The Blender Bible - Softcover

Andrew Chase is the author of Asian Bistro and Associate Food Editor for Canadian Living Magazine. He lives in Toronto.

Nicole Young is an experienced recipe developer and food stylist and gives regular seminars on making baby food.

Introduction

With the introduction of the household blender in the 1930s, blenders became a fixture in North American kitchens. But since the popularization of food processors in the 70s, blenders have been gradually and mistakenly relegated to the status of mere beverage mixers, and their many other uses have been neglected. Blenders are an indispensable and extremely convenient kitchen tool. From grinding spices to puréeing soups to mixing beverages to making batter, blenders help keep your cooking on a smooth track. So find your blender a place on the kitchen counter!

In my many years as restaurant chef and recipe writer, I have learned to depend on the blender. Nothing grinds large batches of spices like a blender, and no other tool can chop harder ingredients, such as lemon grass, to a fine, digestible consistency. Blenders allow you to make wonderful homemade peanut buffer, mayonnaise and pepper purée. Dips, spreads and simple pasta sauces such as tomato sauce and pesto become a breeze; soups can be puréed in seconds. Curry pastes no longer require strenuous and time-consuming work with a mortar and pestle -- many Indian households in North America now rely heavily on the blender for food preparation. Healthy breakfast drinks and quick desserts are a bonus.

Blenders are extremely useful in basic food preparation:

• Making bread crumbs: Break stale and dry bread into small pieces by hand. Pulse in 1-cup (250 mL) batches to desired consistency. (You can make cookie and cracker crumbs the same way)
• Grating hard cheese: Cube cheese in 1/2-inch (1 cm) pieces. Blend on high speed in 1/2-cup (1 25 mL) batches.
• Grinding coffee: Grind coffee on high speed in 1-cup (250 mL) batches until desired consistency.
• Grinding spices: Grind spices on high speed in 1/4-cup (50 mL) to 1/2-cup (125 mL) batches until desired consistency.
• Whipping cream: Whip 1 cup (250 mL) cream on low speed until thick and smooth.
• Chopping nuts: Pulse 1/2 cup (125 mL) to 1 cup (250 mL) nuts several times, scraping down sides with a spatula between each pulsing.
• Making mushroom powder: Break up 1 oz (30 g) dried mushrooms into small pieces by hand. Pulse on high speed to a fine powder. Use as a seasoning in sauces to give a rich mushroom flavor.
• Preparing dried tomato paste: Pour 3/4 cup (1 75 mL) boiling water over 1 oz (30 g) dried (oven-dried or sun-dried) tomatoes. Let stand until soft, about 20 minutes. Purée on high speed until smooth, then strain through fine sieve. Use this sweet and intensely flavored purée in place of tomato paste.

When using your blender, you may be concerned about which speed to use. In this book, I have chosen to simplify the speed question by indicating only low or high speeds. In general, low speed is ideal for finely chopping ingredients. High speed makes fine purées. When high-speed blending is indicated, you might want to start on a lower speed and increase to high when ingredients are finely chopped. To avoid spillage when blending at high speed, fill the blender only half-full (this is especially important with hot ingredients). If your blender has intermediate speeds, you can experiment to see which speed works best for the food at hand. There is no magic about it: longer blending at a lower speed will give pretty much the same results as shorter blending at high speed. Whenever you use your blender, stop it partway through blending to see if the ingredients need to be scraped down with a spatula. This will ensure that the ingredients are evenly blended.

To clean your blender, fill it with hot water and let it run for about 1 minute. Then put it in the dishwasher or wash by hand. Or, if your blender base unscrews from the jug, disassemble it, wash the components separately and allow them to dry thoroughly before reassembling.

In this book, you will find an eclectic collection of excellent recipes, inspired by food from around the world. I have chosen to exclude recipes in which the blender could have been used but isn't an indispensable tool -- each recipe in the book requires a blender to produce the best results.

You will undoubtedly discover even more uses for your blender as you cook with these recipes. I hope you find inspiration and surprises in these pages!

- Andrew Chase