mauney@ncsu.UUCP (06/20/83)
Two Good Things To Make With Your Blender
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For those of you who don't remember what a blender is, it's a
$20 gadget that does one thing better than a $200 food processor:
turning lumpy liquids into smooth ones. Both of these recipes
use that principle. They are yummy and easy to make. They are
also good subjects for experimentation.
1) Avocado and Cucumber Soup
A recent issue of Gourmet (June, I expect), has a very nice recipe
for a cold avocado/cucumber soup. I won't reproduce it here
(you can go down to the newstand and memorize it in a few minutes),
but I will give my adaptation of it. The original requires advance
preparation, whereas mine just requires the existence of ripe avocado.
One ripe avocado
One half of a cucumber
One cup sour cream (or yogurt)
One scallion
Some chicken stock
Some milk
Some lemon juice
Fresh dill
Remove the skin and seed from the avocado, cut into a few pieces
or mash with a fork, throw into blender jar. Peel cucumber,
remove seeds, cut into pieces, throw into blender jar.
Chop scallion, throw in blender jar. Add sour cream,
chicken stock, milk and a little lemon juice. Blend until smooth.
If soup is too thick, add more milk; if too thin, don't use so much milk.
Pour into bowls, garnish with dill. Serves two.
If you've had all the ingredients in the fridge, the soup will be cool enough
when it comes out of the blender, especially if you keep your spare stock
in ice-cube form, as suggested recently by someone.
2) Strawberry Yogurt Shake
One cup yogurt
One handful frozen whole strawberries
One dollop cream of coconut
Place ingredients in blender, blend until smooth. Pour into glasses.
Serves two.
The frozen strawberries will give this drink the consistency of a milkshake.
Unsweetened whole strawberries are easiest to deal with, since individual
berries can be removed from the bag, whereas sweetened strawberries
usually come in a block.
The coconut cream is mostly for sweetness. One could substitute sugar,
honey, a sickeningly sweet liqueur, aspartame, strawberries in syrup, or
(gasp) not sweeten it at all. Cream of coconut comes in cans and is usually
found with the cocktail supplies; it should not be confused with any product
which actually requires you to touch a real coconut and thus do any work.