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]

The frozen lemon pie sounds great; and your mention of ‘the good stuff’ reminds me of another gizmo I want: an electric ice cream maker.

We’ve been looking at the Cuisinart; but I’m wondering if there are any recommendations. (My husband grew up with the old crank kind; but there were lots of kids in the family to do the work!)

-JT

[MS.BEHAVIN]

It really is an awesome unit!
Roast and all the fixins’ done in 30 minutes flat!
Corn on the cob in 3 minutes!
It makes the cheapest cuts of meat really tender!
If you buy one, I promise you will not be disappointed!

[Jamestown1630]

A chef I saw on television said that it’s the only way that he would cook artichokes, because other methods just leach all the flavor out. I love artichokes, and that’s the first thing I want to try, when I finally get a pressure cooker.

-JT

[MV=PY]

Hey JT, that first recipe looks great! I want to try it.

How much onions and water?

[Jamestown1630]

Will try the Marinara; still haven’t done a home-made lasagna.

-JT

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Cuisinart is my "go to" brand generally. I wanted the Ice Cream and Gelato maker but the price made my thrifty soul cry in agony. I found that the Cuisinart Pure Indulgence does very nicely and I picked it up a floor model for $50.00. So it had some dust and fingerprints on it, the box was a mess and the manual was missing.

For 40% off I can deal with that. The manual is available on line, I throw the box away and the dust and finger prints washed off.

The machine is great but you can only make one batch every seven hours. That's ok, I probably shouldn't eat more then that any way.

[Jamestown1630]

The recipe is pretty clear; but your question reminded me of Stone Soup:

“Some travelers come to a village, carrying nothing more than an empty cooking pot. Upon their arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the hungry travelers. Then the travelers go to a stream and fill the pot with water, drop a large stone in it, and place it over a fire. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what they are doing. The travelers answer that they are making “stone soup”, which tastes wonderful, although it still needs a little bit of garnish to improve the flavor, which they are missing.

“The villager does not mind parting with a few carrots to help them out, so that gets added to the soup. Another villager walks by, inquiring about the pot, and the travelers again mention their stone soup which has not reached its full potential yet. The villager hands them a little bit of seasoning to help them out. More and more villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient.

“Finally, the stone (being inedible) is removed from the pot, and a delicious and nourishing pot of soup is enjoyed by all. Although the travelers have thus tricked the villagers into sharing their food with them, they have successfully transformed it into a tasty and nutritious meal which they share with the donors.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Soup#Story

-JT

[Califreak]

I have a Cuisinart chopper/immersion blender.

Best 60 bucks I ever spent.

I love that thing. I use it everyday.

Only thing I love more as far as kitchen appliances go is my Kitchenaid stand mixer.

I mix everything I can in it and wasn’t able to make a decent loaf of bread until I bought it.

[Carthego delenda est]

“We bought a Vitamix blender a few years ago...”

Awesome machine! Handles about anything. If I have herb roots and stems that need to be pulverized, the Vitamix is my go-to processor. That said, I started using a Ninja about a year ago when my ancient Oster started falling apart. It’s hard to beat as well.

[MV=PY]

Thanks. I love that story!

I see the qty for onions now, but still don’t see qty for water in the ingredients.

Or should I slow down on the scotch? ;)

[Jamestown1630]

That’s another thing that’s on the ‘wish list’!

We have something we bought from a TV ad - I think it was called ‘Thunderstick’. We used it a couple of times, and I don’t even know where it is anymore. It just didn’t puree things the way I wanted it to do.

-JT

[Jamestown1630]

Nah; keep the Scotch, and just think “chicken broth”.

G’Nite :-)

-JT

[MV=PY]

LOL!

[disndat]

Is the scotch neat or with water?

[MV=PY]

Neat. I’m thirsty, not dirty. (WC Fields)

[disndat]

Then use the same method with the recipe.

Anyone ever use a veg-o-matic?

[leaning conservative]

I could really go for your margarita! My mother in love gave us this toaster oven w/ a wide slot for toast. It totally mangles the toast, it comes out looking like origami & if you wanted to burn one tiny mushroom then the toaster oven is the one to use! Seriously, an easy bake oven is better. So tomorrow I am going to get a sunbeam 4 slice toaster at JCpenney’s w/ my 15% off coupon. I am thrilled!

[Jamestown1630]

I don’t drink anything without ice in it (except coffee or hot tea), so...

-JT

[leaning conservative]

I really want a culinary ice cream maker. They are always marked down at Belks.

[disndat]

Weird. I don’t drink anything with ice (if I can help it) in it except tea and coffee.