January 14, 2008
Sunday, bloody Sunday
Okay, sorry for the rather graphic title today, but the truth is that I'm having a little trouble typing this blog entry due to a kitchen injury I sustained this weekend.
Have you ever had one of those nights when it seems that everything is going wrong in the kitchen? Last night was one of those for me. I think fate was flipping me the bird for picking on my friend Stacy about her ugly bundt cake.
First, while slicing onions for my black bean soup experiment, I sliced the tip off my finger instead. Not all the way, mind you. But it's bad enough. How embarassing! My knife skills have gotten much fancier over the past year and I've never cut myself before in my life. There's a first for everything.
Next, while explicitly following the recipe directions for my soup, I removed several cups and placed them in my blender to puree and return to the soup. Well, I don't know if it's because the soup was boiling hot or what, but it immediately blew the top off my blender and I had tiny black bean skins all over the counter. Clean-up on aisle 5!
(I'd love to know if anyone else has had problems pureeing hot soups. Maybe I should have let it cool for a bit, but that's not what the recipe suggested.)
Finally, my rooster sauce seemed to have a bit of a clog in the nozzle, so it came shooting out exactly perpendicular to the bottle itself and sprayed across my kitchen floor. Much cursing occurred at that time.
The good news? The soup, while not as attractive in appearance as I would've liked, was delicious. And my husband cleaned up the kitchen because I was injured and had a good excuse. Maybe I should injure myself every time I make a big mess in the kitchen.
More good news as we move along to better weekend experiences: We had brunch at Rockfish on Sunday morning and it was a real treat.
I had a spinach feta omelet with fiery red tomato sauce and home fries. My husband had crabcakes benedict with home fries. Both were tasty and our bill came in at under $20 -- not bad at all! But don't go starving...the service was pretty slow.
Still, it was one of the best brunches I've had in Roanoke. Maybe the best since Cafe Succotash shut down. I'd like to do a column about brunch options in the Roanoke and New River valleys. If anyone can suggest a place that has a unique twist (not just breakfast served past noon), I'd love to hear it.
Watch those knives, children!
Comments
[January 14, 2008 11:15 AM]
RebeccaI made a butternut squash soup last week that required blending hot liquid in a blender. I put a folded kitchen towel over the top and held with my hand while I pureed the mixture. There were no problems but it made me a little nervous just imagining what would happen if the top blew off!
[January 14, 2008 1:41 PM]
AutumnI made a black bean soup a couple of weeks ago. The recipe I use actually says to let your mixture to be pureed to cool for 10 minutes.
[January 14, 2008 1:53 PM]
LoriI have a recipe for black bean soup that calls for pureeing 2 out of 3 cans used, which I puree cold. The recipe calls for them to be pureed before adding to the pot. For soups that require pureeing after cooking, nothing beats an immersion blender. While not as fast as the traditional blender, it beats having everything erupt like Vesuvius!
[January 14, 2008 3:41 PM]
Lindsey : →http://blogs.roanoke.com/fridgemagnet/I got a helpful e-mail today from a reader who said she has an Anthony Bourdain cookbook that advises you to literally lay your body on top of the blender if you have to in order to keep the lid from blowing off when pureeing hot liquids. She said sometimes she removes the little vent cap and lays a kitchen towel over it to let some of the steam out and that seems to help, too. Good to know next time I make a smooth soup!
[January 15, 2008 8:57 AM]
ToriI do what Bourdain says to do, and pureeing in small batches, if possible, seems to help as well. Oh, the messes I made before I figured this out.
[January 15, 2008 5:09 PM]
Jim...from personal experience that includes cleaning up a pea soup that I was pureeing in my blender...Fill the blender with a hot liquid no more than one-quarter full!
[January 15, 2008 5:15 PM]
Lindsey : →http://blogs.roanoke.com/fridgemagnet/I did small batches and that didn't seem to help much. Next time I'm going to either lean on my blender or use an immersion blender.
[January 17, 2008 8:14 AM]
JimI just looked through my recipe collection and discovered that almost all of my hot soup puree directions call for using a food processor - not a blender. This makes sense since the force of a blender is up and the force of a food processor is toward the sides.