Win Antonio Carluccio's "Passion for Pasta"

It is time to start up this blog - mainly to show that I am still alive, but also to encourage more Thermomix users to join the Forum Thermomix group.

It is a forum run by an Englishman living in Portugal, but if you check it out you will see that mainly Aussies have taken it over.

We are keen to have people with an interest in the Thermomix join us and post recipes or reviews of recipes.

To this end we have a book giveaway !!!!

Last month I met Antonio Carluccio at dinner at Grossi Florentino. He signed a copy of his book Passion for Pasta.

So, if you would like the opportunity to win this book, join the Forum Thermomix group and either post a Thermomix recipe, or review a recipe - from a Thermomix cookbook or website/forum.

More information can be found here.

Seafood Burgers

Burgers and salad are such a summer staple but I'm just not a fan of the standard burger. So tonight, I made seafood burgers with some marinara mix I found lurking in the freezer. I made some basic grainy burger buns and added chopped, fresh corinader during the final knead. I served the burgers in the bread with avocado and a mayonnaise with some lime juice stirred through. With a garden salad on the side.

Although I made these in the thermomix, a food processor would certainly suffice.

Seafood burgers
2 cloves garlic
1cm piece ginger
500g good quality marinara mix
1 egg
1 tablespoon sherry
2 tablespoons peanuts
2 tablespoons rice flour
12 cup bread crumbs
seasoning
2 spring onions, finely sliced

1. Chop the garlic and ginger on speed 7 for 5 seconds.
2. Add all other ingredients, except spring onions and chop for 10 seconds on speed 6
3. Add spring onion and blend for 5 seconds on speed 3
4. Heat a little oil in a frypan, spoon in and spread to 1 cm thick. Cook for 2 minutes on each side.

Cheryl's Avocado And Ginger Ice-Cream

We have another Thermomix whiz who has kindly sent in a recipe to share.

This recipe from Cheryl Rourke at KingTree Lodge, Cellar Door Foods and Wines in WA

http://www.kingtreelodge.com.au

"Mother Nature's answer to camping."


Cheryl's Avocado And Ginger Ice-Cream

Serves 12 ( or more )

Ingredients:

8 avocado peeled and stoned and covered in the juice of four lemons ( place the mix in the freezer and chill for two hours )
250g of glace ginger.
4 tablespoons of ginger marmalade.
170g of brown sugar.
600ml of thickened cream.

Preparation:

Process brown sugar to icing sugar.
Add ginger and chop on speed 6 for 10 sec.
Add cold avocado and lemon mix .
Add cold marmalade.
Add cold cream.
Process mix on speed 10 for 30 sec.

When creamy and smooth spoon the mixture into patty cases ( popped inside muffin trays and freeze ).

( I use muffin trays and put the cases into this and when frozen I remove the patty cases from the tray and pop the portions of ice-cream into a zip lock freezer bag ). So easy for serving.


When serving, allow to warm up for about ten minutes before turning onto a plate and removing the patty case.
I serve this with thinly sliced glace ginger, fresh splayed avocado halves, interspersed with thin slices of Ruby Red Grapefruit segments.

The dessert looks spectacular and tastes divine.

Christams Cooking

The Christmas Thermomix Recipe Competition has been underway at Thermomix in Australia's blog. If you haven't voted then please look at the recipes and think about making them and voting.

I have recipes that had been sent in and didn't make it, but we can share them here with you. I will try them out and publish with pictures, hopefully. Christmas is only 1 week away though - Aaaaahhhhhhhhhh !!!!!














The first one is pretty simple and the intro goes like this:

In the Northern Hemisphere, egg nog is a very traditional drink at Christmas. This is a cool variation that is suitable for our climate.


Chilled Rum (or Sherry) Sabayon

Ingredients:

3 egg yolks
50 g caster sugar (made in Thermomix)
3 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons rum or Pedro Ximenez sherry

Method:

Insert Butterfly over blades in Thermomix and add egg yolks and sugar. Cream yolks and sugar for 4 minutes on speed 4.

With the Butterfly still in place, set Thermomix for 7 minutes at 70°C on speed 4. Gradually add the orange juice and rum (or sherry) through the lid.

The mixture should be thick when cooked; you may need to increase the temperature to 80°C and cook slightly longer.

Place mixture into a bowl, cool, cover and chill in the fridge thoroughly before serving.

The sauce is best made on the day it is to be served as it tends to separate.

The second recipe is an extension of the sabayon or zabaglione above and the intro is:



Champagne and berries say it all at Christmas. This is a dessert that can be prepared in advance. The egg whites in the dish help stabilise the sabayon.









Christmas Berries in Champagne Sabayon

Ingredients:

400 g mixed berries, hulled and cleaned
2 tablespoons kirsch or Grand Marnier
2 teaspoons sugar
3 eggs, separated
Pinch of cream of tartar
100 g caster sugar (made in Thermomix)
250 ml champagne

Method:

Drizzle the berries with liqueur and sprinkle with sugar. Leave to marinate, overnight if you like.

Insert Butterfly over blades and place egg whites and cream of tartar in TM bowl. Beat for 3 minutes at 37°C on speed 4 with MC out of lid.

Set TM for 1 minute and 30 seconds at 37°C on speed 4 and slowly introduce 50g of the caster sugar. Remove resulting meringue to a bowl and place in fridge.

Clean bowl fairly well and insert Butterfly over blades. Place egg yolks and remaining 50 g of caster sugar in TM bowl and cream yolks and sugar for 4 minutes on speed 4.

While yolks and sugar are creaming, drain berries and strain juice through a fine sieve. Keep berries aside and measure the liquor. You will need about 1/2 a cup, if needed add some champagne to make up to 1/2 cup.

With the Butterfly still in place, set Thermomix for 8 minutes at 70°C on speed 3. Gradually add the liqueur/champagne mix through the lid.

The mixture should be thick when cooked; you may need to increase the temperature to 80°C and cook slightly longer.

Place mixture into a bowl and allow to cool. Once cool, gently fold into the meringue mixture.


To serve: Reserve a few berries for garnish, then place remaining berries into dessert glasses, cover with cold champagne and top with the sabayon. Decorate with reserved berries. Merry Christmas.

Shortbread

time to start making some goodies for christmas gifts...

step one was to try this shortbread recipe. posted on Forum Thermomix by CarolineW, it originally came from lobstersquad (though i can't work out how to go back to her older posts to find it there). oh, silly me, caroline already had posted the link

300g flour
100g sugar
200g butter (cold)
pinch salt

Preparation: Put flour into TM bowl first, add everything else on top, including any extra flavourings you want to use, eg lemon rind, pecans, etc. Blitz for 20 seconds on speed 6. Turn out crumbs and either press into a cake tin (loose bottomed or lined so can get it out again) or wrap in cling film and leave to rest in fridge for 30 minutes, after which you can cautiously roll it out and cut simple shapes.

Bake for 20 mins at 170 degrees C, until pale gold colour. DO NOT TRY TO TAKE OUT OF TIN until it's cooled for at least 10 mins. I say this from bitter experience! After that you can carefully transfer it to a cooling rack.

brazen's notes: i added macadamias but next time i will add them at the end on reverse as they just became powder and didn't add a lot of taste or any texture.
I will also try ann's idea of replacing 50g of flour with rice flour (which you can make in the tmx of course) as i always preferred shortbreads with rice flour in them.
when you line your tin i suggest leaving overhanging ends to make it easier to get out of the tin, and leaving it in the tin til it's cold! otherwise it is very hard to get out!

it's been very popular in my house with everyone except ryan (who loves bought shortbread biccies but won't even touch it to taste lol). think it will look lovely in cellophane with ribbon tied on it.

Christmas Cookies

I wanted to bake some cookies today to try to get a photo for our christmas cards done. Ryan also had his friend I coming over, along with I's mum & sister. so I decided to combine the two and let the kids decorate some cookies. (i decorated the ones for the photo shoot though lol)

I used this recipe, which had pretty good feedback.

Ingredients:
* 250g butter, softened
* 65g icing sugar (or make your own as per the instructions in the tmx book)
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 egg, at room temperature
* 440g plain flour
* 75g cornflour

Method:
1. mix butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and creamy. speed 4, 40-60 seconds. you might need to scrape down the bowl half way through.

2. Add egg and mix on speed 5 for 5 seconds.

3. Add flour and cornflour to butter mixture. Mix for approximately 60 seconds on the knead setting .

4. Divide in half. Press each half into a disc. Wrap each disc in baking paper. Refrigerate for 20 minutes.

5. Preheat oven to 160°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Roll each disc out between 2 sheets of baking paper to 3mm-thick.

6. Using biscuit cutters, cut dough. Place onto trays. Roll leftover dough together and repeat. Bake for 15 minutes or until light golden. Stand on trays for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

7. decorate with icing (approximately 1 cup sifted icing sugar, 1 tspn butter or marg and a tiny bit of hot water, plus drops of food colouring until you get the colour you want) and desired decorations - we used sprinkles / 100's & 1000's, some little candy hearts and silver cachous

Strawberry Sauce

brilliant christmas gift idea!

posted on forumthermomix

500g Strawberries, washed & hulled
250g sugar
1 lemon, peeled, seeded & quartered
optional - 1/4 cup alcohol such as brandy or vodka or
optional - flavours such as vanilla essence

Preparation:
cook for 35 mins on 100'c speed 1.
placing the varoma over the top instead of the measuring cup will prevent splattering (thanks pam!)
pour carefully into sterilised jars or bottles and refridgerate

serve over icecream or crepes

source:
originally in the everyday cooking for every family cookbook as strawberry jam