Half a can of lychees with syrup, some ice, blended for 20 seconds speed 10. Super refreshing sorbet goes down well with kids after school.
Lychee sorbet
Breakfast
Soft buttery pretzels
Amazing pretzels! Made the dough in the thermomix for Sunday brunch in less than five minutes. Recipe from “Festive flavour” only needs yeast, milk, flour, sugar and olive oil. Recipe uses 550g of flour for this recipe and we made 14 pretzels. The pretzels are dipped into a baking soda and water before being baked. The trick we’ve learnt with the dough is to let the yeast rest in the first mix of milk yeast and sugar for 10 minutes, it starts to froth on the top as it activates. Then add the flour and salt and use dough mode to knead for two minutes. Proving the dough (we just left it in the thermomix bowl) till it doubled in size took less than an hour. So while you have to think in advance when you want to eat, the dough is so easy to make and it’s a great fun activity for the kids to roll the pretzel shapes. Baking only takes between 8-12 minutes at 200C. Brushed with butter and sea salt after coming out of the oven.
This recipe is also available on the thermomix app, the one with the green thermomix symbol. A lite version is free to download from the App Store.
Gluten free bread (chia and pepita) and brown rice salad
Off on a school trip tomorrow with Miss 8 to Tiri Tiri matangi, so needed to precook a couple of meals in advance. Following the guided recipes for gluten free bread and rice salad on the thermomix is like having a chef next to you telling you what to do next! Miss 14 has been asking for the gluten free chia and pepita loaf since we last tried it at the Thermomix course a couple of weeks ago and it doesn’t disappoint. It has the texture of vogels bread and toasted it will be even scrummier. Even though it would be easy enough to make up a rice salad without the thermomix, the advantage is that while the rice cooks in the bowl, the vegetables and eggs steam in the Varoma tray. This salad is topped with fresh herbs, tomatoes, olive oil and lemon juice but any light dressing or combination of vegetables could be substituted. We are loving all the whole foods we are now eating and can’t remember the last time I put a packet of biscuits in my shopping trolley. Lasagne also made for tonight’s dinner, bechemal sauce was made yesterday in the thermomix and refrigerated so only had to make the meat sauce today.
Bread rolls
We had a breakthrough with bread today. Yippee ! This time used a whole sachet of yeast for the basic bread recipe which is the tip we picked up from the Catherine at the thermomix course. And instead of using wheat grains, just substituted wholemeal flour. I think there’s about three teaspoons of yeast in one sachet and the recipe requires only 2 tsp so there was always a little leftover previously. This time with more yeast, proving was only 30 minutes as per recipe. And the second prove after the buns are shaped was 20 minutes as per recipe. Miss 14 shaped the buns using tips from course. The kids loved making the hedgehog buns. Buns cooked in 15 minutes at 200c. Above pic is hot out of the oven. Nothing like having the smell of baking bread in the house.
Lunch was rice noodles with chicken and courgettes. Thermomix chicken stock used as a soup base and unfortunately just used the last spoonful from the jar. It has lasted us almost three months. So will be making more tomorrow. Miss 8 says it’s her favourite soup in the world! What a compliment.
Muesli (fruit and nut)
Delicious homemade gluten free muesli made in the thermomix, just 4 pulses and we have delicious fruit and nut muesli. Recipe guided from the Basic cookbook p216. Ingredients are fresh apples, activated nuts, prunes, cranberries (substituted for apricots) figs and coconut. Sprinkled with homemade LSA and topped with yoghurt. Can’t wait for breakfast tomorrow.
American pancakes
Personally I prefer crepes but the kids love these American pancakes. Batter is a thermomix guided recipe which was done in 10 seconds, no thinking required. Yahoo! Happy Birthday breakfast for Miss 14.
Potato Croquettes
Cooking with the thermomix is so easy we seem to always a lot of leftovers. What to do with leftover mash potato and pasta… make potato croquettes. Mixed the leftover mash and macaroni, added ham and chives, salt and pepper. Miss 13 formed into patties and dipped in flour, egg wash, and dipped into breadcrumbs.
Porridge
Porridge made in thermomix this morning. It’s another guided recipe, just add the oats, milk, and water. Enough for four bowls cooked in 11 mins. Husband is impressed and even miss 13 who is not a fan of porridge is happy to eat. Creamy and smooth . Topped with apple, maple syrup and cinnamon it’s a great start to the weekend.
Thermomix poached eggs – sous vide poached eggs
http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/basics-recipes/perfectly-poached-eggs/126178
Poaching Fridge temperature Eggs
The sous vide method for poaching eggs on the recipe community site, link above, is now our favourite way to poach eggs. The guided recipe from the Basic cookbook for the thermomix was a little fiddly because you could only cook two or three eggs at the most at one time and so the waiting time for our family of four was a little inconvenient.
With this sous vide method for the TM5, add 2ltrs of freshly boiled water to the bowl, ( we add 1.8ltrs and then add cool water until the temperature is 70C) , then add the steamer basket with the fridge eggs and cook at 70C, 12.5mins, speed 3.5. We cook 5-6 eggs at once. You could cook more. We skipped the first step of heating the water by using boiled water in the TM bowl and reduce temperature to the required 70C by adding some cool water. Once done, the eggs can be cracked in middle and unbelievably they slide out whole, we were impressed and next time I’ll let the kids do their own definately try this one if you like poached eggs with minimum fuss. To get the eggs exactly the way you like, read the comments section for this recipe, there are many helpful tips that members have posted to achieve the perfect poach egg. And the method varies slightly for a TM31, time and quantity of water is reduced.
Poaching Room temperature eggs
Added another useful link to try, see above Thermobliss facebook post comments by Nicole Mark Pennington. She notes her method for perfect poached eggs for room temperature eggs, fill TM bowl with 2000g water, place room temperature eggs in steamer basket and cook 14 minutes, 70C, speed 4. Don’t need to pre boil water but need room temperature eggs.
Pita bread wraps
http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/breads-rolls-recipes/pita-bread-wraps/128146
My kids love pita bread so this one was a must have recipe. And it’s so simple, add the ingredients knead a couple minutes proving only 15 minutes then ready to pan fry. I hardly had time to take to take a pic because the scavengers were circling, even the hummus didn’t last before I could click the button. Comments were “these are better than the ones we buy”, ” so tasty” and moreish! . Recipe made about a dozen. Can see I will be making these often.
NZ thermomix mum's blog 