Apologies in advance of my long winded post. I promise to try and be shorter next time
I thought I’d start a thread where we can show and tell our experiences with some of the new programs on the TM6, whether good or not so much
A few of the long-time posters on here would maybe remember (or not) where I’ve wished the TM could cook onions more fully. No matter how long I would cook them, I could always detect a raw aftertaste which I really did not like at all. I’m not talking about when you do caramelised onions with balsamic vinegar/sugar etc, I just mean the normal fried onions we use so much at the start of many recipes. I ended up cooking onions in a frypan then adding to the bowl and carrying on with the recipe. I was so tempted to get a HMP years ago because of its higher temperature, but I never did.
Anyway, when I saw the high heat cooking on the new model I was immediately interested but wanted to wait and not jump in. To be fair, I haven’t seen any real reviews of the cooking of onions and the only things I had seen mentioned was that after doing so there is browning on the base of the pot. It got me thinking about how if you put a Stainless Steel frypan on the stove top and put oil and onions into the cold frypan then start to cook them, the onions would stick, you need to pre-heat the pan first, then add oil and heat, then add the onions or whatever you are cooking to get a non-stick effect.
So, this morning to try out the cooking mode, I did things a little different to what was instructed. I prepared the onion wedges in a bowl and added the oil and tossed to coat.
I then set the machine for 5 mins/Varoma/speed spoon to pre-heat the bowl. It got to Varoma in about 2 mins, I quickly sprayed the base of the pot and the blades with a little oil then added in the onions. Used the High Heat onions on Cookidoo and let it do its thing.
Loved hearing the sizzling going on and I like the splatter guard.
The first photo is at the end of that program. I had a taste and was pleasantly surprised that even though not really golden, they were cooked and no raw flavour. I would use these onions in a recipe for sure.
I set them aside for the moment as I was finishing off my breakfast then I cooked them again on one of the other programs (I think it was golden shallots or similar). I needed to add a bit more onion as it could detect not enough in there for that particular program. Set it from cold (I didn’t clean the bowl after the last effort as it was nicely oiled and there was no browning or sticking to the bowl).
The second photo shows them at the end of that program though it does ask if you would like them to be chopped so you can use in whatever recipe you are making. I didn’t today so I could take a photo as is. These were just onions and oil, no sugar or anything else added. I was so impressed. There was some browning on the bottom of the bowl and I wondered if it was because the bowl had cooled down and I didn’t do another pre-heat. I just added some water and used the pre-clean mode, the browning came off easily. I let the bowl dry and then carried on.
The second thing I made was Berry Curd using frozen blueberries and strawberries and using the Thickening mode. You basically add everything in, set it and it cooks and whizzes everything itself. I’ve poured it into sterilized jars and have just put them in the fridge to chill, so will take a photo of that either later today or tomorrow when I can see what the consistency is like. The taste was good, I just wish I’d used more blueberries to get a deeper shade but I’ve noted that for next time.
Finally, I made a meal for DH for tonight called Kung Pao Chicken on Cookidoo which used the High Temp mode. I made up the marinade early this morning and had the chicken marinating for an hour or so while I was doing the other things.
I followed the recipe as per instructions and the third photo shows what I transferred to a bowl. There’s no rice or whatever underneath, just the chicken (2 serves) and sauce. I'll make some rice noodles later to serve with.
So tasty, I could quite easily have eaten this myself and will do next time for sure.
My note for next time is to add more spring onions and leave some to garnish at the end with the toasted peanuts, mainly just to give a more colourful appearance.
The recipe asked for 4-5 dried chillies! I used 1 (but didn’t remove the seeds) and it had the right amount of bite.
So, my first day, 3 things made and I’m very happy with each thing, though I won’t know about the curd until it has had chance to chill.
I will add to this thread (and I hope others will too) as other functions are used and tested. I will certainly try the Sous Vide and Slow Cooker modes at some stage. I have a stand alone Sous Vide machine but it’s quite big, which can be handy at times, but I rather like the idea of being able to cook 2-4 serves.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to ordering a blade cover to better use these 2 functions and they are now sold out, so will get one when next in stock.
I’m sure there will be a fail at some stage but so happy with today’s efforts.
(thanks for sticking to the end!)
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