Effortless Meals & Razor-Sharp Knives – a special offer
Andrew Bluett-Duncan
Director
If you’re a knife geek or just appreciate the best things in life, then I’ve a bit of a treat for you this weekend, because Horl have just improved their Horl 2 knife sharpener and called it Horl 3. The name may lack imagination, but the product is knife sharpening heaven.
But, before I get to that, some little while ago, a friend took me quietly to task because I'd been going on about Ultra High Processed foods, and how they are (almost certainly) quietly poisoning us, but she insisted I wasn’t suggesting alternatives. And I thought she made a good point.
And, having thought about it for a while, a scenario going through my mind was, it's all very well and good saying that supermarket pizza, for instance, really isn’t nutritious food to a busy mum or dad. But, when they are up against it and just can’t think of what to cook, food that comes out of a box and goes straight into the oven, is just so easy. So, the pizza wins.
Now, to be clear I’ve chosen pizza, not because I want to knock it. On the contrary I love a good pizza, talking of which, for my son Jonathan’s 31st birthday last week, we went to Monte Forte in Reigate’s West Street. Oh wow, pizzas that should not be missed! The base is superb and the toppings delicious, highly recommended! But, even from a restaurant, is it great food? Well, I’m not a dietician, but I sort of doubt that this amount of bread dough is a great start and then, if like me you then want Chorizo topping, which is entirely ultra processed meat, then the food value is going to be pretty low.
Yuka: nutrition at a glance
If this has piqued your interest and you want to judge accurately the nutritional value of the food you're buying as you choose it from the supermarket shelves, then I'd recommend downloading the Yuka app. This app quickly scans the barcode on any packaged food and scores it between 0 and 100. If you want to know how this score is made up, it breaks down the good, the bad and the ugly, so that you understand why.
J's Fresh but Easy Recipe
Back in January I was being fed one evening by another friend, who produced what I thought was a lovely dinner. Asking her how she did it, despite using only fresh ingredients, I was astonished by how little time and effort she'd put it in (this isn't a complaint) versus the tastiness of the end result.
So, here is a recipe that will take you a very little time to prepare, but that is full of good healthy tasty ingredients and is probably quite difficult to get wrong. This could be just the ticket during a manic evening of demanding children or when you're late in from the office, but need food fast, and all you want to do is slump.
And, there’s not chemical in sight….well mayo apart! (Unless you are one of the exceptional and dedicated cooks, who make their own in advance.)
So here goes:
Ingredients
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Method
Chicken breast - sprinkled with sumac and seasoned, bit of olive oil, and placed on foil and grilled, approx. 20 mins.
- Asian slaw made with red cabbage and carrot grated and mixed with chopped parsley and mint, mixed with lemon juice and olive oil.
- Served with rice / soy sauce and lemon juice added before serving.
- Garlic mayo as accompaniment.
- Garnished with pomegranate seeds and spare mint.
Just one recipe, I know, but in case you hadn't come across them, we do have a variety of recipes on our blog including some devised by our own clever Art of Living cooks.
So now to product and back to the Horl 3 that I mentioned earlier
Horl has been around for a little while now, and is one the most beautiful, most consistent and most expensive knife sharpeners on the market.
It centres around a sound principle, that of a strong magnet holding the knife blade upside down at a very precise angle of either 15 degrees or 20 degrees (as a rough guide, Japanese 15 degrees or European blades 20 degrees require different angles). And, you then roll a sharpening surface along the length of the blade. This rolling action gradually or swiftly (depending on the blade's condition) puts back a very precise and consistent angled sharp edge.
And, when I say sharp, that is not exaggerating in any way, because it can be a little unbelievable just how sharp. For that, however, the two stones that it comes with may be insufficient and you may (depending on your level of expectation) find yourself also buying one or more of the Fine, Extra Fine or Ultra Fine stones / discs to achieve perfection.
This is what Bob, a long standing customer of ours, kindly wrote when I asked him about the Horl 2 that he bought last year.
"I bought my Horl last year and, whilst reasonably expensive, I can truly say that I have found it great value for money and one of my best additions to the kitchen armoury! The action is smooth and gives consistently sharp knives. I feel that the reason is that, with the magnetic knife holder, the blade is held firmly at the correct angle. This, in my opinion, isn’t really achieved in any other type of sharpener.
My one observation is that the honing wheel seemed to take a long time to get the ‘last bit’ done, so I opted to buy a fine stone to replace it which I have found to be ideal.
On a purely aesthetic note, I am a minimalist in my kitchen with clear surfaces the norm, but this sharpener is truly tactile and is a thing of beauty to be seen as much as used!"
Bob added that he thought the manufacturers were being a bit mean in not including the stand in the price of what is now close to £170. Hard to disagree with him on that one.
The difference incidentally between the older Horl 2 and new Horl 3 is threefold.
- The magnet holding the blade is now stronger on the Horl 3. This is useful when sharpening shorter, narrower blades like paring knives.
- The attachment of the disc to the roller body has moved from a thread fitting to a bayonet fitting.
- The roller itself is now a centimetre wider, which they claim makes it makes it more comfortable to use.
Read an in-depth comparison between the Horl 2 and Horl 3 here on our blog.
You can buy the Fine, Extra Fine and Ultra Fine discs separately for both models, the old and the new at just under fifty quid each.
For this weekend and the coming week, use Code HORL10 to get 10% off the purchase of any Horl product.
That's it for this week. I hope you have a sharp and tasty weekend.
Warm regards,
Andrew
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