One of the most handy tools in my kitchen is my braun immersion blender, sometimes called a hand blender. Immersion blenders have been around for about ten years, and do just about everything that a regular blender does. I have one of the older models manufactured by Braun. Braun makes a number of little home appliances. I also have their coffee maker. plastic cylinder ergonomically built to fit comfortably in your hand with a twirling blade at the bottom. To mix, mix or puree, all you have got to do is literally submerge the blade in your pot, cup or bowl and push the button. Nothing else to clean but your cup, but of course you’d have that anyway. The new models come with a variety of accessories a Wusthof Knives nd range in price from around $15.00 to over $400.00 by firms such as Waring, KitchenAid, and Conair. If you are making hot soup that should be pureed, you have three options. wait until it cools and then pour it in little batches into your traditional blender, pour the soup in hot and take the possibility of scalding yourself, or, with an immersion blender you can just put the blade into the pot and off you go. When you are pureeing, be certain to keep the base of the mixer at an angle to the base of the pot. Depending on the depth of what you are mixing you need to keep the blade about an in. above the base of the pot, and you need to move the unit thru the liquid as if you were gently stirring it.
The Story of the Slow Cooker
Once upon a time I couldn’t cook at all. I lived off takeaways and microwaveable ready meals. My bank account was always empty and my waist line was always full. I’d forgotten what fresh vegetables looked like and the only fruit I ate came in a crumble or pie.Then one day everything changed. It was the day I was given a slow cooker. Things didn’t change overnight but the seeds were sown and it would not be long before I was conjuring up all kinds of treats in the kitchen. A slow cooker might not sound all that exciting. Who would buy a slow car? Or a slow TV? Having slow in the title doesn’t really do a product many favours. Of course these cookers sometimes go by the name Crockpot but mainly they are known as the cookers that are slow. Electric Wusthof Sharpener In this age of instant gratification you could be forgiven for thinking they are a relic from the past that has little relevance in these face paced times.Yes the slow cooker cooks slowly but the actual time you spend cooking yourself is very small. Depending on your tastes you can get away with doing very little chopping and cutting and just let your new kitchen appliance work its magic. Throw your ingredients in the pot and switch it on and then let the slow cooker do its thing. Some of these cookers even have a keep warm function that will keep the food at an edible temperature once the cooking is done until you are ready to serve it up.So how did I get from being kitchen illiterate to a keen cooker? It was all down to the slowcooker.