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!