Silvercrest Nutrition Blender

 I’ve had a lot of trouble with blenders (also known as liquidisers) over the years. I’ve had plastic ones, and at least one with a glass jug. I’ve had blenders that came as part of a food processor, and those that were separate. They’ve all been fine for the first year or so. But then, in my experience, either they become almost impossible to clean so mould starts growing around the base - or they’re easy to clean, but the seals stop working and they leak.

Our most recent one was part of our Kenwood food processor, and I was pleased with it at first; but after a few years, like most of the others, it developed problems with the seal, and started dripping. So I used it less and less. My stick blender was fine for soups and ketchup, but it wasn’t at all great at making nut milks. 

I’d been browsing sites offering appliances online and had been quite impressed with reviews of high speed ‘nutrition’ blenders - recommended for smoothies as well as nut milks - but the price was well out of our range. So, wandering around Lidl in December 2018, I was pleasantly surprised to spot their ‘nutrition’ blender at just under forty euros. It looked much like the ones I’d seen online at up to five times that price. 

I hadn’t been entirely happy about other Silvercrest appliances, but this was guaranteed for two years and we needed a blender. I calculated that if it worked for just a year we’d probably save its cost in making our own dairy-free milks rather than buying them in cartons, so we bought it. 

When I arrived home and checked reviews online - knowing we could return it unused, if it was deemed a bad buy - I was glad to note that in all tests it compared favourably to the far more expensive branded high-speed blenders. Reviewers said its only real disadvantage was its noise level while operating.

Inside the box was the blender unit which felt pleasantly solid - not likely to slide around the worktop. There were three different clear plastic goblets (200ml, 500ml and 700ml) that could be attached, and two different bases, one with two blades, one with four. There were black plastic lids, two of them with holes, presumably for sipping a smoothie. 

INSTRUCTIONS

We’ve had problems before with a lack of instructions in English with Silvercrest appliances. Sure enough, the booklet included Greek, and a few other languages, but not English. However, it was easy to find instructions online and print them out. I needed them as this blender didn’t look much like any blender I’d previously used, and I wanted to make sure we did everything correctly.

USING THE BLENDER

It was winter, not a time of year for smoothies as we only get soft fruit in the summer months. So our first use of the blender was for nut milks.  I was regularly making cashew milk at the time; it only required 50g cashews for well over a litre of nut milk, with no wastage. The instructions recommended using the base with four blades for nuts or ice.  So after washing the non-electrical parts of the blender as instructed, I put soaked, drained cashews into the 500ml goblet, and screwed on the four-blade base. 

So far, so good. 

I turned it upside down to ensure there was no leakage, and put it into the main part of the blender. Then I realised there’s no ‘on’ or ‘off’ switch. It was operated directly from the power socket, so as soon as I had the top part in place, it started up And it was, as the reviewer said, noisy. The cats left the room and I wanted to cover my ears. But at the same time I could see the cashew milk forming much more quickly than normal. About thirty seconds was plenty, so I turned it off at the wall, then carefully unscrewed the goblet part, remembered to turn it the right way up again, removed the base, and decanted the milk into a jug to go in the fridge.

CLEANING

I was very pleased to realise how easy it is to clean the blades, as the blade unit has to be removed from the goblet every time, so it goes straight into a bowl of soapy water, and there hasn’t - yet - been any mould or other problems. It’s not dishwasher safe, but so long as it’s washed fairly quickly after use, it’s quick to do and easy to drain. 

LEAKING MILK

It’s good that the first time worked well. Perhaps the second and third times did, too. But at some point as I was unscrewing the goblet its base became slightly loosened too, and milk started pouring out. I rescued what I could, and cleaned the top of the electrical unit (after unplugging, of course) and was more careful next time. But it felt like a design flaw - that, while putting the goblet part onto the blender screws it in more tightly, removing it can all too easily loosen the base from the goblet and lead to excessive leaking.

I worked out how to solve this, though it’s not anywhere in the instructions:  after I’ve switched the blender off at the wall, I leave it a couple of seconds then turn the entire unit - with goblet still attached - upside down. That makes it easy to remove the goblet part without the contents leaking. I have done this for a couple of years now so don’t even think about it any more, and, while unorthodox, it works. 

SMOOTHIES

When summer arrived, with plentiful and inexpensive soft fruit, I did make some smoothies.  The blender was extremely good at crushing ice and fruit and producing deliciously thick, homogenous smoothies. For one person, it’s ideal. For two people, not so much as the goblets are all different sizes, and we both wanted the 700ml size. And trying to sip from the lids didn’t work at all. So we decanted into ordinary glasses, as we did with previous blenders and haven’t used the lids at all. 

SOUPS?

I’m pretty sure it was heat that had cracked or weakened previous plastic blenders. So, as I’d got into the habit of using my stick blender for soups and ketchup, I kept doing so. They’re easy enough to blend in a saucepan, and don’t have to be completely cool before doing so. This saves washing up, it saves the effort of having to decant in small amounts (since I make a couple of litres of soup at a time, usually), and it means that the blender has really only been used for cold items. 

2023 THOUGHTS

I was slightly surprised to discover, when I checked, that we bought this blender nearly four and a half years ago. It feels more recent. I’ve used it at least twice a week in that period, for nut milks and, more recently, oat milk. It's not so good for thicker things - it's hard to keep scraping down the sides and not always easy to get mixture from the blades, even though they're more accessible than a traditional blender. So I use my food processor for humus, peanut butter, nut cheeses and similar. But even if I only count the dairy-free milks, it’s more than paid for itself, and has lasted longer than any previous blender we’ve owned. 

I don't think I've used the 200ml goblet, and rarely the 700ml one. Neither have I used the two-blade base part, since the four-blade one works for everything. I’m used to the noise now - though the cats still hate it - and when it does eventually stop working, I hope Lidl will still be selling them, or an updated version, as we’ll definitely want to replace it with something similar. 

Highly recommended.

Moulinex 241 Glass Blender

When our previous blender died, nearly three years ago, we knew we wanted another. At the time I used my blender regularly for smoothies in the summer, and soups in the winter. We don’t have a huge selection of kitchen appliances available in Cyprus stores, but there were at least ten different blenders available in varying sizes, designs and prices.

We automatically rejected the most expensive. We also rejected the cheapest, which appeared to be somewhat flimsy. That left us with about three options, and we did rather swither between a sturdy-looking Bosch, and a couple of Moulinex blenders.

BUYING THE BLENDER

The one I liked best from the design point of view was the Moulinex 241, which had a glass jug rather than the usual plastic one, and a black base which I knew would look good in our kitchen. 

It was only 400 watts, not as powerful as the Bosch, and I was a bit concerned that it would be very heavy when full... but it was on special offer at about €50, so (perhaps irrationally) we felt that we were getting better value by choosing it.

Besides, we had used Moulinex blenders before and found them very good. So that's what we bought.

SETTING UP THE BLENDER

The instruction guide, in several languages, is minimal - a page of safety instructions, and a page explaining how to put the thing together, and what to do if it goes wrong. Setup is easy; the whole device was enclosed in moulded polystyrene, including the base with the usual three-pin plug attached to a cable.

The jug part has a removable base, for cleaning, although we didn’t really see the significance of that until later. There’s a black plastic lid which slots easily enough in place, and the jug has to be set in the correct position on the base, twisted slightly to lock into place, before the motor will work. A slight design fault, in my view, is that the lid does not have to be in place - however, we’re experienced enough with blenders that I would not attempt to use it without the lid on!

There’s a measuring guide on the side of the jug, showing that the capacity is 1.25 litres. It’s not something I’ve had to use - I tend to measure ingredients before adding them, if I need to - but was useful to know that it was there, if I needed it, embedded in the glass.

USING THE BLENDER

There are three settings on this blender: a medium and fast speed (1 and 2) and a pulse for finer control. There’s also a button for ice crushing, which we thought would be useful for smoothies. Operation is easy enough - items to be blended are put inside the jug, the lid put in place, and then the motor switched on for as long as necessary. The instruction guide told us that it should not be on for more than about 90 seconds at a time, but with my previous blenders, a minute - or less - had usually been sufficient for almost anything.

PROBLEMS WITH THE BLENDER

Unfortunately, despite its smart looks, this blender is nowhere near as good as my previous ones. 400 watts should be powerful enough, and the metal blades at the bottom look as strong as any other blender I’ve had. But somehow, despite lengthy blending, sometimes three or four minute-and-a-half sessions with breaks, I can never smoothies to be as smooth as I want them. The ice crushing works well; I usually start by using that on a few ice cubes before adding fruit, but I’m not sure that it’s any more effective than simply adding ice to the rest of the mixture and blending together.

Soft fruit such as bananas and grapes are no problem, but if I use peaches or pears, even quite ripe ones, there always seem to be chunks left in the smoothie. We solved the problem creatively by buying extra-wide straws, sometimes using long spoons to eat chunks of fruit; but it’s annoying that the blender seems unable to blend as thoroughly as it ought to. When I first had it, I used it to puree soups in the winter - or tried to. After several very lumpy soups, we decided to get a simple stick blender, which we found much more effective.

CLEANING THE BLENDER

The standard way to clean a blender is to rinse it out quickly as soon as it has been used, then put a dash of washing up liquid in it, with some hot water, replace the lid, and set it to blend for a few seconds. This is a good method of cleaning the sides, and we found that doing this - followed by rinsing in hot water - would leave the blender looking pretty clean. However, the fact that the base of the jug is removable means that, every so often, I could see little pieces of food stuck down the side. No amount of poking or whizzing would get rid of it, so we had to unscrew this part, and clean it separately.

LEAKING FROM THE BLENDER

After about six months of regular use, I realised that I was starting to see drips from the bottom of the jug when I used it. I tried twisting the removable base part, and realised that a small piece of plastic had somehow broken off. So it was no longer possible to lock the removable base fully in place.

Someone suggested that we might need a new rubber seal, so we found a UK site that sold new ones and bought a pack of two, quite inexpensively. Unfortunately, this made no difference at all.

REPAIRS TO THE BLENDER

Since we had a year’s warranty, we took it back to the shop where we had bought it. We got into quite an argument - the guy we spoke to at first tried to insist that the warranty only covered the motor, and that we had broken this plastic piece so it was not covered.

We insisted that it was a design problem, and eventually, after speaking to his superior, we were able to have it sent off for repairs. A couple of weeks later our blender returned with a new base part that fitted so well that I could not, at first, unscrew it at all.

FURTHER PROBLEMS WITH THE BLENDER

Since this base fitted so well, and since I was no longer using the blender for soups, I thought I’d stick with the method of whizzing to clean rather than trying to take it apart. I did this successfully for a year or so, only using the blender for smoothies, and giving it a whizz with clean water before each use if it smelled a bit musty.

Then I started making coconut milk with desiccated coconut in the blender. And I found that bits of coconut got stuck around the sides. I once tried cleaning-by-whizzing about five times and was still seeing little pieces of coconut - so I carefully unscrewed the base. There I found that the rubber seal had gone somewhat grossly black, apparently with the gunge of the past year.

Happily I still had the replacement rubber seals I had previously bought, so replaced the gungy one with a new one. Since then I’ve been careful to take it apart to clean it at least once a week. Which was fine until about a week ago... when I noticed a couple of drips from the bottom of the blender. When I checked, the plastic was still all there but the base was no longer locking as well as it should.

FUTURE OF THE BLENDER

At present, it still works well enough. The drips aren’t extensive, and smoothie season is coming to an end. I will continue to use it for coconut milk as long as I can, although I could probably make that in the food processor. The blender is now well out of warranty, so while I could probably get hold of a replacement base from the UK, for about £20, I’m not sure if it’s worth it. I could buy a new, and possibly more reliable blender for not much more.

CONCLUSIONS

I can no longer find this blender listed on Amazon, or indeed any other UK website. Amazon does have a listing for the DAE242, which appears to be identical, but it’s ‘not currently available’, and no price is given. Perhaps Moulinex had too many complaints and have withdrawn it.

In any case, despite the smart appearance of this particular blender, there are too many problems with it, in my view. I would not recommend it to anyone.

2022 UPDATE

This blender kept going, more-or-less, for another two or three years. I replaced the seals a couple of times more, but the drips were becoming increasingly annoying. And then it started making unpleasant sounds, so was clearly on its way out.

Rather than replacing with another blender, we then bought a Kenwood 'multipro' food processor which came with a blender attachment.

Kenwood 'Wizard' Hand Blender

 The Kenwood Wizard HB615 Pro Hand Blender, which cost around £20 from Amazon, consists of two main parts - the electrical motor end, and a detachable piece with blades at the end.  Each part is about 18cm long, and the whole weighs around 700g.  When I first lifted it up, it was a little heavier than I had expected, but fit comfortably into my hand. I was surprised to find just two rather small and flimsy-looking metal blades at the end and wondered if they would actually work... 

This hand blender comes with a calibrated plastic beaker, and a standard instruction manual that explains how to use it. Not that it’s particularly helpful. It was rather obvious how to fit the two parts together, and am already aware of safety issues, so would not have considered immersing the electrical end in water, or allowing a child to play with it.

Incidentally, photos on Amazon and elsewhere show this blender without a cord, but it has a reasonable length cable with a standard three-pin plug.  

WHY DID I WANT A HAND BLENDER?

I particularly wanted a hand blender for home-made soups, of which I produce large quantities during the winter. A traditional blender can be used, but the process is rather messy - one has to transfer unblended soup from a pan into the blender goblet, ensuring the lid is firmly in place; then, unless one has made a fairly small amount, find a new pan to pour the blended soup into, because there is still lots of unblended soup in the original pan. 

Plenty of potential for spilling, and a great deal of extra washing up. So, inspired by reviews I read and a couple of friends who already owned hand blenders, I decided to try this out. 

FIRST ATTEMPTS WITH THE NEW HAND BLENDER

I put some carrot soup ingredients to simmer. When they were well cooked, I turned the pan off for twenty minutes or so (as with a traditional blender, this gadget isn’t supposed to be used on boiling hot food) and then put my new hand blender together and plugged it in. Watched by my son - himself something of a wizard in the kitchen - I tentatively placed the blade end in the pan. 

Not being very adventurous, I switched it on to the low setting. The soup splashed slightly, but thankfully it was in a big pan. I could see it swirling around, but could not understand how it was going to blend the onions, carrots, and so on into delicious soup. 

The instruction manual told me to use a ‘‘stabbing’ motion. I understood this to mean up and down, as if I were stabbing the base of the saucepan with the gadget...

‘Nooooo!’ yelled my son, as I lifted it up for the first stab, still switched on, and soup went flying all over the pan, the counter top, and my shirt. 

I was ready to abandon this apparently ridiculous gadget, so my son took over. Not just a better cook than I am, he’s a great deal more mechanically aware, and realised that the ‘stabbing’ motion was supposed to be fairly slowly side to side, keeping the base of the gadget on the bottom of the saucepan. This was much more successful, particularly when he turned it up to full power.  

A couple of times the noise changed to a sort of graunching which didn’t sound very pleasant, so my son stopped the motor at once and lifted the blade out, to find a bit of onion stuck to the blades. A quick shake released that, and then it continued to work well. 

It was a minute or so before the entire panful of ingredients had turned into soup, ready to be reheated, but we all agreed that this little stick blender had worked every bit as well as my more traditional blender; possibly even better. The soup was smooth and delicious.  And while there was a great deal more mess to be cleaned up, due to my incompetence, there were certainly less pans to wash.

USE OF THE KENWOOD STICK BLENDER

Since then, I’ve used this little blender many times. Its primary function has been for various kinds of home-made soup, with increasing success as I grew in confidence and developed a better technique.  

I’ve also used it for:

- blending cooked chick-peas and other ingredients for humus

- cooked mixed beans, to make US-style re-fried beans

- mashed potatoes which are much smoother than using a fork or potato masher

- tomato ketchup (home-made) after cooking the first ingredients - no need to sieve

Since the end of the blender is metal, it shouldn’t be used on non-stick surfaces. Current wisdom appears to suggest that non-stick pans aren’t a great idea anyway, and my favourite saucepans are heavy-based stainless steel, so that hasn’t been a problem.  For smaller quantities of food - such as when making humus - the plastic container that came with the blender works well. 

WHEN TO USE A TRADITIONAL BLENDER

In the summer, I make fruit smoothies, and they are a easier in a traditional blender (liquidiser) with its own goblet. I make both almond milk and coconut milk, too, and the stick blender isn’t appropriate for either, while the traditional one works extremely well.  So I haven’t been able to dispense with it entirely. 

CLEANING THE STICK BLENDER

I no longer spew ingredients everywhere when I use my stick blender, so it is unquestionably easier to clean than a traditional blender. When I’ve finished with it, I unscrew the blade end and pop it in some warm water to soak, then give the electrical end a quick wipe with a damp cloth. When I’ve washed the blade end, I make sure I place it upside down to drain, as water can get inside it. 

CONCLUSIONS

After 20 months of regular usage, my Kenwood stick blender is still working well, if looking a little faded. I wonder, now, how I managed so many years without it. I sometimes wonder how long it will last - it still feels flimsy, despite being so effective - but if and when it gives up, I will certainly replace it. I would certainly choose another one with the detachable blade part; a friend of mine has an all-in-one stick blender, and finds it much more difficult to clean. 

Unsurprisingly this exact model is not available on Amazon any more, but there are several replacements starting at around £30, and equivalents by other manufacturers at slightly lower price. 

Definitely recommended if you mostly cook from scratch and make soup regularly.

2022 UPDATE

I am happy to report that my Kenwood stick blender is still functioning well, almost twelve years after I first acquired it. Its main use is for soup (which I make about twice a month during the winter) and ketchup, which I make around once every four or five weeks. The apparent flimsiness was evidently an illusion; the blender has long outlasted my expectations. I hope it will continue to work for years to come, but if not I plan to replace it, if possible, by one of Kenwood's newer models of stick blender.

Online spares in Cyprus

Not only is there a fairly limited range of electrical appliances in Cyprus - although considerably better than used to be the case - but it's often quite difficult to get things repaired or replaced. Even when under guarantee.

We've had particular problems with our blender, which we bought just over a year ago. We had several to choose from, for a change, and made the decision based on what it looked like. And it does look good in the kitchen. But even from new, it dribbled slightly from the bottom, from time to time. By June this year, it was so bad that I couldn't use it. We could see the problem - broken plastic at the bottom. So we took the blender to be repaired. I had the receipt, and we did, eventually, get our replacement at no cost since it was undoubtedly still under guarantee. But not without considerable debate.

About a month ago, it started leaking again. And once started, it got worse and worse until, once more, it was unusable. I discovered a crack in the base of the jug.

We could, of course, have taken it to Orphanides to be repaired once more, but neither of us was keen. We really don't like conflict at all. And perhaps it was my fault, for having used soups that were too hot (not that I'd made soup for many months), or ice too cold.

So, after a couple of weeks of putting it off, I did some research online, wondering if we could find a suitable spare part. I came across Belstar Electrics, who claim to supply spares and accessories for kitchen appliances. I searched for my blender model, and sure enough they were offering the jug base, at about £15. Would they deliver to Cyprus, I wondered? If so, it would be much easier simply to order one than to go to the trouble of taking it to Orphanides, and then arguing over the €20 they would try to charge us.

Belstar did indeed deliver internationally. With postage it came to around £20, but we thought it worth trying.

Alas, they did not have a suitable part for our deceased juice extractor. But they wrote a very nice email, within a few hours of me writing my query. I was most imppressed.

In the mailbox this week our replacement base was awaiting us. It was extremely well-packed; the part was in a double layer of bubble-wrap, and was then also padded in a small box with polystyrene beads. The small box was then packed inside a slightly larger box, held in place with more polystyrene beads. Parcel tape held it firmly closed.

The base fits perfectly. The blender no longer leaks.

While I hope we won't have too many more broken appliances, I shall certainly plan on using Belstar Electrics again if we do.

Inexpensive applesauce (apple purée) in Cyprus

In our favourite Froutaria, mentioned regularly in this blog, there are two kinds of discounted fruit and vegetables. Firstly there is the 'pink bag' aisle, with various produce, a little older than that in the main part of the shop, at a discount. I usually look there before buying anything else.

But there's also a large shelf with pre-bagged fruit or veg, usually about 2kg, for one euro per bag. Occasionally I've bought oranges there, sometimes grapes, once or twice pears or french beans. I never know what to expect: it could be fruit in high season, which is excess to requirements, or it could be older produce which won't last another day. However it usually looks good quality - discarding three or four grapes when they're so cheap is hardly a problem.

Recently, I've thought about using these one-euro bags more effectively. Once the weather gets cooler - I hope this will happen, although the last couple of days have seen 32-34C once more, and high humidity overnight still - I plan to walk to the Froutaria at least three times each week, sometimes four. I also plan to buy one or two of the pre-bagged produce every time, if there's anything at all that looks useable. I may make jam, or chutney, or blanch and freeze vegetables, or try out some new dish.

On Tuesday I spotted that the Froutaria had bags of small apples in the one-euro aisle. I picked one of them up. I couldn't see any bruises or mould; the apples didn't even feel soft. I regularly buy apples anyway, and while we wouldn't use that quantity for eating and juicing, I thought perhaps I could make some apple sauce. One of my favourite easy bar cakes is chocolate chip applesauce cake; I haven't made it for a long time, because jarred applesauce is pretty expensive in Cyprus, and I don't usually have sufficient apples to make my own before baking a cake (which is usually at the last moment anyway).

So I bought a one-euro bag of apples. When I got home, I tipped them into my large fruit bowl immediately, checking as I did for any bad patches.


I didn't find any problems at all. I tried one of the yellow apples, and it wasn't at all soft, but quite refreshing.

Yesterday I weighed the remaining apples. There were about 2.2kg (which is around 5lb, for anyone who thinks in imperial units). I picked out three of the nicest-looking apples for eating, and decided to make the rest into apple sauce. There were sixteen of them; they really were rather small.

My method for doing this is very simple. I had a couple of elderly lemons in the fridge, so I juiced those with my citrus juicer (after warming them for ten seconds in the microwave to ensure maximum juice).

Then I put half the juice at the bottom of the blender. It's a one-litre blender, so I thought I would probably need to make two batches. From past experience I knew there was no point putting all the apples in at once. So I peeled a couple of the yellow apples, cut out the cores, cut them into chunks, dropped them in the blender, and whizzed. They turned into purée satisfyingly quickly. I did a couple of the harder, green apples, and it took a bit longer but still worked well.

I hated to waste the peel, but couldn't eat it all, so for the next apple I simply washed and cored it, leaving the peel on. That, too, blended easily into the purée.

I had to use my spatula to ease some of the apple sauce from the sides of the blender, where it was getting a bit spattered. Despite the lemon juice, it started going a light brown colour:


- but it tasted very good. I continued until I had done the first eight apples, and the blender was showing that I'd made about 800ml. Then I decanted into three small margarine tubs (250ml/1 cup size):


I labelled them and put them straight in the freezer.

Then repeated with the other eight apples, but didn't bother to peel any of them.

Result: nutritious raw apple sauce, to be used in cakes, or on cereal, or for any other reason; about 1.5kg in all, for a cost of about a euro (including the two lemons, and the minimal electricity used by the blender). Orange juice could have been used instead of lemon juice - I've done that before, sometimes; probably even water could be used, since the main purpose of the juice is to give enough liquid to get the blender started. Fresh citrus juice does slightly delay the oxidation/browning.

The entire process, including stopping to take photos, took me about forty minutes. Had I not peeled the first few, it would have been a bit quicker. Had I used larger apples, it would have been quicker still.

Our blender, revisited

Last year, we bought a new blender. An attractive (as blenders go) glass jug, a Moulinex one with an ice crusher. Actually I thought it was last summer that we bought it; it was only in checking my blog that I realised it was as recently as November 2009.

The reason I wanted to know when we bought it is that it started to leak.

Actually, it leaked a tiny bit even when it was fairly new. Just a dribble; enough to be mildly annoying, but not enough to worry about. It worked well, and that's what mattered. I made soups and smoothies, and - more recently - humus and almond milk.

But the leak got worse. I thought perhaps I hadn't screwed the base part into the jug well enough when I removed it for cleaning. Then I noticed that one of the black clips holding it in place had broken. Daniel said that the gasket probably needed replacing, or at least reinforcing. I thought a gasket was a complicated part of a car engine so I was a little surprised to find that it was just a plastic ring.

Since the leaking was getting worse and worse, I thought I'd construct a suitable gasket. It was only when I tried to fit it that I realised another of the black clip things was coming loose. No wonder the base would not stay in place properly, making any liquids leak straight out.

When we realised the blender was only seven months old, we decided to take it back to Orphanides, where we bought it in the electrical department. Thanks to my rough and ready filing techniques (at least I keep everything of this kind) I managed to find the receipt fairly easily. I even found the original box it came in. We showed the saleswoman what the problem was, and she agreed that it was broken. At only seven months old, it was well within the two-year warranty. Richard filled in a pink slip thing, and the woman said she would phone in about ten days. She said it would be mended.

I was a little disappointed as I'd hoped either for a replacement or a refund (enabling us to buy a new one) - but it was only fair to allow them to attempt to mend it first. Not that we thought it could possibly be mended.

So, for a couple of weeks I used the not-so-good blender that works with the food processor.

Two weeks after we'd taken it in, I commented that we hadn't heard anything about the blender. 'Ah!' said Richard, 'I forgot. They phoned a few days ago and said it was ready. About twenty euros...'

Twenty euros? For something under warranty? That seemed a bit excessive. And despite it being a remarkably busy day yesterday (supermarket shop at 9am - NOT at Orphanides but Metro; bring-and-share lunch for 20 at our house to say farewell to some colleagues; other friends invited for an evening meal....) we thought we'd better go and collect the repaired blender at once.

The blender was there. There was a young man in charge this time, who showed us the repair - which in fact was a completely new jug -part. With all three black clips intact. 'Twenty-three euros', he said.

'But it's only seven months old,' Richard protested. 'It should still be under warranty'.

'Ah,' said the young man. 'The warranty covers electrical faults. If you just scratch the jug, that's your fault and not covered.'

'But we didn't scratch it,' Richard told him.

I really don't like protracted discussions of this sort so I wandered off to look at some other things in the shop. Five minutes later, I saw the young man on the phone talking animatedly in Greek. Another five minutes later, and Richard had the blender - and didn't have to pay anything. Evidently it was worth arguing. The young man had told him he couldn't do anything, because it wasn't an electrical problem. So Richard had asked to speak to the managing director. The young man called his supervisor, who apparently said it was fine, and no, we didn't need to pay anything.

It's good to know that consumer rights are upheld in Cyprus, at least sometimes, if one pushes hard enough.

It's also very good to have a fully-functioning blender.

New blender in the house

It's nearly three months since I wrote about our blender problem. Our trusty (and very good) blender had broken; the one attached to the food processor simply isn't as good. And somehow, fruit lumpies aren't as appealing as fruit smoothies.

Still, the rest of August passed us by. Then we went to the UK in September. I suppose we could have brought a blender there, to bring home; they're rather less expensive in the UK. But they're very heavy, and we were about at our limit of luggage.

October somehow passed us by. Suddenly we discovered that it was November. And, without thinking, we arranged for people to come here on Sunday, and I said I would make some soup....

Then it struck me, a few days later. Soup needs a functioning blender that produces purée rather than lumps. But Richard was in Egypt for a few days. So it wasn't until Friday that we were able to go and look for a new blender.

We went to Orphanides. I don't much like it as a supermarket; it's too big, and the displays are too high, and I don't like the lighting. But for electrical goods, it's not bad. And, indeed, they had about eight different blenders on display. One made by Bosch, one by Black and Decker (both of which I thought were power tool makers, not in the market for kitchen gadgets). One by Philips, if i remember rightly, and the rest by Moulinex.

We rejected one that was really a smoothie maker only, and one that had a huge base, and was remarkably ugly. As we were pondering, an assistant came up and asked us if he could help. So we told him what we wanted, and he said he recommended the big ugly one. Not that he said it was big and ugly... he said it was long-lasting, and any customers who bought it were very satisfied.

We said we liked the Moulinex, so he told us which one he recommended. It was the most expensive, by about twenty euros. I had been looking at one which looked rather smarter than the rest, with a black and silver-grey base (which would match some of our other gadgets), and a button for ice crushing. I suspect it was the ice in the smoothies that proved too much for our last blender, so the idea of one with a feature of crushing ice seemed like a good plan. The assistant shook his head somewhat, but in the absence of any other factors we decided to buy that one. I had tried looking online for reviews, but with no idea what would be available at Orphanides, it wasn't very helpful; and we needed the blender as soon as possible.

Then we found that we could use some of our accumulated Orphanides bonus card points, and get a twenty euro discount. Even better.

As we unpacked the blender at home, I did wonder if we'd made a terrible mistake. The manual said that the ice crusher was 400 watts, implying (though not stating) that the basic liquidiser had less power. Some of the blenders were powered at 500 or even 600 watts. Would it be enough to do what we wanted? I also realised it was glass, so that while it certainly looks attractive (for a blender) it's quite heavy:


That evening, I made us some fruit smoothies. And they were smooth. It's getting a bit chilly for ice-cold drinks, but we enjoyed them anyway.

Sunday evening, I liquidised the soup, after making it in the slow cooker and then cooling (the blender has dire warnings not to put in liquids hotter than 80C). That, too, worked very well. And wasn't as heavy as I had feared, even when full.

So, all in all, I'm impressed.

A tale of three blenders

When we first came to Cyprus, we probably had a second-hand blender (or liquidiser. One word was originally British, the other American, but I've entirely forgotten which is which. We use the words interchangeably) from the Thrift Store. I really don't remember. Such details have vanished in the mists of time. Possibly we didn't have one at all.

I do remember, however, that we acquired a nice Moulinex liquidiser (or blender) at some point during 2003, or thereabouts. We didn't pay much for it. Perhaps we didn't pay anything for it. As far as I recall, it was on special offer at Orphanides supermarket, but whether it was free with so many bonus points, or on discount, or simply a special offer is another of those minor details which has vanished from my mind.

It was a good liquidiser. The boys used it to make fruity milk shakes in the summer, and I used it to make breadcrumbs. We thought about making soup, too, and blending that, although in our old rental house we didn't get around to that kind of cooking very often. It was a most uninspiring kitchen.

And while it was a good blender, it slightly worried me that the lid did not lock. I hoped nobody would be stupid enough to have fingers inside when it was working, but it was entirely possible to switch it on full power with the lid not on firmly enough, and have the contents fly everywhere. That didn't happen, thankfully. But it could have.

Then, early in 2004, after much contemplation, we acquired a Moulinex Ovatio duo 3 food processor. From the thrift store, inexpensively, in excellent condition. It came with a liquidizer (or blender) attachment, which sat above the motor. It was as powerful as the blender we already had, but safer because it only worked if the lid was locked in place.

That was a photo taken in the kitchen of our old rental house. The small amount of tile showing in the background might give a clue as to why the kitchen was so very uninspiring to work in. It was also taken on our very first digital camera, which wasn't very good resolution, which is why the photo is rather grainy.

But I digress.

In the interests of saving workspace, we packed away the first blender. It sat in the cupboard for about a year, and then was moved to the office. Someone staying there wanted to use a blender... and was very pleased with it. It moved from the office to the office guest flat a while later, and there it stayed...

..until, in (I think) 2006, the Ovatio 3 food processor breathed its last. The motor became noisier, and less powerful, possibly because we made bread dough in the food processor and it wasn't quite strong enough. Or maybe it was older than we thought when we first bought it. Whatever the reason, the Ovatio duo 3 was no more.

So, not expecting much, we went to the Thrift Store again. And there, to my amazement, was another Moulinex Ovatio duo food processor! It looked almost new (though it evidently wasn't). It was a bit smaller, but it had extra attachments, such as a fruit juicer. And the liquidizer (or blender) had an extra white attachment that sat on the same base as the main processor bowl. It was an Ovatio duo 2 rather than 3... but I didn't think that would matter. The price was good, so we bought it.


Possibly it was a mistake. The bowl was too small for bread dough, and it didn't work so well for pastry. Worst of all, the blender really wasn't powerful enough for anything much. On the rare occasions I made soup, it ended up with too many lumps.

But we didn't make soup very often, and it worked for milky fruit shakes... except that by then Daniel had left home, and Tim soon after discovered that dairy products made him go deaf, so he stopped making milk shakes.

We moved house in the summer of 2006. And the kitchen is so nice, both Tim and I felt inspired to do a lot more cooking. So, in the winter, when we didn't much like our lumpy soups, we had the brilliant idea of rescuing the Moulinex liquidiser from the office guest flat , where it hadn't been used for some months.

And, for the past two and a half years, we've used that blender a fair amount. In the winter, I make soup at least once a week and freeze several portions. In the summer, we make fruit smoothies with peaches or apricots, and soft fruit (frozen). And ice cubes.

Possibly I added too many ice cubes a couple of days ago. Maybe I added them too early. Or maybe the liquidiser had simply come to the end of its natural life. These days, six years old is pretty good for kitchen gadgets, or so it seems. Anyway, it started to make a loud graunching kind of noise, and felt as if it were not quite balanced. When I poured the smoothie into glasses, I noticed a piece of metal (fortunately still whole). And the inside of the liquidiser, after being washed, looked like this:


Note the absence of one of the metal pointy bits. It had broken off completely. It's clearly not mendable. I did wonder if it might work anyway - if the loud noise was due to the broken bit in the machine - but when I made yesterday's smoothies, there was still a horrible noise, and despite leaving it on for longer than usual, they weren't very smooth. They were more like lumpies. Still tasty, but not what we've come to expect.

We did think about going to Orphanides last night to see if they had any more special offers on blenders. But couldn't remember what time it closed. And I knew I wanted to go to Metro today anyway, to do a bit of regular shopping. Some very important items, such as Weetabix and almond milk, since Tim will be arriving back in Cyprus for a few weeks on Sunday evening.

Unfortunately the only blender in Metro was a 'super-power' one, at 80 euros. Ouch! We're not going to pay that much for a liquidiser. And then I remembered the other part of the food processor. Did I even have all the parts?

The food processor part was on the work surface - I do use that occasionally. The container part of the liquidiser was in a cupboard. And the white part which it perches on was in another cupboard... and it all went together to make a working blender:



I even had the lid, although it's not shown in the picture.

So I made our smoothies. It worked without making much noise.. but the result wasn't much different from yesterday's attempt. Roughies rather than smoothies. Too many bits. It will do for a few days, but we have to get to Orphanides early next week to try to find something better. Or one of the electrical shops. Or possibly even the Thirft shop.

We can't go tomorrow, however, since tomorrow is a one of the big religious public holidays in Cyprus. I'm glad I remembered that, as we were thinking of doing our shopping at Metro tomorrow rather than today... but thankfully remembered in time.