for review. All opinions expressed are my own based on my personal experience with the review item.
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