Weekly Cooking (and related issues) Thread

[Jamestown1630]

When we were married, one of our wedding gifts was a beautiful, copper ‘beehive’ Oster blender. (I was collecting 'everything copper' back then, and my copper Oster toaster is still going strong, and will probably last my lifetime.)

The blender has also been a great tool and lasted a long time, but has been on its last legs recently; and my husband decided a while back that he wanted a Breville as soon as we were ready to budget it. (I think he had seen it highly rated by America’s Test Kitchen.)

We happened to be in an ‘off-price’ department store last week which had the Breville for about $75 dollars less than we had expected to pay; and with that, the Breville Hemisphere Blender traveled to the top of the ‘wish list’, and all the way home.

I will miss the very ‘retro’ look of my old blender; but the Breville is pretty ‘whiz-bang’, with pre-programmed settings for blending/crushing/liquefying; and it’s very easy to clean and maintain. We’re having a lot of fun with it.

The manual came with recipes, and this soup caught my eye; I’ll be saving it for the cold-creeping-in Autumn days:

CHICKEN, CORN AND GINGER SOUP

Serves 4

1-½ tablespoon Peanut Oil

4 Green Onions, thinly sliced

2 inch piece fresh Ginger, finely chopped

3 cups fresh or frozen Corn Kernels

4 cups Chicken Stock

1-½ tablespoon Soy Sauce

1-½ tablespoon Rice Wine

½ teaspoon Sesame Oil

2 small Chicken Breast fillets, thinly sliced

¼ Cup roughly chopped fresh Cilantro leaves (optional)

White Pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan, add onions and ginger and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Add corn and cook, stirring occasionally, for a further 3-4 minutes.

2. Add stock and water and bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.

3. Transfer half of the mixture to blender jug, place lid on blender jug and blend on speed 2/MIX for 30 seconds. Return pureed soup to remaining soup in saucepan with soy, wine, sesame and chicken. Cook on a medium high heat until soup starts to simmer and chicken is just cooked through.

4. Serve with fresh chopped coriander (cilantro)and white pepper to taste

__________________________________________________________

I went looking for a new smoothie recipe to try, and found this one:

1 Cup Pineapple Juice

1 large Banana, cut into chunks (I usually use a frozen banana)

1 Cup frozen Strawberries

1 Cup frozen Blueberries

Pulse to get it started, and then blend until slushy.

_________________________________________________________

The Breville Manual also had a recipe for a version of my husband’s favorite mixed drink:

Margarita Cocktail

(Serves Two)

¼ Cup Tequila

¼ Cup Cointreau

1/3 Cup Lime Juice

1/8 Cup fresh Orange Juice

¼ Cup Simple Syrup

12 ice cubes

Place all ingredients in a blender jug.

Use the Ice Crush function or the Liquefy function (adapt for your blender) and blend until well combined and ice is crushed.

Serve in salt-rimmed glasses.

-JT

[Jamestown1630]

I will try it!

[pugmama]

This ketchup is really great-we love the taste.
It appears that you can freeze it, so am going to do another 10 lb batch this week.
I am also going to make some Japanese eggplant miso pickles today as he have loads of them in the garden.

[Jamestown1630]

Please post the eggplant pickle recipe!

[Liz]

The best reason to make this homemade ketchup recipe is that it easily becomes Cilantro-
Ginger Ketchup, Cocktail Sauce Ketchup, Pineapple-Chipotle Ketchup, even Pomegranate
Ketchup. Add the flaves you like.

HOMEMADE KETCHUP FROM GOOD HOUSEKEEPING KITCHENS

METHOD blender/puree tomatoes smooth. Heat canola oil on medium heat. Add onion;
cook 6 minutes or until browned. Add clove and pepper; cook a minute. Add brown sugar,
cider vinegar, tomato paste, soy sauce, and pureed tomatoes. Heat to boiling on high. Reset
to med-low; simmer 50 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally. Cool slightly. In a
blender, puree until smooth. Refrigerate until cold; keeps 3 weeks in the fridge.

Ingredients 28-oz.) can whole, peeled tomatoes 2 tsp. canola oil 1 small onion, chopped
1/8 tsp. ground clove 1/4 tsp. Freshly ground black pepper 1/3 c. brown sugar 1/3 c. cider
vinegar 3 tbsp. tomato paste

[pugmama]

I made these today-I used honey.

Japanese Miso Eggplant Pickles:

Ingredients:

1 lb japanese eggplant, cut on bias in 1/2 inch slices
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup mirin
1 cup light miso paste

Directions:

Wearing gloves, gently massage all ingredients together.
Place in container.
Place plastic wrap over top and refrigerate.
Ready to eat in about 4 days.
Pickles get stronger as they sit.

[Jamestown1630]

Thanks!