Blenders are the Enemy- 2/27/09

I have shared in earlier posts that I am not a fan of blenders. My earlier ire was directed at my particular blender but my frustration lies with the appliance of blenders in general. If you do not have enough liquid in the blender, the food simply pushes out to the blender walls and the blades spin uselessly. If you have too much liquid, the sheer force of the spinning liquid pushes off the flimsy top and sprays the contents at high force all over walls, cupboards, and anything else within a 20 foot radius. If the liquid is hot, such as soup, the contents need not be even close to the top of the blender and the top still flies off and spatters the contents all over the walls. Yep, tonight I did that. Not once, but twice. The Red-Bean Soup with Gremolata on page 70 on this month's Gourmet called for you to simmer the soup for 2 hours then blend before serving. I was trying to make 3 recipes simultaneously so I was a bit behind getting the soup simmering. After 2 hours of simmering, at close to 6:00, I didn't wait long before I tried to blend the hot soup because Eyrleigh was getting hungry. I only filled the blender half full because the soup was still pretty hot. It shot everywhere. I pushed the top down firmly and tried again. Again, EVERWHERE! Thankfully, enough had blended so I just quit while I was ahead and served what was left in the blender. The rest is still cooling downstairs, long after we have eaten dinner. As to the flavor of the soup, it needed a lot on salt and pepper and the gremolata did not add the "brightness" it promised, just gritty parsley. I wonder if the addition of the aji dulce chiles would have made the soup pop a little more. The Cubanelle peppers are a pretty tame pepper and some spice would have helped.


The Butternut Squash Galette on page 15, however, was a wonderful vegetarian addition to my recipe list. It wasn't hard to make and the crust was delicious. I used dried rubbed sage instead of chopped sage leaves and the sage flavor was a delightful addition to this savory dish. The goat cheese had a tang that brought out the vegetables and the pickest eater of the bunch couldn't have been happier. The butternut squash was soft from the oven roasting. The leeks were mild enough for Eyrleigh to eat them, something she does not do with onions.



For the final dessert of the month, I made the Orange Polenta Cake on page 42. The polenta made the cake taste like a glorified corn bread with glazed oranges on top. Obviously, I wasn't that impressed. I will say that I never found orange flower water at any of the stores I shopped at this month and Richard put the kibosh on ordering it online. It wasn't the cost of the orange flower water that was the issue, it was the $8 shipping that was tagged on at the end. I substituted Triple Sec for the orange flower water like suggested on a cook's website. I also wondered how much zest I should have had from the 2 oranges. The recipe never said how much zest I should use in the cake so I used all that I zested from the 2 oranges I used on the carmelized top.