thermomix | mutteringhousewife

March 20, 2013

Vegetable Soup, yes in the Thermomix

I’m supposed to be doing recipes from the Thermomix book for the first week. This is a book that has recipes for apricot chicken and beef stroganoff. It’s a very patchy publication. So I’m not in the mood. But I’m picking stuff up, like how to start off a soup.

You chuck in a halved small onion. A smashed clove of garlic. Zap for ten seconds on speed seven. It won’t pulverise them, it will chop them up fairly severely. Put in a slice of butter. Mix for two minutes on hundred degrees on speed one. It just gets them to translucent. We need a verb for “put in Thermomix and add some settings”. I’ll ponder that for a bit.

Put in two tomatoes, cut in half. Cut in half four zucchinis that some kind person bought for you in the mistaken belief that they were cucumbers. Add them to the pot. Zap for ten seconds on speed seven. Add in a cup of frozen chicken stock and a tablespoon of that ultra salty Thermomix vegetable stock. I can’t bring myself to throw it out, so I may as well use tiny bits of it here and there. It can’t go in the compost, it would kill it. I was going to put in cauliflower, but I forgot. You could put in any vegetables really. Cook for twenty minutes at 100 degrees on speed one, which just moves it around. I put the steamer basket over the hole in the lid because I thought it could do with being reduced a bit.

It sounds cringingly healthy, but it was surprisingly tasty and satisfying. I didn’t even put cheese in it. It had a bit of body to it.

It made enough for two, so I’ll have it with toast for lunch tomorrow. I may have to follow it up with a chocolate bar, but at least I’m getting my lycopenes.

March 19, 2013

Deconstructed Sushi – in the Thermomix

I have used the Thermomix for all kinds of things in the five days I’ve had it. Not for dinner though. Tonight was the night. I’ve blogged about deconstructed sushi for dinner. It was the perfect proof of concept.

Normally this dinner involves cooking salmon wrapped in foil in the oven. Rice in the rice cooker. Omelette in the frying pan. And the rest is raw, so lets not bother with that. Here’s how you do it in the Thermomix.

Put the steamer basket in the Thermomix bowl. Press the scale button. Weigh three hundred grams of rice into the basket. Take the basket out. Weigh eight hundred grams of water into the bowl. Put the basket back over the water.

Place the lid on the bowl. Place the Varona basket over the lid. Put two slabs of salmon in the basket.

If you were cooking for anyone mildly adventurous, you could have whipped up some ginger, shallots and garlic prior to filling up the bowl with water, then rubbed it over the salmon. However. There’s a steamer plate for the Varona that goes over the basket. Line that with baking paper. Pour over a couple of eggs beaten with a bit of soy sauce and sugar. Curse a little as they drip over the edge of the paper because you’ve been a bit frugal with it. Bend the paper into more of a bowl shape.

Bung on the lid. Cook the lot for fifteen minutes at Varoma temperature on speed four.

Well, it all worked. Not sure how much I like the look of a steamed omelette, but it tastes fine. The salmon and rice were cooked properly. It sounds like a bit of palaver, but it’s just a stack of steamers, all of which go in the dishwasher, so hurrah from my washing up team who can have the night off.

Preparation time was about five minutes, cooking time fifteen, which I spent cutting up the raw veggies, so that could be the quickest dinner I’ve ever prepared. The machine is a little noisy for what it’s doing, which is just heating up and sloshing around water. And I don’t like the name Varoma. It doesn’t really reflect what the thing is, and sounds a bit like a feminine hygiene product. I guess it needs a name. Steamer? That’s almost as bad. OK, marketing is difficult. Minor quibbles really. This is definitely my preferred rice and fish preparation method from now on. Might stick to doing omelette in the frying pan, just for textural reasons. Yes, yes, I am having fun.

March 14, 2013

Eek, Thermomix

Not sure how to put this, so I’ll just come out and say it. I have a Thermomix. I didn’t buy it! My dear parents, avid readers of this blog, read between the lines and thought that despite all my protestations I might really like a Thermomix. So they bought me one, aided and abetted by my sister who has actually become a Thermomix consultant in the last few months. If you’re in Brisbane and Thermocurious, get in touch with Erin Williams.

A Thermomix doesn’t just arrive in a box, it is hand delivered by your local consultant. She sets it up, gives you a very thorough lesson in how to use it and in the process you make a vegetable stock concentrate. Let me tell you, Thermomix, it is too salty. Too salty. I don’t care if it prolongs the shelf life, I have a freezer. I’m going to make it again with maybe a third the salt. Apart from that, I had a very enjoyable morning indeed, tinged with a little guilt that she wasn’t the demonstrator for the original party that started me off. My demonstrator was very knowledgeable and interested in cooking herself, so we exchanged tips and stories and generally had quite the excellent time.

I am again astounded at what I won’t be needing in my kitchen any more. Scales. That metal steamer I do broccoli in. The rice cooker, which was on its last legs anyway. The coffee grinder. The milk foamer that goes with the Nespresso machine. I’m definitely going to keep using the KitchenAid for baking, but I won’t have to get the extra bowl I was planning to fork out for, a Thermomix can deal with egg whites like nobody’s business. I will probably keep making bread by hand, because I think it’s different every time and I like kneading. I will also keep using the blender if it ever comes back from holidays for Boost Juice purposes because I’ll allow the kids to use it, but they won’t be getting their sticky fingers on my Thermomix. I could probably cut down on my metal bowl collection and won’t need all three saucepans, but they’re a set and I’m pretty sure my parents bought me those too, about fifteen years ago.

So why am I not cooking things in it right now this very minute? Well, that is because I’m hanging out with the neighbour’s new puppy, Peppa, who was going to have to have a day all by herself if I didn’t come over. She is helping me out by chewing on the recipe book I’m flicking through.

You can make your own Nutella! I also rather like the look of the Chinese drinking porridge, very healthful. I am totally going to steam fish in the steamer thing that sits on the top. Sadly I think the first thing I’ll be cooking in it is pasta from the pasta shop for the kids dinner tonight, I’ll be going to parent teacher night with the Muffet, the Moose had tennis squads and the husband is playing soccer until late this evening. It’s tough to find a meal that will cater to all those needs. Actually, I could pulverise the Parmesan first, but you need to cut it up into chunks. Easier than hand grating it, I would imagine. No, locals, I don’t like the Parmesan from the IGA, I prefer the Kraft MilLel, it’s tangier, but you do have to grate it yourself.

So you will be hearing a little bit, from time to time, about Thermomix from me. If that doesn’t interest you, talk among yourselves until I get a sewing project going or go on holidays or something. The consultant almost had me convinced that I also need the Thermomix insulated bowl that you keep rice warm in, or make yoghurt in. Maybe I do need one. The catch is that they won’t just sell you one. You have to have a party. I don’t suppose any of you want to come to a Thermomix party? I’m thinking a Friday morning. You get lunch. And they really don’t hard sell, but they do plant a seed that lodges in your brain and starts burrowing, burrowing…

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October 30, 2012

Blender Strawberry Sorbet

I may have to do a section on Anything Thermomix Can Do I Can do Almost As Well And A Little Bit Slower. Those of you who are paying attention know that I attended a Thermomix demo yesterday. One of the dishes prepared was a strawberry sorbet, and it struck me that this is the kind of thing you could do in a blender. So this morning I got me a punnet of strawberries and gave it a whack.

The first thing to note is that the Thermomix (or TM as they refer to it in their cookbooks, makes it sound more jolly) jug is two litres, while a random blender you’ve dug out of the corner cupboard has a capacity of about six hundred millilitres. To make strawberry sorbet in a TM you chuck in a hundred grams of icing sugar (which you can actually make in the TM), a punnet of strawberries, the white of an egg and about a litre of ice. The blender has the power of twelve jumbo jets, or a classroom of five year olds or something, and turns your ingredients into sorbet in seconds. I did find it a little dilute, but you needed that amount of ice to make the sorbet instant.

So into my blender went a hundred grams of icing sugar, the white of an egg and a punnet of strawberries. That kept it occupied for about a minute, but it all blended up in the end and I poured half the result out into another bowl. I added about three hundred millilitres of crushed ice and switched it on. I can’t believe how much I’ve used the ice function of the fridge I bought as part of my new kitchen last year, I was a determined pooh-pooher from a long way back and just got it to humour the kids. Anyway, while making some fairly disturbing noises the blender quite suddenly transformed the stuff into a slushy sorbet after about two minutes of hard work. I poured that out, and, fancying myself as a scientist, put the ice in first this time followed by the strawberry mix to see how that would work out. It was better the first way, or else I lost patience, but we got there in the end. You wouldn’t serve this up as is, but it would make an excellent cocktail base.

A couple of hours in the freezer made it a lot more presentable. I think the flavour is better with less ice and next time I’ll use less ice again. The texture is certainly more grainy than that made with a TM, but not unacceptably so. I’m going to be so popular when the kids get home. Can’t wait for mangoes to get cheap!

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October 29, 2012

The Thermomix Review

I shall now save you the trouble and expense of either hosting or attending a Thermomix party.

We’ve only heard about these miraculous additions to the busy housewife’s arsenal in recent years. They are a German designed, French produced machine that was initially sneaked into Australia by a Perth housewife and engineer. It has only recently worked its way across the country and into our notice. They’re a fairly expensive bit of kit and require a fair bit of rubbing of the beard before you decide to invest in one. You also need a comprehensive demonstration, which is why they’re only selling them through the housewife’s favourite – the party plan.

What they are is essentially a turbo charged blender on a heating element. A description like that isn’t going to make you lay down a couple of thousand smackers, so you need to see it in action. It has ten different blade speeds which will take you from pulverise to slightly chopped. This function in itself can make icing sugar, almond meal, fruit juice, pesto, coleslaw, strawberry sorbet, hummus, the last three of which were demonstrated. I have actually been making almond meal and icing sugar in the little one cup attachment to my stick mixer, also bread crumbs, so that’s not selling me. It has made me determined to dust off the blender we got as an engagement present some decades ago and see if I can replicate the strawberry sorbet with that.

Then you get to the cooking bit. You know that bit in dinner prep where you chop the veggies, then saute them, then add stuff and cook it for a bit. Well, this gizmo does all that for you. What I don’t get is that the recipe times seem to be a lot shorter than stovetop times, and yet the machine only goes up to 100 degrees Celsius and isn’t under pressure. Perhaps because the blade (which has a sharp edge and a stirring edge) is stirring the stuff constantly. It also has a device that sits on top that can utilise the steam escaping to cook your green veggies and couscous. Or wontons, if that’s your preference. This requires a special demonstration and a whole ‘nother party and has been given a special name which isn’t Valrhona, because that’s a chocolate brand, but something like it.

It all looks very sturdy, easy to clean and well designed and would definitely take the place of a food processor, blender, stick mixer, rice cooker and maybe even KitchenAid if you weren’t a heavy user. You could really clean out your appliance cupboard if you were getting one of these babies. I won’t be getting one, as you could probably guess, because I like chopping things up by hand, it gets rid of some of the latent aggression I build up by bottling things inside. I also have a lot of time to cook. My family don’t like their food mixed up, so the curries, soups, stews and casseroles that this dooverlackie specialises in aren’t of any use to me.

In summary, as the Moose would say because he’s studying for an English exam, you need a Thermomix if you have gainful employment or some other reason not to have a lot of time to cook, want to get rid of most of your appliances, and cook a lot of one pot meals. It’s an impressive thingo. I don’t need one.

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