Friday, March 30, 2012

Comfort Soup



I'm at home nursing a cold today, so I decided to make a thermomix soup for lunch. I roughly trimmed and chopped a leek, added 2 cloves of garlic, 30g diced pancetta and 1 tsp olive oil and cooked at speed 2, varoma temp for 5 minutes. I then added 1 large, unpeeled diced potato, a generous grind of pepper and 250g of chicken stock and cooked for 25 minutes at 100 degrees speed 1- with the measuring cup lid on so I didn't lose too much liquid. Once finished I blitzed for 30 seconds at speed 9, weighed in 100g chicken stock and blitzed again for 30 seconds speed 9 to make a thick tasty soup. This makes enough for 2 bowls. All that garlic and flovour is sure to make my cold vanish!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Pumpkin Scones

I'm helping out with some baking for a school fundraiser so I converted this recipe for the Thermomix. Thanks to Johanna K for this recipe- they are delicious, and even our veggie hater Jack ate four in a row- knowing they had pumpkin as an ingredient! Mix 45g butter and 125 raw sugar at speed 5 for 30 seconds. Scrape the sides add the butterfly and blend at speed 4 for 15 seconds. Next put in a whole egg and blend again at speed 4 for 20 seconds. Scrape again and give it another 10 seconds at speed 4. Remove the butterfly, add 1 cup of cold steamed pumpkin and 2 cups self raising flour. I used the varoma the day before to steam the pumpkin and kept it ready in the fridge. Blend using turbo button in brief bursts until all ingredients are combined, but don't be tempted to overmix. Place dessertspoon dollops on a tray and bake in a hot oven 200-230 degrees for 15 minutes. Serve warm with lashings of butter!

These look suspiciously similar to the cheese puffs I posted a few days ago rather than a traditional scone shape but I checked with Jo and she assured me that's how they should look. I think this might also be a nice way to use up left over roast pumpkin once we are into the winter roast season.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Lime Passion!

Lime and Passionfruit curd- I was inspired by some cheap passionfruit at the fruit and veg shop and some limes coming close to expiring in the fruit drawer of my fridge. I do love the way the Thermomix gets me using all the bits and pieces left over rather than wasting things, though the butter content of this should really have put me off. Worth it for the taste! Blitz 160g raw sugar for 15 secs at speed 8. Add 6 whole eggs and 3 eggs yolks then mix for 5 seconds at speed 5 to combine. Scrape the side, insert the butterfly then add 230g passionfruit pulp (around 7 fruit), 150 g of cold unsalted butter chopped quite small and the juice of 2 limes. Cook for 10 minutes at 90 degrees, speed 3. I store in sterilised jars in the fridge and expect it will last a week or two. It would be yummy with scones, dolloped onto icecream, filling for a sponge or whipped with a little cream cheese for icing.


Pikelets


An old basic but I wanted to convert to weight measurements instead of cups for the Thermomix. The kids love them with slabs of butter and golden syrup! Into the bowl add 150g self raising flour, 10g caster sugar, 1 egg and 180g of milk. Mix for 15 secs on speed 4, scrape the sides then give it another 15 seconds on speed 5. Cook in a heavy based fry pan with a little squirt of spray oil, flip when bottom starts to colour but the top is still wet so they'll puff. These also freeze well for lunchboxes.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Cheese Puffs

I've adapted a family favorite for the Thermomix (thanks Mum!), these are delicious for morning or afternoon tea, freeze well and only take 10 minutes including preparation and cooking time. I've also hidden many grated veggies in this recipe over the years. First preheat your oven to 250 degrees with your baking tray in it. Blitz 200g of tasty cheddar cheese for 6 seconds at speed 8. Add 2 cups of plain flour, 4 teaspoons of baking powder and a pinch each of salt and cayenne pepper and blitz again for 3 seconds at speed 6 to combine. Next add 2 thermo measuring cup lids of milk and 2 whole eggs and mix at speed 6 for 10 seconds. It will be a stiff sticky dough. If it still looks floury give it another mix 2 seconds at a time but don't over mix or they will be tough. Dollop dessert spoons full onto your hot baking tray and then bake at 250 degrees for 5- 7 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Serve warm with butter.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Easy Apple slice

I had some stewed apples to use, so here's a quick slice recipe I made up. The tast testers all gave it 10 out of 10. Melt 130g butter at 100g speed 2 for 3 minutes. The rest is easy! Add one cup each of the following.... Almond meal, rolled oats, s/r flour, brown sugar and stewed apple. Finally 1 tsp each of cinnamon and baking powder. Mix 5 seconds at speed 5 to combine, scrape sides then 10 seconds at speed 8 to mix. I spread this in a lamington tin lined with baking paper and baked at 175 degrees for 15 minutes until springy to touch and cooked through when tested with a skewer. Cool in tray for at least 10 mins then invert onto a rack. Slice into squares. This should freeze well and would be yummy for afternoon tea but a bit fragile for a lunchbox I think. Thermomix gurus would of course stew the apples up and grind almond meal with the thermo too :) I think it might also work as a cake and would also be yummy with cream cheese icing and walnuts on the top!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Must try Parfait

Thanks to Russell Blaikie and the Must Winebar team for inspiring me to try this recipe and adapt to the Thermomix. All who tried it agreed it was delicious and now I'll never be able to buy pâté from the shops again. I was missing a few ingredients and improvised here and there so don't be afraid to vary a bit! First preheat oven to 140 degrees c and prepare a deep-ish baking tray to hold 5 or 6 ramekins 3/4 cup capacity. Then trim and rinse chicken livers and leave to drain in a colander. You'll need to end up with around 550g of liver to use. Start with 25 g peeled brown shallots, 1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves, 3 sage leaves and 1 clove of garlic and mix for 3 secs at speed 5 to finely dice. Add 200g of sherry (I only had Pedro Ximinez in the pantry how decadent!) and cook for 20 mins varoma speed 2. Check at about 15 min mark to make sure it's not completely dry and add a tbs water in need but it will cook down to a thick glaze. Scrape sides and add drained chicken livers and 2 whole eggs and blitz for 30 seconds at speed 10. Strain through a fine sieve and set aside. Melt 500g unsalted butter at 90 degrees speed 2 for 5 minutes. Add 10 g of ground sea salt and a few good grinds of pepper and then set to speed four and gradually pour the liver mix through the lid taking around 30 seconds. Replace the measuring cup and up the speed to 8 and blend for 2 minutes. The mix will now look paler and slightly thickened. Pour into ramekins and arrange in the baking tray before pouring in enough boiling water to come 2/3 way up the sides. Completely seal the tray with a couple of layers of cling wrap then top with a cople of layers of tin foil. Place in oven, immediately reduce heat to 110 degrees and bake for 20 minutes. They'll feel slightly spongy to touch and look a bit puffy when cooked but still quite a pink colour inside. Drain water from tray, reseal and refrigerate overnight. I topped them with melted clarified butter/ghee with a sprig of thyme for decoration. For variation I'm going to try with champagne instead of sherry, and also a peppercorn version adding the canned peppercorns in with the shallots to see what happens. I might also go a bit Maggie Beer and have a play with adding some different spices like star anise.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Plum Cake

Just a quickie.... I gave Dani Valen's basic cake recipe from 'In the Mix' a run today topped with ripe plums and a little raw sugar to caramelise. I also used s/r flour and only 1 tsp baking powder, as my friend Danielle did the same with a delicious raspberry version yesterday. I didn't add the coconut and was heavy on the orange blossom water at 15g but it paid off with a lovely citrus tone that complimented the tart plums. It was a hit with grown ups and kids alike, and a fine texture. Sweet dreams tonight for sure

Friday, March 2, 2012

No Thermomix Chicken Pie

I didn't use the Thermomix at all for this recipe but I wanted to share it as I enjoyed it so much! First I took a heavy ovenproof dish with a lid, that was suitable to also use on the stove top later. If you don't have one a baking tray you could seal with foil should work. I took a whole chicken (around 1.8kg) and put it right in the middle then surrounded with 2 peeled and roughly chopped carrots, 2 stalks of celery including leaves, 1 brown onion peeled and quartered, a whole bulb of garlic skin and all, 2 small fennel trimmed of leaves and quartered and a dozen whole button mushrooms. Baz doesn't like celery so I left it whole to remove it later but you could chop it if you want to leave it in. Next pour over a glass of white wine, a good grind of salt and pepper and 1 tsp sweet paprika- straight onto the chook. Finally pour over 2 tbs olive oil, and add fresh herbs in this case sage, thyme and rosemary still on stalks. Cover tightly with the lid or foil to seal and bake at 180 degrees for 90 minutes. I then left the oven turned off off with the dish still inside and went out for 3 hours. When I got home I took the chicken and garlic bulb out. I picked all the meat from the bones and added back to the juice and veges, then sliced the end off the garlic and squeezed the gooey insides into the veges too. I simmered for 5 mins then added 1/4 cup thin cream and 1 tsp of cornflour blended with enough water to make it runny and simmered again altogether for around 5 mins until it was thick and saucy. If you need to thicken more added more cornflour/water. I let it cool for 15 minutes, topped it with two layers of ready rolled puff pastry brushed with an egg wash (1 egg whisked with 1 tsp water) and baked at 200 c for 10 mins then reduced to 170 for a further 15 minutes until it was puffed, crispy and golden. While this did take a long cooking time, the actual hands on minutes were few and only one dish to wash at the end. The house smelt deliciously of roasted goodies too.....