Thermomix Mushroom Crostini

Sardines "en papillotte"

This is an easy recipe that I have roughly translated/adapted from A Tutto Vapore

Sardines "en papillotte"


Ingredients:

20 whole, fresh sardines, (15 cm), cleaned
extra virgin olive oil to grease
salt
600 g of water

Preparation:

1. Dry the cleaned sardines well with kitchen paper. Oil some squares of aluminum foil. Put 2 or 3 sardines on each sheet and sprinkle with salt. Close the aluminum foil parcel and place in container of Varoma. Repeat for the other sardines.
2. Pour the water into TM bowl, position the Varoma and cook for 27 minutes at Varoma temperature on Speed 1. Set the Varoma aside. Open the parcels with caution and make sure that the sardines are cooked.
If not, extend the cooking time by 3 or 4 minutes.
3. Serve immediately in the open foil.


Tips/Hints:

Variation: If you want a more flavourful result, you can add to each parcel a bay leaf, a slice of lemon, a pinch of paprika and a few drops of extra virgin olive oil. Some slices of peppers also add to the colour and flavour.

Serve with slices of bread. Ideal as a single dish for dinner with several guests.

Originally posted here in the Thermomix Forum

Thermomix Moroccan Carrot Salad

I have made this salad a few times and had been meaning to post it. I took photos at the weekend, but cannot find them so will make it all over again.

There is a similar recipe that I have just found at Bimby's Forum for a Sweet Chili Carrot Salad.

The combinations of flavours and added herbs and spices are limited by your imagination.

Carrot Salad


Ingredients:

3 large carrots, (250 g approx.) cut into chunks
1 Tbsp fresh mint leaves
20 gm olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp orange blossom water
2 Tbsp currants
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Place carrot and mint into the TM bowl. Chop for 5 seconds on speed 5. Check for size of pieces - they should be almost like large breadcrumbs, but not mush.

Add remaining ingredients and blend for 10 seconds on Reverse and speed 3.

Rocket and Cashew Pesto

(or a quick dip for guests who arrive early)

We had guests on Saturday and there was a communication breakdown as to when they were arriving, so I was behind schedule with the preparation. Thank goodness for the Thermomix sitting there waiting patiently on the bench. You can see from the photo below that it was splashed into the dish in a hurry. Lucky to obtain evidence of its existence.

This is a dip that has been made a few times with variations, but basically the same as the Asian pesto/dip. Really, the variations are limited by your imagination. Use walnuts, peanuts or almonds intead of cashews. Add some chili. Cook the garlic first for a milder taste. Use other oils such as grapeseed for a milder taste or splurge on some walnut oil.

Rocket and Cashew Pesto

Ingredients:

80 g parmesan or grana padano
1 clove garlic
100 g rocket, washed and shaken dry
150 g roasted, unsalted cashews
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon

Method:

Place parmesan into TM bowl and grate for 10 seconds on speed 7. You don’t want it too fine – some little bits are OK. Remove and set aside.

Place garlic in TM bowl and chop for 10 seconds on speed 7. Scrape down sides of bowl and add rocket and cashews. Chop for 30 seconds on speed 6. It should still have some decent sized pieces of nuts, not mush. Blend longer if you think it needs it.

Add olive oil, lemon juice and parmesan and blend for 30 seconds on reverse + speed 4.

Add some extra olive oil or water through the hole in the lid if the mixture appears too thick and blend a little longer.

You should not need pepper or salt. The garlic and rocket will give it enough heat, while the parmesan should give enough salt. But taste it and check.

Thermomix Asian Pesto

I have been a bit neglectful, so this has been published originally at "A Little Bit of Thermomix Magic" to keep our joint Thermomix blog alive and active.

This recipe came about as a result of having Thai basil and coriander in the crisper after making a couple of dishes at the weekend. Often these herbs just find their way into a variety of creations to add some fresh flavours, but while looking for a particular recipe I found a couple of similar Asian pesto recipes and decided that these herbs should be used thus.

Two of the books that had Asian pestos were “Asian Greens” by Anita Loh-Yien Lau and “Travels with a Hot Wok” by Ken Hom. I am sure there are plenty of variations on the theme, so please don’t feel limited by the recipe.



Thermomix Asian Pesto :

Ingredients:

2 cloves garlic
2 cm piece fresh ginger
1 fresh red chilli, seeded
3 tablespoons Thai basil
2 tablespoons fresh coriander
2 tablespoons rau ram (Vietnamese Mint)
1 tablespoon fresh mint
250 g roasted, unsalted peanuts (optional)
1 tablespoon palm sugar
2 teaspoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Method:

Place garlic, ginger and chilli in TM bowl and chop for 10 seconds on speed 7.

Scrape down sides of bowl and add basil, coriander and mints and chop for another 15 seconds on speed 7.

Add peanuts, if using, and palm sugar to TM bowl and chop for 20 seconds on speed 5.

Add remaining ingredients and blend for 30 seconds on speed 5. Add some boiling water through the hole in the lid if the mixture appears too thick when using the peanuts.

Thermomix Eggplant & Walnut Dip

Over the last few weeks I have been doing some sorting out and found a little treasure trove of recipes that I had cut from papers, magazines etc to make “one day”. There was certainly no intention to ever publish any of my produce and so very few of the recipes have dates or publications. I am sure that this came from “The Age” here in Melbourne, but more than that I am sorry, can’t help.

If anybody does know the author then I would like to acknowledge them. Thanks to whoever came up with the idea.

The original had too much in the way of walnuts for my taste and so I halved the amount of nuts. Other than that there is really only adaption for the Thermomix.

Eggplant & Walnut Dip.

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant;
1/2 cup walnut pieces;
2 tsp fresh ginger
1 clove garlic,
1 chilli,
zest of one lemon;
juice of two lemons,
2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil;
1/4 tsp ground allspice;
salt and black pepper;
chilli sauce, to taste

Method:

Cook the eggplant in the microwave, uncovered on a plate, on high for about 10 minutes until it deflates, and exchanges that brilliant black sheen for a greenish hue. Alternately cook in the oven at 180°C for 30 minutes or until soft.

While the eggplant is baking, place the walnuts in TM bowl and grind for 15 seconds on speed 7, remove and set aside.

Place the ginger, garlic, chilli and lemon zest in TM bowl and chop for 20 seconds on speed 7.

Remove the eggplant from the oven, slash to let steam escape (take care), drain off any liquid and scrape the pulp into the TM bowl with garlic/chilli mix. Add the lemon juice and olive oil and blend for 30 seconds on speed 5 or until smooth.

Add the ground walnuts and process the lot until smooth on speed 9. Probably about 30 seconds.

Flavour with the allspice, salt and black pepper to taste and mix for 10 seconds on speed 5.

If you need more heat you can add a chilli sauce.

Serve at room temperature.

Thermomix Smoky Tomato Sorbet

I love cooking classes.

Over the years I have attended far more than I really should have, but it's an addiction. Probably therapy is needed.

It was amusing to see in an article in Epicure earlier this year, that certain chefs attract groupies "who turn up, batting their eyelashes, to every public appearance". Certainly have been to more than my share of Andrew McConnell's appearances, but also hope that he doesn't get the wrong idea. No, I haven't been batting my eyelashes at him, just drooling over his food.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend a day at Lake House which included sessions with Frank Camorra, Chui Lee Luk, Ben Shewry and Andrew McConnell. Lots of great ideas to get the grey matter firing.

Frank prepared his Ortiz anchovies topped with a sorbet made from Tom Cooper's smoked tomatoes. It appears that they would be difficult for most of us to obtain, but previously I had tried to imitate the sorbet using ordinary tomatoes with some smoked paprika. It worked out fairly well, and Frank said that he had also used the same combination, so I decided to give it a go at the weekend.

Earlier in the year I prepared number of ice cube trays with blended tomato. The power of the Thermomix allows you to take the cubes of tomato or other fruit/vegies or stock and blitz it into a sorbet or just reduce it to a state where you have thawed tomato/stock in seconds. To make the sorbet it was a simple matter of pulling out a few cubes, adding some pimentón and blitzing. Voilà ( o increíble!). Perfect for those poor souls such as Ximena Maier of Lobstersquad sweltering in oppressive heat in the northern hemisphere.

Andrew McConnell prepared his blood sausage, which he says is more like a blood pudding. It has been part of his menu for some time and something that I really love. During the session Andrew discussed the new venture Cumulus Inc and the style of menu that would be available. After the class I suggested to Andrew that it would be an idea to make the puddings in small muffin tins (an idea that John Lethlean wrote about) and serve them in crostini moulded in the muffin tins. That way they would be easy to lift up and pop in the mouth.

After reading a blog last week, I hit on an even better idea ( my apologies to the blogger - wherever you may be). There were pastries made in the shape of the spoons you use in Chinese restaurants. So, yesterday I made some spoon-shaped crostini using day-old bread, buttering it and moulding it into spoons before cooking/drying in the oven. They are perfect for serving up my imitation of Frank's anchovies and smoked tomato sorbet.

My sincere thanks to all involved who have been ripped off in my pursuit of recipes for my Thermomix.

Tomato Sorbet with Pimentón

Ingredients:

250g frozen tomato pulp or juice (in cubes)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
possibly some liquid tomato juice or water.

Method:

Place frozen tomato cubes, salt and pimenton in Thermomix bowl. Slowly increase speed up to 9 over 5 seconds. Blend for 20 seconds on speed 9.

Scrape down the mixture and check the consistency. You may need to add a small amount of liquid and blend again for 10 - 20 seconds on speed 9 to get a smooth result.

Serve on crostini(wanky spoon-shaped ones if you must) with boquerones or anchovy UNDER the tomato sorbet (not like in the picture!) and some peppers or capers to accompany.

Update: 28/8/08 - Jules at Stonesoup has posted another Smokey Tomato with Boquerone dish based on Frank Camorra & Richard Cornish's book MoVida

Varoma Mushrooms for Rick

I picked up my new Varoma attachment on Monday and so have been trying out a few dishes.

One of the benefits is that you can harness the steam produced from cooking other food in the main bowl to produce some magic in the Varoma.




Rick requested more Varoma recipes and so next week I will post an Aussie classic, but until then just another quickie.




Thanks also to Rick, for reviving my memories of going up into the countryside (to Doncaster/Templestowe!! -long time ago) to hunt for mushrooms. Running around in the fields to find the fairy rings of little white fungi. Before my uncle educated us, we thought that the bigger they were the better that they would be. Depends on what you are going to do with them.



I needed to crank up the Thermomix for another dish but decided to make us some of Rick's garlic butter and cook the mushies in the Varoma. It worked a treat - thanks for the idea.





Varoma Mushrooms with garlic Butter.



Ingredients:



8 - 12 large flat mushrooms

Rick's TMX garlic butter



Method:



Carefully remove the stalk from the mushroom trying to preserve as much of the gills as possible. Place a dessertspoon of garlic butter in the centre of the mushroom from where the stalk has been removed. Place the mushrooms in the Varoma.



Place 500ml water in the bowl (if not using the TMX bowl for cooking something else). Set to 20 minutes at Varoma temp on speed 4 (if not cooking somehting else). Check after 20 minutes and cook longer as needed. The ones in the photo took 20 minutes from the time that the machine reached Varoma temperature, but yours may be smaller.



Serve as an entree or part of main meal & enjoy.

Bailey’s Zabaglione in the Thermomix

One of the biggest benefits that both professional chefs and us ordinary users alike have found with the Thermomix is the ability to cook at set temperatures.

If preparing an anglaise or custard, then the egg mixture does not like temperatures over 80°C. The Thermomix can cook a custard without anybody watching – just set & forget.

A dish that I like preparing in my machine is zabaglione. The butterfly allows the mixture to be beaten allowing the egg yolks and sugar become fluffy and then it cooks the mixture to perfection.

The original recipe uses marsala, but I used Bailey's as it has a creaminess that helps keep the zabaglione thick. If you are not into alcohol then you can either cut back or substitute the Baileys. Some people use sparkling wine (Spumante), orange juice or coffee.

In most recipes for zabaglione made in the Thermomix the heat is turned on at the start, so it is even easier. I have found that creaming the egg and sugar before starting to heat the mixture reduces the amount of yolk that may catch on the cooking base.

No more developing my muscles over the bain marie – just push the right buttons and flick the switches and hey presto – la mia zabaglione e pronto.


“BAILEYS” ZABAGLIONE (TM31)

Ingredients:

1 MC castor sugar
2 eggs
4 egg yolks
2 MC Baileys Irish liqueur

(MC = Measuring cup = 100ml)


Method:

Insert the Butterfly over the blades & add the sugar, eggs and egg yolks.

Whip for 4 minutes, Speed 4.

Add the Baileys and cook for 5 minutes at 70 ºC, Speed 4.

Serve immediately.

Is that easy or what?

Quick Beetroot & Yoghurt Dip

Here’s a very quick and easy recipe based on an idea from the Turkish Food Safari program.

I love using my Thermomix for making dips. They are a big hit with family & friends and so quick and easy.

The difference with this recipe is that I decided to chop up the beetroot in the Thermomix before starting the cooking, so greatly reduced the time needed to cook it. I do the same with soups like pumpkin soup after Raymond Capaldi did a demo at Tony Tan’s one night.

Ben Shewry from Attica also demonstrated a beetroot biscuit (you need to ask him for the recipe) at a recent class and the same process of chopping & then cooking would be useful for making those (I think?!!)


Beetroot & Yoghurt Dip

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, peeled and cut into quarters
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 medium beetroot, peeled and roughly cut into eighths
1 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp ground cumin
1 MC (100ml) water
2 – 4 Tbsp natural yoghurt (depending on your palate)
Salt, pepper, sugar to taste
Olive oil to drizzle

Method:

Place onion pieces in TM bowl and chop for 5 seconds at speed 7. Add the olive oil and sauté for 3 minutes at 100°C on speed 1.

Add the beetroot pieces and process for 3 seconds at speed 7, (make certain that the Measuring Cup(MC) is in place before doing this!!), scrape down bowl and process for another 2 - 5 seconds at speed 7, depending on how well minced the beetroot becomes. You want to have pieces smaller than a pea but larger than grains of rice and it will not be homogeneous. Add the coriander & cumin and cook for 3 minutes at 100°C on speed 1, and finally incorporate the water and cook for 15 – 20 minutes at 100°C at speed 1.

Check after 5 minutes to see if the bowl needs to be scraped down and to make certain that it is not drying out too much. You may need to add some more water but it should not be swimming in water – otherwise make borsch from that lot & start again.

When the beetroot is fairly soft you can leave it to cool in the machine. Once cool it is time to blitz the mix. Scrape down the sides, place the MC on top and preferably a clean cloth around it. Blend for 10 seconds by slowly going from speed 1 to speed 9, scrape down the sides and repeat until you have a smooth mixture.

Add the yoghurt and mix for 3 seconds at speed 4. Check and adjust seasonings then plate up and enjoy. Serve with toasted Varoma Bread

See also here

Rosti rework for Geoff

Following up on a report by Karen about the potato cakes (rösti style) in the “Everyday Cooking… for Every Family!” cookbook, I tried out the recipe yesterday.

I placed the ingredients into the bowl, as per the book, and blitzed it for 3 seconds at speed 6. Then I scraped down the sides and processed again for 2 more seconds at speed 6.

Normally, rösti is a grated potato dish, similar to hash browns, being fried in butter or oil to produce a crisp outside & smoother, soft inside (or that’s what Swiss people have told me!!).

After 5 seconds the mixture had reached a point where there was still enough texture, but no chunks. The recipes suggests 30 seconds at speed 6-7. This would produce a very smooth result. The flavour should be the same, but maybe not the mouthfeel.

My partner thought that they were yummy, and was disappointed to find that after she had eaten 2 from the photo shoot, the dogs scored the rest. They eat any human food voraciously and so their opinions don’t count.

It is a similar situation with the coleslaw recipe in the “Everyday Cooking… for Every Family!” cookbook. You need to blitz for short periods, scrape down the bowl and keep checking, otherwise you get raw cabbage slop.

Down be deterred Geoff, try it again with less time.