Sunday, May 8, 2011

Thermofestive Mystery Stew and flourless chocolate cake

A couple of weekends ago, I tried out the Thermofestive Mystery stew from http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/.  Yum!  There were a lot of ingredients, but it was really easy to make.

I got to learn about some new ingredients including smoked paprika (what a wonderful smell!), and safron.  I had no idea that safron was so expensive!  And it really does come in threads.

Just to make things more interesting, I   decided to record a podcast of cooking with the TM whilst making the stew.  I had to keep pausing the recording whilst measuring out ingredients, and got my recorder covered in something (I'm not sure what), but it was good fun.  Now I just have to work out how to post the podcast on http://www.blindcooltech.com/.  This is a website containing podcasts about all sorts of things ranging from a review of the latest iphone ap for the blind, to an audio tour of one of the space shuttles!

I also tried out the flourless chocolate cake from the EDC.  What a great cake recipe.  It was so easy.  No horrible creaming of butter and sugar!  The other good thing about it was that the batter was runny, so I just poured it into the tin, and didn't have to worry about smoothing it out.  Definitely my kind of cake.

I've been wanting to make this cake since I went to a thermomix class where it was served.  It was absolutely delicious, and so was mine!  It took an hour to cook, and the smell nearly drove me crazy!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Easter baking

This Easter, I had the pleasure of visiting Raymond Island, in the Victorian Gipsland Lakes area.  I had planned to make hot cross buns over the weekend, and so was initially really disappointed that I wouldn't be at home.  Then I remembered my TM carry bag, and decided to take my trusty TM down to Victoria, along with all the ingredients for the buns.

What a wonderfully easy way to make hot cross buns!  It was so convenient being able to heat the milk for the yeast.  I had previously measured all the dried ingredients (except the yeast) into a single container, so just tipped it all in at the appropriate time. 

The only thing that didn't go right was the incorporation of the dried fruit into the kneaded dough.  I followed the recipe in the EDC and added the sultanas after kneading.  The TM made a funny squeaking noise, but I figured that was what it was supposed to do.  When I tipped the dough out of the bowl, a lot of the sultanas fell out separately.  My friend who I was staying with decided to knead the sultanas in by hand which worked well.

The buns tasted so good, I might just have to make some more for my family (who didn't get any of the first batch) and pretend it's still easter!

I wanted to give my hosts a gift, so the night before going to Victoria, I decided to bake the 30 second cookies from the EDC.  What a wonderfully easy way to make biscuits!  I have horible memories of high school home economics classes, trying to cream the butter and sugar, and remembered it taking for ever!

I wasn't really sure whether the dough was mixed properly after the prescribed kneading time, as there was still some flour left in the bowl, and the dough was really crumbly.  I gave it a few more seconds, and everything seemed fine.

The hardest thing was making the little balls for the biscuits, as the dough was crumbly.  My attempts to rol the dough into balls was unsuccessful, so I sort of squashed it together, and it worked.  They were delicious too, and were very well received by my hosts.  The other good thing was that I discovered that I could preheat my convection microwave which I used to cook the biscuits.

While I was in Victoria, I went to a boot sale, and bought something called a Princess Cookie Maker, which seems to be some sort of cookie press with little disks at the bottom for the dough to go through. Maybe I'll try this next time, rather than trying to squash little balls.

The end of the porridge saga

I've at last found the perfect porridge.  I admit, I didnt' make it in the TM, but there's no reason it couldn't be made that way for a larger amount.  All I did was soak half a cup of rolled oats in 3.4 cup boiling water overnight.  This results in an almost solid porridge.  Then I add 100 g of low fat ricotta and microwave for about one and a half minutes until hot.  This thins the porridge slightly which makes it easier to mix through the melted cheese.  Then I top with a spoonful of brown sugar - delicious!

You might think that I'm strange having cheese in my porridge.  Well, it's not as strange as it sounds.  The cheese has very little flavour, and makes the porridge quite creamy.  It's a really good filling breakfast which keeps me full for hours!