Can anyone help me?  I've got a sourdough loaf going now using kefir in place of the liquid, then leaving it to ferment (rise) for 24 hours.  It works perfectly and is a revelation for me, but I know that theoretically I should be able to take some of the dough and reserve it as the starter for the next loaf, rather than using the kefir every time.  Does anyone do this to be able to tell me how to do it with the TMX?

Thanks so much
Caroline

DH and I are celebrating our 14th wedding anniversary tomorrow.  The kids are being put to bed early and we're Eating Out at Home.

I had planned to make steak with pepper sauce as it's easy (I'm permanently exhausted at the moment, joys of a young family  ) but when I went to get the steaks out of the freezer to defrost tonight I discovered that they weren't the good quality beef steaks that I'd thought them, but lamb shoulder steak for braising 

So currently I have 2 salmon fillets in the fridge defrosting, and I'm trying to get my head around something a bit special to make with them (TMX or not).  But I am so used to cooking child friendly meals at present that I just can't remember how to cook adult food!!!  I have no inspiration at all, and am hoping my TMX Foodie Friends will help me out.  Any ideas folks?

Some of you may remember that a couple of years ago I asked if anyone knew how to extract the juice from fruit using the thermomix so that it could then be turned into jelly rather than jam.  I asked this because the Lakeland jam maker can do this, and I couldn't see that it did anything different to what the tmx would do.  I hate the straining method, so loved the idea of steaming out the juice instead.

Anyway, 2 years on I finally had some blackberries which had taken us no time or effort to pick, so I was willing to risk them being ruined (the thing which always held me back before).

I put 500ml water into the jug, and popped the washed blackberries into the internal steamer basket.  It was under half full, but more than a quarter full - let's say about a third (didn't weigh them, sorry).

I did varoma and speed 3 for 20 minutes (as the lakeland jam maker steams for 20 mins as far as I remember).  At the end of this time I had washed out, red looking collapsed blackberries squashed down in the basket, and rich black juice below.  I discarded the ex blackberries, and weighed the juice, added an equal amount of jam sugar plus the juice of half a lemon, and made jam as usual (15 mins at 100, then 5 mins at varoma). 

The result was excellent!  We all love it, and can't tell any difference between this and strained jelly.  Possibly the nutritional value is slightly lower because of the water?  No idea, but I do know that it was easy, no hassle at all, and the the taste was great.  This is definitely the way for me to make jellies from now on.

Just thought I'd share in case anyone else wanted to try this.

Recipe by Thermomixer - I've copied and pasted this from Starters.

Name of Recipe: Varoma Farro (Spelt) and Chicken Salad

Number of People: 4- 6

Ingredients:

300g chicken breasts
40g  extra virgin olive oil
salt, pepper as needed
1000g water
250g fàrro
40g peeled almonds
a bunch of rocket, cut into pieces
20g pine nuts
1 lemon

Preparation:

Brush the chicken breasts with 10g of oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange them in the tray of the Varoma.

Pour water into the TM bowl, add a pinch of salt and fàrro, position your Varoma and cook for 25minutes at Varoma temperature on Reverse + speed 1.

Drain the fàrro with the help of the TM basket and pour into a bowl.

Place the chicken on a chopping board and cut into strips. Combine them with the fàrro

Clean and dry the TM bowl and place in it the almonds.  Chop for 5 seconds on speed 7 then heat for 1 minute at 100°C on speed 1.

Add the chopped almonds, rocket and pine nuts to the bowl with fàrro and chicken.  Season the salad with oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Serve warm.

Photos:

Not yet.

Tips/Hints:

Farro is ancient grain that is certainly availbale from Italian delicatessans and store in Melbourne.  You could substitue pearl barley but soak it overnight before using.

Origin:

Interpretted/adapted from Italian & Spanish websites from A Tutto Vapore & A Todo Vapor - their equivalents of "Full Steam Ahead"

 Farro.jpg (75.72 KB, 480x640 - viewed 8 times.)
« Last Edit: September 26, 2008, 07:31:09 AM by Thermomixer »   Report to moderator     Logged
Thermomixer in Australia

http://thermomix-er.blogspot.com/ - my blog

http://thermomixmagic.blogspot.com/ - our joint blog in Oz - please feel free to join us.

Oh dear, I've just noticed that I moved several salad recipes to here rather than to the salads category 

My apologies to all - as I don't have moderator rights here I can't move them to the correct category as yet.  I'm off to ask someone to do it for me. 

Lesson learned:  DON'T MOVE RECIPES WHEN TIRED!!!!

Here's a copy of Cornish Cream's recipe to make it easier to find:

Pork or Lamb Fillet Dinner with Rice.

1 shallot
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp olive oil.
1 Pork or Lamb fillet
salt and pepper
300 g basmati rice
700g water
Variety of mixed vegetables of choice for steaming.
2 tsp cornflour
50g cold water
1 tbsp redcurrant jelly or quince jelly
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1/2 tsp to 1 tsp bouillon powder (optional)

1. Place the thinly sliced fillet in an oiled base of the Varoma dish.Set aside.
2.Drop the garlic and shallot onto running blades speed 7.Turn off.
3.Scrape down the sides of the TM bowl.Add the olive oil.saute 2minutes/100c/speed 1.Scrape out and spread onto the fillet slices.
4.Add the water to the TM bowl.
5.Weigh the rice into the internal steaming basket and place into the TM bowl.
6. Season the shallot mixture on the meat.Place the vegetables of choice on to the Varoma tray.Place the covered Varoma onto the TM lid.Cook 20 minutes/ Varoma/ speed 3 1/2.
7.Remove the Varoma and steaming basket and set aside and keep warm.
8.To steaming water, in the TM bowl, add the cornflour (mixed with the cold water) plus the remaining ingredients. Cook 3 minutes/100c /speed 4.
9. Check that the sauce taste's good, if necessary adding a little bouillon powder and salt and pepper.

Another recipe from a Thermomix workshop.

I've copied Judy's recipe to here so it's easier to find:

Thought I'd better get cracking and contribute to this thread.  If we all add at least one all-in-one recipe, imagine how many we will end up with.  This one is a combination of the Aussie Meat Pie filling in the meat cookbook with steamed vegies and hokkien noodles.

STIR FRY MEAT, VEGIES & NOODLES.

Handful of Italian parsley
2 cloves garlic
1 onion, halved
1 tspn veg oil
1 tblspn cornflour
270g stir fry strips beef, pork or chicken
1 tbspn worchestershire sauce
1 - 2 tbspns soy sauce
1 tbspn fish sauce
100g sliced mushrooms
125g water

85 beans, sliced on the diagonal
110g cauli flowerettes
75g carrot, sliced in batons on the diagonal

40g snow peas sliced thinly on the diagonal
220g thin hokkein noodles


Firstly, prepare the vegies and place in the steaming basket.  Hardest vegies on the bottom (leave the snow peas out at this stage).

Place the parsley in the TM bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 7.  Set aside.
Place garlic, onion and oil into TM bowl and chop for 3 sec/speed 7.
Place the steaming basket in and saute onion and garlic for 5 mins at varoma temp on speed 1.
Remove the steaming basket, add parsley, beef, sauces, mushrooms, cornflour and 125g boiling water. Place the steaming basket back in.
Cook 10 mins/varoma temp/speed 1/reverse.
At this stage place the hokkein noodles and the snow peas in the thermosaver and pour boiling water over to cover.  Leave 2 minutes then tease the noodles to separate. Drain the water and set the noodles aside.
Remove the vegies at the 10 minute mark and add to the noodle mixture. 
Continue cooking the meat for 2 mins/100o/speed1/reverse.
Add to the thermosaver, rinse the bowl out with a couple of tablespoons of water and add it to the meat and noodles, giving it a good tossing.

This meal made 3 servings for this household but you can add double quantity of hokkein noodles and fill the steaming basket full of whatever vegies you want to use to stretch the meal  further.