Put a Stick In It

by Mara @ What's For Dinner? on January 21, 2010

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Hey, get your mind out of the gutter!

Today’s gadget is not a new one by any means, but it is one that I believe everyone should have! My mom bought this for me over two years ago, and I’ve loved every minute of using it. It’s one of those “I could make this recipe but I don’t have…”

What is it? An immersion blender! I have this one:

Since it sits in a drawer when it’s not being used, the red doesn’t stick out too badly. I’ve used this lovely gadget for soups, smoothies, milkshakes, and tons of other recipes, but my very favorite thing to use it for is whipping eggs into oblivion for a fritatta. A fritatta is made with using many eggs (and in my recipe, half eggs and half egg whites) blended well and then cooked both on the stovetop and in the oven. Whipping by hand, at least for me, got tiring and I never got the froth I like when making fritatta. I like when there are lots of little bubbles to help the egg get in between the pieces of potato and vegetables… but I’ll get to that in a minute. I had a couple people tell me on my mandoline and rice cooker posts that they are afraid of using a stick blender… so a few key things I’ve found in my time using mine (Kristin! PAY ATTENTION!):

Make sure the entire rounded end is completely submerged into whatever liquid you’re blending. Sometimes, when making smoothies, this means putting the blender in the cup before the ingredients!
Pulse the blades first before running it consistently. This gets the ingredients up into the rounded part, which minimizes splatter.
MAKE SURE the blades are COMPLETELY stopped before pulling the blender out. It only takes a little bit of motion to cause your soup, smoothie, or eggs to go flying all over the kitchen!
Keep the blender moving, yet close to the bottom of the cup or bowl as you blend. This allows for even blending.

So, in keeping with gadget week, I made a fritatta recipe with my immersion blender. I followed the procedure found in my fritatta recipe page, but the ingredients were:

spinach
broccoli
chopped bacon
2 garlic cloves
1 and a half baked potatoes, diced
5 eggs
5 egg whites
1.5 c. low fat cheddar cheese

The bacon added a great dimension of flavor we don’t usually get in our fritattas, but the key here was the bubbly eggs. I whipped them up until they were a light lemon color, added half the cheese, and then blended that in as well. I topped the whole pan with the remaining cheese, and came out with this masterpiece:

See how the egg got in between the spinach and potato? With regular egg beating, I find that the eggs sink and don’t fill in the gaps that well. This was absolutely delicious, and of course, I ate my piece with fat free sour cream.

Please check out Dori’s Charity Auction happening today! All proceeds go to a very worthy cause!

I’m cutting this short here, as today is a fairly sad day… 3 years ago today my grandma passed away. She’s one of the reasons that I learned to cook (along with my mom, my main influence), and I miss her every day. I’m going to cook a “tribute” meal tomorrow, full of dishes that she both cooked and taught me to love… so my question today: Who taught you to cook and/or love food?