While making a new recipe today (Carne Adovada — a New Mexican Pork Chili), I was again reminded of how much I love Immersion Blenders.

Now, those of you who know me know that I hate having one-hit-wonders in the kitchen. Only a very very few electric appliances get into my kitchen, and the Immersion (or “stick”) Blender is one of them. I’m also very very demanding of my tools, meaning I don’t tolerate cheap shit, and the stuff I buy is in it for the long haul.

Back to the Carne Adovada: This is chunks of browned pork shoulder put into a chili-based sauce. You make the sauce with onions, spices, broth, chipotle, garlic, etc. Here’s the part of the recipe that pissed me off:

Working in 2 batches, transfer mixture to blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Return sauce to pot.

So, here you are: You have a cast iron dutch oven with 3 cups of boiling liquid and veggies and spices. They want you to pour half of that into a fucking blender, and then retun it to the pot. But you have to do two batches (too much liquid for the blender), so you have to get another bowl, too.

I get pissed by that because tasks like pouring boiling liquids into a tippy blender is exactly the thing that will stop a home cook from making something. Heck, it stops me, and I’ve followed that technique many times in the past. But no more.

Enter the Immersion Blender. Fuck the regular blender (can you tell I don’t like blenders?). Fuck scalding yourself and dirtying even more equipment. Pull out your Immersion Blender, stick it in the hot pot on the stove, and blend until smooth. Simplicity itself, and so much safer. It took me all of two minutes to do what would have been a dangerous 10 minute ordeal. I do the same thing for my Coquito (Puerto Rican Egg Nog) recipe — it’s SO much easier and less messy.

I’ve had a couple of these gadgets in the past. I think a Braun and maybe a Cuisinart (love their food processors, not quite so sure about their other stuff). One never worked properly and the other died after one fall on the kitchen floor. Unacceptable. So, I went back to a brand that does a pretty darn good job of making things: KitchenAid.

My current (red in color, on clearance) KitchenAid Immersion Blender is, by far, the best one I’ve owned. It’s rock solid, has 9 speeds, detachable tip, and so on. It’s just built right, and has never, ever, bogged down. (There are battery powered devices out there, but I prefer dealing with the cord and having the power.) Like my 20 year old Pro Line Mixer, this one will be around for a while (and yes, it’s been dropped).

It makes purees easy. Stick the damn thing in the pot, turn it on, move it around, unclip the blade end, rinse to clean, and you are done. Except for making margaritas, which I don’t drink, this kind of device can handle just about everything that a regular blender would. If you cook seriously, you need one right next to your stand mixer and your food processor.