Tuesday 13 September 2016

The Many Uses For An Electric Herb Grinder

By Frank Morgan


These days you can find a kitchen appliance for almost anything. With so much choice, the challenge is not to spend your money on ones you will use only a few times before you let them gather dust on the shelf. One gadget that is a really good investment and that will pay for itself over and over again, however, is an electric herb grinder.

If you've ever tried to crush herbs or spices by hand, using a mortar and pestle, you'll know how time consuming it can be. An alternative that works with electricity is almost like a small blender that can chop up anything in seconds. It's easy to use and easy to clean, since you only need to wipe it with a cloth or paper towel once you're done. More importantly, though, it's incredibly versatile.

As its name suggests, an herb grinder's primary use is chopping herbs into smaller pieces. It works best with dried herbs, which you can then use to add flavor to food or to add to tea or other drinks. If you want to give up tobacco and smoke herbal cigarettes instead, you'll find that it's much easier to roll your own if the herbs are finely chopped.

The ground spices you buy in the store can quickly go stale and lose their flavor. Whole spices keep their flavor for a longer time and with your little grinding machine, you can grind the small quantity that the recipe requires. It will take you a few seconds and you will never again have to struggle crushing those cloves, peppercorns or cardamom seeds with a mortar and pestle.

If you have leftover, stale bread, simply grind it to make breadcrumbs that can form a coating for meat or vegetables. Cookies can be crushed to make crusts for pies and cheesecakes. You can also make small batches of special flours like buckwheat, lentil or almond flour.

A vastly superior cup of coffee is one made with freshly ground beans and your trusty grinder will help you with this. Use it also to turn ordinary sugar into powdered sugar so that you'll have the perfect confectionery to accompany your coffee. Furthermore, if you can only find a coarse version of your favorite salt, you can grind it at home until you get the texture you want.

You don't even have to use your grinder for food only. It can turn herbs or flowers with medicinal properties into a fine powder that you can add to homemade hygiene products such as deodorants or lip balms. For a natural and inexpensive tooth powder that will also give you fresh breath, grind some dried peppermint, cloves of anise together with baking soda.

For a special touch when you wrap gifts, add some paper confetti or sweet-smelling potpourri. You can make the confetti by grinding pieces of colorful paper. Potpourri will also get a wonderfully even texture if you grind the dried flower petals for a few seconds.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment