This, folks, is a very handy little item known as an immersion blender.
Now, if you already own an immersion blender, perhaps this one or this sleek one, you’re probably looking at that photo wondering what the heck that is. Well, it’s the world’s oldest immersion blender.
This was a wedding present, in early 1990 (yes, I know it’s old; I know they’ve improved dramatically. But this one works just fine, thankyouverymuch).
It’s basically a blender-type blade, but instead of being fixed in the bottom of a jar, it’s attached to the end of a wand, so I can put it in the food, instead of the other way around. I use it for pureeing things–soups, vegetables, fruits–but mostly soups.
If you don’t already have an immersion blender, you might ought to get one. I know it sounds like it has limited use, but if you ever make a pot of soup that needs to be blended (even just partially), this makes the task immeasurably easier. Have you ever tried to pour a pot of hot soup into a blender? Then you know what I mean.
A couple of months ago, Delaney and her friend Sam were cooking dinner for the four of us parents. They were making mango soup, which requires that trip to the blender. They did fine transporting the soup across the kitchen. They poured it in–no problem. They put the lid on the blender, and pressed the button.
Disaster.
The soup exploded out of the blender, all over them, all over the kitchen. Hot, sticky, ORANGE soup. Luckily neither of them were badly burned, but they learned an important lesson: don’t seal a blender full of hot liquid (don’t ask me to explain the physics; just . . . trust me).
The immersion blender would’ve enabled them to avoid the whole hot mess (they were in the other family’s kitchen, so I wasn’t there to warn them). With this handy gadget, you just hold the blade below the surface of the food, and press the button. Move it around in the pot, to get all the contents to move through the blade.
Voila–a beautiful puree. No fuss, no muss.