Pasta e fagioli à la neko style

Of course I made changes to the EDC recipe. I changed only portions of content and so of course it can't be called a pasta e fagioli any more.

Ingredient differences, I:

• used Cannellini beans and Butter beans instead.
• used a can of Roma tomatoes instead of 2 fresh tomatoes.
• 2 small brown onions,
• 2 cloves of garlic.
• lessened the chilli to 1/2 - we're not a spice-centric Asian family.
• added 1/2 smoked chicken breast and 1 cooked chicken breast.
• chopped some fresh parsley.
• used risoni instead of ditali pasta, and
• added baby spinach in the TM server.

Method:

I did poach the smoked chicken a little bit, the smokey flavour is quite strong and you should add it in last with about 3-4 minutes to spare on the final cooking time. This just mixes it through and allow the subtle smoke flavours to mix in but not permeate all the risoni.

I also added 1 minute to the onion cooking time. And at least 2-3 mins to each batch of cooking time due to the increase in ingredients. The risoni remained al dente upon serving into the TM server.

The smokey flavor completely changed what sometimes can be a plain dish. Other alternatives to add flavour included placing more parsley in the initial stages and red onion. I'm not a huge fan of parsley so I usually like to refrain from using it too much. Other than the chicken this could be made into a vegan dish :)

Recipe success: 5 out of 5 stars. My father ate it! Ok, he eats most things I cook but he's "picky". He liked this, so I'd say the variations worked out fine!
Taste: 4 out of 5 stars. Personally, I don't like smoked chicken that much. It's mom's favourite.

Baking night: Five seed bread (EDC)

We always buy the Helga's Five Seed Bread so I decided to try my hand at this recipe. Making the dough was easy enough, watching it rise and fall has been heart breaking. Still not ready but the seeds on top looks a bit burnt ;(

Learnt my lesson with the Hot Cross Buns. I pre-heated the oven, and left the dough in these baking dishes next to the oven to prove. It did double in size. Photo on the right was after 15 mins.

Lowered the temperature. We'll have to wait and see how this turns out.

Update: 9:15, ok have taken it out. Looks good... How am I going to get it out. Just realized I forgot to grease the trays.

Update: After midnight, it was cooled enough to slip a butter knife in to 'pry the edges' and then "turn it upside down to get it out. Of course I lost a bit of "seeds" from the top surface.

Hmm I wonder where the photo of the slided bread is...

Receipe success: 4.5 out of 5 stars (only because I forgot to flour the dish, the slightly burnt seeds actualy didn't mean it was burnt at all!)

Taste: 5 out of 5 stars. I'm so making this on a regular basis.

There is egg in this so for strict vegetarians/vegans - you would have to substitute with Ogran egg substitute or something similar.

Baking night: Hot Cross Buns (EDC)

Is it a hit or a miss? Waiting for it to cool down so I can try some!

The dough didn't rise as much as it should've as the evening was quite cool. I rolled it out and made a dozen none the less.  

It really didn't bake long enough, so next time when the recipe says 200C, I will endeavour to obey!

I put it back in the oven for another 10 mins and then had to toast it with butter spread to taste. I think making my own powdered cinnamon and cloves in small batches doesn't work as well. I mean I was using much less quantities so it made it hard for the blades to mill everything. If I used more - storage could become an issue.

I'm really not a huge fan of cinnamon. The flavours were right and the sugar content was fine with the sultanas and cranberries. The 'cross' recipe made too much, also I need to work on my "cross piping" technique.

Receip success: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Taste: 4 out of 5 stars (I'm biased and I re-toast them to eat)

Potato & Leek Frittata

Due to my love of Potato and Leek soup, and the objections of my family to having soup (what they perceived to be ALL the time). I searched for something different. Ta-da... Potato & Leek Frittata - what a wonderful idea! And yes there's a TM receipe for it on the community or Google it. I can't keep to recipes so here's what I did instead. I used the Varoma to steam the potatoes.

Ingredients:
4 medium Nadine potatoes (peeled, sliced into 5mm thick pieces)
1 leek (white only)
50g olive oil
1/2 brown onion
1/2 cup of bacon (roughly chopped, approximately 2 rashers)
6 button mushrooms (sliced)
8 eggs
Parmesan & Cheddar cheese mix (80g of each, pre-grated in TM)
100g of cream * can use milk but use less so the frittata would set.
Pepper & Salt to taste
Water for steaming

Method:  1. Fill 1 Ltr of water in TM, add sliced potatoes to Varoma (tray & receptacle). (15mins, Varoma, Sp1).
 2. Remove Varoma, leave potatoes to cool. Rinse out starchy water.
 3. Pre-heat oven to 180C.
 4. Add onion, leek, oil to TM bowl (Sp6 to chop).
 5. Add bacon to TM (4mins, 100C, Rev Sp1). Listen for the sizzle. Remove from TM.
 6. Add eggs and cream to TM (Sp4 to mix). You can combine Step 4 & 5 but I wanted to carefully layer my frittata, if you combine the steps, keep blades on Reverse.
 7. Layer potato, then leek & bacon mix, fresh mushrooms - repeat if your baking dish has space.
 8. Pour on egg, cheese and cream mixture.
 9. Place in oven, 25-35 mins until frittata is set. I say 35 – in case you use milk instead of cream and also additional time to cook the potatoes.

Serves 6, with salad or another appropriate side. Photos forthcoming.

Pumpkin & Parsnip Soup (Asian Style)

Soup is one of the easiest things to make in the TM. I mean, what could go wrong? Too much soup for too little people.

I had 1 parsnip and 1/2 a medium butternut pumpkin in the fridge, so I thought to myself on Thursday night, I could just change the EDC Pumpkin Soup recipe, a little.

Ingredients:
1 medium parsnip (peeled, chopped into 4 large pieces)
1/2 medium butternut pumpkin (peeled, chopped into large pieces)
1/2 Spanish red onion
1/2 red chilli
1cm piece of ginger (more if you prefer the taste - it's really hard to get me to eat heavy ginger flavoured dishes)
60g olive oil
1 tbspn of TM Vegetable Paste
Water (enough to fill up, up to under max mark, you can use less - depending on thickness)
2 MC of cream
Some coriander leaves (leave a few sprigs aside for presentation, should you be plating properly)

Method:
 1. TM minced and then fried: onion, red chilli, ginger (Sp 6, then fry - 3 mins, 100 C, Sp 1 to fry).
 2. Scrape down sides with spatula. Add parsnip & butternut pumpkin. The two vegetables added to about 600g. I peeled them because the butternut had been sitting in the fridge for a while, if you buy fresh leaving the peel on is fine after a good wash. (Sp 6)
 3. Add water and TM Vegetable Paste.
 4. Follow the EDC recipe for cooking time + additional 20% for the volume.
 5. Add coriander - to taste.
 6. Add 2 MC of full cream.
 7. Whiz/puree (up to Sp 9, 30sec to 1min, depending on the consistency you would like).

I added cream but if you like to make a vegan version just don't use cream. Sadly, I did this and forgot and brough a cup for Vegan Boy. LOL he didn't drink it of course, but it didn't go to waste - someone else at his work drank it.

It was quite spicy, the ginger and chilli combination really hit the throat and opens up your sinuses. I was so glad I didn't use the birdseye chillies I bought and only put 1/2 a chilli in. I also recommend to either up the speed on Step 2 to chop finer before cooking OR add additional puree time. The TM can actually create quite a smooth soup without the cream. I just love creamy soups. Coming to winter, I can see myself soup-ing a lot more.

Customer Challenge: Char Siu Pork (Part 1)

I have a potential customer who says if the TM can make Char Siu Pork like Hong Kong BBQ and do a good stir-fried rice in the TM (comparable to his Jamie Oliver wok-fried rice), then he'd [consider?] buying a TM. I wouldn't like to force the issue if I could accomplish said feat...but the plan is to try this recipe next month.

Thank the blessed gods & goddesses for Tenina. So now... on to practicing!

Practical Training & 1/2 day off

I had checked my list and checked it twice, ensured I had everything before I left 45 minutes early for my session. Just before I head out the door, mom grumbles the helpful advice of "did you remember the crackers". Oh gods, I never bought them!!! What do I do now?

Luckily - being new to the TM family folds, my parents stock a ready supply of Turkish Bread! 1 medium loaf sliced and grilled with a drizzle of olive oil - done in less than 10mins, cooled for 4mins & packed ready to go. YAY!

The session went by so fast, 8 recipes in less than 4 hours! It was the first time I tried pasta fagioli, lovely and very solid main! I might try making it with some vegetables on the side.

So I did Sorbet and Custard. For a person who really don't eat a lot of sweet stuff, I'm seriously making a lot. I generally bake goodies, but don't eat much myself.

I'll upload pictures later, but I'm sure most people would have tried the sorbet already. It is true that "bought ice" just doesn't cut it. You need more ice for the same sorbet somehow. *sigh* but sadly my ice maker at home is not working. Will have to keep that in mind when I take the TM on the roadtrip end of this month.

Food vs Study...

Ok, procrastination hat on - Soup Sunday! And to be precise, mushroom soup. TM recipe aside, I added extra mushrooms (only 100 g more), extra cream and refrained from adding parsley. There's almost parsley in every recipe! Hmm I think I shall call it - Soup Sunday! Yes corny I know, but I bow before many a greater rhymers before me or alliteration advocates - e.g. Meat Free Mondays! (which by the way I do not observe).

Oh and I made hearty pasta with zucchinis and a chilli tomato sauce for dinner. It's not a recipe in the book and I only did it becuase I had spare zucchini and I bought chillies intending to make Red Curry Paste from the EDC and forgot shrimp paste (yes, my Asian household doesn't have shrimp paste). So I couldn't do the Curry Paste but I could make pasta - again!

Method:
1. Chop 1/2 a medium onion & 1 small red chillie (suggestion, if you don't want too spicy avoid the bird's eye sized red chillies - ahhh the voice of reason/experience) - speed 6, 2-5 seconds
2. Add 50g of oil & saute the usual way (2 mins, 100 C, Sp 1)
3. Add large cubed zucchini, don't worry this will cook down and soften but give texture. Add TM vegetable paste 2 tbspns & 700g of water.
4. Cook for 7 mins, 100 C, Sp 1 Reverse. Reverse because you want the zuchinni cubes to remain intact as much as possible to add colour and a taste explosion when you bite into it.
5. Add pasta, 300 - 400g, zucchini gives out a lot of water and could mean that you will need to add more pasta than you originall thought.
6. Cook for 10 mins, 100 C, Sp 1 Reverse. Add Salt & Pepper to taste.

To serve: Place some baby rocket in the bottom of the TMServer. Pour in pasta - if very saucey, don't panic, the pasta will soak up more of the sauce and you can also add parmesan or chopped cheddar to it if you like.

I served it with Catalano's grilled crumbed sardines and green salad (optional).

Photos are on my i-Phone which I'll upload soon.

Later at night I did try to practice the recipes. Hummus & Sorbet... I didn't remake custard, it never gets finished in the house and I hate wasting food. I invited a girl friend over to eat the sorbet and try the hummus. It was too garlicky and a bit too gluggy - shall add more oil in future. Also found out the inherint 'goodness' in tahini. I shall not be making many hummus dips for home eating in future. LOL as if the cream cheese one is much better for my wasitline. Delicious on my lips, deadly (if I keep eating in this quantity) on my hips.

Oh and it took me until today to realize the blog time was set to PDT instead of WST (Aust). WOW... where have I been? No wonder I felt like the weekend just ran away like a Herbie race.

Saturday splendor... I woke up feeling soooo low

I was incredibly traumatised by a very bad night of very little sleep and general unwellness (if that's word). Amazingly I woke feeling worse, I now have lost my voice. So what could I do but make half boiled eggs (soft enough to swallow) for breakfast, sadly I didn't have enough dedication to do this with the TM. I shall endeavour to be more patient and aware without my first cup of espresso.

I bake when stressed... So I started baking. I made the Caprese cake into muffins...

...

The pause is a moment of silence for the poor muffins. I didn't follow the recipe, I had 50g too little of the dark chocolate (why did I think they used to come in 300g blocks?). I added extra cocoa powder, just because I like the heavy cocoa-y taste. Everything else was the same. The muffins were delicious. The moment of silence is for the unshaping that occurred which teaches me one great lesson. ALWAYS clear enough bench space and get two sets of cooling racks! The muffins had huge tops!

I had Vegan Boy coming over for a relaxing movie arvo... and I rushed to get the HOT muffins out of the tray and obviously on hindsight, they unbalanced. Fortunately, rescue-able and edible by family but not presentable for outside company. I only managed to save four un-scathed ones for display/photo.

I will definitely try again soon. They're lovely! And can you tell I'm stressed? It's all the information, learning about TM and also having to talk about it... to virtual strangers. Exciting on one hand but daunting - what if they don't like pasta? what if they don't like custard? (wait, can you tell those were my pet dis-likes?). Ok, I actually love pasta bakes - but for health reasons we've refrained from putting at least 300g of cheese or more on pasta just to make it crispy edged and ecstatically edible. I'm just nervous about it all. Excited, but nervous. Plus I've got the practical training coming up... I've only made slushies - not actual sorbet before.

I also made Mushroom Risotto again for tea/dinner - this is something easily Vegan-ified. Leave out butter & parmesan and you're all good. There's no problems with it being gluggy or too wet cause the TMServer helps rest without burning/sticking.

I added a little extra spice (keep minds clean here people). I added a red chilli at the start when chopping onion and sautee-ing. Then toasted pine nuts on the frying pan and added them to my TMServer filled with a layer of baby spinach. Poured risotto in and used the spatula to mix it up. You get a bit of spice, a bit of pine nutty goodness and the added clean taste of spinach. Yummo!

Oh and added to that to top off, I had frozen 4 bananas and wanted to try the Vegan Banana Ice-cream from the Vegetarian Cookbook. I didn't have macademia nuts, so I used pecan & added a swirl of maple syrup instead of chocolate. It was smooth and the nutty flavour came through.

- Sunday, 9:39 pm -
I have to own up, I tried the ice-cream again today proudly with a good friend. It was more frozen, and she mentioned the nut oil flavour have gotten a lot stronger and maybe was off. I'm not sure if it's because I have the peel on the pecan or I didn't re-toast them... they didn't taste off when I bit into one before adding to the banana mix.  Sadly I will never know. It was a pre-packed pecan I bought straight off the shelf and I'm really not very good with telling if it's a little bit off. I will have to remember to buy fresh each time or buy more air-tight containers.

Friday night didn't go according to plan...

It's not much to look at in
the TMServer

Borscht - generally following TM recipe.
Sadly I added 1 carrot & 1 parsnip so the soup probably wasn't as 'fine' / smooth as it should have been. Also added less water as the vegetable weight increased.

Dash of cream upon serving
& maybe a green garnish?

I only had two beetroots and that was quite enough. The carrot wasn't a great addition and was quite earthy as well. I shall remove this in future. The parsnip sweetness was drowned out, so sadly this didn't work as well as I hoped. But mom loved it. She says it's not as smooth as the one she remembers but the taste is almost there!

Yippee! so a few more tweaks and this could be the Russian Borscht of her memories! Guess what she's going to have on Mother's Day dinner? *sniggers*





Instead of planned risotto, I bought some mussels at Coles. These were fresh enough - tasted delicious. Yes there's a recipe in the EDC but it wasn't very tomato-ey, so I varied the recipe from the Recipe Community:


Chilli sauce:
4 cloves of garlic
1 red chilli (parents not into spice)
1/2 red onion
1 small brown onion, quartered
100g tomato paste
1/2 tbspn TM vegetable paste
1 can Roma tomato (whole, skinless)
300 mL of Chardonnay

Method:
1. Fine chop onions, garlic & chilli (7 seconds, speed 8)
2. Use spatula to scrape moisture off sides of bowl. Add 50mL of olive oil.
3. Sauté the mixture (3 - 4 mins, 100 C, speed 2)
4. Add tomato paste, TM veg paste, Roma tomatoes & wine. Close lid.
5. Place cleaned/de-bearded mussels in Varoma receptacle. Place on top of TM with lid. Steam (15mins, Varoma, speed 2).
6. Serve mussels in TMServer, pour in sauce.

Tip: works best if mussels can be cover or stirred & left to rest in sauce for a little while before eating.

I'm not big on the loads of fresh herbs like parsley and basil Or dried oregano - this drowns our the natural sweetness of the mussels. I thinks properly done chilli tomato/garlic sauce is the cleanest way to go.

Borscht soup recipe

Mom always told stories of her childhood days and I recall one story where she talks about the "Old Russian" restaurant in Beijing - the borscht being her favourite dish.

The EDC has a TM Borscht recipe and I bought some beetroot and parsnips, but I have a feeling it's not so traditional so I searched for a few recipes:
http://allrecipes.com.au/recipe/5075/russian-cabbage-borscht.aspx
http://www.cookuk.co.uk/ethnic/russian/borsch.htm

I don't have all the beef bones etc, but I'm thinking I'll try my hand at it - instead of the Pumpkin & Parsnip soup plan for tonight.

I'll try to keep to the TM recipe this time and then explore the other options.

TM training & Tomorrow's meal plan tonight

I had TM training on Wednesday night which wen quite late. Learnt loads about the machine and the background and the whole structure of the direct distribution system. With the current economic climate this is quite an resource efficient systems and I really admire the people who came up with the structure - in what could be perceived and used negatively with other products.

Happily in this case, despite what may seem like a pyramid scheme - I really think the whole journey is worth it. There's so many healthy recipes to try and so many unearthly recipes - which are still healthier than eating a version of it outside (pre-made with additives and preservatives etc).

I got a few recipe books now: EDC, seafood, gluten free, vegetarian and the Full Steam Ahead.

Ok the whole point of this entry is to note down what recipes I'll be trying for tomorrow night and since I hate using pen and paper I'd lose track of, I've decided to blog my good intentions.

Friday night:
Entrée: pumpkin & parsnip soup
Main: southern marinade chicken (non TM, I think I will oven this) with mixed sundried tomato, spinach & feta risotto
Dessert: torta caprese plus dark chocolate & banana ice-cream.

Saturday:
Lunch: Mushroom soup (vegan) w toasted Turkish bread

Thinking about going to Catalano's for seafood. If I do, I'll get some white fish to steam - not sure yet which style.

And a mix of fish, prawns, mussels & scallop for an attempt at Bouillabaisse in the TM.

Dinner I'm going out for Indian - but will explore the Butter Chicken recipe next week.

That's the plan. :)

Juicing potential verified

A purchased bottle of 'fresh' juice can cost from $5 to $15 these days for a litre or so.

There are many health benefits of raw fruits & veg, especially the 'peel' or 'rind' we all often throw away.

One day I thought, I crave fresh orange juice but damn I don't have a juicer. Someone at the cooking class had to remind me I could use the TM as a juicer, just need to strain the pulp out.

So here's mom's request for the first juice mix. (I saved us all from the added raw carrot... And offered the oranges & lime... Can you imagine just celery & apple?)

Ingredients:
300g celery
300g granny smith apple
1 small lime
2 valencia oranges
1.5 ltr of water (in two batches)

Method:
1. Chop all veggies into quarters [20 seconds on Speed 8]
2. Add 750 mL of water or as much as up to max
3. Whiz again [8 seconds on Speed 6-7]
4. Strain through the little strainer basket.
5. Repeat Steps 2 to 4 until color has lightened - taste from the residue has depreciated.

I only did two batches of water - resulted in 4 full highball glasses of psychedelic lime yellow colored juice!

Simple Asian home cooking

Recipe coming soon... Now to eat!!!

TM creamy tomato & salami fettuccine

Page 89 of the EDC.

 

I came home after the meeting a bit peckish, but also realized at 10:20pm with the night's dinner being left overs from the weekend, I had nothing to bring to work for lunch.

 

A quick look at the pantry and fridge, yup, I had almost all the ingredients for this recipe. Of course I substituted the following:

• Can of Roma tomatoes (I didn't have fresh ones)
• - Angel hair pasta instead of fettuccine. I had at some point bought angel hair instead of the spaghetti no. 5. Never seem to have fettuccine on hand. OT: I'm also our of spirellini or mini spiral pasta.

 

I also doubled only two of the veggies, com'on what am I to do with 1/3 zucchini left in the fridge? I mean I already have a huge jar of TM vegetable paste, my next batch might be two weeks from now. And the capsicum did look a bit on the small/medium size.

Luckily dad bought me some salami while he was wondering the Hyde Park Community Fair earlier this month, 1/2 kg roll. I was at a loss as to what to do with all that salami - other than throw a party and snack on antipasto & drink copious amounts of red wine.

 

Well, now in 1 hour of dawdling and sampling sauces, snacking on salami - I tossed through some baby spinach & sprinkled some parmesan Reggiano, voilà I give you the fruits of my labour.

Of course I couldn't help but have a small bowl to taste-test.

Rating: 4.5 stars.

Next time will remember to not toss in the baby spinach, but blanch them first - the colour rentention of the green wasn't so nice the next day.

First TM branch meeting!

After the actual work stuff (stats, reporting & training) - which is important, comes the REALLY important stuff: Recipe Testing!

The recipes are from the Recipes Community cookbook (not available for purchase):
- smoked salmon mousse with dill
- stewed sweet soy pork ribs (pork belly used instead). This is very similar to the Asian stewed pork belly recipe, except I think it's missing a little something (cloves, star anise & ginger) or kecup manis.

It's all about personalizing. The recipes and interactive-ness of the recipe community makes the TM experience unique and helps cater to individual needs!!! Do I sound brainwashed?

(Oh gods, the pork belly smell is really distracting! Help! They're brainwashing me with pork belly!) <--- ok I'm a willing victim.

It's so simple too - from recollection *(being distracted by the smell and training):

50 g sugar

50 mL dark soy sauce

50 mL Olive oil

500 g Pork belly (chopped down to large cubes, if buying in strips chop to maybe 2cm pieces)

750g - 1kg of Spring onions chopped into large pieces

My memory is a bit vague on the timings etc. But I think it was Caster sugar to icing sugar first. Then add the dark soy and olive oil - cool/stir fry on 100 C, 2 mins and Speed 1 to heat up the 'glaze'. Add in the Pork belly, T100C, T10mins, S1(Reverse). End of 10 mins, add 1/3 of the spring onions. Repeat twice more (so in total cook about 30mins).

Embark on your Thermomix adventure today - let me share a recipe with you! :) If you're in Perth metropolitan area and want to see Thermomix in action drop me a message! If you're not sure about your area - still contact me and I'll find out who would be best suited to come to your location in WA.

TM Minestrone

This should've been posted earlier - I didn't really think this could be filling enough for a main dish so I made this thinking 'entrée' like how you would get watery minestrone at local cheap Italian restaurants - this is why I don't usually order minestrone. I'm not a huge fan of the sour tomato taste.

I used extra veggies, it seemed a waste to only put less than 1/2 a zucchini in and same with just 1 carrot. I doubled the vegetables. Lessened the pasta amount to about 100g.

The result was more delicious than expected but then again I was also using one of best friends and her husband as guinea pigs. Sadly, he was already traumatized by bad meatloaf before. I'm afraid this didn't change his mind. Might have moved his opinion a bit towards the positive side ... By an increment of a small inch.

I think it tastes a bit dry, but the original TM recipe was meant to have a watery sauce. No butter or dairy products were used, however, I accidentally left in some mince...

So the TN bowl was contaminated by meat... Otherwise this recipe would definitely be vegan friendly!

Must work on presentation/playing a bit more.

Rating: 4.5 Stars - I'm usually not a fan of minestrone but this was heart and full of flavour.

Meatloaf & Mash

Ok I think from all the previous entries aby reader must have come to the justified conclusion that I can't for the life of me follow a recipe to the letter. Te meatloaf followed the same tangent.

I had 500g premium lean beef mince from Mondo's. I also had some tofu left, 1/2 block. Those who have had the Chinese traditional 狮子头 (shi zi tou, Lion's Head) would know where I'm going with this. 狮子头 is a meatball dish - giant pork meatballs with tofu mixed in to make them fluffy, they're also whipped with egg & soup stock and well traditionally the steamed and then the sauce is Devine, must try this is Varoma one day. Ok, enough with the tangent. So as you can tell I added tofu to the meatloaf. What I didn't realize was the recipe had no salt content other than wrapping with prosciutto, glitch - I didn't have prosciutto or ham slices. I only had 3 slices of bacon left & they were lean bacon. Oh well they went on the base of the meatloaf foil wrap/package.

I roasted it in the oven at 180C fan forced, opened foil packaging after 40 miners for another 15 mins or so. The meatloaf was slightly dryer than expected. The tofu actually steals the oils away from the meat and therefore absorbs the juices. I also pulverized the mince too much - the breakdown of the protein structure allowed too much to escape. Flavor was still fine, I think it could've done with either a 1 tspn of the TM vegetable paste or more tomatoes. Maybe adding a more watery vegetable - mushroom or zucchini would have worked better.

I am however sure if you were to use fattier beef or pork mince this would taste more moist. Also the original recipe did call for Varoma, maybe next time I'll follow that instruction.

The mash turned out perfectly! I did it accordingly to 1/2 the recipe ingredient content which worked fine, I didn't -20% the cooking time - which could explain why there were potato mash starting to get stuck to the bottom of the TM bowl. I'm definitely trying this mash again in full!

I also placed zucchinis and mushrooms with the meatloaf to roast, the off flow juices helped make these extra tasty!

My small taste test bowl - with mash, zucchini, mushroom and a slice of meatloaf.

Rating: 3.5 stars (like I said, slightly too dry and tofu absorbed more of the herb flavours than expected).

TM potato & leek soup

This is my favorite soup and despite the fact I was due to go out for dinner I still made it.

200 g of leek means 1/2 a leek, what was I suppose to do with the rest of it? So I used the whole one (whites only) and ended up with double the leek. Luckily remembering the TM bowl capacity, I did not double the water'

I doubled the potato but didn't double the onion or oil (butter). I had run out of butter - it all went into the red velvet cupcake, I had thought I'd make butter & buttermilk - leaving extra butter for soup... But due to time restrictions with the cupcake I didn't make buttermilk, so I was short butter. Used virgin love oil instead.

I forgot to +20% the cooking time for the 'frying' part. But it turned out ok.

I did +20% for the boiling/cooking time and blended for a little bit longer. I think I put a little extra TM vegetable stock paste, as mine was little less on the salt. It seemed to add quite a bit of parsley & celery taste to the end result. Must really watch out for that next time do the TM vegetable paste.

I added cream in end after blending, the mixed a little on Speed 1 to stir through the cream. You could do this to taste, depending on what you like in the texture.

Overall the soup was more leeky than usual, but still creamy and tasty! I think I shall 'fry' the leeks & onions a little more til caramelised before adding the potato & stock.

If not catering to Vegan Boy, then definitely use butter instead of olive oil, and as liquid use 1/3 to 1/2 milk instead I just water. This will help cream the potatoes and make the soup extra rich.

I forgot to buy chives for garnish - but remember people, presentation/plating is very important to the palate! If servin guests always remember to garnish and add a few drops of truffle oil ;) or truffle butter or sprinkle truffle salt on top with freshly cracked pepper.

Rating: 5 stars (despite the heavy leeky flavour, it's my favourite soup!!!)

However, I do need to work on camera skills. (iPhone 4 camera is just not enough... this is possibly the worst point to start a hobby in photography - time commitment-wise).

Red velvet cupcakes

I used a bit of the TM recipe and a bit of the Good Taste website recipe.

Variation:

I didn't have butter milk. I was instending to make it by making butter then rinse for butter milk but I didn't have time. Luckily About.com has a substitution for ya.

I also reduced the caster sugar content and doubled the cocoa powder.

Butterfly: cream cheese icing

I failed to follow the order of creaming butter & then adding sugar etc. but it mixed very well anyway in the TM. Only required a little extra mixing at speed 4. I added the food coloring but only had a small bottle of 1 table spoon. You shall see that it was a bit of a fail ;( Maybe the cocoa powder cancelled it out! I can see some red, just not enough to be called red velvet.

Baked as cupcakes instead of cake so it's slightly drier than a 'moist' red velvet, more cocoa in taste than sugary.

The cream cheese icing was same measurement, but I think I added a little bit of lemon zest to it. The sugar icing hearts were store bought decorations. My friend who was there to 'help' (read: eat) was responsible for decorating. Hence, 1 heart each cupcake, until I jumped on her to liberally sprinkle!

(Once I get on a PC I'll update this entry with full recipe and the TM instructions. Done)

I pulled stuff from two or three recipes:

CateCanCook

ThermoVixens

Best Recipes

Taste.com.au

Red Velvet CupcakesIngredients: 300g plain flour
 50g cocoa powder
 150g butter, at room temperature
 100g white caster sugar
 2 large egg
 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
 220mL buttermilk (my substitute was freshly squeezed lemon & white vinegar in milk, left to sit for 10mins - see here for their substitution recommendations)
 1 tbs red liquid food colouring (I had less than this... you may want to put more to make yours look REDDER)
 1/2 tsp white vinegar
 1/2 tsp bi carb soda

Cream Cheese Icing 250g cream cheese, at room temperature
 1 tsp vanilla extract
 110g icing sugar, sifted

My lazy method: 1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C (fan forced)
 2. In the bowl beat the butter until soft [20 seconds on Speed 5]
 3. Add the caster sugar and beat until light and fluffy [30 seconds Speed 5]
 4. Add the eggs and beat [10 seconds Speed 3]. Scrape down the sides of the bowl I keep forgetting this part 
 5. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined [5 seconds Speed 6]
 6. Add buttermilk [Speed 3]

 7. Add red food colouring.  [Speed 3 continues]

 8. Add the flour mixture.  [Speed 3-5 to mix]
 9. Add vinegar and bi carb soda. [Speed 6]
 10. Divide the batter amongst your prepared muffin cups.  Smooth the tops
 11. Bake in the oven for 15-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean (I over did it at 25mins)
 12. Cool the cakes on a wire rack until completely cool.
 13. In clean TM Bowl, attach TM Butterfly. Add cream cheese [20 seconds Speed 4], I must remember to cube next time, the whirling sound of the whole block of 250g was scary.

 14. Scrap bowl down. Add icing sugar and vanilla extract. [20 seconds Speed 4]

  



Sherbet - Red Velvet Layer Cake

Compared to the Red Velvet layer cake from Sherbet I had as a sample earlier this morning - this is much less sugary.

From the photos - it really looks like the red-ness is pretty even between the two.

The icing used by Sherbet was just sugar icing *(maybe butter cream-ish) not a cream cheese one.



Centre of my Red Velvet Cupcake


Rating:
3.5 stars - I think this could've turned out better. it was a little dryer than I expected, but I did use more cocoa powder and a little less butter than the recipe. Tempted to add banana next time.

This did take me nearly 1.5 hours to make. From first dumping in butter to finalising the heart sprinkles.

Parents loved this as it wasn't as sugary as store-bought mixes or the usual cafe cupcakes! For those watching their sugar levels, it is ok to reduce the sugar in your cakes, muffins, cupcakes - once you realize how much sugar goes into the ones you buy outside, you will buy/eat less!

Pumpkin, sweet potato & carrot soup

The basis was the TM recipe. I didn't have a full 500g of pumpkin, only 1/2 a butternut pumping. So I added 1 medium sized sweet potato. 2 medium carrots instead of one.

Since I made the TM veggie paste, I just used the left overs in the TM jug and kept going with the soup. That was plenty. Vegan Boy liked it. I'd say 'Loved' it but he really didn't express the level of enthusiasm that would allow me to use the word "Loved". Maybe veganism does take away your taste buds... sends them on a long march away from the taste zones and into concentration camps in the midst of no-where...

For the meat lovers, I also had a Mondo's steak pie. Which was luckily just in the fridge and ready to oven bake. Really nice but sort of not relevant to the TM blog, but I'll post a small photo anyways.

The soup was enough to feed 6 (serving full bowls each time).

Rating: 4.5 stars

My own TM vegetable stock paste

First amongst tasks and duties of a consultant, so I've been told. But honestly, if you want to start cooking the recipes, half of them say "TM vegetable stock paste" as an ingredient. So you /need/ this.

I varied from the recipe already. I forgot the zucchini, added some leek and doubled the tomato and garlic. Oh an for my family, I reduced the salt content. Yes, I realize it won't keep as long but I think I can manage to use most it by two weeks time.

Might have to keep varying it - I don't like the flavor of rosemary & parsley - not a fan of celery either.

I think having zucchinis would definitely make this tastey-er.

Result: over 500g of paste.

Taste test: oh why did I do that. It tasted really salty... but you could taste the parsley and celery!

Re-blogging Recipes I want to try!

Tebasiles Kitchen: Homemade Margarine
I need to make this and see how it compares to the canola margarine in my fridge *(which is sadly not actually vegan!) Carefully reading labels show there's lactic acid used and "may contain milk solids".

So much reading to do: here's The Super Kitchen blog which rated and linked various TM Blogs around the world.

I have a feeling this would be a very busy weekend. I just don't seem to have enough hours after my day job to do all this. Let alone eat all this. Good thing, Vegan Boy, work colleagues and friends all benefit!

Everything is on the rise!

I couldn't help the pun. I went to a Thermomix Cooking Lesson last night. Easter Special run by my team leader Elishia, who is of Italian background. Made hotcross buns, butter cookies/biscuits, banana bread, gluten free bread and an Italian cake - Torte Caprese. Oh and that's not all... there was Watemelon & Mint Sorbet, fresh Lemonade, Honey Cinnamon Butter, Jaff Custard.

Ok I shall stop going on about sweets, for the savoury lovers, there was this devine Tuna Dip, Carrot Salad with walnuts (a bit like a Warldorf), Vege & Feta tomato pasta, smoked salmon & dill soup - thankfully the dill was not in the soup (Elishia modified the recipe).

Can you believe we fed nearly 30 people on this? I forgot to take photos as I was helping clean up and prep and plate as we went but it was fun to see how easy it is to cater for a group. Ok, to be honest, there were 2 or 3 Thermomixes and it required someone to help clean and get them back out there really fast - but that still means the cooking was done within an hour or so and you could socialise after each course!

The plan (end of March) I will test the hotcross bun recipe and the cinnamon butter (I might replace with maple syrup only because I don't have honey at home and that way the Vegan boy can have some). Will have to also change the hot cross bun recipe.

Delivery demo & a little extra

Received it this evening - ran through the custard recipe again and actually did it myself.

Actually cooked the mushroom risotto with slight variations - instead of vegetable stock paste, since I haven't done that yet, I used pork stock jubes (jelly cube).

I also added butter and truffle oil at the end in addition to the Parmesan. Made it a little too rich to eat more than a small bowl.

The steak on the side was Mondo's (premarinated) Spiced Steak.

I also made a strawberry golden rum mohito slushy to reward myself. Might think about making some mint syrup.

Power-up, Rev-up & Cook!

To give a bit of context of why I'm blogging, I'm Chinese and living in Australia and LOVE food. This is not my first blog, but it is the first due to the addition to my kitchen appliance repetoire. Sidetrack, I love eating out and always end up analysing recipes so I can cook it at home (easily), I read a lot of recipe blogs/posts/magazines - for the food pornography. I also try to cook a number of dishes myself and love to entertain friends and family. It has taken me a long time to get around to buying a Thermomix. The TM is being delivered tonight!

I'm excited to start cooking and exploring the existing recipes on the "Everyday Cookbook" (EDC). Reading the forums, I know I'll like expanding on it too and test out some of the more Asian recipes in my repetoire in the TM and see how it works in terms of time saving and taste. Mainly taste. Time is money but Taste can't be substituted by money or time.

So in order to keep me on track in testing out all the recipes in the book. I'm going to Meal Plan and blog using this. Partially as reviews of the recipes and adding what I think would be good substitutes or changes. I will of course consult the Forums and use Google to help me find alternative recipes (such as Steph Berg's Vegetarian Recipes and TM Australia & Rick's TM blog).

First up - my intentions is to try:
A soup
Meatloaf on p.100 of the EDC (Australian)
Mushroom Sauce on p.59 of the EDC (Australian)
Mash potato
Steamed vegies in the Varoma.
A sorbet (vegan) OR Nougat ice cream (Dairy free & vegan friendly)
Almond shortbread (might try a vegan variation later)

I'm hoping this all goes well and I shall be able to post photos of how they turned out! Oh I do vegan variations as I'm thinking about cooking for my vegan boyfriend... who really isn't into food. Yes the contrast in lifestyle is drastic. I hoping and believe the TM is going to be fun and easy to help out at meal times!

Wish me luck!