Gift Ideas for the Thermo-Chick

I may have mentioned some of this information before, but there are some updates...

Greek yoghurt... I buy it mostly in buckets the Jalna brand has no “weird” ingredients... just milk, cream and bacteria... I found this site a few days ago

 http://www.superkitchenmachine.com/2010/10051/thermomix-gourmet-kitchen-gifts.html

Really the main reason I do not make my own yoghurt much is the straining. It takes up so much room in the fridge. I love that this strainer is a taller and narrower which would take up less shelf space. I use Greek style yoghurt and sometimes labneh (which is strained Greek yoghurt or Lebanese yoghurt-cheese) instead of sour cream... and its healthier, add some honey or maple syrup and its nice with fruit for breakfast, love it in juice shakes, pancakes and guacamole the list is endless.

Unsalted tomato paste... I used to buy it in the plastic but that's not so healthy and glass is so much more useful. To stop the green taking over... a trick I learnt when I was a nanny is to add some extra-virgin olive oil to the TP close the lid and roll it around so that the TP is covered...that seals makes a barrier so the air cannot get in. If the EVOO is runny, re-use it; if its hard pop it in to whatever you are making for the oil part.

Tomato passata... this recently replaced canned tomatoes in my kitchen. Glass is so much easier to re-purpose than tin and re-purpose is more earth friendly than recycling. In the past I have even used these lovely shaped glass bottles as vases to gift flowers in, with a little ribbon to cover the top.

Red and white wine... what can I say it gives the meat dishes depth.

Rice... sweet, savoury breakfast, lunch or dinner, grind it to a flour love it.

Block cheese... wizz it in the TM and you have grated cheese. The block seems to keep better in the fridge though and is a bit cheaper when you buy it in the 1kg blocks.

Parmigiana cheese... not the powder, the fresh stuff. Keeps very well in the freezer.

Italian herbs, Tuscan seasoning, veggie stock, Mexican Chilli, smoky paprika.

Powdered milk, so handy. When making things like custard and béchamel sauce... most people really can't tell the difference so if you are trying to keep your fresh milk for coffee and breakfast... this is a clever substitute.

Pink silicone spatulas... very cheap from spotlight and so useful.

I still have a grater, because sometimes I forget to grate the cheese before I cook in the TM. It makes me appreciate the times I can just wizz it up.

And a gadget I would absolutely love is a zoodle maker. Not the fancy one on this site, just one that looks like a peeler. The oil does not interest me either but how cool are these... http://thermomix.superkitchenmachine.com/collections/all/products/thermomix-cleaning-brush sometimes it is a lot of work to clean the blades. Don't know that I need 40 of these though, but they look very handy.

JUDIE

Aunty Thel's Biscuit Pastry

I am beyond pleased to tell you that my BFF checked with her family and it's ok to share the pastry recipe with you. I feel honoured that I am able to honour the memory of a wonderful lady by posting one of her recipes. The one request her family made was that it continue to be known as “Aunty Thel's biscuit pastry”.

You will need

• 1 cup SR flour (I use white wings/freefrom  GF flour)
• ½ cup icing sugar (I used raw sugar and it worked, or you can wizz it in your TM... before putting other ingredients in)
• ¼ cup corn flour (Be sure to use maize corn flour not “wheaten cornflour” which is made of wheat)
• pinch of salt
• 3 tbs marg (butter works too)
• 1 egg

Method

• Sift dry ingredients
• Rub in marg
• add well beaten egg and cut through with knife
• knead in bowl
• roll out as required (Its yummy raw)
• bake in moderate oven til golden brown (approx ½ hour)

THERMO method (I used a double mix so that there was enough for a crust and lid... it all fit)

• pop dry ingredients into TM bowl, turn the dial to closed lid position
• press turbo for 2 seconds to sive the dry ingredients.
• Weigh in the butter- 60g = 3 tbs, use speed 5, 5-10 seconds til mix looks like breadcrumbs
• Add egg, turn dial to closed lid position, press the knead button (Looks like wheat)
• knead till the dough comes together (I think mine took about 20 seconds)
• bake in moderate oven till golden brown.

Time to test it on the people blessed with cooperative digestion systems; that's right the “glutenli-abled” or people who do not have to eat GF food if they don't choose to...
I took this pastry (as an apple pie) to 9 friends, and we were quite full by the time dessert came out... and it was a hit. They liked it as much as we did. Yea!
JUDIE

Thermo mixing

This is a text I sent to my friend who is a TM consultant...

Hi Vanessa 

How are you? I'm pretty excited... 

I just had lunch with my husband... I took him pasta fagioli. Since we had leftovers for dinner last night and he usually takes leftovers for lunch. Really I think I just wanted to see him a few hours earlier Lols. 

Wow nearly zero effort (I used the method you taught me) with cooking the pasta in the thermoserver, made his work mates in the office jealous and his co-worker happy as we shared some with him... (He's a celiac vegetarian) all in the space of an hour... He (Honey) even has lunch for tomorrow now. 

I've made this twice for the two guys the first time with just the one can of mashed kidney beans and rice macaroni from the Asian store. 

Today I made it with corn pasta and also added the second can of beans but used butter beans for the 2nd can (as I found that both boys are beans fans)... 

We liked both but loved today's with the corn pasta. The rice pasta was cheaper though. Just thought this info might be useful for demos with GF clients. 

Now I'm off to make the pasta for carbonara tonight. I'll let you know how it goes too

You could make pasta fagioli (which means pasta with beans) said like this... its well worth the effort to say it properly as it sounds so much more delicious and complicated to make.

and you can make it like this the “hard” way... like this or even this...

But my friend showed me a few months back a super easy way to make it with a TM and I discovered to my delight that it works just as well with GF pasta as it does with the regular kind. This pasta does not seem to be available any more in Woolworths however the Gluten Free San Remo and Barilla pasta's are now a great substitute.

I am pretty sure it would work as well in the Kogan however you will need a fake thermoserver. I have checked at the local Asian stores in Rocky and they did not have any in stock at the time the man from Flavourin Food World 157 Musgrave st said they get them in from time to time. He is beside the Indian Restaurant in the block just before the post-office heading from the bridge to shopping fair. I am never in town long enough to keep checking.

Pretty much the food-server keeps hot food hot, it is plastic on the outside (looks like Tupperware) and metal on the inside and is insulated. Apparently they also come with metal on the outside too- but I have only seen the plastic ones. They had them everywhere in the cheap stores in Cabramatta/ Fairfield area of Sydney.

Parmesan Cheese for serving (a squirt of lemon juice is also nice)

• 1 small red chilli (I just give my Mexican Chilli bottle a good shake)
• 1 clove garlic (I use 2)
• ½ onion (I use a full one)
• 50g Olive oil
• 1 celery stalk, roughly chopped inc leaves
• 1 can Borlotti or Cannelini beans, drained (Optional- leave out if your family is bean-phobic)
• 1 can Kidney beans, drained
• 2 fresh tomatoes (I used ½ a can)
• 2 tbs veg stock
• 900g water (I include beans water in this amount)
• 300g small pasta

Place Parmesan cheese into TM bowl grate 10s speed 9. Set aside

Place chilli, garlic and onion into TM bowl, chop 3s speed 7

Scrape from sides of bowl using spatula

Add oil sauté for 2 mins 100 degrees speed 1 (I usually give it 5 mins)

Add celery with leaves, kidney beans, tomatoes and stock and pulverise

Add water, 2^nd can of beans (if using) cook on reverse speed soft 10 mins

Pop pasta into the thermoserver

When the timer goes off, pour the hot sauce mixture over the pasta and cover with TS lid.

Do something fun...

10 minutes later give the Pasta Fagioli a stir and cover again

continue with fun thing...

Stir the mixture again in 10 minutes the pasta should be soft...

Add parmesan cheese and or lemon juice and salt

Serve.

The pulverised kidney beans make the PF look like there could be meat in it and they usually won't miss the meat. Cheap, easy healthy... awesome.

Homemade GF pasta

Making pasta dough is dead easy in the Thermomix (and I assume the Kogan too).

For this recipe I grabbed my TM everyday cookery book and swapped the wheat flour for GF with a dash of xantham gum.

• 300g plain flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 tbs olive oil

2 minutes on the kneed setting

I ended up using 400g of flour (My hand slipped, recipe just said to add 1 egg for each 100g flour). Also our chooks are quite young so they lay small eggs so I kept adding more till the mixture was right... it took 7 small eggs.

I left the dough to rest for ½ hour and researched ways to make flat pasta without a pasta maker. I found this one, and decided to make my pasta using smaller balls as I have a much smaller rolling pin.

I kept some pasta flat for lasagne recipe here

Others, I rolled the into scrolls and chopped them with a knife at about 1cm intervals. They unrolled nicely into fettuccine.

I later cooked them in boiling water and added cabonara sauce (made in the thermomix)

 Seafood Cabonara

• 1 onion chopped speed 7

• sauté in 25g butter 3 mins varoma temperature
• Add some bacon sauté for a further 5 minutes
• add 50g flour, 25g butter 500g milk and mushrooms
• cook 90 degrees, 7 mins speed 4.
• At 5 minutes to go add a handful of green prawn meat (optional)
• At 1 minute to go add 1/3 cup parmesan cheese

I didn't have much luck with milk sauces in the Kogan, however it probably just needed some tweaking. People with a thermochef were great at blogging advice for the Kogan.

The pasta was a little thick but we really enjoyed having the fresh stuff. I may yet invest in a pasta roller but apparently they are a pain to clean... I am looking forward to ravioli and cannelloni which I have not had in ages.

  The next day I made Lasagne with the pasta, and used the TM to make perfect cheese sauce. With rolled pasta, you can have your lasagne any shape you wish.

JUDIE

Homemade Shampoo 2

I tweaked my regime and am happy with the results.

Tweek 1: wash hair in the morning so that it can air dry really well. One-3 tiny drops of coconut oil may be applied to the ends while hair is still damp.

2: Only apply coconut oil to the tips at the beginning of the day, applying at night does not give the oil time to sink into the hair before I go to sleep, consequently I woke up continuously with “Professor Snape hair- The book Snape who always had oily hair not the handsome guy played by Alan Rickman”... I have asked Honey to grow his hair like that and been refused...

3: Make good use of dry shampoo... the best recipe I have found is from http://www.instructables.com/id/homemade-dry-shampoo/step3/the-dry-shampoo-for-dark-hair-recipe/ and uses cocoa, bicarb soda and corn flour.

I usually wash my hair on day 4 now.

Judie

Washing Powder update

The Castile soap has arrived!!! So excited. Then I looked at the ingredients, the bar soap is nothing like the “Make-your-own” variety. I don't recognise (not that I know many of the bad guys) any of the chemicals as being “Bad” except it has palm oil in it which is bad for our orangutan friends. I do not know how this compares to the Dr Bronner brand of Castile soap however I will say this, the Knights shower gel is not to be confused with the liquid castile soap... I was horrified to find that it has Sodium Lauryl Sulphate and Sodium Laureth sulphate in it which is are pretty well known “bad guys”... http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/07/13/sodium-lauryl-sulfate.aspx.

I will use up what we have but will not be buying any more of either product. If they lifted their game a bit; the bar soap especially would be very handy as its pH neutral and is actually quite nice and not drying as a soap and does not leave a waxy residue. I also read (and decided to test) that it was good for washing pots and pans... It certainly did the job and left my hands and nails feeling much nicer after washing up than the liquid counterparts do.

So still on the hunt for soap alternatives.

Washing Up

I have had to do a lot of washing up this month as our dishwasher is on strike, my husband is negotiating conditions and I am cleaning up the mess from the slackers. I have found a very satisfactory substitute for dish-washing detergent in bicarb soda. I flick about a tbs or less into my smaller tub with very hot water (I really just give it a fair shake of the soda box). Plates get clean and my hands stay nice not dry and my nails don't break. Better for the environment and we are happy all around.

I had tried and liked the fake liquid castile soap (before I read the ingredients) as a shampoo with a few drops of coconut oil as a leave-in conditioner. Shower time was so much faster without having to wait for conditioner to “set”.

I decided to look around for natural alternatives to soap in the shower... how hard could be it be... we use milk in the bath right? I came across this site... http://nomoredirtylooks.com/2011/02/the-no-soap-challenge-the-results-are-in-and-we-have-a-winner/

Bathroom

I was too late for the official challenge but not too late lo say goodbye to the Sodium L Sulphates...

So I am giving it a go and am about half way through the challenge... I notice no real difference in my skin, positive or negative. I have been informed by Honey that I don't smell (I checked)... and I decided to go one step beyond the challenge which allows you to use shampoo (without cheating)... I am giving the “no poo” a go this week too. http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Go-No-Poo/?ALLSTEPS

My cousin's family uses this method and their hair always looks great. But it took a while for me to come around... after the wedding I reasoned if it stuffs my hair I won't be in the spotlight... after my shampoo runs out (ooops bought some more it just jumped into my shopping cart... actually no we had to get some on our honey moon as my sponge bag was mixed up with some other stuff that my matron of honour kept safe for me till we returned) wait till it's used up? No now is the time.

Ok I actually colour my hair as my roots are grey and my brown streaks blonde which is annoying. ACV may lighten my hair and I am not prepared to take that “risk” so I am switching my ACV with red wine vinegar.

Wash one: I mixed it with cold water and I have a very hot shower. I didn't scream quite as loudly as when I see a toad, but it was a shock.

Confession: I have not been to the hairdresser in almost a year. Usually I go just before I dye but I was busy/broke or both and it was overlooked. So my ends are rather dry (but not split-very thankful for that). I have continued to use 3 drops of coconut oil in my tips (every few days) which usually makes my roots oily and they are still dry like days later. Also rain usually gives me oily roots too, in this case; my hair is starting to look oily about ¼ of the way down to about ¼ from the end (so in other words the middle half of my hair looks oilyish) but I love the way it looks in the morning with just a finger-comb on day 2. Day one it was a little dry and strawish.

Kitchen

Last night it was time to do the nasty... clean the oven. I used bicarb soda and water and then about an hour later I washed it off with my shark. It was very handy. The oven looks pretty good, it was a rush job as I realised after I started making my apple crumble that the Bicarb was not cleaned off the oven yet... It took about 10 minutes and I popped the dessert into the oven and cooked dinner... when the apple crumble was finished... there was a fine film of powder on the bottom of the stove. If I had used a commercial cleaner it would have been a disaster... leaching chemicals into our food and nasty smells into the house. When the oven was cool, I sprayed it it with our "new" spray and wipe which is a blend of vinegar and water. Residue gone...

Judie