I have never thought of myself as a smoothie person. I don't like smoothies and I don't make my own nut butter. If the pandemic is over, my local bar will be open for me when I need a frozen margarita.
Sometimes though, I wonder if my life is being missed. I love a well-built machine. I still recall seeing a Vitamix blender in a restaurant kitchen that I used to cook in. You will often find the label on an appliance that lists certifications, volts and hertz as well as amps. This machine's label had horsepower. This minimalist tank-like device, which was very sleek and simple, hurled a subtle gauntlet at you. It ate through all your stuff. It was amazing.
I wanted to be a blender, but I didn't want to have to use chia seeds and kale.
This urge struck me just as I was finishing the period known as The Time We Use to Travel. It was also fresh from my return from Oaxaca, the land of mole. A copy of Oaxaca: Cooking from the Heart of Mexico by Bricia Lopez & Javier Cabral had just arrived to me. It is a wonderful companion to Lopez' family-run Guelaguetza restaurant in Los Angeles.
When I returned to Seattle, I was flipping through the book and came across the mole negro recipe. I clicked on it when I saw the words "ina blender". I added three types of fried and soaked chilies to the blender along with sesame seeds and herbs, spices, almonds and plantains. Many of these had been browning in my skillet.
This, I thought, was my kinda smoothie.
On a hunch I requested a PDF copy of the book from its publisher. I typed blender into the search box, and the hits started to appear in the thumbnails column. It was like winning at slots. At that point I called Vitamix 5200 to order the $450 preferred model for blender enthusiasts around the globe.
Spin Cycle
A blender is a special player in many aspects of cooking. You can make great use of an immersion blender and a food processor if you have them. It's the main attraction in the Oaxaca book.
I went to Abarrotes El Oaxaqueno to get supplies. Once there, I got started with a pasta de frijol Negro, which is a black bean paste made with garlic, onion and chile. This is a base layer for many Oaxaca signature dishes. It was not difficult for a high-end blender but it would be a good match for the dishes I would make over the next few days.
If you flip a switch, exactly what you want will happen.
I then moved on to Oaxacan Oaxacan Adobo Paste. This paste is, as the authors put it in their cookbook, a simple way to slather over any meat and then cook it. I made chileajotiny pieces of vegetables in a paste with guajillo chililes. This paste can be used as a spread on bread, or as a topping for a tostada. Both recipes use the Oaxacan cornerstone technique (potentially) of toasting and then soaking the chiles before blending.
I was amazed at how simple this blender is to use. You tell it what you want and it does it. Bean paste? Yes. You can freeze clumps of fruit that have fallen to the bottom of your freezer. Yes! It doesn't whine or overheat, and there is no whining. It's actually quite quiet. It's as simple as flipping a switch. You can have exactly what you want, provided it has to dowith blending.
Speaking of flipping the switches, god bless the Vitamixs two-stubby-switches-and-one-dial control panel, which immediately reminded me of the comment a friend made more than 20 years ago when he got into my old Saab 900 and looked at the dashboard.
