Blender

The Blender can be used for puréeing and blending a multitude of ingredients. It has extremely sharp stainless steel blades that rotate at very high speed, and either finely chop or purée the contents to a smooth texture.

Your Kenwood Cooking Chef comes with a stainless steel jug, but glass and compatible acrylic jugs (also with a 1.5 litre capacity) are also available separately.

The stainless steel jug is not only stylish but very resistant (perfect for processing hard spices, sugar and ice) and keeps ingredients cool, which is fantastic for cocktails, fruit drinks and milkshakes.

The Blender is a versatile feature for a wide variety of food preparation. Biscuits for dessert bases and cheesecakes can be briefly processed in the Blender to make crumbs. It’s best to break them into pieces and add them to the Blender jug through the filler cap opening with the machine running. Do it in batches, rather than over-filling the jug.

When to use it

Breadcrumbs
The Blender will make perfect fresh breadcrumbs – cut the crusts off the slices of bread and cut into cubes or tear into pieces small enough to fit through the filler cap. Turn the Blender to maximum speed and drop the bread pieces through the filler cap. Avoid using very fresh bread as it tends to cling together – one-day-old bread is best. To make a large quantity of breadcrumbs, process in batches.

Biscuit Crumbs
Biscuits for dessert bases and cheesecakes can be briefly processed in the Blender to make crumbs. It is best to break them into pieces and add to the Blender Jug, through the filler cap opening whilst the machine is running. Make in batches, rather than over-fill the jug.

Chopping nuts
You can chop shelled nuts in small quantities - add them through the lid via the filler cap opening with the machine running. Large quantities of shelled nuts are better processed in the Food Processing Attachment. Use shelled nuts only.

Crushing ice
Ice cubes can be crushed in the Blender to use in drinks. If crushing ice on its own, always add a little water with the ice cubes and use the Pulse function on your Cooking Chef.

Drinks
From milkshakes and smoothies to alcoholic cocktails, the Blender will create your drink within seconds. Just add a liquid such as milk or fruit juice, fresh fruit, such as strawberries or mangoes and blend. You can also add ice cream, yoghurt or even mousse to the Blender jug for extra thickness, and blend to a thick, frothy shake. Why not try a banana nut shake? Add a sliced banana, an individual hazelnut yoghurt and 300ml milk and blend together.

Mayonnaise
You can use the Blender to make mayonnaise, as an alternative to the Power Whisk. With the machine running, remove the filler cap and pour oil in a slow steady stream into the Blender jug. The shearing action of the stainless steel blade will emulsify the egg yolks and oil to make a thick, smooth mayonnaise. Make a quantity using at least 2 egg yolks to ensure the blades are covered.

Pâtés
Smooth chicken liver pâté or vegetable pâtés and dips such as garlic and bean pâté, hummus or avocado dip can all be successfully made in the Blender.

To make a quick avocado dip add 2 chopped ripe avocado pears with 60ml (4 tbsp) each of crème fraîche and mayonnaise and the juice of a lime or lemon to the Blender jug and blend together. Season and chill before serving.

It is probably best to blend pâtés and dips on a slower speed or pulse. Afterwards you may need to scrape down the contents of the jug with the Spatula.

Sauces
You can use the Blender to process savoury sauces such as mushroom, red pepper and tomato for serving with pasta, fish, burgers, meatballs or steaks.
Cook the sauce first then blend to a purée.

Soft fruits such as raspberries, strawberries or mangoes can be puréed from raw with a little sugar and fruit juice, wine or water, and for hard fruits like apples, plums and cranberries just cook in a little water with sugar until tender before puréeing.

Even smooth sauces or gravies, which have inadvertently become lumpy, can be rescued quickly in the Blender!

Soups
Many vegetable soups like pea, carrot, mushroom, asparagus and artichoke can be puréed in the Blender after the vegetables are cooked to produce a smooth velvety soup. Add the cooked vegetables and stock to the Blender jug and blend until smooth on maximum speed. Seafood bisques can also be blended in a similar way, but chilled vegetable soups like gazpacho are processed raw. If you need to, blitz the soup in two batches.

Using the Blender

1. Always allow hot liquids to cool to room temperature before blending just in case you haven’t fitted the lid securely, and to prevent the liquidiser from cracking.
2. Do not over-fill the Blender jug. It’s often better to blend food in two or three batches.
3. When blending liquids, add the ingredients to the Blender jug and fit the lid and filler cap before attaching it to the Cooking Chef high speed outlet.
4. Make sure the sealing ring is in place around the edge of the blades to prevent any leaks, then place the jug in the blade unit and turn firmly to lock.
5. Always add dry ingredients to the Blender through the filler cap while the machine is running.
6. Process ingredients in the Blender on maximum speed or pulse, unless the recipe suggests otherwise.

Hints and tips

1. Never fit or remove the jug with the blade unit resting on a flat surface as it will interfere with the safety interlock tabs, which need to drop down during assembly.
2. Wet the sealing ring before fitting to the blade unit to ensure a good seal.
3. Never run the Blender for longer than one minute as it may overheat. Switch off as soon as you have processed the food.
4. Empty the jug before unscrewing the blade unit.
5. Avoid processing hard spices, such as cloves, dill seeds and cumin seeds in the acrylic Blender jug as they may damage it.
6. Use the Pulse setting for thick mixtures to get the ingredients moving over the blades.