(I mean to say by this that I normally work on a full stomach - I know that digestion hinders cognition but I like feeling reassured stomach-wise, call it an animal instinct ... so for me confident half-cognition is more important that insecure full-cognition.)
It's because I am a rebel when it comes to cooking. When someone tells me "you have to respect the cooking time" or "you have to put salt in the water" or whatever, I always feel like doing the opposite. When I have a curry dinner with friends in Paris, and two of us are doing the cooking, the other person follows a strict recipe and comes out with a perfect dish, while I just mix all sorts of spices in random fashion and always end up with a stew.
But my chick peas this morning, and my stews in general, taste good. It's just that they never end up being the dish that I announce beforehand.
Am about to put up a diary re the meet.
But it tasted alright, it just wasn't hummous. Anyhow I knew this would fail, as I don't have a robot mixer (but I started looking at online prices for one as soon as I started eating my peas)
I have a big KitchenAid free-standing liquidiser that I seldom use for things like hummus - if you're working with small quantities the handheld is better - you don't waste so much on the sides and nooks and crannies of the mixer.
Now, for crushing ice or making smoothies - or to pick a random example, for making iced coffee - the free-standing one is the only way to go.
