Tis the Season ...its all in the presentation | Thermomix food gifts

I've woken up thinking about all the different types of home made Christmas gifts we can make with our Thermomix and was going to compile a list...but it seems there is a fair bit out there already.

Ideas for pretty packaging are what grab my attention, so I thought I would give you some ideas that I have found already...mostly via pinterest of course!

Please add your links or ideas in the comments. 

How cute does this look? Make your own cheescake in your Thermomix and steam it in your Varoma then present it like this...gorgeous!

We all know how easily we can make these with our Thermomix!

So simple but how good does this look?

There's nothing quite like a paper doily to finish something off

If ONLY I had more time to Pinterest!!

My "I LOVE your potato salad!!" potato salad recipe | Thermomix recipes

I have finally gotten around to making my famous, most favourite potato salad (in the world!) recipe entirely in the Thermomix! 

I used to make such a mess preparing this one with a big pot of water, a frypan, chopping boards, another pot for boiling eggs, grater, a bowl and spoons for mixing my dressing...the list goes on! Now I can make the entire dish in the Thermomix, using the varoma of course. And I have to say, the potatoes taste nicer being steamed than they ever did when I boiled them.

The "I love your potato salad!" Potato Salad

Ingredients

1000g red skinned potatoes, unpeeled, diced into 2cm chunks

150g diced bacon

2 spring onions (sliced)

20g olive oil

60g Parmesan (shaved)

6 eggs (less if you prefer)

500g water

Dressing

200g mayonnaise

15g wholegrain mustard

10g balsamic vinegar

Method

Add bacon, oil and spring onion (keep a little for garnish) to bowl 

I like to slice my spring onion as I like how it looks in the dish, but you could chop this on speed 4 for a few seconds if you prefer

Cook 100c, reverse speed 1 for 3 minutes. Transfer this to your salad serving dish and set aside. No need to wash the bowl

Add 500g water to the bowl. Put diced potatoes in the Varoma dish (no tray) and steam for 15 minutes, varoma temp, speed 2

Insert basket into bowl, add the 6 eggs and replace lid and varoma with potatoes in. Cook for a further 14 minutes, varoma temp, speed 2

Check potatoes are cooked. They should be not too cooked that they fall apart, but not too firm either. A knife should pass through them easily but not mash them

Leave potatoes in the varoma and set aside with the lid underneath to catch any drips and cool down while you prepare the rest of the salad

Remove basket with your spatula. Put eggs into a sink or bowl of cold water to cool down as you peel them. Quarter and slice eggs

Empty steaming water from bowl and dry. 

Add dressing ingredients and mix on speed 3 for 5 seconds

Pour potatoes into your salad bowl (on top of bacon & onion mixture). Add eggs and shaved parmesan (keep a little for garnish) on top. Pour dressing from bowl over the salad and mix dressing through until combined. 

Top with some spare spring onion or fresh chives and some of the shaved parmesan

Refridgerate until cool and serve

EVERY time I make this I hear "I LOVE your potato salad" so I thought I better share the recipe. We Thermomix folk are a caring sharing bunch! You can most certainly use less eggs if you don't have 6 spare eggs, but it does taste awesome with all 6. Hope you enjoy it, and put your own touch on it if you like. Would love to hear what you think. Nat

Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies | Thermomix Recipes

Ingredients

Base

120g unsalted butter, diced

60g dark chocolate buttons

200g castor sugar (pre-made with your Thermomix)

2 large eggs

1 ts vanilla extract

1 ½ ts red food colouring

100g plain flour

¼ ts salt

Cheesecake topping

250g cream cheese

70g pre made castor sugar

1 large egg

½ ts vanilla extract

Method

Base

Preheat oven to 170-180°c. Prepare a lamington tin with baking paper in the base and extending up the sides (this will make it easier to lift out the brownie when it cools)

Mix dark chocolate buttons and butter, 50°, speed 1, 5 minutes until melted and smooth

Add 200g sugar, vanilla, colour and eggs. Mix for 5 seconds, speed 4.

Add flour and salt. Mix for 5 seconds, speed 4 until flour is just incorporated.

Pour into prepared lamington tin and spread across base (then lick spatula, hiding in pantry to do so if you have small children watching who may want to share)

Cheesecake topping

Mix cream cheese, remaining sugar, egg and vanilla 1 minute speed 4

Spoon mixture onto top of base in 6 or so big dollops. Swirl cheesecake topping across the base with a knife or your spatula tip

Cook for 30 minutes or until cheesecake topping is set. Allow to cool in tin completely before removing

Sticky Pear Ginger Cake | Thermomix Recipes

This has been one of my family favourite recipes for years, so I adapted it to simplify it for the Thermomix. It tastes amazing warm or at room temperature, and tastes great with a dollop of sour cream or natural yoghurt (made in the Thermomix of course!)

Ingredients

140g golden syrup
100g dark brown sugar
125g butter, diced
250g self raising flour
1 ts bi-carb soda
1 Tb ground ginger
310g milk
1 large egg
2 pears - peeled, cored and diced

Preparation

Cook butter, golden syrup and sugar on 90c, 5 minutues, speed 2
Add dry ingredients, milk & egg, mix speed 4, for 4-5 seconds (until dry flour is just combined, don't be tempted to over mix as this will keep it light and fluffy)
Add pear pieces, mix reverse speed 2, 3 seconds

Line a square cake tin with baking paper, add mixture and bake 180c for 60 mins or until cooked (test with a wooden skewer, it is ready when it comes out clean)
Cool in tin for 10 minutes, then cool on a wire rack until cold

Always tastes better the next day!!

For a richer flavour, use 70g golden syrup and 70g of treacle.

This is my recipe, if you would like to share it please give credit and link back to my blog or facebook page

Egg white recipes | Thermomix

I have been finding with a lot of recipes I am needing to use the yolk from the egg only, and am then left with the egg whites. I have been freezing these, in a small container per egg white, then transferring them into a snap lock bag once they are frozen. Once they have defrosted, allow them to sit at room temperature for around half an hour to help them stiffen into peaks better when beating.

So what are some good uses for egg-white only?

Well the most obvious one would be SORBET!!

Here are some others

Coconut Macaroons

Meringues

Pavlova Cake 

from Thermomix-Recipes.com

And last but not least...Macarons!! 

Recipe from Super Kitchen Machine

What are your favourites?

Banoffee Pie Custard | Thermomix Recipe

Banoffee Pie Custard

Ingredients: 

500g milk

2 eggs

100g brown sugar

50g flour

40g butter

2 bananas, sliced

Add all ingredients (except banana), cook 90 degrees, 6 minutes speed 4. 

Add sliced banana*, cook 90 degrees, 1 minute, reverse 2.

If you want to avoid your banana pieces breaking up, stir them through during the last 30 seconds on speed 1. 

Making Yoghurt in your Thermomix

I recently went to one of our Thermomix branch meetings where Kirsty gave a talk about yoghurt making and shared her tips for getting perfect thick creamy yoghurt. You can find her blog and posts on that topic here. There has been a bit of discussion on my Facebook page about yoghurt making so I thought I should share that info here.

I use the yoghurt recipe from the Indian cookbook. There is also a popular coconut yoghurt recipe here on our Recipe Community.

Ingredients

1-1.5 litres full-cream or hi-lo milk (not skim milk) 2 to 3 Tbsp natural live yoghurt – this is your “starter” culture. Use the best quality one you can find.

• Heat milk 10 minutes/80°C/Speed 2. (Milk that reaches 80°C for 15 seconds is pasteurised.) Leave milk to cool until 37°C
• Add yoghurt starter to the milk. Mix 5 seconds/Speed 3.
• Heat 10 minutes/37°C/Speed 2. As soon as the yoghurt is finished, pour it into the pre-warmed  thermoserver, put the lid on and leave to set for 6 to 14 hours.
• Once the yoghurt is set, it can be used immediately or refrigerated (remove from thermos first) for up to 5 days.

The most important things to remember are:

• When you are cooling the yoghurt, wait until the 37 degree light goes OFF, as if you are watching the temperature drop and see the 50 degree light go off and the 37 degree light come on, that actually means the temperature is 49 degrees and this will kill your live cultures. So wait till the 37 light goes off and then you add your culture and warm it back up to 37 for 2 minutes. 
• Pre-warm your thermoserver before you pour the yoghurt in. I put my oven on the lowest heat while I am heating my milk, with my thermoserver inside. Then when the milk is ready to rest after you have added the cultures and mixed/heated it again, pour it into your warmed thermoserver, then wrap the thermoserver in a nice warm towel/tea towel (an old baby blanket works perfectly!) and place into your cosy warm oven. Turn the oven off though...you just want a nice warm cosy environment, not too hot or you will kill the live cultures

You can let your yoghurt sit in here for 6-14 hours. It will thicken up a little more once you chill it in the fridge. You can also drain the whey from the yoghurt to thicken it up, by lining your varoma dish with some cheesecloth or a clean chux cloth, putting your yoghurt on top and sitting the varoma dish on top of your Thermoserver until the yoghurt has thickened up to your liking. Or let it drain overnight and the result will be yoghurt 'cheese'.

Keep the whey you drain away....that lovely, thick, golden liquid can be used in many ways. Have a read here at The Prairie Homestead for ideas on how to use whey.

I flavour my yoghurt with either a vanilla bean paste and honey mix, or with a teaspoon (per serving) of any home made jam or lemon butter. This way we can have a different flavour yoghurt each time we eat it, plus I know what is in the flavouring as I made it myself. It also means you have lots of plain natural yoghurt to use for cakes, dips, curry etc

Making your own yoghurt is one of the best money saving features of owning a Thermomix and if you go through a few litres of yoghurt a week you can save around $8/week just on yoghurt!

Don't be scared! Give it a go!! My first yoghurt batch was quite runny but still edible, but when I tried again with the above two tips I found it has been perfect every time.

How often do you use your Thermomix?

I often get asked this question, and its not the first time I have posted about this...but today I thought back over the day and realised HOW MANY things I made and used my Thermomix for and it still amazes me.

Grated cheese
Made 1 litre of yoghurt
Weighed all my ingredients ready for my demo at lunchtime
Completed a full Thermomix demo menu:

• sorbet
• dip
• bread
• salad
• risotto
• custard

Chopped all my veggies for dinner, and cooked Beef Chow Mein
Weighed and cooked rice
Made 2 litres of almond milk
Made a chocolate energy drink from raw organic cacao with the almond milk
Made strawberry coulis for my yoghurt (which will be ready in the morning)

AND....I still have more energy...I may even knock out a chocolate custard when the kids go to bed!

Almond Milk and Almond Smooshy Stuff...nothing goes to waste with a Thermomix!

I recently went to a Raw Organic Chocolate making workshop, which I've mentioned on my Facebook page. One of the recipes we tested was making a highly potent raw chocolate energy drink, which is dairy and sugar free. It uses nut milk as the base along with other ingredients (if you would like the recipe just contact me and I can send it to you, its in our newsletter for August). So of course I stocked up on ingredients and made my own almond milk yesterday using this recipe from Farmer K's Kitchen.

Once you make your almond milk, which with a Thermomix takes all of 2 minutes and only 100g of almonds to make 1L of milk, you are left with what can only be described as almond 'smoosh'!! So not wanting to be wasteful and knowing the nutty goodness I had before me, I decided to wack this into some chocolate muffins and test it out. OH.....MY........GOODNESS!!!!!!!!! They were divine!

Here is my rough recipe for those of you playing at home (adapted from EDC)

Choc Chip Muffins with Almond Smoosh

150g self raising flour
150g almond smoosh
180g milk
150g raw sugar
2 eggs
50g olive oil
100g choc chips
2 TB cocoa powder

Put all ingredients in (except choc chips) and mix 20 seconds speed 4 (or until just combined).
Add choc chips and mix on reverse speed 4 for a few seconds until combined
Spoon into muffin papers and cook 180c for 20 mins or until cooked.

Voila!!

Chicken, Bacon & Mushroom Risotto | Thermomix recipes

My sister once gave me a beautiful chicken, bacon and mushroom risotto recipe, passed to her from her boyfriend who was a chef. It has always been one of our favourites and one of the few meals I could cook really well and be delicious every time (prior to getting my Thermomix!).

So naturally, it was the first recipe I tried to 'convert' as a new Thermomix owner. Risotto was one of the main selling points for me when it came to considering a Thermomix...and when you can make it in 17 minutes with NO STIRRING then its pretty hard to walk away from!

Here it is for you to enjoy. Tweak it however you like but I think its pretty spesh! For those of you already on my mailing list, this is in our team newsletter for this month. If you would like to get on the list let me know, as we have some great tips and recipes each month.

Chicken, Bacon & Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts (or 3 thigh) diced 2cm cubes

150g diced bacon

6 button mushrooms

100g white wine

1100g water

2Tb veggie stock from EDC

50g olive oil

350-400g arborio rice

small onion

1 garlic clove

a few basil leaves chopped

50g parmesan (grate this first and keep aside to top risotto)

Method:

1.      Grate parmesan 10 sec speed 9 and set aside

2.      Chop onion and garlic 2-3 sec speed 6

3.      Scrape down sides, add oil, bacon, and cook for 2-3 minutes, reverse speed 1, 100c with MC off

4.      Insert butterfly, add rice & wine and cook 2 mins speed reverse + soft, 100c

5.      Add chicken pieces, 4 mins, speed reverse + soft, 100c and cook until white all over (will not be cooked all the way through but the stock will cook the rest)

6.      Add stock paste, mushrooms, basil, water (up to max capacity marker). Cook 20 mins**, reverse + soft, 100c until all stock absorbed and rice is to your liking (soft or al dente). Add any remaining water through top after around 15 minutes cooking time.

7.      Transfer to your Thermoserver and top with parmesan. 

Really nice accompanied with steamed vegies in winter or a salad in summer.

Recipe contributed by Natalie Sanderson

Thermomix Tips

It seems everyone you speak to has some kind of handy hints and ideas that you haven't yet come across, or that you didn't pick up at your demo, so I thought that every so often I would share 10 tips for getting more out of your Thermomix.

Would love you to comment or leave a post on my Nat's Thermomixen in the Kitchen facebook page if you have some more.

• Spatula
this is to be used clockwise to avoid nicks. If you are left handed, purchase an inexpensive spatula for removing food from the bottom of the bowl.
• Cracking eggs
don't crack your eggs on the side of the bowl, as the eggwhite can run down the side and cook onto the bowl making it difficult to clean
• Getting food out from under the blades
to get more food out than your spatula can reach, flick the speed up to 10 or press Turbo to flick out the last little bits of food to the side of the bowl, then scrape out again
• Condensing liquid
when making jams or casseroles you can put your steaming basket on top of the lid to allow extra steam to escape but stop food from splattering out the top
• Peeling garlic here is a link to how to peel garlic in your Thermomix
• Weighing
you can weigh things part way through cooking. Say for example you are cooking your pasta sauce and forgot to pre-weigh your pasta. Simply turn the dial to the closed lid position, press the scales and weigh your items, then turn the dial back to the speed you were previously on, and Thermomix will remember the temperature and time remaining and resume cooking from there...genius!
• Varoma - the Varoma is FANTASTIC for reheating food, better than your microwave as it doesn't toughen the food as it reheats. Simply put your liquid in the bowl and set the time and varoma temp, put your bowl of food to be reheated inside the varoma tray and there you have it. I will quite often cook my rice and at the same time am reheating some kind of meat sauce in the varoma.
• Varoma - this can be used to sterilise baby bottles, dummys, toys etc.
• Varoma - I sometimes use this to heat my plates or my Thermoserver before use - when the Varoma is going I place my Thermoserver metal bowl on top of the Varoma lid and this takes the chill off the Thermoserver. If I'm not using this, I put 2 dinner plates on top and they are nice and warm ready to plate up. 

What can you add to the list?

Lemons & Thermomix

I have been dreaming of a lemon tree with an abundance of lemons ever since Maude the Thermomix came to live with us last year. 

My sister very kindly delivered two HUGE shopping bags full of lemons to me yesterday, so now I am overloaded and have been storing lemon recipes like there is no tomorrow! Have a look at the size of THIS lemon...I have never seen one so big before!!

The first one I tried was Lemon Butter or Lemon Curd from the EDC. I have to say...one of the EASIEST recipes ever, only 8 minutes to cook and you only need 2 lemons to make a whole jar. Well worth a try, quite impressive as a gift too...particularly if you find some cute free labels to print off and stick to your jars. 

Here are some labels you can download for free:

Eat Drink Chic

sabjimatablog.com

I posted a recipe for Lemony Lemon Brownies here:

And here are some great recipes for using lemons that I found on the Recipe Community website

Lemon & Raspberry Tarts

Lemon & Coconut Brownies

Tangy Lemon Cheesecake

Chicken & Lemon Risotto

Lemon Chicken Parcels 

(in the Varoma. From UK Thermomix website)

Would love to hear your favourites!

Mocha Custard | Recipes for your Thermomix

I had been thinking and thinking about trying a Mocha Custard in my Thermomix for some time, seeing as though custard is one of the recipes we make at least 3 times a week in our house (and truth be told, one of the main reasons my husband was sold on the Thermomix!)...so I finally gave it a go.

Oh.....my......GOSH!!!


So after trying vanilla custard, lemon custard, orange custard, chocolate custard, jaffa custard, caramel custard and my 2 year old's idea for...wait for it....FAIRY custard (pink food colouring in the vanilla custard with 100s and 1000s on top)...I now have a new favourite - MOCHA.


100g sugar
50g flour
2 heaped spoons of cocoa
2 eggs
480g milk
1 shot of espresso coffee 


Cook for 7 mins, 90c speed 4

Try it...you will love it!

What other flavours am I yet to discover? Leave a comment below

Home made pasta sauce

So today is one of those rainy-stay-in-your-pjs-till-lunchtime days, perfect for making pasta sauce!

I am no expert, and this is my own personal way of doing it...if you like it feel free to give it a go. 


Easiest...pasta....sauce.....EVER!!

I basically used up most of the veggies in my crisper to make this.

4 stalks of celery

2 carrots

1 green capsicum

a few floret of cauliflower

1 onion

2 tins of chopped tomatoes (cheaper per kilo than fresh right now)

fresh basil, chives & parsley from the herb garden

2 TB vegetable stock paste from EDC

1/2 cup red wine

Chop veggies and fill bowl, speed 6 for 10-20 seconds until minced up. Then add 2 x tins tomato, veggie paste & a splash of red wine.

Cook 100c, speed 1 for 30 mins.

After cooking taste and season if it needs anything extra

Turn slowly to speed 6, then speed 9 for 30 seconds (do this slowly so it doesn't spit out the top and burn you)

And there you have it! I managed to make 2 litres of sauce with 6 veggies and red wine in 30 minutes while I got to sit down...all for around $2.80 which is less than 60c per jar. See how a Thermomix SAVES YOU MONEY??

We usually use this sauce to make pasta bake with some grated cheese and breadcrumbs finished off in the oven for a quick and tasty vegetarian meal the kids love. Try it!!

Chicken & Brocoli Fettucine | Thermomix Recipes

One of our friends, a very new Thermomix owner, posted her first recipe to the Recipe Community recently and got quite a huge response! 

Her recipe....Chicken & Brocoli Fettucine. So far it has had a whopping 3818 views, and even got a mention on the Thermomix in Australia official Facebook page!!

A great one to try!!

Thermomix recipes | Easy LCM bars

Easiest recipe ever for a favourite kid's snack...

130g rice bubbles
80g butter
200g white marshmallows

Melt butter and marshmallows on temp 80 speed 4. Then add rice bubbles and mix until combined on Reverse speed 1
Spread into a lined pan and refridgerate.
Cut into bars once solid.
Hide in the pantry and eat them before the kids see....wait, that bit is just for me!

Making playdough in the Thermomix

The Thermomix isn't just for food!!

Thermomix Playdough

Ingredients:

250g Water

100g Cooking Salt

1 Tablespoon Cream of Tartar

280g Plain Flour

15ml Cooking Oil

Food Colouring
Glitter (optional)

Preparation:

Add all ingredients except flour (and glitter) into bowl. Heat for 5 minutes at 60o on speed 3.

After cooking, add flour (and glitter if wanted) and mix for 40 seconds or until mixture is combined

Add oil and knead for 1 minute on knead.

Tips/Hints:

Store in an airtight container to keep dough from drying out.

Freezing Fresh Herbs

Since I have had my Thermomix I have had an uncontrollable desire to start a herb garden. So last week, baby strapped to my chest and toddler in hand, I pushed a gigantuan trolley around Bunnings and picked some small herbs to get my little garden started. 

I started off with just a few...

Parsley

Mint

Basil

Chives

Rosemary

and used a tall glossy black pot I have been using to grow weeds in the corner of my patio area for sometime been saving to use for my herb garden. 

So I planted. Three days later they were already starting to shoot up and then I realised I was going to have to harvest some of these herbs...so I took my not so green thumb and hit Google. Here I learnt that you can freeze fresh herbs. Ok some of you probably knew that already, but for the rookie gardeners like myself...this is what I did.

I pinched off some of the larger leaves/stalks/sprigs and snipped the chives down about half way. 

Rinsed them under some cold water and patted dry between layers of paper towel.

Popped them into some snaplock bags, flattened them to squeeze the air out.

Clipped the snaplock bags to the front of one of my freezer door shelves with a bulldog clip to keep them hanging so they don't get damaged.

So there you go! Fresh frozen herbs always on hand. Easy!

I think when I have a decent amount of basil I will make a nice Basil & Walnut pesto...more on that later. 

Oh crumbs! | Making breadcrumbs in the Thermomix

I always said I wasn't going to be one of those Mums who cut the crusts off her kids sandwiches, and remember as a little girl my Dad always getting annoyed that we 'wasted' the end bits of the loaf of bread. 

But here I am, 3 small children later and I find myself cutting the crusts off so that they eat more of the bread and don't just bite a hole out of the centre of their sandwhich! And worse still, throwing away the crusts at the end of the loaf...every time. 

Until....I fell in love with Thermy. Now Thermy is my conscience, and doesn't let me waste ANY kind of food, including the crusts. So I save them in the freezer and when I get at least 4 pieces of crust I whiz them up into my own homemade breadcrumbs.

Breadcrumbs:

4 slices of bread or crusts

20g olive oil

dried or fresh herbs of your choice

salt & pepper to taste

1. Break each slice of bread into quarters
2. Add oil, herbs and seasoning
3. Mix on speed 8 for 6-10 seconds (depending on the consistency you like, either fine or a bit chunky)
4. Taste to see if you want to add any more seasoning
5. Spoon into a snaplock bag, squeeze out all the air and store flat in your freezer ready for use

It's that simple. It takes less than a few minutes and when you have them ready made in your freezer you find lots of ways to add them to dishes for a bit of extra crunch!

Use them for chicken nuggets, schnitzels, arancini balls, on top of pasta bakes, add to soups/meatloaf/meatballs/sausage rolls, coat fish before frying, etc...you name it!

Store them in the fridge for 2 weeks, or up to 6 weeks in the freezer.

Sticky Date Pudding

Ingredients

Sticky Date Pudding
210 g Dates, seeded 
260 g boiling water 
1 tsp bi-carb soda 
100 g brown sugar 
60 g Butter 
2 eggs 
140 g SR Flour, or Plain with 1 tsp of baking powder 
Caramel Sauce
140 g brown sugar 
100 g Butter 
250 g cream 
1 tsp vanilla essence 

Preparation

Sticky Date Pudding

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease 20cm square tin or a muffin tray.

Combine dates, boiling water and soda in . Let stand for 5 minutes

Add sugar and butter to mixture and process on speed 6 - 7 for 10 seconds until dates are chopped.

Scrape down and add flour first, then eggs and and process on speed 4 - 5 for 5 seconds at a time until combined.

Pour into prepared tin or large muffin cups. (Makes 9 large muffins)

Bake for 15 - 17 minutes in a moderate oven for muffins and 20 - 25 for larger tin. Stand for 5 minutes before turning out.

Caramel Sauce

2.

Place all into TM bowl and cook on 80C, speed 1 for 2 minutes unti butter has melted.

Cook for another 3 minutes, speed 3-4. Sauce will thicken on standing. 

Taken from Thermomix Recipe Community