Roast Potatoes

Roast potatoes
Roast potatoes

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/main-dishes-vegetarian-recipes/best-roast-potatoes-ever/31137

Instead of parboiling the potatoes in a pot, this method from the recipe community steams the potatoes using the varoma  and then you rough them up the same conventional way by shaking them in the varoma dish to create the ideal surface to crisp  up in the oven. Works very well, potatoes tossed with rosemary, sea salt and olive oil before roasting.  Will definately be our go to method for parboiling potatoes.

Potato Leek and Bacon Soup

Potato Leek and Bacon Soup
Potato Leek and Bacon Soup

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/soups-recipes/potato-leek-bacon-soup/163267

The guided leek and potato soup part of the chicken velouté meal makes a great side dish quantity but this Friday night no one feels like cooking.  So a full meal of leek and potato  soup would be great. Tried this recipe from the community which has bacon added and uses 500g of potato and 700g of liquids ( milk/water/cream). Much larger than the 370g of potato and 500 g water used in the guided recipe.  It’s delicious, everyone loved it. Hot creamy soup with some toast is perfect for a cold Friday night. Substituted 100g creme fraiche for cream.

Another popular Leek and Potato soup which has 52 favourable comments ( link below ) and is an even larger step up in quantities from the guided recipe. This one uses  600g of potatoes and 1.125g of liquids. Will try this one another night.

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/soups-recipes/potato-and-leek-soup/83059

Chicken and vegetable and noodle soup

Chicken and vegetable and noodle soup
Chicken and vegetable and noodle soup

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/recipes/chicken-vegetable-noodle-soup/49098

The colds have arrived so had to make this chicken and vegetable noodle soup from the recipe community. It’s an easy tasty standard, and used up leftover vegetables in the fridge. Made with the TM vegetable stock, a cup of pasta and some cooked chicken. Another great use for the shredded cooked chicken or leftover roast chicken. Very quick, cooked in 17 minutes, used hot water and the addition of white pepper at the end gives the soup extra warmth.

Lemon Fish Pie

Lemon Fish Pie
Lemon Fish Pie

Annabel Langbein’s ( Great Food for Busy Lives) recipe for Lemon Fish Pie, is an easy one dish family dinner. The two main elements white sauce and mash potatoes made by the thermomix using guided functions.

Lemon Fish Pie

  • 2c white sauce (bechemal sauce)
  • 3-4 TB lemon juice
  • 500g boneless fish
  • 3 hard boiled eggs
  • 4c mash potato
  1. Make bechemal sauce using one step method ; Add 40g butter, 40g flour, 500g milk, pinch of nutmeg, 1/2 tsp salt and pepper  to TM bowl – cook 7 mins, 90C, speed 4. Mix in  3 TB of lemon juice to cooked  sauce.
  2. Make mash potato using guided function or recipe community method. One quantity of the guided recipe seems to be the perfect amount for a family meal like this. I tried this method by thermomike (link below) because sometimes the butterfly pops out when the potatoes are cooking using guided.  Put the eggs in the Varoma dish on top while the mash potatoes are steaming. Note: be careful to use correct amount of water per recipe to prevent it boiling over. http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/side-dishes-recipes/best-mashed-potato-ever/163866
  3. Lay fish fillets at bottom of the dish ( we don’t even bother cutting up fish because it’s so soft once it’s cooked)  top with peeled quartered boiled eggs, lemon white sauce and mash potatoes.
  4. Bake 220C for 25-30 minutes until top is slightly browned.

Great wintery comfort food!image

Fruit Loaf

Fruit loaf
Fruit loaf

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/breads-rolls-recipes/jumbo-900g-fruit-loaf-rolls/237914

Made this fruit loaf ( link above )  by the same recipe creator for the burger buns ( Jumbo White bread ).  It had to be good because her bread recipes are reliable and it is! Ooooh it’s actually too good so we have sliced the bread into breakfast portions, given some away and stored the rest  straight into the freezer so we don’t eat it all at once. Even left out and eaten the next day it retained it’s freshness.  Doesn’t need toasting it’s so delicious with just a spread of butter. Note for next time:-  use raisins instead of sultanas.

Raisin bread
Raisin bread

Cinnamon Oysters

Cinnamon oysters
Cinnamon oysters

Recipe from Edmonds cookbook, husband’s birthday treat. Cinnamon Oysters with cream and dusted with icing sugar.

Cinnamon Oysters

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 c sugar (80 g)
  • 2 tsp golden syrup
  • 6 TB flour ( 60g)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  1. Preheat oven 190 c. Add sugar, blend 3 sec, speed 9 to refine. Add butterfly whisk and add eggs.  Beat eggs and sugar, speed 3.5 until thick. ( look through the top while beating , mine took about 2-3 mins)
  2. Add golden syrup through the hole in lid and beat speed 3.5 for another minute.
  3. Sift remaining dry ingredients and fold into the the egg mixture.
  4. Spoon into greased oyster tins ( I used muffin tray) Bake 8-10 mins 190c.
  5. When cold, cut oysters and fill with whipped cream.

notes- reverse the cinnamon / ginger quantities to get a more gingery tasting sponge

Thermomix Playdough

Thermomix playdough
Thermomix playdough

http://thermofun.com/thermofun-kids-everyday-essentials-play-dough/ There are all sorts of great recipes for kids activities on the thermofun ( link above) website, recipes for making paint, glues, clay etc.  So today being a rainy Sunday morning we thought we’d try the recipe for playdough. ( see link above ) This kept Miss 14 occupied for ages creating her favourite colours ( she used food colouring and divided the cooked dough into smaller lots  adding small amounts of colouring to each dough ) and Miss 8 loved playing with her new playdough. The texture is perfect just like bought playdough. (Keep in plastic snaplock bags in fridge ) Notes : added some extra flour ( about 50 g) as per comments underneath the recipe, note the dough is less sticky after it cools. Here’s another recipe (see below) from the Thermomix forum which is similar but uses regular cooking oil instead of coconut oil.

Thermomix Playdough forum

  • 250g Water
  • 100g Cooking Salt
  • 1 Tablespoon Cream of Tartar
  • 280g Plain Flour
  • 15ml Cooking Oil
  • Food Colouring or Powder Paints (to colour)

Preparation: Put the water, salt, cream of tartar and food colour into TM bowl. Heat for 5 minutes at 60o on speed 3. After cooking, add flour and mix for 40 seconds, speed 3 or until mixture is combined and thick. Set dial to closed lid position. Add oil and knead for 1 minute on dough mode.

Tips/Hints: If you wish to make several different colours from the one batch, leave out the food colour in step 1. Then when dough is made, divide dough into balls and add a different colour to each ball. Knead the colour through the dough. Store each colour in a separate airtight container to keep dough from hardening.

Chicken and Vegetable Pie

Chicken and vegetable pie
Chicken and vegetable pie

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/main-dishes-meat-recipes/chicken-and-vegetable-pie/17616

Very tasty, this pie recipe is a goodie to be saved… Another popular recipe from the community, 113 positive reviews,  easy family dinner, got everyone’s seal of approval. After reading the comments we omitted the water and used milk instead of cream.  Super easy, pastry used as a topping only, added beans and mushrooms too. Note for next time mix cornflour with some of the milk before adding so the cornflour doesn’t burn on the bottom of the TM bowl.

Chicken and vegetable pie dinner
Chicken and vegetable pie dinner

Doughnut Muffins

Doughnut muffins
Doughnut muffins

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/baking-sweet-recipes/doughnut-muffins/83758

Another very popular recipe from the recipe community (link above) with 57 rave reviews. Made these doughnut muffins for afternoon tea and everyone loved them especially the kids. When they’ve been allowed to cool they do taste like doughnuts, but most of them were gone before they were cold.  Didn’t bother to pulse dry ingredients just added  to wet ingredients and mixed in altogether. 5 seconds mixing,  20 minutes cook time and they’re done. Hot muffins were brushed with melted butter and dipped into cinnamon sugar.  Recipe makes 12 doughnut muffins and perfect bagged and frozen for lunch boxes.

Lemon and parsley juice

Lemon and parsley juice
Lemon and parsley juice

Ward off the winter bugs with the guided lemon and parsley juice. Only added two teaspoons of sugar instead of 50g and increase the parsley when I make for the adults. A whole peeled lemon blitzed with ice and Italian parsley, so refreshing, great start for kids breakfast.