I had read in the EDC that the TM made great porridge. As the Canberra mornings are getting colder, I thought I'd give it a try.
I'm supposed to be on a high protein, low carb diet, so my porridge (which I usually make in the microwave, with varying results) usually has some sort of protein in it, such as protein powder.
Following the EDC, but only making half a batch, I added 80 g rolled oats, 325 g water and 2 scoops of protein powder to the TM. I didn't mill the oats first, as I like mine whole. I cooked this on 90 degrees for 8 minutes.
I like my porridge really thik, so I can almost stand my spoon up in it. I really don't like runny porridge. So, I was really disappointed to find that, at the end of the cooking, the porridge was really runny when I poured it into a container. I was even more disapointed to find, when I thought I had got all the porridge out, that I had a thick layer of congealed oats and protein powder firmly stuck to the bottom of the TM! It was sunday, and I was running late for church, so I drank some of the runny stuff, threw the rest down the sink, and left the congealed mess soaking in the bottom of the TM bowl with hot water. Disaster!
The next day, I decided to give it another go. I followed the same instructions, making a full batch this time, but didn't add the protein powder with the oats, as I decided to add it into each serve of porridge when I heated it up each day. Again, I got a runny result, with congealed oats at the bottom. I didn't throw this lot away though, but ate it over the next 4 days. I mixed protein powder through 2 serves, and blended them up to drink as smoothies. I mixed cottage cheese and brown sugar through the other 2 serves, which tasted really good. However, the cottage cheese was lumpy, and didn't do much to thicken the runny porridge.
I did some research on the forums, and discovered that some people were making thicker porridge using 100 g of oats and 350 g of water, cooked at 100 degrees on reverse speed 4 for 9 minutes. I tried this this morning, and the result was perfect! Nice thick creamy porridge!
It's a real pain to get out of the TM though, as my scraping skills still aren't very good. I got most of it out though, and while there is still some in the bottom of the bowl under the blades, it isn't a congealed mess like before.
Perhaps I'll make a double quantity next time, on the weekend, and let it cool before scraping it out. At least then I can remove the blades , and really get in there with my fingers to get it all out. I also think I'll truy ricotta as a protein source instead of cottage cheese, as it will be smoother.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Fettuccine with chicken and sundried tomatoes
Again, it has been a long time between posts, as I've had illness in my family. However, this doesn't mean I've stopped cooking!
When I did the creamy salami and tomato fettuccine, CJ said that I should try cooking it with sundried tomatoes and chicken. So, I decided to give it a go.
I followed the EDC recipe for the salami fettuccine, but used basil instead of parsly, and addedd 500 g of cubed chicken along with the cream, water, stock and roma tomatoes. I cooked this all for 17 minutes, and did not add the fettuccine, as I cooked this separately. About 5 minutes before the 17 minutes were up, I added a tub of sundried tomatoes instead of the salami. When this was all cooked, I put the sauce into a thermoserver, and cooked the fettuccine as given in the EDC.
The result turned out to be reasonably good, but I felt that there were too many tomatoes in the pasta, and the sundried tomato flavour didn't really come through to my satisfaction. After some research into recipes, I think I'll leave out the roma tomatoes, and add the sundried tomatoes just before serving. After 5 minutes cooking (just to warm them through) the sundried tomatoes had sat in the pasta in the thermoserver for about 15 minutes. By then, they had plumped up a bit which I didn't want.
Even though things didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped, it reall was a pretty good result for my first recipe experiment.
When I did the creamy salami and tomato fettuccine, CJ said that I should try cooking it with sundried tomatoes and chicken. So, I decided to give it a go.
I followed the EDC recipe for the salami fettuccine, but used basil instead of parsly, and addedd 500 g of cubed chicken along with the cream, water, stock and roma tomatoes. I cooked this all for 17 minutes, and did not add the fettuccine, as I cooked this separately. About 5 minutes before the 17 minutes were up, I added a tub of sundried tomatoes instead of the salami. When this was all cooked, I put the sauce into a thermoserver, and cooked the fettuccine as given in the EDC.
The result turned out to be reasonably good, but I felt that there were too many tomatoes in the pasta, and the sundried tomato flavour didn't really come through to my satisfaction. After some research into recipes, I think I'll leave out the roma tomatoes, and add the sundried tomatoes just before serving. After 5 minutes cooking (just to warm them through) the sundried tomatoes had sat in the pasta in the thermoserver for about 15 minutes. By then, they had plumped up a bit which I didn't want.
Even though things didn't turn out exactly as I had hoped, it reall was a pretty good result for my first recipe experiment.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Red Curry Chicken Risotto
I found this recipe on the internet before getting my TM, and have wanted to cook it ever since the TM arrived. The link to the recipe is:
http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/recipes/10893/red-curry-chicken-risotto.html
This was another lesson in preparing all the ingredients first, so that they could easily be added at the required times. I didn't do so well with this, as I was a bit distracted, and had to keep referring to the recipe. SJ and my cousin EM came around to try muy cooking this time, as CJ was doing something else. SJ saved the day by going to buy some arborio rice, as Mum had got basmati rice by mistake.
At one point, when I was measuring out the coconut milk (I wanted to weigh it on my talking scales to see whether 400 g was equal to 400 ml), I accidentally tipped some of the milk into the TM jug instead of the jug on the scales. I pannicked a bit, but EM assured me that I had not ruined everything, and tipped the milk back into the jug for me. Everything seemed to take me ages to do, and we ate about 45 minutes later than I had planned. I think I'm just going to have to get all the ingredients prepared before my friends come over, rather than when they arrive.
I wasn't sure whether I had to use a particular type of curry paste, so just bought some red thai curry paste. 3 tablespoons sounded like a lot, but i followed the recipe exactly. I think I might use a touch less curry paste next time though, as it was really rather hot! I'm glad I didn't add the extra chilli as the recipe suggested.
I let the risotto sit in my thermoserver while I made more lemon custard. EM hadn't tried it yet. It amazed me just as much this time as it did in the demo, just how much difference the resting of the risotto made. It was quite liquidy when I took it out of the TM, but after resting, it was perfect!
Apart from being a bit hotter than I expected (not too hot though), the risotto was absolutely delicious! The texture and flavour were perfect. This is definitely a recipe I'll make again.
http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/recipes/10893/red-curry-chicken-risotto.html
This was another lesson in preparing all the ingredients first, so that they could easily be added at the required times. I didn't do so well with this, as I was a bit distracted, and had to keep referring to the recipe. SJ and my cousin EM came around to try muy cooking this time, as CJ was doing something else. SJ saved the day by going to buy some arborio rice, as Mum had got basmati rice by mistake.
At one point, when I was measuring out the coconut milk (I wanted to weigh it on my talking scales to see whether 400 g was equal to 400 ml), I accidentally tipped some of the milk into the TM jug instead of the jug on the scales. I pannicked a bit, but EM assured me that I had not ruined everything, and tipped the milk back into the jug for me. Everything seemed to take me ages to do, and we ate about 45 minutes later than I had planned. I think I'm just going to have to get all the ingredients prepared before my friends come over, rather than when they arrive.
I wasn't sure whether I had to use a particular type of curry paste, so just bought some red thai curry paste. 3 tablespoons sounded like a lot, but i followed the recipe exactly. I think I might use a touch less curry paste next time though, as it was really rather hot! I'm glad I didn't add the extra chilli as the recipe suggested.
I let the risotto sit in my thermoserver while I made more lemon custard. EM hadn't tried it yet. It amazed me just as much this time as it did in the demo, just how much difference the resting of the risotto made. It was quite liquidy when I took it out of the TM, but after resting, it was perfect!
Apart from being a bit hotter than I expected (not too hot though), the risotto was absolutely delicious! The texture and flavour were perfect. This is definitely a recipe I'll make again.
Dip and Pizza
I had a great cooking week last week.
I was rostered on for morning tea, so decided to make the Capsicum and Sundried Tomato Dip from the EDC. It was really quite straightforward.
I was worried about how much to bring, as some people bring heaps of food to morning tea, and sometimes there is quite a large turnout. So, I made a double quantity. Quite a lot of dip!
It was a success, and quite a lot of the dip was eaten. Everyone said nice things about it (probably because I was a bit overenthusiastic about it, and sat in front of the bowl, inviting everyone to try the dip saying "I made it myself!"). It did taste really good though.
I wasn't sure what to do with the leftovers, as I knew I probably wouldn't heat it, and didn't want it to go bad in the fridge. Then, I remembered the leftover pizza dough that was still in my freezer from the Varoma demo.
After some thought, and a couple of phone calls to Mum to ask her opinion on some things, I decided to make a pizza with the dough and the dip.
I invited SJ and CJ over to try it out, and give me some encouragement while I made it. These were the same friends who had tried the fettuccini the previous week. They said that it wasn't fare that E was the only one who was named in my blog, so I've named them!
I had asked Mum to drop over and get the pizza dough out of the freezer, and it was nicely thawed by the time I got home. It smelled just the same as it had when E made it - lovely and yeasty. I had frozen it in Tupperware, so it had retained all its moisture and was slightly sticky.
after some deliberation, I decided to cook the dough on my only pizza tray, even though it was smaller than the one that E had used. I don't have a thermo mat yet, so put some baking paper on the tray, and placed the dough in the middle. I tried, unsuccessfully, to flatten it out into a perfect circle. After much flattening and stretching the dough covered all but a small bit of the tray, and CJ reminded me that it didn't have to be perfect.
Then I spread the dip over the base, and covered this with 100 g of salami I found in the fridge. CJ wanted cheese, so I put some Cheddar slices over the salami. It was quite fun arranging the salami and the slices so they were all overlapping, and all the dip was covered.
I wasn't sure how long to cook it, and CJ suggested that I should try 20 minutes at 200 degrees. Of course, we couldn't remember how long E had cooked the pizza for during the demo. It came out perfectly! the base all rose up, and the topping was a really delicious combination. The lovely pizza smell went all through the house!
The only problem was that when I picked up a slice to eat it (I always eat pizza in my fingers), the topping fell off. CJ and SJ explained that what I needed was pizza cheese under and over the rest of the filling to bind everything together. I'll have to try that next time.
CJ said that she wanted lemon custard instead of chocolate to finish the meal. I decided that this would be a good challenge for me, as I had never used a peeler to peel the rind from a lemon before. I'm not entirely sure whether I included any pith in the custard, but it tasted really good, so I assume I didn't. It was easy to feel when I had peeled too deeply, as some juice would come through onto my finger. I just love the smell of the lemon and sugar mixture after it is ground up! It reminded me of E's first demo in my pre-thermomix life.
I was rostered on for morning tea, so decided to make the Capsicum and Sundried Tomato Dip from the EDC. It was really quite straightforward.
I was worried about how much to bring, as some people bring heaps of food to morning tea, and sometimes there is quite a large turnout. So, I made a double quantity. Quite a lot of dip!
It was a success, and quite a lot of the dip was eaten. Everyone said nice things about it (probably because I was a bit overenthusiastic about it, and sat in front of the bowl, inviting everyone to try the dip saying "I made it myself!"). It did taste really good though.
I wasn't sure what to do with the leftovers, as I knew I probably wouldn't heat it, and didn't want it to go bad in the fridge. Then, I remembered the leftover pizza dough that was still in my freezer from the Varoma demo.
After some thought, and a couple of phone calls to Mum to ask her opinion on some things, I decided to make a pizza with the dough and the dip.
I invited SJ and CJ over to try it out, and give me some encouragement while I made it. These were the same friends who had tried the fettuccini the previous week. They said that it wasn't fare that E was the only one who was named in my blog, so I've named them!
I had asked Mum to drop over and get the pizza dough out of the freezer, and it was nicely thawed by the time I got home. It smelled just the same as it had when E made it - lovely and yeasty. I had frozen it in Tupperware, so it had retained all its moisture and was slightly sticky.
after some deliberation, I decided to cook the dough on my only pizza tray, even though it was smaller than the one that E had used. I don't have a thermo mat yet, so put some baking paper on the tray, and placed the dough in the middle. I tried, unsuccessfully, to flatten it out into a perfect circle. After much flattening and stretching the dough covered all but a small bit of the tray, and CJ reminded me that it didn't have to be perfect.
Then I spread the dip over the base, and covered this with 100 g of salami I found in the fridge. CJ wanted cheese, so I put some Cheddar slices over the salami. It was quite fun arranging the salami and the slices so they were all overlapping, and all the dip was covered.
I wasn't sure how long to cook it, and CJ suggested that I should try 20 minutes at 200 degrees. Of course, we couldn't remember how long E had cooked the pizza for during the demo. It came out perfectly! the base all rose up, and the topping was a really delicious combination. The lovely pizza smell went all through the house!
The only problem was that when I picked up a slice to eat it (I always eat pizza in my fingers), the topping fell off. CJ and SJ explained that what I needed was pizza cheese under and over the rest of the filling to bind everything together. I'll have to try that next time.
CJ said that she wanted lemon custard instead of chocolate to finish the meal. I decided that this would be a good challenge for me, as I had never used a peeler to peel the rind from a lemon before. I'm not entirely sure whether I included any pith in the custard, but it tasted really good, so I assume I didn't. It was easy to feel when I had peeled too deeply, as some juice would come through onto my finger. I just love the smell of the lemon and sugar mixture after it is ground up! It reminded me of E's first demo in my pre-thermomix life.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Creamy Tomato and Salami Fettuccini
It has been a while between posts. The weekend before last, I was in Sydney seeing the Boy from Aus, and last weekend, I spent celebrating my birthday.
Last night though, I decided to cook dinner for my friends. I liked the sound of the Creamy Tomato and Salami Fettuccini, so decided to give that a go. I also decided to make chocolate custard again for dessert, as it was so nice last time.
I learned from my last cooking lesson that it was important to get out all the ingredients, so I measured everything and put it into dishes.
The EDC was vague about how much I should chop up the vegies for the fettuccini sauce, so I diced some and julienned others. This was probably a bit of overkill, as the TM chopped them anyway. I'll chop them less next time and see what happens.
I had an initial panic, as I discovered that I had run out of olive oil (another advantage of laying out the ingredients first). Then I remembered that I had some butter in the fridge, so decided to use that. Conveniently, I had 50 g , which was just what I needed. I buy my butter in packets of 100 g blocks, and I have a real thing about anyone breaking my blocks. E was teasing me the other day when we were making the cupcakes, as she had to break into one of my 100 g blocks. It's a good thing she did! Some day, I'lll make my own butter.
I've decided to convert recipes as I go from weights to measures. In doing this, I discovered that 100 g of zuccini is about half a zuccini, and that 200 g of cream is the same as 200 ml, which is very convenient. When weighing out the ingredients for the custard, I discovered that 70 g of sugar is about 4 metric tablespoons, 40 g of flour is 3 tablespoons and 20 g of cocoa is 2 heaped tablespoons.
Everything went smoothly. I just quietly followed the recipe step by step and it worked! weighing the fettuccini was interesting though, as it kept rolling off the scales! Then I had the bright idea of breaking it in half and putting it in the TM basket - much easier.
The fettuccini was absolutely delicious! The custard was even nicer than the last lot, as I used sugar this time. My friends were really impressed. One commented how I would have never thought of doing this a couple of months ago, and mentioned how happy and in control I seemed. It was true.
Last night though, I decided to cook dinner for my friends. I liked the sound of the Creamy Tomato and Salami Fettuccini, so decided to give that a go. I also decided to make chocolate custard again for dessert, as it was so nice last time.
I learned from my last cooking lesson that it was important to get out all the ingredients, so I measured everything and put it into dishes.
The EDC was vague about how much I should chop up the vegies for the fettuccini sauce, so I diced some and julienned others. This was probably a bit of overkill, as the TM chopped them anyway. I'll chop them less next time and see what happens.
I had an initial panic, as I discovered that I had run out of olive oil (another advantage of laying out the ingredients first). Then I remembered that I had some butter in the fridge, so decided to use that. Conveniently, I had 50 g , which was just what I needed. I buy my butter in packets of 100 g blocks, and I have a real thing about anyone breaking my blocks. E was teasing me the other day when we were making the cupcakes, as she had to break into one of my 100 g blocks. It's a good thing she did! Some day, I'lll make my own butter.
I've decided to convert recipes as I go from weights to measures. In doing this, I discovered that 100 g of zuccini is about half a zuccini, and that 200 g of cream is the same as 200 ml, which is very convenient. When weighing out the ingredients for the custard, I discovered that 70 g of sugar is about 4 metric tablespoons, 40 g of flour is 3 tablespoons and 20 g of cocoa is 2 heaped tablespoons.
Everything went smoothly. I just quietly followed the recipe step by step and it worked! weighing the fettuccini was interesting though, as it kept rolling off the scales! Then I had the bright idea of breaking it in half and putting it in the TM basket - much easier.
The fettuccini was absolutely delicious! The custard was even nicer than the last lot, as I used sugar this time. My friends were really impressed. One commented how I would have never thought of doing this a couple of months ago, and mentioned how happy and in control I seemed. It was true.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Varoma Demo
I didn't have a cooking lesson on the weekend, unfortunately, as I was away. However, I can tell you about the varoma demo I had last Thursday.
As I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, the varoma is the steamer part of the TM. It consists of a deep lower tray, with holes in the bottom, a shallower top tray, also with holes, and a lid. It sits on top of the TM bowl, and the food in the 2 trays is cooked by way of steam from the boiling liquid in the bowl.
E ran the demo, which was part demonstration, and part cooking class for me. I had cut the chicken and pumpkin into cubes, which would be used to make a salad with cuscus and salad vegies. I had no idea that it was so hard to peel pumpkin! E showed me how to place these in the bottom tray of the varoma, spreading the meat and pumpkin out so they could cook evenly.
Then, E wet some kitchen paper, and I squeezed it out and put it in the top tray. I thought this would cover all the holes, but there are some around the rim of the top tray, and E showed me how to tear the corners from the paper so that these holes wouldn't be covered. Then E put some cuscus into the top tray, which I spread out. We then set the varoma aside for later.
When everyone arived, E made an amazing softserve using berries, sugar and an egg white. Delicious, and just like icecream. I was surprised at just how noisy the TM was when it was chopping the frozen berries.
This was followed by the most amazing sundried tomato and kashew dip, half of which was made into a dressing for the salad.
E then made some pizza dough, half of which is now in my freezer for me to make a pizza of my own! E got me to press out the dough once it had risen, which was great. I loved the feel of the slightly elastic dough, and the smell of the yeast. It reminded me of when I made bread at school - the only cooking lesson I enjoyed. Of course, I was worried that the dough wasn't exactly the same thickness all over, and wasn't perfectly round. Lovely E just said that it was home cooked and that cooking wasn't an exact science - 2 things I like hearing and am actually starting to believe. We baked the dough with garlic and rosemary on top, which was delicious, and smelt fantastic!
Next, E made a chickpea and vegetable soup, which would cook at the same time the varoma was steaming on top of the TM. Half way through the cooking time, E got me to give the bottom tray of the varoma a stir. I was a bit worried about the steam, but it was all fine. I was able to put the top tray on the bottom one, put the lid on, and put the assembled varoma back on the TM. Not scary at all!
After the soup and salad were cooked, E showed me how to use salad servers to mix the salad. I'd never done this, believe it or not, as I never made a mixed salad before getting the TM, as I don't really like the classic garden salad. The salad was absolutely delicious, and so was the soup!
Then it was my turn. I had to make the cupcake batter. This was an amazing batter of eggs, flour, sugar, lemon rind, and coconut milk. I couldn't get over how fast the butter and sugar creamed together. I have horrible memories of standing trying unsuccessfully to cream butter and sugar at school. This was so easy! It was also amazing how the batter came together in seconds, with no fuss, and very little mess. I think I'll have to use a spatula though to scrape down the sides of the bowl next time, as the batter was very sticky and messy to touch.
I then had the task of filling E's adorable little silicon patty pans - I want some! As usual, I worried that they wouldn't all be filled to the same amount, and E gave her usual advice about home cooking. She's so good for me, as she makes everything OK!
After some time, I got all the patty pans filled, and into the varoma on top of the TM. In 20 minutes they were cooked. E made a lovely syrup from lemon juice, sugar and water, which she poured over the cupcakes. They were absolutely divine! Actually they were more like steamed puddings than cupcakes.
I finished off the evening by frothing the milk for everyone's coffee. I just followed the instructions in the EDC, and it worked perfectly.
I was able to get the Steming Ahead cookbook for half price, and was able to buy a carry bag for the TM at a discounted price. A great success! I can't wait to steam something now!
As I mentioned in one of my previous blogs, the varoma is the steamer part of the TM. It consists of a deep lower tray, with holes in the bottom, a shallower top tray, also with holes, and a lid. It sits on top of the TM bowl, and the food in the 2 trays is cooked by way of steam from the boiling liquid in the bowl.
E ran the demo, which was part demonstration, and part cooking class for me. I had cut the chicken and pumpkin into cubes, which would be used to make a salad with cuscus and salad vegies. I had no idea that it was so hard to peel pumpkin! E showed me how to place these in the bottom tray of the varoma, spreading the meat and pumpkin out so they could cook evenly.
Then, E wet some kitchen paper, and I squeezed it out and put it in the top tray. I thought this would cover all the holes, but there are some around the rim of the top tray, and E showed me how to tear the corners from the paper so that these holes wouldn't be covered. Then E put some cuscus into the top tray, which I spread out. We then set the varoma aside for later.
When everyone arived, E made an amazing softserve using berries, sugar and an egg white. Delicious, and just like icecream. I was surprised at just how noisy the TM was when it was chopping the frozen berries.
This was followed by the most amazing sundried tomato and kashew dip, half of which was made into a dressing for the salad.
E then made some pizza dough, half of which is now in my freezer for me to make a pizza of my own! E got me to press out the dough once it had risen, which was great. I loved the feel of the slightly elastic dough, and the smell of the yeast. It reminded me of when I made bread at school - the only cooking lesson I enjoyed. Of course, I was worried that the dough wasn't exactly the same thickness all over, and wasn't perfectly round. Lovely E just said that it was home cooked and that cooking wasn't an exact science - 2 things I like hearing and am actually starting to believe. We baked the dough with garlic and rosemary on top, which was delicious, and smelt fantastic!
Next, E made a chickpea and vegetable soup, which would cook at the same time the varoma was steaming on top of the TM. Half way through the cooking time, E got me to give the bottom tray of the varoma a stir. I was a bit worried about the steam, but it was all fine. I was able to put the top tray on the bottom one, put the lid on, and put the assembled varoma back on the TM. Not scary at all!
After the soup and salad were cooked, E showed me how to use salad servers to mix the salad. I'd never done this, believe it or not, as I never made a mixed salad before getting the TM, as I don't really like the classic garden salad. The salad was absolutely delicious, and so was the soup!
Then it was my turn. I had to make the cupcake batter. This was an amazing batter of eggs, flour, sugar, lemon rind, and coconut milk. I couldn't get over how fast the butter and sugar creamed together. I have horrible memories of standing trying unsuccessfully to cream butter and sugar at school. This was so easy! It was also amazing how the batter came together in seconds, with no fuss, and very little mess. I think I'll have to use a spatula though to scrape down the sides of the bowl next time, as the batter was very sticky and messy to touch.
I then had the task of filling E's adorable little silicon patty pans - I want some! As usual, I worried that they wouldn't all be filled to the same amount, and E gave her usual advice about home cooking. She's so good for me, as she makes everything OK!
After some time, I got all the patty pans filled, and into the varoma on top of the TM. In 20 minutes they were cooked. E made a lovely syrup from lemon juice, sugar and water, which she poured over the cupcakes. They were absolutely divine! Actually they were more like steamed puddings than cupcakes.
I finished off the evening by frothing the milk for everyone's coffee. I just followed the instructions in the EDC, and it worked perfectly.
I was able to get the Steming Ahead cookbook for half price, and was able to buy a carry bag for the TM at a discounted price. A great success! I can't wait to steam something now!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Big cooking day
Today's post will be a longer one. I tried to set up e-mail blogging, and sent through 3 posts yesterday, but none of them worked. So today's post will be the combination of all 3 of yesterday's.
I had a bit of a hitch with Saturday's rendang. Just after I finished typing my last post, I went over to the TM to check how things were going by way of a sneaky sniff. Just as I placed my hand on the TM, it stopped working and started beeping (not in it's usual "I've finished" way either). I turned it off and then on again, and it continued beeping. It was then that I realised that the TM bowl wasn't hot.
In a pannic, I phoned my Mum and asked her to come over, as she only lives a few minutes away. When Mum got there, she said that the TM was displaying "LOAd" on the display. I told her about the bowl not being hot, and she checked the meat and discovered that it was still raw! I obviously had forgotten to put in the temperature, and the TM had been happily mixing the raw Rendang for 40 minutes! I later read in the instruction manual that this happened when there was too much in the bowl. This is to rpevent the motor from overheating. While I didn't have too much in the bowl as I had followed the recipe, I suppose the TM objected to mixing raw meat for 40 minutes.
We decided to take the TM over to Mum's place, as that is where we would be eating the Rendang. I would have another go at cooking it there. Everything else when uneventfully, and the Rendang, once cooked, was really nice.
Yesterday afternoon was another big cooking afternoon. I started with the beetroot salad out of the EDC. I wasn't even sure whether I liked raw beetroot, but it sounded interesting so I decided to give it a go.
I didn't have half the ingredients (the coriander, carrot and apple), so decided to experiment and use cellery and cabbage.
The recipe said to peel the beetroot, which I did. It reminded me a bit of peeling a potato. The recipe said to quarter the beetroot, but didn't say anything about whether to cut off the top and bottom of the beetroot. After peeling the beetroot, I decided to cut off the top and bottom, as they were kind of hard and chunky. As you can probably tell, I'm not very familiar with raw beetroot, as I've mainly eaten the canned stuff.
As with the coleslaw, I put in all the ingredients, chopped them for a few seconds, scraped down the side of the bowl with my fingers (I've found this works better than using the spatula), and chopped again. The result was delicious! Surprisingly delicious!
I decided that I wanted to cook some dishes that I could eat during the week. I thought that it was all well and good cooking for friends, but it was frustrating when there were no leftovers for me to have during the week, as the point of getting the TM was to cook for myself.
After some discussion with Mum on the phone, we decided that I should cook Chilli Con Carne, and Beef Goulash. Mum bought all the ingredients and came over, as I also wanted her to help me label my modular mates (tupperware containers for the pantry).
The Chilli Con Carne was so easy! It only took about 15 minutes to make, and was really just a matter of adding everything and cooking it. The only hitch was that Mum had bought whole canned tomatoes, which the recipe asked for. At the end of the cooking process, these were still whole. I don't really like whole tomatoes, so decided to whis the Con Carne up in the TM for a few seconds. Alas, I ended up with Chilli Con Carne pure! Oh well, it will still taste good on rice.
I had varying success scraping out the TM bowl with the spatula. I seemed to do a lot of scraping, but still had food left in the bowl. I decided to see what would happened if I scraped out the bowl with my hand, wearing a silicon potmit. This is quite hygenic, as it can go in the dishwasher afterwards. It seemed to work, although the Con Carne mostly poured out of the bowl anyway. I'll give this a go with something else, and report on the results.
Next, I moved on to the Beef Goulash. This was much more complicated, as it had many more ingredients. I didn't have any of the herbs or spices, so used Mum's. I expect I'll get more of a collection of these as I cook. Mum did help a bit with this one, by measuring the spices, and preparing the lemon rind. I think it would have taken me twice as long if she hadn't! It was a good lesson though in measuring the ingredients and laying them all out at the start, rather than measuring them as they are needed. It turned out really well.
One thing that did happen though, much to Mum's amusement and my discomfort, was that, while the 300 grams of onion were sauteing in the butter for the Goulash, I decided to take off the measuring cup and have a sneaky sniff. I'd done this in the past, and had really enjoyed the aroma of the frying onion. Unfortunately, this time, my sniff was a bit enthusiastic and I got a nose full of onion gasses! I coughed and sneezed, and my eyes streamed. I suppose it serves me right, as I bent right over the TM and just about put my nose in the hole in the middle of the lid! I won't do that again!
While the Goulash was cooking, Mum helped me to label my modular mates. For those not familiar with Tupperware, these are containers of varient shapes and sizes, designed to keep dry ingredients in the pantry. I discovered ingredients I didn't know aI had, and trew away some I would never use again. Now I have empty containers for all the new ingredients I will need with all this cooking I'm going to do!
At the end of the cooking and labelling, I was exhausted again! I hope it will get to a point soon where I don't feel this way after an afternoon of cooking. It's a really good type of exhausted though, and I finished with a real sense of achievement. I really think of the TM as my good friend, as it does all the hard things that I don't want to do, like chopping, and stirring hot ingredients. I'm really enjoying getting to know it better.
I had a bit of a hitch with Saturday's rendang. Just after I finished typing my last post, I went over to the TM to check how things were going by way of a sneaky sniff. Just as I placed my hand on the TM, it stopped working and started beeping (not in it's usual "I've finished" way either). I turned it off and then on again, and it continued beeping. It was then that I realised that the TM bowl wasn't hot.
In a pannic, I phoned my Mum and asked her to come over, as she only lives a few minutes away. When Mum got there, she said that the TM was displaying "LOAd" on the display. I told her about the bowl not being hot, and she checked the meat and discovered that it was still raw! I obviously had forgotten to put in the temperature, and the TM had been happily mixing the raw Rendang for 40 minutes! I later read in the instruction manual that this happened when there was too much in the bowl. This is to rpevent the motor from overheating. While I didn't have too much in the bowl as I had followed the recipe, I suppose the TM objected to mixing raw meat for 40 minutes.
We decided to take the TM over to Mum's place, as that is where we would be eating the Rendang. I would have another go at cooking it there. Everything else when uneventfully, and the Rendang, once cooked, was really nice.
Yesterday afternoon was another big cooking afternoon. I started with the beetroot salad out of the EDC. I wasn't even sure whether I liked raw beetroot, but it sounded interesting so I decided to give it a go.
I didn't have half the ingredients (the coriander, carrot and apple), so decided to experiment and use cellery and cabbage.
The recipe said to peel the beetroot, which I did. It reminded me a bit of peeling a potato. The recipe said to quarter the beetroot, but didn't say anything about whether to cut off the top and bottom of the beetroot. After peeling the beetroot, I decided to cut off the top and bottom, as they were kind of hard and chunky. As you can probably tell, I'm not very familiar with raw beetroot, as I've mainly eaten the canned stuff.
As with the coleslaw, I put in all the ingredients, chopped them for a few seconds, scraped down the side of the bowl with my fingers (I've found this works better than using the spatula), and chopped again. The result was delicious! Surprisingly delicious!
I decided that I wanted to cook some dishes that I could eat during the week. I thought that it was all well and good cooking for friends, but it was frustrating when there were no leftovers for me to have during the week, as the point of getting the TM was to cook for myself.
After some discussion with Mum on the phone, we decided that I should cook Chilli Con Carne, and Beef Goulash. Mum bought all the ingredients and came over, as I also wanted her to help me label my modular mates (tupperware containers for the pantry).
The Chilli Con Carne was so easy! It only took about 15 minutes to make, and was really just a matter of adding everything and cooking it. The only hitch was that Mum had bought whole canned tomatoes, which the recipe asked for. At the end of the cooking process, these were still whole. I don't really like whole tomatoes, so decided to whis the Con Carne up in the TM for a few seconds. Alas, I ended up with Chilli Con Carne pure! Oh well, it will still taste good on rice.
I had varying success scraping out the TM bowl with the spatula. I seemed to do a lot of scraping, but still had food left in the bowl. I decided to see what would happened if I scraped out the bowl with my hand, wearing a silicon potmit. This is quite hygenic, as it can go in the dishwasher afterwards. It seemed to work, although the Con Carne mostly poured out of the bowl anyway. I'll give this a go with something else, and report on the results.
Next, I moved on to the Beef Goulash. This was much more complicated, as it had many more ingredients. I didn't have any of the herbs or spices, so used Mum's. I expect I'll get more of a collection of these as I cook. Mum did help a bit with this one, by measuring the spices, and preparing the lemon rind. I think it would have taken me twice as long if she hadn't! It was a good lesson though in measuring the ingredients and laying them all out at the start, rather than measuring them as they are needed. It turned out really well.
One thing that did happen though, much to Mum's amusement and my discomfort, was that, while the 300 grams of onion were sauteing in the butter for the Goulash, I decided to take off the measuring cup and have a sneaky sniff. I'd done this in the past, and had really enjoyed the aroma of the frying onion. Unfortunately, this time, my sniff was a bit enthusiastic and I got a nose full of onion gasses! I coughed and sneezed, and my eyes streamed. I suppose it serves me right, as I bent right over the TM and just about put my nose in the hole in the middle of the lid! I won't do that again!
While the Goulash was cooking, Mum helped me to label my modular mates. For those not familiar with Tupperware, these are containers of varient shapes and sizes, designed to keep dry ingredients in the pantry. I discovered ingredients I didn't know aI had, and trew away some I would never use again. Now I have empty containers for all the new ingredients I will need with all this cooking I'm going to do!
At the end of the cooking and labelling, I was exhausted again! I hope it will get to a point soon where I don't feel this way after an afternoon of cooking. It's a really good type of exhausted though, and I finished with a real sense of achievement. I really think of the TM as my good friend, as it does all the hard things that I don't want to do, like chopping, and stirring hot ingredients. I'm really enjoying getting to know it better.
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