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]

This week: Things to do with a brand-new blender - or any other Favorite Kitchen Gizmo ;-)

(If you would like to be on or off of this weekly cooking ping-list, please send a private message.)

-JT

[Twotone]

I found these dip recipes somewhere. Probably from a new blender I bought. They sound good, but I don’t think I ever made any of them. ;-)

Blender-made Dips & Spreads

Bacon & Horseradish Dip:
½ cup cooked & crumbled bacon
1 tbps horseradish
1 cup sour cream
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 slice medium onion
1 tbsp parsley

Barbecue Dip:
1 cup creamed cottage cheese
½ cup barbecue or chili sauce
2 tbsp horseradish sauce

Shrimp Spread:
1 cup cooked shrimp, cleaned
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup chopped celery
½ cup chopped green pepper
1 thin slice onion
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp horseradish
¼ tsp salt
Dash of Tabasco

Sour Cream Substitute:
½ cup water or milk
8 oz creamed cottage cheese
1 tbsp lemon juice
¼ tsp salt

[Jamestown1630]

The Bacon and Horseradish, and the Shrimp Dip, look especially good!

-JT

[Twotone]

Yes, one of these days I’ll have to try it. I haven’t been on-line much as we’ve been moving - Oregon to Idaho. Now that I don’t have to fret about what the legislature is doing, I might have more time for cooking & enjoying life.

[MS.BEHAVIN]

No new blender here..
But, I have a new Fagor Electric Pressure cooker!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!

Read more here:

http://www.fagoramerica.com/appliances/discontinued/small_appliances/electric_pressure_cooker

[henkster]

I have not thought about making dips or spreads in a blender, but that sounds like a great idea and your recipes look delicious.

[Fai Mao]

This only sort of on topic.

Occasionally I need a can open. I don’t use many canned items but there are not many substitutes when you need a can opened and my old can opener had succumbed to the ravages of old age. So the other day I went to the store to get a manual can opener that could hide modestly in the drawer until I needed to extract black olives from their suit of tin armor.

A manual can opener was $17.00 for one that I felt wouldn’t break.

An electric one was $8.99.

I’ve a new device looking for a plug.

I don’t understand the pricing.

[Doogle]

".....shhh..ask if anyone has tried doing the mayonnaise thing instead of butter with grilled cheese sammiches"

[Liz]

Here’s a couple pasta sauces made in a blender...then heated to serve.

CREAMY ALFREDO SAUCE
Blender 1/2 c cr/cheese, cup milk, 3tbl Parm. gar/cl, s/p, 1/2 c parsley.

HOMEMADE MARINARA
Blender 12 oz can tomato paste, 2 tbl water, gar/cl, 2 tbl Parm, tea salt, 2 tbl evo, s/p, Italian seasoning.

[Jamestown1630]

I don’t understand it either. We’ve used the same Oxo can opener for about ten years, but we need a new one - probably two, on the prepper premise that ‘one is none, two is one’.

We looked at the grocery store the other day, and the manual ones were about 8.99 to 14.99; but they didn’t have an Oxo, so we’re waiting, because the Oxo has just been so reliable.

Wouldn’t hurt to have one of these in storage as an ‘extra’ either - my Grandmother actually used one until she was very, very old; she never really adapted to either the modern manual ones or the electrics, despite the arthritis in her old hands ;-)

https://www.amazon.com/Old-fashioned-Opener-Bottle-Corkscrew/dp/B007KVHV8G/ref=pd_bxgy_79_img_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1WK0R0YG3XEPD6EEBFFY

-JT

[Jamestown1630]

We posted about that a while back! I haven’t heard that anyone has tried it, but it’s very good!

(Love your pic :-)

-JT

[miss marmelstein]

I have a gorgeous Waring Blender - poor, poor pitiful me, as Linda Ronstadt once sang. And a Kitchen Aid mixer which is not perfect because the bowl sticks after a workout with my sourdough mixture. And a very cheap food processor that doesn’t deserve mention being nasty and plastic. Those are my three major contraptions in my kitchen that I rely on along with my Mr. Coffee.

[Jamestown1630]

We’ve been surveying the market for one, and the Fagor is one of the ones highly recommended by the Freepers.

-JT

[r_barton]

We bought a Vitamix blender a few years ago (which is very similar to ghe Breville). There is no comparison between our old Oster and the Vitamix. Of course the old blender was less than $100 and the new one was more than $400. We bought 3 blender jars with 3 blades (a wet/regular blade, an ice blade for smoothies and ice drinks and dry blade to grind dry grain, etc).

[Fai Mao]

“https://www.amazon.com/Old-fashioned-Opener-Bottle-Corkscrew/dp/B007KVHV8G/ref=pd_bxgy_79_img_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=1WK0R0YG3XEPD6EEBFFY";

The shipping to here would be about $5.00 for that item.

Probably the next time I go to Hong Kong or the UK I should get a manual opener just because of the risk here of typhoon related power outages. Two years ago Saipan had no electricity for 5 months due to a typhoon. Guam hasn’t been hit by a super typhoon in 15 years and we are normally hit by one every 10 years (Which explains why there is so little agriculture on the island)

[oldvirginian]

” A manual can opener was $17.00 for one that I felt wouldn’t break.

An electric one was $8.99.

I don’t understand the pricing.”

Actually pretty simple.
The $17 manual opener is probably made of better quality material which costs a bit more.
It will also last for many, many years even with heavy use.
Because they last so long the producer has to make more money on each sale.

The $8.99 electric opener is made of cheap plastic, cheap metal cutting tool and barely acceptable wiring.
With moderate use it will probably need replacement in a year or so.

IMVHO you would have been better off with the higher priced manual opener.

I have an old wall mounted manual opener in the basement.
Bought it 40 years ago and it has seen heavy use.
Still works great.

[Jamestown1630]

I would think that you could still find that old-fashioned one where you are; but you probably wouldn’t like using it :-)

-JT

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Frozen Lemon Pie

One quart vanilla ice cream (Get the good stuff!)
One doo-dad of Frozen Lemonade (I forget what the container is called)
One pack cream cheese.
Toss in the blender and blend until smooth. Pour into gingersnap pie shell (Just like a graham cracker crust but with gingersnaps) and put in freezer for four hours.

Eat.

I either make the crust in my lasagna pan or in two pie pans.

Works with orange juice concentrate or any other frozen juice you happen to have on hand.

Thin it out the lemonade a bit and leave out the cream cheese and you have a tasty frozen (if not exactly figure friendly) drink)

[Jamestown1630]

The Vitamix is what my husband really wanted; but he also has his heart set on a Breville Sous Chef processor, which costs nearly as much as the Vitamix would if you could find it on sale. So we compromised on the blender - and hope the off-price store comes up with the processor, too; though we figure it’s unlikely :-)

(I had never really shopped in one of those off-price stores before, and was surprised at the bargains you can get on some pretty high-end stuff. It’s hit-or-miss, but running in there will be on our itinerary from now on.)

-JT