Chicken Tikka Masala
Fast and Easy Indian Cooking   page 89
Tweaking

I made the tikka paste with quite a few alterations, mainly because I couldn't get the ingredients. I couldn't get coriander seeds so used a little powder, I only used about 5 dried chillies as I was afraid it would be too hot, and slightly less ginger as I hadn't bought enough.

The Chicken Tikka Masala I made exactly as the recipe but used less oil to cook it with. We really loved the flavour and will enjoy using up the rest of the Tikka paste.

5/5

Pizza Pockets
Lunch Box and After School Ideas  page 22
Tweaking Details
I made the recipe exactly as per the book. After making them I realised that any filling at all would be suitable to put in these. They could be made to use up leftovers of casseroles etc, or with fruit fillings. Would be very handy to have in the freezer for lunch boxes or that quick snack.

I would give these 4.5/5

I will definitely be making them again.

Strawberry Fool
4-6
Ingredients:
250ml cream
250ml natural yoghurt
finely grated rind of a lemon
250g strawberries, hulled
3 teaspoons icing sugar (optional)


Preparation:
Place strawberres in  . Speed 5, 3-4 seconds. They do not need to  be a puree. Remove.
Whip the cream according to the EDC book, taking care not to make butter.
Leave the butterfly in and add the yoghurt and lemon rind and sugar. Speed 2 for 10 seconds.
Add the strawberries. Fold through   speed 2, 10 seconds.
Place in 4 or 6 nice glasses and refrigerate until required. Decorate with sliced strawberries.


This recipe is a modified and adapted version of one in Good Food magazine.


Photos:

Tips/Hints:
I made this without the sugar but found it needed just a little bit folded through. Could be served with nice biscuits.

members' comments
Shayla - How about trying maple syrup instead of sugar - it gives strawberries a wonderful flavour without being too sweet?

Thermomixer - Thanks cookie1 - how about some grog too?? A little triple sec or framboise ?  or a few drops of balsamic vinegar and a sprinkle of sugar on the strawberries while you are whipping the cream?

You can make it healthier by using egg whites instead of cream to give the airy texture, or even a jelly (or low-cal jelly mix) with water that has been allowed to almost set before whipping it up.  But that may be tooooooo healthy ?

Date and Sultana Crunch

Ingredients
125g dates
60g sultanas
rind and juice of 2 oranges
200g rolled oats
45g flour
185g butter
1/3 cup sugar

Method
Check the dates for seeds and place in bowl. Speed 5 for 2 seconds.
Add the sultanas.
Make up the orange juice to 1 cup of liquid with water and add to the bowl.
Cook 5 minutes at 60^o on  .
Then liquify this by using Speed 5 for 10 seconds. It doesn't need to be smooth.
Remove this and cool.

Place rolled oats and flour  into  .
Mix  and for 10 seconds.
Add the butter. Speed 3 for 20 seconds.
The mixture should come together.
Add the sugar and rind. Speed 3 for 10 seconds.

Press half the mixture into a slice tray that has been greased.
Spread with fruit filling.
Sprinkle rest of oat mixture onto the fruit and press down.
Bake in a 190 degreeC oven for about 35 minutes.

This can be served warm as a dessert with custard or as a slice with coffee.

The next time I make it I will place all the oat mixture as a base and sprinkle almond pieces over the fruit mixture.

This was loosely based on a Margaret Fulton recipe.

Thanks to ILB I can say there is a cooking class in Perth with Nico on 25th August. He is making the same things he made at his last cooking class and I can highly recommend it.  This isn't on the TMX site ILB forwarded me an email about it.
Thanks ILB you're a star.

I saw in todays paper that Goerge C of Masterchef fame is in Perth to launch the Thermomix cooking appliance this weekend. Does anyone know anything about this please? I would have loved to be able to see it, but only read about it this morning. Perhaps I have missed this vital piece of info.

Steamed Pudding:
Serves 4 :
Ingredients:
120g self raising flour
60g raw sugar
60g butter or substitute
2 tablespoons jam (or as much as you like)
1 egg
2-3 tablespoons milk
grated lemon rind

Preparation:
Place the flour, sugar, butter,and lemon rind into the bowl.
Mix for 4 seconds on speed 5 until mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
Add the egg and 2 tablespoons milk.
Mix at speed 3 for approximately 10 seconds. If mixture is too thick add the extra milk.
Place jam into each of 4 small greased ramekins.
Carefully place the mixture over the jam.
Place in varoma.
Use 1 litre of water and steam at Varoma temperature for 25-30 minutes. Check with a skewer to see if they are cooked.
Serve with custard, cream and or icecream.

Photos:

Tips/Hints:
The ramekins I used were 3/4 cup size. I just fitted 4 in the Varoma.
This could be made in just the one dish. It may take longer to steam.
You could put golden syrup instead of the jam or add sultanas to the mixture.

Members' comments
wombleydoo - I tried this out tonight, using Golden Syrup. I love Golden Syrup, so I put about 3/4 of a cup in the bottom of the bowl. Also made it all in one bowl. I put in 1 litre of hot water out of the tap and cooked it for 30mins. Perfect!

CP - Was going to do 2 x golden syrup and 2 x jam, but had put the jam in all 4 ramekins before I remembered!! I would say "dollops" of jam because I am not sure if the 2 tablespoons were for all 4 ramekins or each one (could you please clarify cookie1?), as I thought they were a little dry jam wise for my taste.   My mixture was a bit stiff, so I had to add a splash more milk when required in the recipe, and found that using the back of a spoon to spread evenly into the ramekin made it easier for them to spread out whilst cooking. Didn't cover them. The skewer test was important as they can look "underdone" just viewing thru the Varoma lid. Thank you C1, family enjoyed these and will make again.

cookie1 - CP63, you are right-you do need more jam. The first time I made them I only used the small amount and the family wanted to know if we were on jam rations.  I sometimes leave out the jam and add sultanas to the mixture. When we had that as kids we called it "spotted dog". I believe the correct name was different though.
If you like peel, that's nice too. Then perhaps a little orange essence in the custard.

JD -  Your ramekins must be smaller than mine as I could only fit 3 in or it may have been because I wanted to put the tray on top with some vegies to steam at the same time. I put the 4th little fella up there with the vegies but he wasn't too happy being separated from his mates and didn't cook properly.  I just zapped him for 1 minute in the microwave - that fixed him.  Kept the 2 I wanted for tea warm in the thermoserver whilst I made the custard. Made them with jam tonight & will try golden syrup next time - very nice. 
I've also stewed some apples then used this recipe to finish them off.  Worked a treat and big enough for DH and me to share one for dessert.

schmendy - Mmmm, thanks Cookie1! We made these tonight and they were delicious!

JuJu - Just made these in little Japanese teacups and they turned out beautifully.

Nik2WIN - That was delicious - I made one big one, with golden syrup!  As an aside, 1/2 way through (OK I'd just started) I remembered I had no eggs.  It worked just as well without!

Jaclom - I currently have a pudding in the varoma...  Trying to cut back on fat, and carbs..  So this is what I have done..  Will let you know what finished result tastes like, but the batter tasted good!
150 gm almonds (skin on) 100 gm SR Flour, rind of lemon, about 40 gm raw sugar, 1 tspn vanilla paste... 
Whizzed on speed 10 until powdery... 
Added 2 eggs, juice of the lemon.. 
Thermie on speed 4 and added enough milk to thin mixture down a bit (about quarter of a cup...)
 I've put mix into a pudding bowl in varoma and steaming for 20 mins on varoma, speed 4... 
I'll post what is tastes like and DH's reaction!  He doesn't know it's my own invention.

Update - Well it was a relative success. When I turned it out I poured some previously made marmalade that hadn't set well over it. We had it with ice cream. Hubby really liked it and had no idea it wasn't full of sugar and refined flour.
Maybe though I could whip an egg white up and fold through to give a bit of lightness.
Or maybe the butterfly would've done the same? It was heavy and rich but tasty.
I would make again but put the marmalade in the base.

Zan - Made a chocolate version of these tonight. Chopped chocolate and then pretty much followed the recipe as suggested (no jam etc).

Kimmyh - Tried it with golden syrup and the result was light, fluffy and yummy. So easy and so quick. Much better than the little varoma demo puddings. Thank you very much. They were so yummy!

Lovely-lindaloo - I have some lovely organic ginger syrup in the pantry, so going to give it a go.
My puddings turned out great, we must be little piggy's though as I make the mix that was suppose to serve 4 and as there was only the three of us I divided it up into three ramekins, I would have been disappointed if it was any smaller LOL. I put about 1 tablespoon of syrup in each and could have put maybe 2. I just added some straight on top as I was serving it. The flavour was divine.