Early Retirement...

Late last year, I retired from being a Thermomix consultant. My health had not been the greatest and my day job just left no time during the week for demos or any of the customer care I wanted to devote time to. Weekends ended up being running around ragged trying to ensure a balance of life, additional work and Thermomix and recipe testing. I just had very little energy left for me. I met some extremely fun and friendly people who all shared interest in food, healthy eating and family life balance. And I feel privileged to have been able to share in an experience that is so rewarding in terms of food (the best currency ever).

I will definitely keep experimenting and posting recipes when I have the time :)

Cloudless mini quiches

I keep changing up the quiche/muffin recipe I have since it's just so easy to vary things when you throw things into the Thermomix. I used left over 'oven baked/roasted' corn kernels and cheese egg batter for a more eggy tartlet. I wonder why I named the post "cloudless mini quiches" ... is it because they're more like omlette tarts and not really quiche-like?

I try to do the Red Cross Big Cake Bake every year if I can. Usually raise between $240 to $400 at work morning tea. This year may try something different to fundraise instead ...

This was a variation of the banana, bran and walnut recipe

Banana loaf - Trial

This was tonight's baking spree. 

Ingredients:

230-250g Over ripe banana (2 lrg or 3-4 medium sized will do)

1 Banana (sliced & set aside)

125g Butter

100g Raw sugar

2 Eggs (60g eggs)

220 Self-raising flour

80g Milk (soy or other types can be used)

Vanilla been paste/pods/essence

Optional extras:

Handful of: almonds and/or walnuts, frozen berries (raspberries work well).

2 Tblspn cocoa powder or 100g (cooking) chocolate pieces of your choice. (If using cookig chocolate - rough chop using turbo twice, or mill chocolate down to fine consistency and set aside before Step 1).

Dried fruits: prunes, dates, cranberries etc.

My optional extra's this round is my PACCAW mix (Prunes, Apple, Coconut, Cranberries, Almonds, Walnuts) 30g each + 1 apple quarter, method similar to CADA mix recipe.

*Preheat oven 200C fan forced & line loaf tin with baking paper.

Method: 

1. mill raw sugar with vanilla bean to vanilla icing sugar - if using paste or essence add with step .

2. Add butter, 100C, 2 mins, Speed 2. To melt butter.

3. Add the bananas. Chop/blend 10 seconds, Speed 5. 

4. Add remaining ingredients: eggs, SR flour, milk, (vanilla essence, cocoa powder).

5. Pour into loaf tin.

6. Rinse TM bowl, make CADA or PACCAW mix.

7. Pour into loaf tin.

8. Add in banana slices. 

9. Using a butter knife - swirl / stir to roughly mix into banana loaf mixture.

10. Bake at 200C for 45-50mins, use a skewer to test if it comes out clean and not wet your loaf is ready. 

Can leave to cool a little in over with door slightly ajar.

Cake walk

Making buttercream icing was a cake walk! The official Thermomix recipe community has an easy recipe to follow.

Normal icing with milk

Or cream cheese icing :) and you can flavour your raw sugar to icing sugar mix! 

Chocolate Banana cupcakes - cheat

Sponge cake mix in your EDC, add cocoa powder and berries & banana chunks!

Use a Loaf tin and add some walnuts, voila a chocolate banana walnut loaf! hahahah I'm such a cheater in the kitchen sometimes.

Cake decoration class paid off!

Birthday cake for me! King pig in the mud spa!

Torte caprese: 3 lil' piggies in a mud spa (chocolate ganache) with hidden centre of berry goodness. Totally gluten free! But dairy & chocolate laden!

Thai green curry for cooking cheats

I'm a huge fan of Thai green curry and yes I realize you can make the Thai green curry paste from scratch in the Thermomix. It's Alan Quah's recipe in A Taste of Asia Cookbook. But I can't seem to justify making a wholetub of it for myself. Cooking for 1 or two is difficult and I'll never use up the paste (since it doesn't have preservatives, it's not like the jarred suff you can keep for months in the fridge). It does taste ingredible (I've made it before... but I had to throw 1/2 a bottle when I didn't finish it in time). 

 If you have a preferred brand of Thai Green Curry paste, let me know. I've been using this one for a while and it's my current favourite, but I'm keen to see what other ones taste like too. 

Ingredients:

1 medium brown onion

1 clove of garlic

1 dried chilli

50g olive oil

180g pork (in this case, you can use chicken or any other meat of choice - white meat or fish works best)

400g can of coconut milk

2 medium carrots (cubed/roughly chopped)

1 large zucchini (cubed)

100g baby spinach

Method: 

1. Chop & Stir fry onion, garlic and 1 dried chilli. Speed 5, 5 seconds.

2. Add 50g oil, fry on Varoma temperature, Speed 1, 3 minutes.

3. Add 2 tblspn of the Green curry Paste. Cook on Varoma temperature, Speed 1, 2 minutes.

4. Add (cubed/strips) Pork / Chicken or meat of preference. Cook on Varoma temperature, Speed 1 reverse, 5 minutes.

5. Add carrots & coconut milk. Cook at 100C , Speed 1 reverse, 16 minutes.

6. Add zucchini. Cook at 100C, Speed 1 reverse, 4 minutes.

7. Place spinach in Thermoserver, pour out bowl into Thermoserver, stir and leave while you make rice!

Winter Season's Soups for Thought

If you lisp the title is totally alliteration!

I love Chowder, so today's test recipe is from the Seafood Bounty cookbook. It's probably safe to say I didn't follow the recipe.

What I used:

250g of mixed seafood (you can just buy the generic marinara mix from Coles/Woolies)

150g of snapper fillet (chopped to approx same size as fish in marinara mix. I like fish so I put more in, could've used salmon... or any other white fish)

1 small brown onion
30g butter
300g milk (low fat)
100g thickened cream or double cream
1/2 tblspn of TM Vegetable paste
2 medium carrots (cubed/roughly chopped - can do in TM or hand chop)
3 baby potatoes (cubed, ensure larger than chopped carrot size)
Pepper & fresh Parsley (garnish/taste)

Method to my madness:
1. Add Onion to bowl, chop Speed 5, 5 seconds.

2. Add chopped carrots, and butter. Fry on 100C, Speed1 for 3 minutes.

3. Add cubed potato, TMstock paste & milk. Cook on Varoma temperature, Speed 1 reverse, for 10 minutes.

4. Place seafood in steaming basket. Varoma temperature, Speed 1 reverse, 6 minutes.
5. Use spatula to remove basket ingredients into Thermoserver. Pour on soup.

Serve: Add hand chopped fresh parsley for garnish, and a dash of cracked pepper upon serving to bowls. If you made breadrolls - perfect. If you had left over bread? grill / bake it a bit and have homemade croutons! I put garlic butter on mine and oven bake it bit before adding to soups.

You can also cook shell pasta al dente in the mix - I'd recommend add extra milk (100g-200g) Add your pasta in the bowl and steam your seafood in the Varoma (like the cookbook suggests). Pasat measure, 100g is plenty! Your chowder already has potatoes and carrots to buff it up.

Taste test - I used penne pasta (gluten free for it) - absorbs the soup better. It's not as thick as restaurant chowder but then again I didn't use flour or anything that contained gluten to thicken it. To thicken can also use the garlic croutons I mentioned? make that into crumbs and add to soup in Step 5.

I used low fat milk because I had it on hand and also thougth if I used 200g of cream I'd have to declog my arteries afterwards.

This recipe made me nearly 5 bowls of soup. Imagine what the full recipe in the Seafood Bounty cookbook makes?

Naming my Thermomix and ... outfitting.

Ok after reading entries on Facebook about naming Thermomix for a prize, I read through the comments and couldn't believe all the names that came up. I won't provide a link you all can search for yourselves. I think it was either Tenina's or the Quirky Cooking facebook page that ran it.

I then realized, I haven't named mine. It's been 1 year and 2 months (in 5 days) since I purchased my Thermomix. It's almost as bad as not naming your child within the first month... I do tend to talk to mine quite a bit while testing receipes or just randomly cleaning it. Maybe I should name it.

I'm sure someone has alrady thought of "MoMo". And I actually had a childhood friend with that nickname... so I feel odd using it. "Thermie" is the official Thermomix rep name on facebook... and I think Theo is too masculine for my TM... although the continual beeping sound does sound like: "is it ready, yeah I think it's ready, yup ready! Aren't going to get that, it's ready" in a male-ish sort of voice.

What dya all think of "MoMi"? a play on the name and play on the "mini-me" concept.

People always ask if there's other accessories for the Thermomix... This leads me to the concept of "dressing up" your Thermomix. A customer mentioned it does look plain, and they hoped it came in stainless steel to match all their shiny kitchen. So a quick google search (and knowledge my eBay account has this already 'favourited') revealed:
ThermoDress ThermoStickers for your Thermomix
ThermoSkins on Facebook or their website.
DecoTMX and many more...

There's also additional (non-official) cleaning brushes for the Thermomix, such as this.

I really like this one.

Winter Exploration: Pineapple, Red Capsicum & Gochujang Pork Ribs.

Receipe I worked on is here.

Ingredient sources: 

• Gochujang (Korea Chilli Paste, can be found in your local Asian grocers along William St, Northbridge, or Korean grocers on either/both Newcastle St, Northbridge or Pier St in city.)
• Kecap manis (again, local Asian grocers, such as Viet Thien/Lucky/Kongs etc all will stock this).

You can choose to not add pineapple. But I like think the fruit/fructose taste is a more natural a sweetener . Apple pieces work too! Pick the golden delicious apples, they're sweeter. (yeah I know there's already 30 grams of sugar and kecap manis... that is enough).

I did use a Pemberton Lost Lakes, Honey Merlot as my wine of choice. I'm thinking sweet sherry or dolcetto syrah will do. The dish tastes sweeter the next day.

I'm thinking this will work with beef ribs. But I haven't tested that yet. I will soon.

I have also had a request to do "Coca cola sticky ribs". Not really sure that's healthy... but then again, I'm in it for the food not the health benefits.

Want to make this a 1 pot, 1 hour all done deal?

Follow below steps:

1. chop 1 glove of garlic in TM bowl, Speed 3-4 is sufficent for a few seconds.

2. Stir fry in 30 g of olive oil, Varoma, 3 minutes, Speed soft.

3. Toss in roughly chopped greens (bak choy or kailan), do a 10 second, Reverse Speed 2 stir to coat in garlic/oils.

4. Remove and set aside in Varoma receptacle/tray.  

5. Follow receipe to cook the ribs.

6. But at Step 3, pop on the Varoma receptacle/tray as well.

7. Pour all into Thermoserver.

8. Soak / wash rice.

9. Steam rice on Varoma temperature (120g/16minutes or 400g/25minutes) Speed 2-4. Time depends on how much rice you used, and how soft you want your rice. I find anything under 20 minutes is too chewy for me personally.

10. Leave it in the bowl to rest for 2-5 minutes with MC on to 'soak in the steam'!

Note: I used medium grained Jasmine rice. For bismati/wild/brown, you may need more time or liquid.

For presentation (other than chucking it in a bowl like I did). Scoop rice into a round mug, tip over to form a nice dome shaped rice mound on plate, place pieces of ribs and then vegetables on. Looks pretty when you bring over to table.

Chilli Mussels - Variation

EDC recipe with adjustments: I doubled it (some stuff) & substituted a few fresh items from pantry.

Step 1 - Additional whole onion, halved. 4 pcs garlic & 2 medium red chillis (1 with seeds inclusive). Basil leaves, two sticks of rosemary. Choppe on Speed 5, 5 seconds.
Step 2 - Add 2 cans of tomatoes (I purchased the one with pre mixed basil & oregano - adds extra flavor). Add 1 Tbspn of TM vegetable paste. Add 1 Tbspn of pizza base tomato paste.
Step 3 - Then place Varoma receptacle filled with cleaned mussels (2kg) on top of locked in lid).
Step 4 - Add 200 mL of white wine by drizzling it over mussels.
Step 5 - Cook for 20 mins on Varoma temp, at Speed 1.
Step 6 - At 16 mins, pick out the opened mussels, keep cooking the rest.
Step 7 - most mussels will have opens by 20 mins mark. Serve with sauce poured on top, garnish with chopped parsley / lemon rind / finely chopped spring onions.

Note: upon testing different branded & variation (diced, whole) cans of tomatoes. Coles or the generic brand canned vegetables will be more watery. So reduce the wine accordingly.

Asian Meal for 4 (Pt2) - Miso & Tofu Soup & Steamed Kailan

You should have plenty of spare Tofu left from the Tofu & Mince dish in Pt1.

To make Miso Soup:

Add in 1 Ltr of water

Add 2 Tbspn fo Miso Paste (white or brown)

Add some wakame or dried seaweed (you can find this at local Asian grocers)

Add your left over tofu.

Stack your cleaned kailan on the Varoma Tray. You can spread the vegetables out onto Varoma Receptacle as well.

Turn on your TM for Varoma, Speed 2 for 15 mins. For a nice soup.

Pour a dash of oyster sauce & a sprinkle of sesame oil over your kailain to serve!

Even better if you have left over spring onions from your previous dish, sprinkle some on for garnish.

Ok, so I sort of threw it altogether and the timing ... and steps will need further refinement. But this is pretty much the way to serve 4 dishes in under an hour. I use my rice cooker on the side to make rice at the same time.

Dessert: See my Hei zhi ma hu (黑芝麻糊), my final recipe version is here on teh Recipe Community: Black Sesame Paste/Soup

If you already prepped this, just add into a clean TM bowl and cook for 7 mins with the appropriate amoutn of liquid.

Asian Meal for 4 (Pt1) - Kecap Manis Pork Belly & Tofu with Minced Pork

This is essentially a variation of my braised pork ribs made easy using pork belly and substituting 1/2 the sugar with kecap manis - which brings out the sweet flavours. I add 1/2 a tbspn of the TM Vegetable paste instead of using soy sauce as the salt content. Brings in extra depth in flavour.

While this is cooking on the bottom you can make Tofu with Minced Pork. In order to demonstrate this for friends or customers, I general use a strip of the frozen pork belly skin removed and mince this myself in the TM. You can just use a lean pork mince for this.

The recipe is available on teh Recipe Community so I won't repeat unnecessary info here. I've added a few photos to whet your appetite.

The pork belly takes about 20 - 30 mins, but your tofu dish takes longer. When combined, go for 35 - 40 mins at Varoma, Speed 1. Trust me the meat will not get tougher, it will only become more tender and melt-in-your-mouth!

 

Fundraiser for August :)

The cause is a really good one.

I'm baking up a storm for Australian Red Cross, a cause that is close to my heart and I would welcome any contribution, great or small, that you could make!

Please visit my Fundraising Page: http://bigcakebake.gofundraise.com.au/page/nekoTMbakeoff

All donations to this site are electronically wired to Australian Red Cross and an automatic receipt is emailed to you immediately.

Help me bake the world a better place by making a donation - every little bit helps to reach my modest target of $200.

My promise to sponsors: Donations above $50, will receive a cake order or cupcake order at a date of your choice! Contact me to arrange!

Thank you for your support!

Quick winter salads

Fast & easy side dish to off set any meat or just a healthy vegetarian main meal!

Ingredients
2 beetroot
1/2 a medium Spanish red onion
100 g walnuts halved
200 g baby spinach or mixed leaf salad
100 g Danish feta
Salt/pepper to taste

Method
1. Peel & quarter the beetroot
2. Place beetroot & onion in TM bowl. Speed 5, 3-4 seconds.
3. Add walnuts, whole block feta and chop at Speed 3, 2 seconds.
4. Place salad green in bowl / plate.
5. Scoop out salad & apportion onto plate for presentation. Serve with toasted Turkish bread for a main meal lunch :)


Sprinkle salt & pepper if you'd like. I found the fresh sweet taste of the beetroot, the salt in feta & the bite of the Spanish red onion was enough.

Short Post: hiatus of 5 days while on holiday

Well 5 days have passed, I haven't cleaned up the previous recipe posts yet.

But here's some food for thought or rather a brain-freeze! I love strawberries but they're no longer in season, at about $8-10 a punnet for fresh ones... it's hard to come by to make my favourite sorbet. Here's a recipe that uses frozen for a strawberry ice-cream. I'll shortly put up a Cherry Ripe Ice-cream recipe kindly provided by a fellow Thermomix consultant (I'll have to check who she got it from but it's delicious!).

Yes I know it's winter in little old Perth, but after a trip to Melbourne I know there's a difference. I literally feel like it's soooo warm here. And the gelato I had in Melbourne ('W'inter) were delicious. And I know in the warmth of your own home, a healthy icecream really is an ideal snack to go with your favourite movie!

Healthier Choc Chip Cookies

Well, this is a spelt and whole meal flour with brazil nut & peanut butter & dark chocolate chip cookie recipe variation ;) turns out its even more delicious on the 2nd day!

Porridge or risotto

Mom always figured out a way to make me eat what I didn't like the most: celery!

This is a mince & celeriac porridge/risotto, which tastes a lot like her pressure cooker rice porridge version, using arborio rice instead!

Easy Asian meal for four in <1 hr

A combination of dishes in the TM will provide you with a delicious meal for 4 in under 1 hour. Here are some of the images from my Asian food demonstration.

Recipes include: 

• Tofu with Minced Pork
• Kecap Manis Pork Belly
• Miso & Tofu Soup
• Steamed Kailan
• Black Sesame Paste/Soup



Staples

Everyone has staples they must keep in the house, below a few of my favourites:

• the TM Five Seed Bread (2 loafs each batch).
• TM Vegetable paste (funny how each batch churns out a different amount and somewhat different colour). This current batch is saltier, but more zucchini-ish than celeriac flavoured.
• TM Mayonnaise, I think I've over using Bran Seed Oil - it is so tasteless. So healthy but so tasteless!!!