Make Your Own Mince

Voila! Minced Steak

Today I wanted to make pasties so that Steve and his dad can take them for lunches during seeding rather than boring sandwiches.

Unfortunately, I had no mince in the freezer. But, I did have some chuck steak which I could easily turn into mince in the Thermomix!

To mince any meat, including chicken, lamb and pork, it's best to be semi frozen and cut into 2cm cubes. Do small amounts at one time - I prefer to do about 100g each time. Place cubes into the bowl and mince on speed 7 for around 8 - 10 seconds.
It does make a racket, so be prepared!

So, no need to buy mince again!

Home Made Korma Sauce

Why buy pre made Curry Sauces and Pastes when you can easily make your own in the Thermomix?

Today I'm making a Beef Vindaloo and a Korma sauce for tomorrow night's tea. Curries are best eaten the day after they're made as the flavours intensify overnight. The Korma Sauce will be used for a Vegetable Korma to go with the Vindaloo. I'll be making my sister's Spiced Rice in the Thermomix while the curries are reheating in the Varoma. Delicious, cost effective and easy. What more could you ask?

Both recipes come from Fast and Easy Indian Cookery which is probably one of my most favourite Thermomix cookbooks.

From the paddock to the table

Here's a great video on YouTube that tells it as it is about how incredible our farmers really are.
It's fairly long, but has some amazing statistics that are worth remembering:

Year of the Farmer

Megan

Salmon Dinner

One of the aspects I love about the Thermomix is the ability to do an entire meal in an incredibly short period of time.

Fish and Chicken Fillets especially lend themselves to this way of cooking everything at once in the Thermomix.

Recently, I made a lovely meal for my son and his partner at their new home. The whole meal took only minutes to prepare and cook.

Salmon Dinner
to serve 2 - double amounts for 4

2 pieces Tasmanian Salmon (or any fish you like)
lemon pepper
juice and rind of one lemon
Mixed vegetables - I used truss baby tomatoes, broccolini, baby squash & green beans.
Potato and Sweet Potato - I can't give amounts, just enough to half fill basket for 2 and fill basket for 4.
30g butter
30g cream
s & p to taste

Sauce
Juice and rind of 1 lemon
Cream
2 Tbs Mayonnaise
Lemon Pepper
Fresh or dried dill
1 tsp Cornflour

Place peeled and large diced potatoes into basket and fill TM bowl with hot water to 1 litre mark Steam on Varoma for 5 minutes on speed 5 - 6.

Place mixed vegetables in Varoma Bowl and continue steaming on Varoma temperature for a further 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare fish by placing on to scrunched wet baking paper on Varoma Tray.  Sprinkle with lemon pepper, juice and rind.

Steam a further 5 minutes or until fish is almost cooked.

Remove Varoma Trays and place onto a board or on the sink. Fish will continue to cook a little. I like my salmon pink inside.

Remove basket with potato and tip water out of TM bowl. Place potato back into bowl with cream, butter and salt and pepper.
Blend on speed 3-4 until smooth.

Place Varoma Tray back onto TM Bowl to keep everything warm while sauce is being made.


Sauce
Place cornflour into a small microwave safe jug. Add a little water to blend.
Tip juice from salmon into jug and whisk in juice, rind, cream, chopped dill and lemon pepper to taste.
Microwave in short bursts of 30 seconds. Whisk after each burst of cooking. Add a little water if too thick.
Test for seasoning.

Place a dollop of mashed potato and sweet potato onto plate. Top with salmon. Place vegetables around salmon and pour sauce over.

Serve to your amazed guests.

Enjoy
Megan

Quince Paste

Quinces have been around for years. They're hard, pale, ugly and nasty tasting when raw, but when cooked, they transform into luscious pink, fragrant deliciousness.

A friend recently gave me some quinces to make quince paste in the Thermomix (thanks Robyn!).
If making Quince Paste the traditional way, it would mean stirring every 5 - 10 minutes for 1 1/2 hours! It can stick to the pan and it is likely to spit and burn you while you're tending to it.

No thanks.

Jeff Brady, a Thermomix enthusiast and blogger, has developed this recipe which is published in Dani Valent's "In the Mix" recipe book. (Available through me or from the Thermomix Website.)
Jeff has the recipe on his blog, so I'll link it here, rather than reprinting it: Quince Paste

I did as Jeff suggested and placed the Thermomix in the sink with a towel underneath. I covered the opening with two layers of paper towel to prevent it spitting everywhere and let it do it's own thing for the 50 minutes it took to cook.
I did make one small change - instead of cooking on speed 5, I used speed 4. Also, please see my later post where I had a Happy Accident with Quince Paste to get that lovely rich, ruby red colour.

Quince Paste is wonderful on a cheese platter or just spread on fresh bread with lots of butter....

Enjoy!
Megan

Delicious Varoma Steak

Steamed Steak, you say? Yes, but there's more to it. Read on...

I've been reading about sous vide cooking, where food is vacuum packed, then cooked in a water bath at a controlled temperature. With the Thermomix cooking at specific temperatures, I imagined it would work well. Trouble is, it takes ages.

I love experimenting, so thought why not do the vacuum packing, but then steam the food? And that's exactly what I did with our scotch fillet last night for tea.

I have a Sunbeam Vacuum Sealing Machine that is fantastic. So, steak placed in bag - two to a bag and a marinade poured in. Seal in machine and then steam for about 8 minutes on Varoma temperature in the Thermomix. One pack in the Varoma Bowl and one in the tray.
Potatoes steaming underneath in basket.

The liquid remaining in the bag needs to be poured out before frying meat. I made a delicious sauce with this by adding a bit of cream, Worcestershire Sauce, water and then thickening with cornflour. The microwave was fine for this.

Marinade for Varoma Steak
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Tomato Sauce
1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Spread over steak while before sealing bag. Oil meat and place onto a hot grill to seal for 1 minute on each side for medium rare. I used a ScanPan grill tray , but a BBQ grill would be excellent too.

Medium Rare and Juicily Delicious!

The meat was tasty, tender and beautifully cooked. I highly recommend cooking steak in this manner.