DIYbanter - OT-Please recommend stick blender

On Tue, 06 Aug 2013 16:30:54 -0500, F. George McDuffee
wrote:

On Mon, 05 Aug 2013 10:10:18 -0700, wrote:

I'm the cook in my house. I have a couple stick blenders, a Bosch and
some other brand I can't remember. Trying to make cream of asparagus
soup with either of these blenders is a waste of time. I still have to
strain out a bunch of fibers from the asparagus. There must be good
stick blenders available. Both of mine have fairlysoft stainless
blades that won't hold an edge. Sharpening them is chore. I'm sure
they are not made to be sharpened anyway. So, anybody here know of a
good stick blender?
Thanks,
Eric
================

Quick solution is to strain the soup. One thing that may
help is to peel the root end of the asparagus with an
ordinary vegetable peeler to remove the outer
[tough/stringy] coat. Same thing for celery and broccoli.
Also don't have too much liquid in the container when
attempting to blend. Pour off most of the liquid,
blend/puree and then add some of the liquid back. Your
container size and shape will also have an effect on how
effective your blender is. You could try transferring the
vegies to a relatively tall/narrow container to blend and
then add back to soup pot. This will force the vegies
through the blender as you pump the immersion blender up and
down and not allow them to flow around the blade/bell.

for technique see [part 4, 1-3 also very good]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQAZb...37E7A7B01FBD81
http://www.amazon.com/Bamix-Immersio...lender+beakers

http://www.cuisinartwebstore.com/detail/CUI+CSB-77MC
http://www.everythingkitchens.com/ba...FSIV7AodRBwAMw

also see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjxN6KqAdbo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOIvNHH-gOk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORaqhd6ZlLw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elHysu61UqI

Recipes you may find helpful
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jennif...b_3140995.html

Thanks George, Michael and Carl for your responses. I have decided to
get a blender nobody mentioned though. I was considering at first the
one that Cooks Magazine likes but if the Cuisinart CSB-75 performs
like the reviews then the fact that it is so easy to clean makes it
the one to buy. Performance is most important and the easy cleaning is
only a plus. I will not trade poor performance for easy cleaning. I
know the plastic gear breaking is a risk with the Cuisinart but if the
thing works great then maybe I can make a new piece from either better
plastic or metal if it breaks. Thank to George for the links too.
Right now I do strain the soup. This is a pain. But the payoff is
silky smooth soup that gets rave reviews. When I make cream of
asparagus soup I add pistachios to it before I blend it up. It makes
the soup even better. I can post the recipe if anyone is interested.
Eric