TOYS...manual or machine?

Are you a modern machine fan or do you prefer it the old fashioned way...by hand?

OK relax this is not a post about sex toys...that will be another day!

I have admired Nigella Lawson for years, although must admit that since she lost her wobbly bits I am not identifying as I once did. I have all her recipe books which I actually read. In one of my favourites, Kitchen, she lists her " Kitchen Gadget Hall of Shame." Everything from jam makers to super juicers were fired from her kitchen.

Totally understand these ridiculous fixations we all get for unnecessary kitchen gadgets - I once stayed up until 3am trolling the web for a second hand ice cream maker because I "NEEDED" it.
I have had everything from sausage makers (only used once because the experience was hideous and put me off sex for weeks!...what was I thinking, a sausage maker!!!) to thermal steamers not to mention the drawer full of once-used hand tools such as melon ballers, cherry pip removers, tomato peelers, and the list goes on.

In the end I could probably pick my top three which I absolutely could not live without - the three kitchen tools I would take to a desert island.

My top two are based on my ongoing love affair with lemons and limes.

My super zester which is used everyday. I am forever zesting lemons and limes over salads, cakes, fruit, gin and tonics...

This little baby is my Indian lemon and lime juicer which my friend Emma gave me years ago. It is "the thing I can't live without." It basically lives on the kitchen bench as is in constant use. I was pea green with envy recently as Emma gave the latest model to a friend and it now has a built in bottle opener...ah, bliss, another gin and tonic accessory.

Introducing Ken - my main man in the kitchen. A couple of years back I found my chap staggering about on the footpath outside the house with a coffin sized box - when I opened it I was at first horrified as had concept of kitchen tools as a rather unromantic "stay in the kitchen" offering. How wrong could I be. A real throwback to the 60s version my mother had in our pantry, "Ken" does it all and is never " unplugged!"

Here's a decadent slice to bring all three together..

Gooey Lemon Lime Salted Butter Slice

Crust

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 cup fine white sugar

150gr salted butter, cubed

Preheat oven to 180°. Line a 20 x 35cm tin with waxed baking paper.

Place flour and sugar into mixer bowl and pulse to sift. Add butter and pulse until crumbly. Press mixture into tin and bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and reduce temperature to 140°.

Filling

4 large eggs

1 3/4 cups fine white sugar

zest of 3 lemons and 1 lime

juice of lemons and lime

1/3 cup flour

Whisk eggs and sugar together in mixer until thick and pale. Fold in remaining ingredients gently. Pour over crust. Bake a further 40 minutes. Dust with icing sugar and lime zest.

Your comments count. We'd love to hear from you.

Cheers!

Susie

xxx