What are you cooking today?

[bron]

Have found 2 recipes for Pavlova in my THX books, one that I have tried and the other not yet, will post them both in desserts so you can compare them to your recipes.

[I Love Bimby!]

Thanks Bron.
I'll have a go next week.  At the moment I'm flat out preparing for a TMX Cooking Class we're holding on Saturday 

[CarolineW]

Last night I did steamed wild rice and basmati rice in the TM basket, and cooked plaice seasoned with lime juice, salt and pepper and with spring onions over it, plus chard & baby sweetcorn, in the Varoma.  I put some lime and chilli butter I made in the TM last week on the rice and chard.  It was very nice, if very simple.

Tonight I've got the honey & soy chicken marinading from I Love Bimby's posting.  I'll re-heat rice leftovers from yesterday in the varoma, plus steam some veg.  Probably broccoli leaves, as we all like them and my winter broccoli has now bolted in this nice warm weather we're having.

I'm sitting here drinking my TMX liquid lunch as I type this.  Not the alcoholic kind - the smoothie kind 

[judydawn]

Never heard of anyone eating the broccoli leaves over here Caroline - do they taste anything like spinach or completely different.

[I Love Bimby!]

The more I read about nutrition etc the more and more I hear that we should be eating much more leaves (beetroot leaves etc). There are some strange sounding vegies that you can eat both the root part and the leaves too.  Michael Pollans 'In Defence of Food' and some of his other books talk about this - very interesting!

Just trying to get my mind-set and old habits out of the way lol  )

[CarolineW]

The leaves taste like a cross between broccoli and kale.  Very delicious.  It isn't a particularly normal thing to eat over here either, unless you happen to grow your own.  Then you don't like to waste anything.  Also, the flowers from broccoli are edible (which makes sense, as we eat the closed flowers).  They look pretty and taste quite nice in a salad. 

Also, if your radishes run to seed, the seed pods are DELICIOUS in a stir fry (or pickled, come to that).  I actually hope that my radishes will run to seed as I prefer the pods to the radish itself    We eat the leaves of most of the things we grow - brussel sprouts, cauliflower, etc.  Also young nasturtium leaves (which you probably already know), pot marigold leaves (in small quantities - they have some oxalic acid in them, so you wouldn't want to eat loads and loads of them) - the list goes on.  Plus the flowers, of course.  And dandelions.  I like the variety of it, as it tastes better and I'm always convinced that the more variety there is, the more nutrition there is.  Not to mention the 'waste not, want not' philosophy 

[bron]

How interesting eating leaves and flowers (homegrown of course) how lovely.
Sorry to say, we are not so healthy!
Have just made some Gazpacho (quite healthy) some spelt bread (not too bad) but this time had added some walnuts and raisins to the chocolate one, it is so amazing, that I have just eaten half the chocolate one..oooops! Meant to be for tea this afternoon! And I now have made a new cake in the oven now, Chocolate and Red Wine, looks fab, and licked out the THX, good
Hopefully will be a success and I can post it for you with photos, it has 200g of Nesquik drinking chocolate, so the kids should love it!
 

[bron]

Well the chocolate sponge cake has been a huge success, lovely and light, so whilst stuffing my face with it, I will have a cuppa and try and post the recipe for you all! Isn't it just terrible, putting myself on the line and trying out these recipes for you guys first!

[brazen20au]

and we are so grateful to you for it bron!

[judydawn]

Speaking of eating leaves, there was a show on TV here a while back called 'Gondola on the Murray' and the Italian chef made a pie using stinging nettles   Who ever would have thought you could eat them!  How do people find these things out, guess if they don't die, it proves it is safe to eat   I think I would have to be told what it was, after I ate it!

[bron]

Well today I have made the wild mushrooms mmmmmmmmm will post photo tomorrow
And am now making ratatouille, do you have that recipe over there? Its a very typical Spanish dish called Pisto (no garlic unbelievable huh?) which we eat with a fried or poached egg, lots of crusty bread to dunk in and some garlic rice (of course)
Lovely cheap vegetarian meal, if its not in your books let me know and I will post the recipe, kids love it too (added bonus!)

[Paul]

I just want to cook something!  I've been in Melbourne for 3 days and I miss my home, my kitchen, and my thermomix!

[brazen20au]

i would love that recipe, thanks bron

[bron]

Isn't it funny how before cooking was a bit of a chore! Don't get me wrong, I have always enjoyed cooking, but the everyday stuff for the family was always a bit boring, and now its sooooooo exciting to see what exciting gourmet meal we are going to knock up today! This afternoon, have made an Orange Sponge and Lemon Drizzle cup cakes as the Chocolate & Red Wine sponge was finished! Need to try a bread recipe out of my new book, but will leave that for tomorrow!

Judydawn, do you think homemade cherry jam would have the same effect on the Black Forest? Or would it be too sickly!

[judydawn]

Good question.  It would certainly be a lot sweeter and you wouldn't need to have a thick layer like I do with the canned cherries but I guess, used just like you would spread jam on bread would be OK.  No harm in trying if you can't get cherries, either fresh or canned. I don't use the sour variety which is available in large glass jars here but the stoneless variety (less work!)  in a 425g tin and we have a couple of different manufacturers. Once you thicken it and it cools down, I spread it 5mm thick and I would think 1 can would do a normal sponge.  Have a spare can in though just in case it isn't enough as the last three I made were for larger groups of people and I bought a huge slab of chocolate sponge from the local bakery and just decorated it the way I have described in another posting. It's been a while since I made my own sponge and just decorated a small one.