Summer Prawn and Cucumber Soup

Here is the recipe for the Prawn and Cucumber soup M made last week.  Serve it chilled for lunch or dinner and enjoy.  It is a delicate soup, yet crisp of flavour and delightfully herby, with the mint adding an extra zing to the palate.

Ingredients: Serves 4

25g/1oz/2tbsp butter

2 shallots, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 telegraph cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced

300ml/1/2pint/1,1/4 cups milk

225g/8oz cooked, peeled prawns (shrimp)

1 tbsp each of finely chopped fresh mint, dill, chives and chervil

300ml/1/2 pint/1,1/4 cups whipping cream

salt and ground white pepper

For the garnish:

30ml/2  tbsp creme fraiche (optional)

4 large prawns, peeled with tail intact

fresh dill and chives

Method:

Sweat the shallots and garlic in the butter over a low heat, until transparent. Do not brown. Add the cucumber and cook gently till tender.  Stir often.

Add the milk, bring almost to boiling, then simmer gently for about 5 minutes.  Take off the heat, cool slightly, then process with a stick-blender till smooth.

Pour into a large bowl and allow to go cold.  Add the peeled prawns, the chopped herbs and cream.

Cover and place in the frig to chill for at least 2 hours.

Serve in individual bowls.  Add a dollop of creme fraiche to each bowl and hang a prawn over the edge of each dish.  Sprinkle with extra chopped herbs and some chives.

NB:  I found the cream we used too heavy.  When we make this again, we will either use more milk and less cream, use a lighter cream, or use skim milk, not full fat.  Otherwise, the recipe is well recommended for simplicity of preparation and its good flavours.

We are told that this recipe was first found in the "The New Soup Bible", so thank you to them!  We are looking for a copy!

Silky Chicken Liver Pate

The Easiest Recipe in the World!  (Using my stick blender)

This  is a great recipe for Chicken Liver Pate.  I was given the original version about 40 years ago and I have gradually stream-lined it  until I reached the present formula.  I can now whack it up while I am making breakfast and serve it at lunch!

Here are five of the reasons it is so good!

1. Children love it.
2. You can keep the ingredients in the freezer and make it at short notice.
3. You can cook it in the microwave or the oven - flavour is not affected if you use the  microwave properly.   
4. Clean-up is minimum if you use a stick (immersion) blender      
5. Children love it.

I am sure you will find more reasons to add to this list, once you have introduced the recipe to your repertoire.

                                                        Chicken Liver Pate

Ingredients.

250gms (8ozs) chicken livers

250gms (8ozs)butter

1 medium brown onion

1-2 pinches of dried mixed herbs

salt and pepper to taste

Method

In a bowl, place the livers and the butter chopped into cubes. Chop the onion and add along with the herbs and seasoning.

Cook in the microwave on med. low for around 15-20 mins, stirring every 5 minutes.

If you cook in the oven, set at a medium heat (350degrees) and cook until livers are as above and the onions are tender.  

Cool the mixture, then blend until smooth and pour into small bowls for serving. Chill until set.

   


           Notes

• Rule of thumb - always match the quantities of livers and butter.  e.g. 10ozs liver - 10ozs butter.  If you do not, the end product will not be properly balanced.  It does not matter what the quantities are, you can make little or lots.  Adjust the amount of onion, herbs and seasoning as necessary.
• You can add extra flavours if you wish, brandy or port, for example.
• You need to microwave at a low heat as you risk having the livers cooked before the onions if your setting is too high.  The livers should be faintly pink and moist.               
• If you use a blender (I do not think a food processor produces the silky texture required) be prepared to blend in batches and mix the batches together in another large bowl before pouring into smaller containers. (fuss, fuss, fuss!)
•  Because it freezes well, I always make a little extra to freeze in small pots for when we are without extra family! 

As I said - Easy, Easy, Easy!

Garnish with bay leaves and juniper berries.

Buying a New Toy - Stick Blenders

What do you want from your stick blender?  

Generally, it would seem that most users want it to be:

• ·         easy to clean
• ·         robust - metal rather than plastic
• ·         easy to handle - not too heavy or awkward
• ·         useful in a variety of situations,  from mixing smoothies with great chunks of ice to whipping delicate egg-whites

What can you expect from your stick blender?  Generally, it would seem they are:

• ·         mostly easy to clean
• ·         robust to a greater or lesser degree
• ·         most are easy to handle
• ·         most are useful in a variety of situations

So - what's the problem, then?

 

Manufacturing faults aside,  consider this.  It is truly not rational to buy a cheap, plastic blender and then expect it to crush ice ad infinitum.  It is not logical to expect a $30 blender to perform at peak capacity, day after day for 10 or 12 years.  No one should expect inexpensive plastic to stand up to hours of extremely hot water and the chemicals used in a dish-washer.  It is wonderful if it happens, but it must be considered a bonus.   Kitchen tools need to be treated with respect and a  little bit of TLC will make all the difference to their life expectancy - after all, we do get  cars serviced, don't we?

As I see it, we "pays our money and we takes our choice", as the old saying goes.  If we spend the dollars up front, we may expect to be the owners of a robust and rugged machine which, with care and regular service,  will provide us with years of use.  (For example, replacing dull blades helps to reduce strain on the motor.)    

If we cannot afford, or do not want to go for the best, we take a punt, buy a cheaper model and still treat it well.  Give it respect, look after it and you are likely to enjoy  many  years of service,  albeit without all the whistles and bells. Then, when it fails, you shrug, buy another one and move on.  A word of warning here, often the price of a cheap blender may mean that it is more expensive to claim under-warranty repair or replacement than it is to just go out and buy a new one!

Resist the temptation to throw your stick blender at the cat, to leave it where the gas flame can gently lick it,  or to let it languish in the soup of chemicals we call dish-wash powder and you may be surprised with the result.

Before you decide on which model to buy, do make a list of all the things you want  your stick blender to do,  choose one that has a realistic chance of meeting your demands and do not demand that it performs beyond its capabilities.

More on Stick / Immersion Blenders

Our George Foreman. Whisk, Wand, Food Processor
and Blade, Plastic Container for Pulverising and
The Bit that holds the Motor!

In our kitchen, we presently use a George Foreman Immersion. or Stick Blender that we got through  a points programme.  It seems OK,  although because of our travelling ways, we have not used it a great deal.  We did return to discover that there had been a re-call on it because of a faulty blade connection, but fortunately,  ours was not one of the 'baddies'.

We use it mainly for chopping nuts,  making pesto and curry pastes, chopping onions etc for salsa,  for whipping cream and pureeing soups, fruits and vegetables.   All but the cream and the soups  are  processed in the super mini-processor supplied, which we find a fantastic device for when we have only  small quantities of ingredients to handle.  I am sure that, as time goes by, we will find plenty of other uses, too. At present, I am thinking of hummus and a pate, that at present I make in my food processor and blender respectfully, purely out of habit.

In the meantime, thinking about the Bamix (see last post) sparked my interest in Immersion Blenders in general so I started to do a bit of research on the subject. First - a little bit of history.  The Bamix is the original.  It was invented in Switzerland and patented in 1950. The name comes from two French words, "battre et mixer" i.e. beat and mix.  These blenders first appeared in American kitchens in the 1980s.  Obviously,  I can attest that English cooks were able to enjoy the experience somewhat earlier - the 

early 60s, in fact

Now there are heaps of immersion (stick) blenders on the market.  They come in all price ranges and all promise slightly different things.  The most expensive domestic model I found (at current prices) was the top-of-the-range Bamix at $400 and the cheapest, the Betty Crocker at $12.72......  Each brand has its loyal followers and its vehement detractors regardless of price. Often the cheapest have the most glowing reviews while the most expensive can only grovel under the burden of some consumer's rage.

Q 1.  How do they differ from other tools developed for mixing and blending? 

A.  They do their job in the container in which the food has been, or will be, prepared.

The obvious advantage here is that this mostly cuts out the need to transfer food from one container to another. This often messy and protracted operation  always entails further washing of dishes and extra 'stuff' strewn across the kitchen. Murder in a small area and the opportunity for chaos in a large one. 

For example, when I make pate, I cook everything in a glass dish, then, when it is somewhat cooled,  I ladle it into the blender, in batches, for processing.  As each batch is processed, it gets poured into a single clean bowl.  When all the batches are amalgamated, the mix gets thoroughly stirred so that any textural differences in each batch disappear.

For washing up - Bowl from cooking, ladle, spatula, blender jug and base, blades, gasket, large spoon, bowl from mixing.  Benches are usually decorated with drips of pate and/or melted butter from careless use of utensils, sundry accidents and life's little surprises!

I figure, if I use an IB (note - I am learning the jargon) the following should be the case,

For washing up - Bowl from cooking, spatula, wand from stick-blender and clean benches.  - Result!

More later.................

A Stick Blender History

Stick Blenders - Part 1

Stick blenders, or immersion blenders if you like, are among the best and most useful kitchen tools, if you have the right one!

The modern Bamix

I first came across one in the early seventies at the Ideal Home Show at Olympia in London.  The blender in question was a Bamix, from Switzerland and it was being demonstrated on one of the lesser stands by a very ebullient gentleman and his female side-kick.  "At this time, Bamix," he said, "may be purchased only here.  It is not available in the shops!"

You know the sort of stand and demonstrator I mean.  They often do knives.  They demonstrate knives with serrated blades, on blocks of wood, sawing back and forth with tremendous vigor. Then, with the same blade, they slice a tomato, moving from the brute force of a Sumo wrestler  to the delicate actions of a cup-cake fairy. They swear you will 'never need another knife' and 'not only one, but two.......just for the show. ....will not be available again in the near future'.........Yeah!

Shamefacedly, I admit I once bought a pair of these knives in my murky past, and they were actually not too bad at all.  I had them for about 25 years and they were always great for slicing tomatoes.  In the end I gave them away out of boredom.

And now - back to the chase! 

My parents from NZ were with me and my father was just developing an interest in cooking.  My mother, rest her soul, was happy to be able to produce a half-way decent Victoria sponge and pork with crackling to die for, all the while stoutly maintaining that she had never been able to bake a decent sponge since she had to change from a coal range to an electric stove!   Hmmmm.....

Anyway - the blender. Dad was mightily impressed.  He watched the "chef" roughly chop enough  vegetables to half fill a bucket, add a few pints of boiling water, and then introduce the mighty Bamix to the mix. Whammy! Instant Soup. I can't actually remember what else the guy did but really, it didn't matter. The bucket of soup had made the sale and Mum and Dad took a Bamix back to NZ.

I don't know how much they actually used it.  I know that they made pate with it, but not the bucket soup.  Avocado, probably.  It was an extremely robust item - all metal and from memory,  a lot heavier than the stick blenders of today.  It stayed with them for the next 20 years when it was passed on and it did them proud. 

Thanks Bamix.