Thermomix Lovers United

Belfie - I havent tried to mince meat yet but was thinking of giving it a go. Did you mince it half frozen? Apparently you do it in small batches. I dont know if you get better quality control mincing yourself or just buying premium mince.

I've discovered more instructions :) we oversteamed vegies in the Varoma last week. Turns out there's a guide in the front of the EDC. I really should stop feeling intimidated by it and use it more. I havent made one of those all in one dinners yet. Mostly because DH = Mr Fusspot when it comes to food, though he doesnt think he is. Has anyone made mashed tatties whilst cooking in the Varoma? DH doesnt like rice so that's not a great option.

I haven't tried the Varoma yet... I need to do that too.

As for Mr Fusspot, ah yes, I have one of those too. Thinks he isn't but SO is! Mashed taties are AWESOME! I've done them with the dairy free option which was great, then again with the normal dairy options when making my Shepherd's Pie (which Mr Fusspot doesn't like hence I could make it as I pleased :D). Have to say I liked the dairy version better... but both were delectably light, creamy & fluffy. The perfect mashed potato texture IMO. Even DH said it was the best mashed potato I'd ever served (which isn't actually that high praise really lol).

When I minced the meat, no it wasn't half frozen (didn't seem to tell me to do that on the page I was!?!) and probably did too large a batch. Maybe I'll read the rest of the book & try again lol.

I'm going to a demo next week. :)
I don't think I can make it happen anytime soon, but something to save next years tax refund for!

Belfie I dont think the instructions are clear. They just say if the meat is frozen to partially thaw it. I think the consultant may have mentioned the need for it to be part frozen. Seems a bit fiddly to me. I might just buy mince.

i read somewhere that dishwashing detergent is bad for the TMX so i dont use it! i just put the tap on hot and use very hot water and the brush to clean mine. then i cover the blades with hot water, put in on for 20 secs on speed 8.

teresa: Our consultant told us just to use hot water, so that's all we've been doing. Gets it clean easily enough. I did read in the EDC that if there is a build up (looks a bit like the colour of rust) you can do a vinegar clean using water, a little vinegar and letting the thermomix heat it up and mix it around.

Belfie: We minced meat to make the meatloaf (it wasn't frozen) and it made the nicest mince!

DH made strawberry ice cream last night using frozen low fat milk, frozen strawberries and a bit of sugar.... it was sooooo nice! And I figure it can't be too bad for me!

sterla - thats what my consultant said too. there is somewhere tho that does say not to use dishwashing liquid. i think its on the forum!

Ok, what's the go with this thing, ladies? What sort of machine is it? I am dead curious...

I've looked at the website but it doesn't really tell you what it is... And what do they cost? Or is that a taboo question?

Also, on masterchef last night one of the contestants slow cooked an egg (whatever gets your goat...) in a thing called a "thermoline" - is that part of the thermomix?

OP: It's a super dooper kitchen appliance that does almost everything! The only things it can't do is grill and bake I think. It blends, mixes, chops, heats, has in built scales and using the varoma attachment (included) it steams. The other night we made meatloaf - had the sauce cooking in the bottom while the meatloaf and veggies cooked in the varoma. We have used it at least once a day (but usually more) since we've had it.

It costs a little under two grand ($1939 I think?), but I believe it's well worth the money - and I'm sure everyone else who has one would agree :).

Wow Sterla... that does sound pretty awesome...

So how is it healthier than traditional cooking? Because it steams? My mum was asking if it was a steam thing and I didn't know, I wonder if it is the same thing she was thinking of...

What else have you cooked in it?

It's healthier in that it encourages using more raw ingredients and cutting out all the preservatives and other junk that go into pre-prepared food. For example, it is super easy to make spaghetti sauce, so no need to buy the jars that are full of salt and sugar. You can make your own mayonnaise, jam, juice, sauce... the list goes on. You can make icing sugar from raw sugar, so you can avoid all the bleaches they use in icing sugar. You can mill your own flour. Grind your own coffee beans. Mince your own meat... You can know exactly what is going into all your food.
Steaming with the varoma adds to the health benefits too. I haven't tried it yet - but you can steam an entire chicken in the varoma, have all your vegies around it...

I guess one of the big points for me was that because it is so quick and easy I am eating better. I'm not tempted to go and get take away, etc because it is so easy (and there's very little cleaning involved).

But you can make lots of other yummy, naughty things in it too...

I minced steak in it the other night for Spag Bol. I just used Blade steak and did it in a couple of batches of about 250g- completely thawed. I followed instructions in the EDC and the result was VERY minced (my friend described it as 'unusually fine mince') but we both really liked the result when it was cooked...so did really fussy kids.
I did 15 secs on Speed 7 but will prob experiment for 10 secs next time.

we had the apricot chicken risotto tonight...YUM!!

Olive, we had that last week and yes - so so yummy!

I think I want to be a demonstrator after looking at in in action on you tube last night. Going to a demo on Tuesday night.

Ok my list for the upcoming week of stuff to make:

Muffins (I'll do orange ones for DH to take to work)
Bread
Butter (spreadable, straight from the fridge!)
Hommus (so making the Tahini as well)
Strawberry sorbet
Fish and vegies (recipe off the net)
Tuna pasta
Steamed chicken and vegies

Will also steam my chicken for my lunch wraps and cook my spaghetti for my spag bol. Haven't converted my vego spag Bol recipe to cook in thermo yet...

Think that's it!

Sounds good Mel! :D

We're going to make frozen yogurt at some point (have the yogurt frozen in the ice cube tray).

I really want to try steaming a chicken, lol.

Made cheese and bacon scrolls today - they were yummo! DH especially liked them.

I made hommus without the Tahini the other day. I did throw some sesame seeds in for the hell of it. It is very garlicky so going easy on it. Today I made GF tabbouleh using quinoa. Lovely. I had that with left over moroccan lamb stew that DH didnt like because it had bits in it :) (chickpeas & currants - i didnt have dates). I then made chocolate custard for dessert.

I also made more stock. Vegie concentrate and liquid chicken.

Tomorrow I shall make the tasty high fibre muffins from the GF cookbook. I'm supposed to make some spreadable butter as well. Which should go nicely with warm muffins :). The thing with GF recipes is there are so many different flours they use I can't keep up. So I'm making things up as I go. I think I'll substitute the soy flour with coconut flour as I have that. At least I can mill the rice flour myself.

As part of my healthy living/paranoia about chemicals, I'm moving away from plastics. I have a heap of glass jars I'm starting to fill up. There's something satisfying about a fridge full of jars of homemade stuff, even if it does look like green goo as is the case with vegie stock. I'm looking forward to making jam if we have a good fruit season. I am so not domestic. I feel like I have been possessed by someone else :)

Tashy - how did the high fibre muffins go? My GF cookbook is on order, can't wait to get it!

Pandora - how did the demo go? What did you think?

Mrs NM - talk to me about the butter, whadya think? For some reason my DH is insanely enthusiastic about making butter - that becomes weirder when I explain that he hadn't eat dairy... lol. Funny fella. He just thinks it'd be really cool to make butter!

Sterla - I wanna know how you go steaming that chook. I haven't tried steaming yet... I should!

AFM - had a coupla quietish TMX days, but making up for it again, I'm loving the orange & carrot juice from EDC (recipe adapted for 1 person - 2 oranges, about half a medium carrot, 1/3 icecube tray & 120g water). When I first did it (less orange, more water), it just seemed really watery & tasteless. I'm fighting a headcold & I'm sure this is helping!

I also did another adaption today. Roasted pumpkin and about 3-4 cloves of garlic yesterday (maybe 50 mins for the pumpkin, 30 for the garlic). Moroccan seasoning on the pumpkin. Today I stuck it in the TMX with 500g stock (630g pumpkin) and cooked for 10mins, 100 degrees, speed 1. Then pureed for 20 secs (speed 1 slowly to 9). Added some cream to my serve... and OH... MY... GOODNESS! That soup is DIVINE! I didn't do the onion or carrot (as suggested in the normal pumpkin soup EDC recipe) but would probably be nice with the onion if you're into that ;).

Tried the tuna pasta... was prolly a bit too "tuna" for me lol. Easy tho. Also doing many variations on the asian-style coleslaw, it's great. Ok better go stick my food in the fridge now!

I didnt get around to making the muffins. I forgot we'd invited people over for Sunday lunch so roast lamb took up our cooking energy. We did make coleslaw in the TMX to go with it though. Also served homemade ice cream with strawberries for dessert. All agreed they were very yum. We had ccoconut and vanilla.

I tried making honey ice cream but it hasnt set properly. It's like soft serve but really icy. I may have overdone it on the honey. I just made the normal vanilla then poured in honey at the end. I made another batch of vanilla yesterday so I'll check that out. I've switched to using Rapadura sugar. I dont know if that affects freezability or not.

I had a bit of a mince fail. We had a butterfly roast we were planning on using on Sunday. I couldnt work out how to tie it up so ran down the road and bought a leg. We diced up the butterfly roast and had a stirfry on Monday night. I used half to turn into mince. I couldnt get all the fat off and it went all stringy in the TMX. I cant say I was thrilled with the mince but did make meatloaf out of it. But strings of fat had wrapped themselves around the bottom of the blade where it joins the end bit. It took me ages to get it out. I ended up using floss and a toothbrush so I wasnt happy. I think in future I'll just buy mince.

Belfie: Still haven't tried steaming the chicken - I will though.

Made anzac biscuits today with DS - only thing was I didn't have any coconut and I didn't have enough brown sugar - so didn't follow the recipe properly. They still came out okay though :).

Haha sterla I made anzacs too!! Mine are beautiful - and I have eaten far too many. Darn this diet.

As for the things I was gonna make:
Muffins - I made orange ones, and then chucked in walnuts as well - sooo yummy! So that was a success.
Bread - yup made a loaf the other day, and then got up at 6am this morning to make another one. Its yum but I suck at cutting it, I'll have to buy one of those cutting thingies...
Butter - found some margarine in the fridge so don't need the butter just yet.
Hommus - made this as well this morning, and just chucked in the sesame seeds, but they didn't crush up or anything so I have just normal sesame seeds in my hommus.. LOL.. still tastes ok, I only added one garlic though instead of 2.
Strawberry sorbet - haven't done this yet!! i need to pull my finger out and do it. I think i'm scared of the ice cubes in the thermo...
Fish and vegies - this was good except for the fact that I used crappy fish fillets that tasted like rubber. Next time I'll use nice fish instead of being a cheap ar$e..
Tuna pasta - this is for dinner tonight.
Steamed chicken and vegies - one of my favourite meals!!! I put the potatoes in the basket, put 500ml of vegetable stock in the bowl with them, then put the vegies in the bottom of the varoma, and the chicken on foil in the top layer - chucked it all on for 25 minutes and it was bloody awesome!!!!!

Tashy - bad about the mince - boo to that I reckon.

I'm totally in love with the quirky cooking blog, I'm getting so many ideas from it!!! Love all the healthy stuff she has on there - like chocolate brownies made from pecans? Freakin' awesome.

I made the anzacs too - but I'm wheatfree so they're just for the kids & DH. Apparently they're yummy. Was tempted to try making them for me then thought nah I don't need 'em. Did the Chinese style veg last night, yummo!

Belfie - I love the avvy message :)

Recently creations have included whoopie pies and the GF coconut cake.

I made some lemon, lime & bitters whoopie pies. For filling I made the lemon butter from the EDC. It is so yummy and so easy to make! I also made a lime marscapone & cream filling so there were 2 fillings. I later realised I had used normal flour instead of GF flour. Oops. Probably why they lasted as long as they did. I also made a batch of banana whoopie pies with maple cream filling. I accidently overbeat the cream, which is so easy in the TMX and made some more. I threw the curdled cream out but realised later if I'd just kept going I could have made maple butter.

I also had a fail making a batch of cranberry whoopie pies when I tried experimenting with using half coconut flour. They were like lead. Or rock cakes. They all got thrown out.

The GF coconut cake was superb. I used a mix of rapadura and coconut sugars. Didnt notice the difference. Instead of rum, I made a lemon & lime syrup with rapadura sugar. I was worried because it has a strong taste, but it was fine. Rapadura kind of tastes like rum anyway which is not a surprise really. I filled the cake with lemon custard from the EDC. Then used the rest of the lime marscapone to ice. It was really nice Saturday. However, we put it in the fridge overnight which ruined it. It was hard as rocks by Sunday. Which was disappointing but probably good for my waistline.

We have a bunch of mandarins I'm thinking of turning into mandarinade and/or marmalade. Has anyone tried either?

I am desperate to make some snickerdoodles. I have only just heard of them. I've been resisting because I know I'll pig out. But if I freeze some dough or cook and freeze some of the biscuits, that should keep me from them. What's best, to freeze biscuits or dough? Before baking, you roll each portion in a cinnamon & sugar mix. If I'm going to freeze the dough, should I leave that bit out? I'm thinking when the dough thaws the sugar would get wet and melt. WDYT?

Can't comment on freezing cookie dough but have made the madarinade and it's YUMMY!!!

Now that I think about it, though, I would say freeze the dough but don't roll until you're just about to bake.

Oh yeah, did the Anzacs yesterday with a couple of little changes...used honey instead of golden syrup, threw in some sultanas and halved the sugar...really, really good. Will try them with Rapadura next time.

Doing honey and soy chicken 'stir-fry'...so easy and yummy...can't wait!

tashybabe - when i was making lactation cookies i used to freeze some of the dough for a few days time if my supply dropped again. the sugar is still fine even after its thawed so if you freeze some snickerdoodle or other type of dough you should be fine

afm, i am making spaghetti marinara again tonight in the TMX. was just awesome last time and definately want to do it again. yummo!

I poached a couple of eggs for a late brekkie/ afternoon tea. I dont have those silicon thingies so used a couple of ceramic ramekins. I assumed they'd take longer to poach but 15 was too long. Hard poached eggs *sigh*. Then I somehow stuffed up the hollandaise sauce. No idea how but it got chucked out. Bit down about being such a crap cook. Then again, I couldnt poach eggs or make hollandaise sauce before I got a TMX so i'll put it down to a learning experience.

I was proud of myself tonight. I was tempted to get Chinese take away. Then decided it was easier just to make some Tomato soup in TMX. It was nice, if a bit salty, which I put down to the stock. Anyway. It's food :)

Good on you for making soup. The other night I was going out.... so DH got chicken & chips. And then they didn't sit all that well. And I found myself thinking he shoulda made something in the TMX.

As for poor cooking results, well it must have been a day for it. Today I tried to make a "made-up" pasta (chicken, mushroom, cherry tomatoes, creamy sauce). Totally didn't work. My GF pasta just disintegrated but didn't cook properly and the chicken fell to pieces (DH's leftover chook).

And I made hommus the other day and it just wasn't great. I can't seem to make it super yummy even though I loved it when my consultant made it. Go figure :dunno:
And for dinner I ate up some chilli from the other day. I'd tried to add in capsicum, celery & mushroom (our own variation) but I chopped them too much and they were virtually mush. Oops!

Oh well every crap meal I make is another crap meal out of the way, hopefully making way for an awesome meal :crossfingers: :lol:

I'm so pleased you've stuff ups too. I was almost in tears about how crap a cook I am, but then I'm overtired. I learnt the other day to try not to make something new when I'm feeling like crap. I stuffed up a carbonara but poor DH didnt dare say anything, I was so cranky. There he was trying to eat this scrambled eggs and pasta disaster. Poor bugger. I should have just made amatriciana. We've got that down pat. He got let off the hook when I said it was rubbish and had a bacon sandwich instead :lol:

I dont think I put as much salt in the stock last time. I remember my consultant mentioning the salt and I must have used less. This is a bit overdone so I'll have to use less than recipes call for. I added sour cream to the soup and that seemed to help.

Btw - I havent tried cooking GF pasta in the TMX. We use the Orgran rice & quinoa penne and it cooks faster than normal pasta.

Think I might make some chocolate custard to feel better :). I'll try the snickerdoodles when I'm in a better mood.

mmmmm chocolate custard :heartbeat:

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mmmmm chocolate custard :heartbeat:

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Lol I've banned myself from it for a few weeks.

Tashybabe - where do you get the rice & quinoa penne? I haven't seen or tried it (might be staring me in the face lol, just hadn't looked at the GF pastas... getting the same old one I always do! Orgran rice & corn tortelli).
I'm intrigued by the snickerdoodles (if mainly cos of the name!). As for DH not daring to say anything, ah well yes, I've definitely been in that boat too. Nothing worse than slaving away over something then it turns out crap.

Well today I'm trying red curry paste, only it might be greenish cos I couldn't get enough red chillies, so using some green ones. Oh dear it's starting to sound dodgy already "murky" curry paste. Hmm. :think:

Belfie. I get the penne in the GF aisle at the supermarket. It just depend on which one you go to I suppose.

Dont worry about murky curry paste. We still have half a jar of Tikka paste that tastes a lot better than it looks. Nothing can beat the vegie stock for looking dodgy.

Still havent made snickerdoodles. Will try today or tomorrow. I sounds like a new breed of dog :)

have you (or anyone else) tried the red thai chicken curry versus the fast chicken curry? I can't decide which one to make, but the "fast" one looks like it takes longer than the thai one. Lol.

So what are snickerdoodles then? And yes, they do sound like a dog! A really cute fluffy one.

Belfie, I've made the fast chicken curry. It's very easy and tastes okay. I reckon the Thai curry would taste nicer though :).

we're having chorizo and capsicum risotto for tea again..yum!

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we're having chorizo and capsicum risotto for tea again..yum!

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Ooh that sounds yum, where'dya get the recipe?

Sterla - thanks for the tip. I just realised I should ask DH what he wants given it's for him (I can't eat it). Lol silly moment!

belfie its the best risotto ive ever had!! its on forumthermomix i reduced the chorizo from 6 to 2 as thats plenty, i also quatered them and blitzed instead of peeling them!

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we're having chorizo and capsicum risotto for tea again..yum!

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Olive, can I declare my love for you now? I just looked up that recipe and it looks awesome! AND it needs very little adjustment for our dietary restrictions. Yay, can't wait to make it.

Red curry paste. Awesome (thought it didn't puree quite as smoothly as it should, recommend making full recipe not half like I did). And Thai red curry (chicken) was rockin'. And then I stuffed up the rice. Lol, dunno how :doh:

lol sure belfie!!
i just made playdough, i was a little worried about how oily it was but after kneading it it was fine!!

i went to a cooking class last night