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Hot and Sour Tofu

18 Apr

I’m not a huge tofu fan – but I thought I’d try this dish while the man of the house is away on a conference.  He is less than complimentary about tofu! I certainly eat it – and I have – especially the amazing fried tofu dish at Longrain – but it’s not something that I have ever – ever bought at the supermarket.

This is a colourful, healthy and easy to put together dish and it can be ready in half an hour, so it’s great for families.  Having said that, I don’t know that Master 4 would go for this one – and I certainly didn’t try him on it last night. He’s still finding his palate especially for spicy or hot dishes, so I’m slowly turning up the volume on the spices I use in our every day meals.

The preparation of the sauce could not be easier.  Some coriander roots, ginger, garlic, spring onion, chilli, soy sauce, brown rice vinegar, sesame oil and peanut oil.

I was supremely lazy and didn’t even rinse out the bowl after I’d made the sauce and then heated the oil, thinking that any bits of flavour would be absorbed by the rice in the cooking process, which it was.  So this dish is a cracker in terms of cleaning up as there’s hardly any!

The only time consuming part – if you could possibly call it that – is the preparation of your vegetables.  I followed the recipe, using carrot, bok choi, and baby corn but noticed in the picture that there was something that looked suspiciously like snow peas in the bowl, but they weren’t mentioned in the ingredient list. Being a snow pea fan I bought some to throw in.  Of course, you could use whatever vegetables you have in the fridge, so there are no hard and fast rules.

So how was it?  To be honest, it was ok. I’m not sure I’d make it again.  I thought the rice was a little too overdone, and the vegetables were a bit past their best after being steamed for 10 minutes.  So if I were to do it again, I’d play around with the timing a little and probably only steam the vegetables for 6 or so minutes, and reduce the cooking time of the rice to a bit less so it was a little more bitey.  I’d probably also cut the tofu into much smaller bits and I’d be inclined to toss the sauce through the veggies, tofu and rice – which may not look as nice for the presentation, but would probably make the dish a little more flavoursome.  I think brown rice would also be much tastier in this recipe, but of course it would drag out your cooking time another 20 minutes or so.

I’m not sure if I’m being completely ridiculous on this one or not – but I thought this dish would also be great with some noodles and a light broth or stock for the tofu and vegetables to swim around it a bit.  Hmmm, food for thought, I’d might just try that out!ImageImage

 
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Posted by on April 18, 2013 in Main meals

 

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Earl Grey Truffles

28 Mar
Earl Grey Truffles
So rich and delicious

So rich and delicious

Oh my, I can’t believe it’s been twelve months since I last made these beautiful truffles. Last year I made the classic Honey Truffles instead of giving traditional Easter Eggs, and they were a huge hit.

Inspired by last year’s success, I decided to make the Earl Grey Truffles AND the Honey Truffles this year. I’ll use them for gifts for neighbours, family, kinder teachers and various other people. I’ve also change the presentation slightly, and although I wish the bags I bought were just a smidgeon larger, I’ve still managed to fit 6 truffles into each bag, and I’ve put a bag of each variety in the gorgeous little Easter Bags I found at the local bargain shop. I also managed to find some lovely little patty pans with an Easter theme, so I have put each individual truffle in one of them. I think I’d be happy receiving something like this!

This recipe is from Kirsten Tibballs – who you might have seen on Australian Masterchef.  She runs Savour Chocolate and Patisserie School right here in Melbourne.  I might have to see if there are any classes for home cooks like me that I wouldn’t feel hopelessly inadequate in!

Logic would tell you that I had re-read my original blog on the Honey Truffles before I embarked upon the Earl Grey Truffles, but in typical fashion I did not. I did use the same chocolate, the Yarra Valley one, but I have got to say I wasn’t as impressed with it as I was last time. It did look a little cloudy in the box, and had a bit of a white bloom on it, but I thought it was just a bit battle scarred. I think somehow that it had been heated up a little and cooled down, resulting in the tell-tale white bits – perfectly possible in this recent weather here in Melbourne – or maybe there was something wrong with the sugar balance – I’m not sure. Regardless, they still taste absolutely divine, although I’m a little disappointed in the whitey bloom on some of them.

For my second lot of the standard Honey Truffles, I decided not to risk it and bought the Lindt Callebaut Couverture Milk Callettes for both the ganache and the coating, and I am pleased to say they look and taste beautiful, with no bloom in sight. They come in plastic jars of 500 grams at my local supermarket, and although they are a little pricey ($18 I think) you do value for money in terms of the number of truffles you can coat with one quantity of the melted chocolate. When you think about how much individual chocolates are at the high end chocolatiers, these actually work out quite reasonably.

The Earl Grey infusion works just beautifully and you get a really distinctive Earl Grey flavour with these truffles. Use good quality tea – I did toy with the idea of breaking open a couple of old Earl Grey tea bags but decided against it. I’m a self-confessed tea snob so it’s very rare that a tea bag even makes it past the threshold at my house, so I couldn’t even guesstimate how old those tea bags were, plus I think that generally tea bags use a lesser quality of tea. I was actually quite surprised as to how much 15 grams of Earl Grey was – and the amount of cream it managed to suck up during the infusing process. I was left with exactly the required 120 grams of cream, which I took to be serendipity and a sign from the Gods that I was on the right track!

I refrigerated the ganache this time as it has been unseasonably warm here in Melbourne, and I didn’t think to take it out of the fridge for a while before I put the chocolate on to melt, which was a mistake. Although the ganache was really firm, it was almost a little too firm to get into nice regular shaped balls, so my Earl Grey truffles are ugly little things 😦 If I were to do it again, I’d give the ganache half an hour or so to warm up a bit, and I’m sure the resulting truffles would be much nicer to look at.

With my second batch, I erred on the side of caution and didn’t refrigerate the ganache, but let it set overnight. It was a bit gooey to work with, but made for easier moulding. I put the prepared balls on some baking paper and put them in the fridge for fifteen minutes before I dipped them in chocolate. It makes life just a little easier as they are less inclined to stick to the fork that your dipping them in the chocolate with.

Dani recommends that if the dipping chocolate starts setting while you’re still dipping to warm it up with a hair dryer… and guess what – it works a treat!!  I must admit our cleaner looked at me like I’d completely lost it when she saw me plug the hair dryer in while I was standing at the kitchen bench though!!

Happy Easter!

 
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Posted by on March 28, 2013 in Recipes, Sweet Things

 

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Recipe – Yoghurt Balls

04 Mar

Time:

Yoghurt – 1 hour plus 5 hours setting

Balls – 20 minutes, plus 10 hours draining and 1 hour marinating.

Makes – about 40 balls

Yoghurt

2 litres milk

80 grams yoghurt starter *(see note below)

Pour the milk into the TM bowl and warm for 20 minutes/80 degrees/speed 2-3.  Remove the lid and let the milk cool to 37 degrees, as indicated by the temperature lights.  This will take around one hour. The TM bowl will turn itself off in the meantime, but it will read the temperature of the milk when switched back on.  Don’t be tempted to start making the yoghurt before it’s cool enough or the yoghurt won’t set.

When the milk is 37 degrees, add the yoghurt starter and mix for 10 seconds/speed 4 then heat for 20 minutes/37 degrees/speed 2 – 3.

Tip the yoghurt into the Thermoserver and put on the lid.  Leave the lid on for at least 5 hours, or overnight, trying not to move or agitate the container at all.  Refreigerate yoghurt once it has set.  Save 80 grams of yoghurt to use as a starter next time, it will last a couple of weeks in the fridge.

Yoghurt Balls

1 quantity yoghurt (above)

1 tablespoon dried sumac, or other spices such as cumin, fennel and caraway seeds, or dried herbs such as oregano)

1 tablespoon salt flakes

1 tablespoon chilli flakes (optional)

100ml olive oil

Place a clean kitchen cloth or muslin cloth over the varoma tray and pour the yoghurt on top, leting it drain over the sink or a bowl. If you let it drain for about 5 hours, you’ll end up with thick Greek-style yoghurt.  But if you let it drain for 10 hours or more, you’ll be on your way to creamy white cheese, that’s spreadable but will hold its shape.  If, after 10 hours, the cheese is still too wet to hold its shape, turn it upside down and continue to drain it on a clean, dry cloth for a few more hours.

Make small balls from your yoghurt.  I use wet hands; Valerie uses a small melon-baller.

To marinate the balls, take two bowls, both of which need to be big enough to hold all balls comfortably. Valerie adores a mixture of garlic, dried oregano and basil, fennel, caraway and dried chilli flakes; I love sumac, salt and chilli. Mix your choice of flavourings and oil in one bowl.  Add balls.  Tip balls gently from one bowl to another until they are well coated.  Leave in the fridge to marinate for an hour or more.  Drain oil before serving.

Variation:

Place a marinated ball on hot green beans, asparagus, a jacket potato or in a bowl of soup. Create a sweet version by marinating the balls in honey, or fruit compote and crushed nuts.  Use goat’s milk to create a homemade version of chèvre.

*Yoghurt starter is a bought yoghurt that contains nothing but milk and live bacteria; organic yoghurts from small producers are a good choice.

 
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Posted by on March 4, 2013 in Bites and snacks, Recipes

 

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Yoghurt Balls

04 Mar
Yoghurt Balls

We are celebrating my Dad’s 82nd birthday this week, and of course I’m providing some of the food for the family gathering we are having for him.  Naturally I had a look through “In The Mix” before any other recipe book to see what I could make that hasn’t been attempted before 😉

So, I settled on Yoghurt Balls.  Of course, we are having Peach Margaritas as well, but you’ve already seen that post – and I think I’m going to have to go into rehab if I become any more fond of them…they really are quite addictive.

This recipe comes from Valerie Lugonja, who is a Canadian blogger.  You can find her blog at acanadianfoodie.com

I am pleased to finally report that after 3 years of Thermomixing the man of the house has finally stepped up and actually did something involving the thermomix – other than clean it!  He was responsible for adding the yoghurt to the warm milk once it got to 37 degrees while I was heading out with Master 4 for a train trip.  That was an experience in itself, but as I sit here typing away looking at my yoghurt setting in the thermoserver, I actually think he might have proved me wrong and not only read the directions in the recipe properly, but also mastered the scales function and how to operate the other buttons.  Mind you, I did leave the lid on for him and provided explicit instructions to add the yoghurt through the MC hole.

I made the yoghurt mixture in the morning, let it set during the day in the thermoserver, and set it to drain as I went to bed that night. It was the best way to do it I think – most of it’s draining time completed while I was asleep, and I created the balls the following morning and let them marinate for a few hours before we headed out.  Who knew that my beautiful Nigella Lawson mixing bowls would hold the varoma tray so perfectly?  I didn’t have a muslin cloth, so I used two layers of clean chux wipe, which worked really well.  The tray works really well as it allows you to smooth the yoghurt out and have a bigger surface area for it to drain from.  Be careful when you drain it and maybe put the whole thing in the sink as I think the chux acts like a wick and I ended up with a rather large pool of yoghurty smelling water around the bowl – as well as loads of water in the bowl.  So make sure you use a large bowl. You could possibly even leave the draining yoghurt in the sink, so if it does happen, the water will go straight down the sink, and not sneak in behind your coffee maker.

I had never attempted (or even been tempted) to make yoghurt in the Thermomix before.  The man of the house is a yoghurt fiend, and we would easily go though 6 litres of plain yoghurt in a week – he adds berries, fruit, and all manner of things to it.  I’d never really thought how expensive it was until I realised how cheap it was to make.  Yoghurt will be a regular on my thermomix list from this time forward.

For your starter yoghurt, Dani recommends buying a yoghurt that contains nothing more than milk and bacteria, and suggests that organic yoghurts from small producers are the best.  I bought the Barambah Organic Yoghurt from my local greengrocer, and it was perfect.  For the milk, well, I was a cheapskate and against my better judgement I used the $2 for 2 litre low fat milk from the supermarket.  And guess what?  It was fine.

My yoghurt was definitely able to hold its shape the next morning, so I rolled it into balls with the aid of a melon scooper.  I had loads of beautiful little spheres, so I doused them with Maldon Sea Salt and sumac, with an MC full of good olive oil.  Dani recommends putting the balls in one bowl and gently tipping the balls into another bowl to make sure they all get covered with the oil, sumac and salt.  I tipped from one bowl to the other, but clearly I am ham fisted and ended up with a large blob of yoghurt that didn’t look very nice at all.  Undeterred, I remade the balls and this time put them on a flat dish (I used two dinner plates for the quantity I made, but next time I’d use the platter I plan on serving them on, if it’s fridge-friendly), added a little more salt and sumac, drizzled a little more olive oil over them top and hoped for the best.

My only tip would be that once you’ve heated the milk and cooled it down, you pull any skin that may have formed off.  The Man Of The House didn’t think of doing that, and if I had have been around, I certainly would have.  I also used the varoma lid to cover the draining yoghurt.

I let them marinate for a couple of hours, and before we were due to leave I packed them into a flat tupperware container.  Of course, I had to have a taste test while I did that, and I decided to add some lemon zest as well, which really made a huge difference to the flavour.

Yes, they could have been served on a beautiful dish but aside from nearly leaving the whole lot at home and having to turn back a few hundred metres down the road from our house, I forgot to bring a platter that would do them justice, so I had to serve them in the tupperware container 😮

They were a huge hit and I’ll definitely make them again.  I’ll try experimenting with different flavours as well, maybe Mexican flavours, Italian with oregano, garlic, maybe some more with lemon and salt.  I’m not a huge sweet tooth, but you could also do these with honey, cinnamon, sesame seeds, or chopped nuts.

Want the recipe?  Check the recipe tab!

Create away!!

 
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Posted by on March 4, 2013 in Bites and snacks, Recipes

 

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Oysters with Yuzu Granita

23 Feb

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I did manage to get to get in quite a lot of thermomixing over the school holidays, however most of it was repeats of my In The Mix Favourites, Mojito Cheesecakes, Caramelised White Chocolate Mousse with Passionfruit Puree and Coffee Crumb, the amazing Beetroot, Pomegranate and Pistachio Salad, Kirsch Ganache and Pastilla.  We were enjoying our annual holiday down at the coast – and of course my thermomix came too!

What’s more though – I did manage to score quite a few thermo-related presents.  The individual pudding basins I’d been wanting for the Steamed Celeriac and Mushroom Puddings, and a box full of goodies that are a little harder to find.  I’m really looking forward to making some new dishes over the next little while.

One of the new dishes I did try over Christmas was the Oysters with Yuzu Granita.  I adore oysters.  The man of the house doesn’t.  As simple as that.  Won’t go anywhere near them, hates the sight of them.  So I had to wait for an occasion where I was feeding a lot of people and what’s more, a group of people I knew liked oysters – they really are a polarising food I’ve decided.

This recipe comes from Darren Robertson, who was a chef at Tetsuya’s.  I was lucky enough to go there once, and it was everything I had hoped for and more.  I do need another fix at some stage – but as it’s been 4 years since I’ve even been in Sydney, it might be a while coming.

So, Christmas night at our house, my extended family descended.  We are nearly unanimously seafood lovers, so it was a perfect opportunity to showcase the Oysters with Yuzu Granita.  I did have to cheat a little, and used lime instead of yuzu.  I’ve never actually seen a yuzu to my knowledge, and I wasn’t sure that the pre-Christmas day nightmare at the supermarket, greengrocer or any shopping precinct in general was the time to try and track it down.

You need to make sure that you have enough time to freeze the granita mix, so I actually prepared mine the day before, so it would be completely frozen, and I wouldn’t have to even think about it until a few minutes before I needed to serve them up the next day.  I was making triple quantities as I had quite a few oysters to dress – but next time I’ll probably go with the single quantity, as it made quite a bit, and unless you’re using absolutely massive oysters, I don’t think you would need it.

The sand that you make to serve the oysters on is not strictly necessary – but it does help it look pretty on a serving platter.  For mine, if you’re serving for a crowd and you have lots of oysters on a platter, you may not need it.  I you were serving only a few oysters, then I’d definitely do the sand.

When you’re serving, and this might be a result of me making the basis the day before, it was quite icy.  For mine, I’d prefer it to be a big slushier, so it could be a good idea to leave it in the TM bowl for a few minutes until you reach the desired consistency.

Overall though, it’s lovely.  I’m even tempted to make it and serve the oysters and the granita in a shot glass.

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Posted by on February 23, 2013 in Bites and snacks

 

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Recipe – Peach Margarita

30 Jan

IMG_0740With liquor in the cupboard and a Thermomix on the kitchen bench, it’s easy to get a party started.  This blended cocktail has the consistency of a granita, and the punch of a prizefighter (tone it down with extra ice, if desired).  Prepare the icy base the day before or the morning of your soiree.

Peachy Rose Mix

100 grams peach flesh

1 teaspoon rosewater

100 grams sugar

Place the peach, rosewater and sugar in the TM bowl and reduce for 10 minutes/100 degrees/speed 2/MC Off. Blend for 30 seconds/speed 10.  Pour into ice cube trays and set in the freezer.

Sweet and Sour Mix

120 grams sugar

80 grams of lemon or lime juice

120 grams hot water

Mix the sugar, juice and water in a bowl, stirring to dissolve the sugar.  Pour into ice cube trays and set in the freezer.

Assembly

pre-prepared peachy rose mix

pre-prepared sweet and sour mix

270 grams tequila

90 grams triple sec

500 grams ice

lemon or lime wedge

salt, to coat the rim of the martini glass

Remove the peachy rose and sweet and sour mixes from the freezer and place the cubes in the TM Bowl.  Because of the sugar content, the mixtures will be slightly soft, even when frozen, and you might need to scoop them out of the ice cube moulds.

Add the tequila, triple sec and ice.  Blend for 30 seconds/speed 9.

Run a lemon or lime wedge around the rim of each martini glass.  Tip the salt onto a plate and invert each glass, dipping the rims in the salt.  Pour the margarita into the glasses and serve immediately.

 
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Posted by on January 30, 2013 in Bites and snacks, Recipes

 

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Peach Margarita

30 Jan

IMG_0740What says summer like a beautiful cocktail, enjoyed with friends or family, kicking back, relaxing, and forgetting all about the calories you’ve consumed in the last month?  That’s right, not only is the Thermomix your best friend in the kitchen, it’s also a pretty good companion in the bar.

I’d actually made the base for this beautiful cocktail in preparation for our Christmas night celebration, but we’d all started off on champagne and we thought it might be a recipe for disaster if we went to spirits from there.  The good thing was as the mix was in the freezer, I just left it there, and when the mood hit me, I just had to get out the tequila and the triple sec, salt the glasses, and dig out 500 grams of ice from the freezer – easier said than done – we had relocated to the beach for the summer and didn’t have the freezer with the inbuilt ice maker.  Still, I battled on valiantly and scraped up the requisite 500 grams of ice.

The Peach Margarita consists of three parts – the peachy rose mix, the sweet and sour syrup and finally the alcohol and ice which you add at the end at blitz up at the very end, just as you are about to serve it.  Both the peachy rose syrup and the sweet and sour syrup is frozen for several hours before you use them to make sure it’s really cold.  While both the mixes don’t freeze completely, they go cold and become quite pliable.  Dani recommended putting the mix in ice cube trays, but they are in fairly short supply in our house because I’ve sent them down to the beach where we need all the ice cube trays we can get – and in their absence, I just poured each of the mixes into a zip lock bag, labelled it, and froze it.  It sat in the freezer quite happily for a month, so I would imagine it would keep for several months if you want to make the peachy rose mix while peaches are in season, and keep them on ice till you need a summer hit!

I used the Jose Cuervo Especial tequila, and the Bardinet Triple Sec.  I’m not a spirit aficionado, but they seemed to do the trick.

Sadly, as we were at the beach, I didn’t have fabulous margarita glasses to make these even more special-looking.  But I can assure you that it tasted incredibly summery and fabulous… and we may have downed the lot between two of us, in one night 😉  In between drinks, I stored the whole TM bowl in the fridge, and it kept the mix pretty icy cold and delicious for quite some time.

I’m not sure if it was luck, the glass of water in-betweeners, the food we ate, or the magic of spirulina capsules (which one of my girlfriends swears by) that there was not a headache to be had the next morning.

Want the recipe?  Check the recipe tab!!

 
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Posted by on January 30, 2013 in Bites and snacks, Recipes

 

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Caramelised White Chocolate Mousse with Passionfruit Curd and Coffee Crumb

17 Oct

Quite possibly, this is the best dessert I have ever made!  Certainly it was voted so at family dinner on Sunday night.  It took a while to make, but the good news is that you can make each of the components separately and assemble them once you’re ready to eat – and you can pre-prepare and make this a couple of days before you need it – so it’s a great dinner party dish, that you could even prepare over a few days if necessary.

This recipe is from Darren Purchese, from Burch and Purchese Sweet Studio in Melbourne.  I’ve never been, but I am going to have to get there one of these days.

I’d be lying if I said this was the easiest dish I’d ever made – in fact I had one aborted attempt at it a few months ago.  Nothing went terribly wrong, but I must have used old cream which went to soft peaks in a matter of seconds, so once I added the caramelised white chocolate to it and mixed it in, it almost went to butter and sort of split.  It still tasted amazing but it didn’t look so good. Hence, this attempt.

It’s not difficult as much as it can be time consuming, and making the mousse you need to watch, watch, watch that cream.  I heard just the other night at a thermomix cooking class that the older the cream (that is, the closer it is to its’ use by date) the quicker it turns to butter.

What got me started on this recipe again was seeing passionfruit down at the greengrocers the other day.  When I had been going to make it before, they were not available, so I had bought two small tins of the John West Passionfruit Pulp.  I tried to find the passionfruit puree Dani mentions, but could only find it in large quantities – now I know this recipe is so good I’m tempted to buy it – but waste not, want not – I used the tinned pulp and scaled down the added sugar component in the curd recipe.  It still tasted fantastic.  My only criticism of it was that the seeds didn’t keep the lovely golden orange bits around them and ended up looking a little like mouse poo – hence why you don’t see them as a garnish in the photo.

Caramelised White Chocolate

The caramelised white chocolate is pretty easy – a bit of powdered milk and lots of white chocolate.  I was momentarily thrown about how I would work out what the fat content was of the powdered milk, but somewhere in the back of my mind my mathematic skills returned and the easy way is to look for one that has about 3.5 grams of fat per 100 mls of milk.  I used the Sunshine Full Cream Milk Powder and it was fine.  It goes without saying – the better quality white chocolate you use, the better the result will be.  I skimped a bit on this recipe, not because I’mm cheap, but because the supermarket had run out of the really good white chocolate.  The result was still sublime, so I can only image how good it would taste if you used amazing chocolate as a base. I had a few hard lumps in my caramelised chocolate, but nothing that caused any issues.

I left my caramelised white chocolate to cool but not to go completely cold.  Likewise, I don’t think I’d be adding it to the cream mixture if it was too hot – I think this might have played a part in my downfall last time.  So be prepared to do the caramelised white chocolate and the subsequent mousse within a few hours of each other, or you could be courting disaster (well, maybe not disaster, but something that may not look so great).

Caramelised White Chocolate Mousse 

When it comes to whipping the cream in the thermomix, remember less is more!!  And do pay attention to the use by date on your cream – and watch it like a hawk.  Even if it doesn’t look like it’s thickening up, it us – so stop the thermomix every little while and check on the progress of the cream.  I really erred on the side of caution this time and took it very slowly – even slower than the speed 3 that was recommended.  It took some extra time, but it was time I was willing to take as I didn’t want to repeat my previous mistake!

Passionfruit Reduction

As I mentioned before, I had a bit of a cheat in this recipe and used (gasp!!) the John West Passionfruit Pulp.  It worked perfectly, but make sure you reduce the sugar content in the curd component otherwise you’ll end up with it being far too sweet.

Even after reducing, mine was a lot more than 75 grams, so I have put the remainder in a zip lock bag in the freezer, as I know I’ll be going this again before too long.  I think it should freeze ok.

Passionfruit Curd

This is almost like lemon butter, but it’s just passionfruit butter without the seeds.  It tastes absolutely incredible.  The fat in the butter means that the flavour stays in your mouth, and it’s such a beautiful flavour.  I can imagine it would be fantastic too in between layers of sponge – yum!!

Be careful with the leaf gelatine and don’t let it soak too long in the cold water, and make sure the water is pretty cold, or the whole thing will disappear before your eyes.  Three minutes was just about perfect for the leaf I used.

Once you pour the curd into a container and put it in the fridge, you let it cool for a few hours.  It really sets quite firmly.  Once it’s like this, the you put it back into the TM bowl with the butterfly in, and it whips it up to a beautiful light fluff and smooths it out completely.  I bet you find yourself licking the butterfly!!

Coffee Crumb

Our whiz bang coffee machine that grinds the beans for us was going to be the death of me – I couldn’t work out how to just get it to grind the beans, but not to make the coffee.  Derrr – I just grabbed 10 grams of coffee beans, threw them in a clean TM bowl, and ground those bad boys up in a matter of seconds.  Perfect!!  All the other components of the crumb are really straightforward and the recipe makes a lot more than you’ll need for your desserts.  It stores quite nicely in an airtight container, and is quite delicious sprinkled on ice cream.

I didn’t pipe the curd or the mousse into the glasses I served it in – but it still looked ok and of course tasted absolutely phenomenal!

So, in summary – one of the best – if not THE best dessert – I’ve ever made.  Do give it a go!!

 
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Posted by on October 17, 2012 in Sweet Things

 

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Pavlova

24 Sep

I’ve always been sceptical about the ability of the thermomix to beat egg whites.  I’ve done it a couple of times with mixed results, but we all know how fiddly egg whites can be – and how they hate the merest speck of yolk, oil, water… whatever. Sometimes I think they just don’t like me!!  Personally, I have nearly always used my hand mixer to do egg whites – mainly because I like to be able to see how they are progressing and just how ‘peaky’ they are, but yesterday I relented and decided to make Marg Rossi’s Pavlova.

I am a huge fan of pavlova – it’s one of my fail-safe crowd pleasers and so, so easy to make. I say this as someone who has always had the pavlova knack – but some of us are born lucky in that department, and others are miserable failures.  Don’t think I’m smug, I can rattle off a list of a million things I’m bad at, but pavlova won’t be on it.  I usually use Delia Smith’s recipe – which is literally egg white and sugar and nothing else, and the only look in the thermomix gets it to mill my raw sugar down to caster sugar.

There are also two distinct pavlova lovers – one that loves the whole thing to be crunchy, and the other who loves a crispy outer shell and marshmallowy gooeyness underneath.  So, depending on your preference, this might just be the recipe for you!

To make sure your egg whites will fluff up, it’s imperative you have a scrupulousy clean bowl and lid.  Do this after you’ve milled the sugar down.  I actually put mine through the dishwasher, and then did the recommended vinegar clean as well, with the butterfly in place to make sure the butterfly was squeaky clean a well.  I must admit, I was delighted when the egg whites whipped up as I was scared that I was going to waste the 225 grams of egg white.  To make you really jealous, I actually used egg whites I had frozen previously, and they stood at room temperature to thaw out for a few hours, not the up to 24 hours that was suggested in the recipe.  Call me a daredevil!!  I needed to see that it could work if they were a little cold, as I mentioned previously – I see a pavolva as a great short notice dessert that you can make when you’ve got practically nothing in the cupboard, and getting egg whites to room temperature for 24 hours isn’t possible or practical a lot of the time at my house.

Because there is quite a lot of egg white in this recipe and quite a lot of sugar too, it makes quite a large pavlova.  It also spreads quite a bit, so make sure you pile your meringue high and dome-ish, rather than they way I usually do, where I shape it to the way I want it to be when I pull it out of the oven.  I’m not sure if this was just the way mine turned out, but the mixture was a little looser than my usual egg white and sugar only version.

I’ve heard that the trick to the gooey centre is to leave the pavlova in the oven once you’ve turned the oven off – but I’m not sure how true that is.  It certainly does seem to work from the experience that I’ve had.

I really liked the vanilla essence in the mixture, but it wouldn’t be necessary if you are not a vanilla fan.  I love vanilla, and recently bought a massive tube of the lovely vanilla bean paste at Costco – such a deal compared to the $10 for the little jars I had been buying at the supermarket.

So – what was it like?  Well, it looked amazing – perfectly smooth and a lovely light gold colour.  I was thrilled!  Then when I went to lift it off the baking paper, it just wouldn’t budge.  It cracked. And what was underneath felt really, really super gooey.  I peeked under and there was a caramelised saucy liquid, which, to my knowledge means that I hadn’t incorporated the sugar and egg white well enough, or there was too much sugar for the egg white.  Whatever the cause, I erred on the side of caution and put the oven on again at about 100 degrees for another 20 minutes, and let it cool down again.

I was very nervous about getting the pavlova off the baking paper again, so I was a complete lightweight and left it on the baking paper.  Presentation fail, but it was only for family dinner on Sunday night.  If I had been taking it somewhere I would have at least trimmed the baking paper off and worked more on the presentation.

I wasn’t optimistic about the end result, and against every bone in my body willing me to bin it, I put the cream on it and served it up… where it was, I must admit, completely delicious and not a bite was left.  There was still some syrupy caramel sauce, but the family all agreed this was the best pavlova I’d ever made…And that’s really saying something!!

 
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Posted by on September 24, 2012 in Sweet Things

 

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Mushroom Risotto Balls

06 Sep

Oooooh! A party!  What a great excuse to make these lovely little morsels.

My sister celebrated her birthday with some friends, and I decided to make the Blue Cheese Eclairs again – delicious – as well as the Mushroom Risotto Balls.

I must admit, I was a little bit over mushroom risotto.  Not that it’s not a great meal, and so easy in the Thermomix, but I fear I may have overdone it – I think it’s been on the menu at least once every three weeks since the day I got my Thermomix.  Anyway, I relented and thought this would be a good nibble for the party, mostly because I knew there was a lot of non-Thermomix owners in the group that was invited, and my guess was that they wouldn’t be suffering Mushroom Risotto Fatigue.

This recipe is from Madalene Bonvini-Hamel, who runs The British Larder near Woodbridge,Suffolk. And to think I lived not that far from there many, many years ago.  Luckily I didn’t know of her if she was there at that stage, I would have come home even fatter if these Risotto Balls are any indication of the food she loves to eat.  Check out her website at britishlarder.co.uk

Oh, I’m so glad I tried this…  This is a great mushroom risotto, with a really intense flavour – no doubt helped along by not only fresh mushrooms, but also a goodly portion of dried mushrooms.  I bought a big container of them recently at Costco, and christened it for this recipe.  The container I bought features Porcini, Shitake, Yellow Boletes and Oyster mushrooms.  They tasted terrific.  I can’t remember how much I paid for the container – quite a big one – 300 grams, but I’m sure it wasn’t over $20, which is pretty good value considering the price you pay for the small bags of dried porcini mushrooms.

The risotto that results from this recipe is quite sticky and verges on gluggy – but you need it like this and not soupy, or the balls won’t stay together.  You make little balls and put a little square of mozzarella cheese in the middle, then roll them in panko breadcrumbs.  I actually made the balls the day before the party, rolled them in the breadcrumbs, and then put them in the fridge in containers until the next day and they were fine.  Make sure your mozzarella cubes are in the middle of the rice mixure, otherwise you’ll have some that ooze a little cheese – like that’s the worst thing in the world!!!

I oven baked the balls in the oven, but they didn’t go the lovely golden colour I would have liked.  They did verge on a pale brown, but I cooked them in an unfamiliar oven so I didn’t want to risk burning them.  Next time I’ll try pan frying or deep frying them and see if they look nicer.  I liked the idea of being able to put them in the oven while people were there and serving them hot, rather than having to have hot oil around people who had been drinking lots – so there was method to my madness.

Apologies for the terrible photography – as you can probably tell, I was a few champagnes in by the time I started to heat them up, and very nearly forgot to take a photo at all!

So, yes, easy to make, and a great party nibble!

 
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Posted by on September 6, 2012 in Bites and snacks

 

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