On the ninth day of Solstice, my Thelma gave to me

10 great gift ideas! This was inspired by a post I saw on a blog where the suggestions seemed a little bit off my radar - truffle oil? Why would I want that? I use it to drizzle on eggs or add it as an extra to a dressing or dipping oil, rather than an ingredient in things. Maybe I'm using it wrong?

This was actually inspired by a post over at My Kitchen Robot, not the one that I originally linked to but as Helene has commented about this post not the other one, I've just crossed out of what I wrote. Capiche? I'm confused, I don't know about you.

I've made a few of these as well ;). Here are 10 things that you could make with a Thermomix:

1. Raw truffles, truffles, rumballs, apricot balls, etc etc. So many options so you can find something that suits people who are gluten intolerant, nut allergic, dairy reluctant, low fat, high chocolate.
2. Vanilla sugar. There is a recipe in the EDC but mine was to use 3 vanilla beans and 600g of raw sugar, processed at speed 8 until it resembled sand. Bottle, label, share, use.
3. Lemon butter. Again, there is a recipe in the EDC and I did post about it when I made a lot of it.
4. Spice mixes - so many options to try! Sweet (cinnamon and cloves and sugar), spicy (chilli and pepper and cardamom), warm (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger), lemon salt rub, garam masala style, Moroccan.
5. Spicy tea mix - chai perhaps?
6. Anything that would freeze well, and fill someone's freezer with goodness. It could be sorbet, or some stroganoff, or something else yummy and your signature dish!
7. Vegetable stock concentrate is often requested and I can usually trade a jar for a dozen eggs, or a small favour.
8. Dukkah! I love it and the EDC recipe makes a lot but I use it as a rub for vegetables and meat as well.
9. Spinach pesto - use the last of the spinach in the garden to make, instead of basil, to bottle some
10. Jam or sauce with whatever fruit is around. Citrus, berries, stonefruit are all in season and so suited for bottling! You can also preserve it under a sugar syrup, if you want to use the Thermomix but want to use the lovely fruit whole.

On the eighth day of Solstice my Thelma made for me

Cake

A lot of things! I got up at 6am this morning (ugh) and made chocolate cake for my housemate's birthday. I made a double batch of the chocolate cake out of the EDC so I could make cupcakes for TheHusband as well, and it really wasn't a huge batch of cake. Which was odd given the huge amount of butter in it. It was a delicious cake though, with a simple ganache over the top (also from the EDC).

Biscuits

I then made biscuits. I used the chocolate chip recipe out the EDC but put 100g of seeds in with the sugar so that they got creamed in with the sugar and butter. I then added 100g of sultanas at the end and made do without chocolate chips, which I don't like much anyway. I did end up overprocessing the biscuits which had two effects - the butter started to melt so the texture was gross when handling them, and it made the biscuits almost shortbread in texture. Interesting.

Bread

I then put bread in to rise.

Bread recipe that's the best one so far
270g warm water
1 small palm sized collection of raw sugar
15g olive oil
Pinch of salt
500g bread mix, bread flour, flours
2tsp yeast

Assemble in that order in the bowl. Mix for 30 seconds at speed 4-5. Lock lid and knead for 2.5 minutes. I'm not sure if mine needs this long because it's an "ancient grains" mix so lower in gluten, but without this kneading it's like a brick. Leave it in the bowl until it peaks out of the top hole (or set aside in a warm spot to double in size, if you need the jug!). Lock lid and knead for another 2 minutes. Shape into a loaf and put into a cold oven, set to 200C, for 30 minutes or until baked (sounds hollow when rapped on the bottom). 

Vanilla sugar

and playdough
I packed up after mixing the dough, and went to the amazing My Kitchen Robot's house to make things and hang out with my mama tribe. I can hardly call it a "mothers group" when it's more of a tribe than a group. It's the best part of my week most weeks and this time we met at a house. I whipped up vanilla sugar (3 very dried out beans, 600g raw sugar, whizz up and voila! another gift done!) and then made faildough, which was made (a) with the same recipe (b) at the same time and (c) within metres of MKR's deliciously soft and doughy dough, and mine was like, well, putty. Nearly dried out putty. Though I did use different flour, and I used tartaric acid rather than cream of tartar, so that's probably the reason. I'm going to make ornaments out of mine today I think.

Soup

After that, I whipped up soup for 8+ people in 20 minutes. I used the Moroccan Lentil soup but didn't have lentils so added a large tin of 4 bean mix and it was delicious!! It was nommed up with gusto by children and adults alike, and went well with the bread I made while the soup was souping.

So you can just see my car can't you - 3 bags of clothes for someone who's expecting a babe in the new year but didn't get to the clothes swap the other week, a jar of lemon butter to swap for eggs, my picnic basket with flour, food colouring, an onion, premeasured spices for the soup, a tin of beans, two of tomatoes, bits and pieces, Thelma all gravid with proving dough, my bag, my camera, Thermobaby's acoutrement (she travels light though), a sling or two, hat, water bottle etc etc. It might have looked like I'd left home and was moving in.

At least I brought food!

Though TheHusband tells me that when he got home and there was no wife, no babe, and no Thelma - he momentarily thought the worst! That I'd left home and taken all that was important with him ;).

The view, sounds and energy of two dueling Thermomixes on My Kitchen Robot's benchtop was a sight to behold though. It was momentarily confusing to hear one working away, and the other chiming completeness, and both MKR and I had confused looks because we could hear/see our own working but were compelled to answer the chime as well! Mr MKR wasn't sure what to make of it all though when he got home, but I think seeing a happy MKR and fed people made sense to him.

On the third day of Solstice, my Thelma made eggy custard for me!

Anyone else struggle just a bit with how "eggy" the EDC custard is? I do. I don't mind it but given that TheHusband and I eat a whole serve of it, that's a whole egg each which does seem to be a lot of egg. And even with less cornflour the custard is still really eggy.

So next time I'll reduce it to:

Vanilla custard
1 egg
500mL full cream milk
80g sugar
1/2tsp of the best vanilla paste possible
35g cornflour

Put all of these in the jug. Cook for 8 minutes on speed 6, at 90 degrees. It will change tune a couple of times and that is really awesome to listen to!

On the second day of Solstice my Thelma made (muffins) for me!

Oh how I love muffins. Once upon a time I was muffin on the precursor to chat because I (a) adore muffins and (b) make really good ones. Here is my adaptation for the Thermomix. Keep in mind that this is a very "loose" recipe. In this case, I adapted what I was making to what was in my fridge and the flours I was using. The recipe in the EDC is pretty good so don't be afraid of using it if you can't follow this or don't have some of the ingredients.

Apple and sultana muffins
2 apples (I used Granny Smith), cored and quartered
50g sultanas
150g raw sugar
150g plain white flour
170g plain spelt flour
2tsp baking powder
175g milk
2T yoghurt (I used Greek)
2 eggs

Put the apple in the bowl. Add the sugar and process for 4-5 seconds on speed 6 until the apple is in slivers. Add everything else and process on reverse on speed 5 for 15 seconds. Do not over process as it makes the muffins chewy! Have a peak at it as it goes around - it should look like Bircher muesli / oatmeal at this stage. Add a bit more milk or yoghurt if it needs to be thinner, and a bit more flour if it's too runny. Spoon into muffin cases and bake at 190C for 12-15 minutes (check a skewer is clean on skewering them before taking them out). Cool on a rack or eat them hot!

Oh yum. So good. Good to freeze, will keep for a week in an airtight container, and easy to adapt. Swap the apple and sultana for another fruit. Add spice. Add chocolate chips. Enjoy!

And now for my second love - savoury muffins. There is nothing quite as good as these to take for lunch, for having something savoury at a party instead of bread, for splitting in half and stuffing bits of cheese into etc etc. Again, a very flexible recipe - I've done tomato and capsicum, ham and cheese, salmon and dill, and so on. These freeze really well and I make giant ones when I'm on placement so I can take one or two with me as well as a tin of tuna or something protein-y. Now that I have a Thermomix I can do it quickly and easily.

Spring onion and cheese muffins
100g cheese (I used tasty but anything hard would be fine)
2 spring onions, cut into 2" pieces (trim off the root end)
150g plain white flour170g plain spelt flour
2tsp baking powder
200g milk
4T yoghurt (I used Greek)
2 eggs
1tsp seeded mustard

Put the cheese in the bowl after cutting it into 1" cubes. Process for 3-5 seconds on speed 6 until it's in 1cm pieces. Add the spring onion and process for a few more seconds. Add the rest of the ingredients and process on reverse on speed 5 for 15 seconds. Do not over process as it makes the muffins chewy! Have a peak at it as it goes around - it should look like Bircher muesli / oatmeal at this stage but probably won't as you haven't got the sugar in there. Add a bit more milk if it needs to be thinner, and a bit more flour if it's too runny. Spoon into muffin cases and bake at 190C for 12-15 minutes (check a skewer is clean on skewering them before taking them out). Cool on a rack or eat them hot!

On the first day of Solstice, my Thelma made for me

On Forum Thermomix I posted:

I have 14 very juicy lemons...
So please, lend me your lemon recipes!!! for things that I can preserve. Or else that's a lot of lemon butter Wink Grin.

So I've used up a few things:
14 eggs
7 lemons
Lots of sugar
More butter than you need to know about

= 10 jars of lemon butter so far. Plus some extra for a smidge of a jar that is in the fridge for me. I really hope that this will help spread a bit of Solstice cheer around my lovely friends.

To sum up my approach to this season, here's a post I put elsewhere:

We hold our traditions strongly - celebrate the Solstice with food and candles and wishes for the new year, then Christmas day we volunteer in the morning as a family, and have an open house for waifs and orphans in the afternoon/evening with lots of food and drinks, and a Colin Firth marathon starting with Love, Actually. 

Probably the least "trad" way of celebrating but we've done it 5 years running now and love it. Low cost, low stress, genuine and sincere celebration of what Christmas means to us, and uniquely ours ;). This is my daughter's first and I can't wait to share it with her.

Part of it is also to cook and make many of the gifts we give at this time of the year. This year it'll be a lot of Thelma-assisted ones too.

Salad days

While I mean it in the literal sense of the word, salad days means something completely different:

"Salad days" is an idiomatic  expression, referring to a youthful time, accompanied by the inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism, innocence, or indiscretion that one associates with a young person. More modern use, especially in the United States, refers to a person's heyday when somebody was at the peak of his/her abilities—not necessarily in that person's youth.

I mean it literally - it's been hot and strangely muggy here in Adelaide this week, and now it's damp, a little rainy and cool again. I did take the opportunity this morning to make guacemole from the EDC and then the beetroot salad which is (a) a mainstay of an demo and (b) absofreakingdelicious and (c) perfect for using some of my FoodConnect box which was positively flush with beetroot this week!

Beetroot is so amazing and fabulous to eat raw but there are so few easy ways to do so. Beetroot is a pain to work with but the Thermomix makes short work of it. Perhaps that's the best thing about the Thermomix - it makes food that is otherwise inaccessible much more accessible!

Cake! Stunning cake! Lemon poppyseed in this case.

I made a cake this morning before an Australian Breastfeeding Association meeting. I made a lemon-poppyseed cake (thin-skinned lemons with lots of juice) which was delicious and still warm when I got to the meeting. I didn't make the icing in the Tmx but it was so.good. that I licked the bowl out.

Lemon-poppyseed cake
Rind of one lemon - dry it on paper towel so it doesn't just stick to the edges
250g raw sugar
1/2tsp of the best vanilla extract you can get your hands on
175g butter
4 bantam eggs and 1 humungous egg (or else 3 normal-sized eggs)
60g milk
Juice of the lemon
250g selfraising flour
30g poppyseeds
A pinch of cinnamon

Icing
75g white chocolate dots
1T sour cream
A drop or two of vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 175C. Spray a cake tin - I used a circular one from Ikea with hearts on it! Place the rind and sugar in the Tmx and process for 5-10 seconds at speed 7. Add the butter and eggs and process for 15 seconds at speed 6 if the butter is straight out of the fridge. You should cut it into small pieces if this is the case so it processes easily. Add the juice by squeezing the lemon onto the top of the Tmx lid when the MC is in place - this catches the seeds! Sweep the seeds off before you open the lid though. Add the flour and cinnamon, and mix for 30 seconds at speed 4. Add the poppyseeds and mix for an extra few seconds to incorporate. Pour into cake tin and bake for 45 minutes. Check that it's cooked then cool before icing.

To make the icing - melt the buttons in the microwave (takes about a minute). Add the sour cream and the vanilla, stir well and drizzle over the cooled cake. I did it over still-warm cake and it was fine.

This was inspired by the EDC book but is not quite the same as I'd heard the crumb wasn't particularly fabulous with that recipe (it used plain flour and baking powder, and I also adjusted the process to reduce the speed as the recipe goes on).

Keeps for a few days if it lasts that long. Lem

The good thing about making a feast...

Is that even when guests don't turn up, it's still a feast.

I made risotto with a few springs of asparagus and some amazing organic tomatoes from Food Connect Adelaide. From the EDC so nothing exciting there. I made, before that, a gremolata - amazing garnish that is parsley and lemon inspired:

Gremolata
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 clove of garlic
A small bunch of parsley, with the stalks cut off
Olive oil
Salt

Put the zest and garlic in the TMX and process for 3 seconds on 8. Scrape down the edges, fish out the biggest bits of zest and put aside for something else. Like a risotto - it is fabulous! Add the parsley and a dash of oil and process for 3 seconds on 5. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt. On reverse, mix together for a few seconds. Scrape out and use as a garnish on whatever you like! Also great on flatbreads after baking, with more olive oil, or through pasta as a quick and easy dinner.

And toasted some pine nuts, fried some veal/pork mince with fresh ginger and some chilli sauce, and made bread.

I have lemons, lovely lemons...

And what does one do with lemons when one has them? I picked a heap of a friend's tree the other day and now I need to do things with them.

There are two parts to a lemon of course - the zesty goodness and the juice/flesh. So I think I'll do something with both. That means making limoncello and lemon cordial I think! Or maybe orange-lemon cordial?

TheHusband test drove the chicken and cashew recipe EDC tonight. Nothing exciting to be honest but some great techniques there for making rice and using the Varoma.

Scones! Rock! Yum!

Made the EDC scones today as I popped over to a friend's house at short notice and wanted to take something.

They were delicious!

The EDC cookbook is a really great place to start I'm finding. Highly recommend reading it and trying everything in it. I intend on :).

The hardest thing about using a Thermomix for making dinner...

is that everything in the Thermocauldron takes minutes and it takes an hour to bake the lasagne.

Tonight I made bechemal sauce. It took 7 minutes. 8 if you count from wo to go and weighing. It is like a plain custard and is just as good.

Yes, I did eat some out of the jug with a spoon.

I made bread this morning and well. It is delicious and I got a loaf and 8 rolls out of the batch. This is way too much for my little family atm so I will halve the recipe next time.

And on Saturday we...

Baked: bread is a'rising right now. I used my standard recipe from the breadmaker days - heh that'd be last weekend as the breadmaker bit the dust on Sunday night! and I needed to add an extra 20g of flour to get it to come together as a ball in the TMX. So my bread recipe is:

Bread recipe #1
240g water
370g breadmix
1tsp plus a pinch of yeast
15g olive oil
pinch of salt

Add ingredients in that order to the Tmx bowl. Process on speed 7 for 5 seconds. Lock lid and knead for 90 seconds. Turn out dough and wrap it in a silicone mat, eaving it for 20-30 minutes. Shape, brush with water, and put in a cold oven at 180C for 25 minutes.

Breakfasted: This morning TheHusband made himself steelcut oats and shared the recipe as well:

Steelcut oats
1/3rd C steelcut oats
1C water
1 pinch of salt

Put these in the bowl and cook at Varoma temperature for 20 minutes on speed 4 on reverse. Enjoy.

Icecreamed: And I just whipped the icecream that I made the other day, a la EDC, so that we can have it for dessert tonight. It doesn't make very much in the end does it? 500g of icecream isn't 500mL even, so the L tub I had was a little bare. I made it with some AMAZING vanilla from Vanilla Online so it has little caviar running around in it.

Steel cut oats, and a salad

TheHusband made steel cut oats into porridge this morning. He starts work early, and it just got earlier as he changes to 6:30am starts next week, and has quite a physical job so needs a wholesome breakfast and steel cut oats are the best.

He used the EDC recipe for porridge but cooked for 20 minutes. This cooked them perfectly. He started following the porridge recipe but steel cut oats take much longer to cook so it's not surprising that it needed much longer!

I made a salad today but it was a flop - the piece of Ginger I had was too large so hthe salad was hot and unpleasant. Shame as it was all veges.

Pumpkin scones and pizza dough

Today saw me whip up some pumpkin scones in the Thermocauldron. They worked really well. I'll share the recipe when I get a chance. It's an Aunt Flo one though, in case you're dying for it rightnow!!

ETA: now's my chance! So I took Aunt Flo's recipe and turned it into this:

Pumpkin scones
20g butter (1T in the recipe)
110g castor sugar (1/2C in the recipe)
a pinch of salt
1 egg
300g cold mashed pumpkin (1C in recipe)
380g self-raising flour (2C in recipe)

Preheat a very hot over (220-230C). Weigh the pumpkin, cut the peel off, dice, steam, and cool - so I started with 300g and ended up with 260g or so. Put it in the Thermomix and process of speed 6 for a few seconds to mash. Add the rest of the ingredients. Process at speed 4 for 3 seconds. Keep in mind that the worst thing you can do for scones is over process them! Lock the lid and knead for 30 seconds. Turn the dough out onto a silicone mat, smoosh flat to about an inch thick, use the spatula to divide into scone-sized blobs and pop into the oven for about 12 minutes.

I have taken to making notes in my EDC cook book about banal things like the weight, roughly, of an egg yolk. This is because I have access to some bantam eggs which are teeny tiny and I'll need a few to equal an egg yolk from a normal size chicken. I'm typing this not at my computer (in bed actually) so can't remember how much is weighed but as the rest if the recipe is usually by weight, I should keep note of this.

I also made the ragut and another risotto, so have lunches for the week. TheHusband likes leftovers too so that the meals serve 4 easily means we can cook our way out of spending money on lunches.

Speaking of which - TheHusband made pizza dough tonight. He had a ball doing it and said it was easy, and the hardest thing was cleaning up. He said it slightly more emotively than that though!

And on the third day, there was oatmeal

One thing I will say about the EDC is that some of the recipes need a lot of tweaking. None of them indicate how many it serves either.

This morning TheHusband made oatmeal, and so did I when I got up later. It was delish! But would easily serve 4 people so it's a bit if overkill for 2 of us. We prefer to use steel cut oats though so will have to experiment there.

Tonight for dinner I whipped up a chicken and broccoli curry. I made a few tweaks - no coriander as I detest it, no curry leaves in the house, used chilli bamboo shoots instead. The chicken ended up tender and stringy and it was really good. A definite tick here.

Oh Thelma! You came and you made me a coffee...

Thelma arrived last night. My demonstrator is awesome, walked me through the first angst at maybe breaking/scratching/ruining it meal which we shared with TheSister and TheHouseguest. I made spinach risotto and it was so yummy that it got yummed up straight away. It fed 4 hungry souls and is out of the Everyday Cookbook so I won't repost here.

I took TheSister home, ran some errands, put the babe to bed and then made lemon custard. Which was yum as well. Also from the EDC. Also yummed up.

This morning I've made porridge (half serve from EDC - works great!) and coffee. My own invention. Less than 24 hours and I have invented a recipe! I'm sure it's been done before but hey, I thought about it and applied it to the TMX so gold star to me.

Coffee for one
1 scoop ground coffee*
100g water
100g milk

Put into the TMX, close lid, put in the measuring cup (MC)**.
Cook for 7 minutes on speed 4 at 80C.
Raise to speed 8 for 20 seconds.
Strain well through a fine seive and serve.

I can't see why this wouldn't be able to be multiplied for more people so coffee at my place?

* The same amount you'd use if you were making plunger coffee. You can grind your own - 1T coffee beans, speed 8, 20-30 seconds.
** That's kind of the Thermomix equivalent of any knitting pattern that says "Join in the round, taking care not to twist", isn't it?