Home Made Condensed Milk

I made this for no other reason other than I wanted to know I could!

There's a couple of recipes around. The easiest is this one:

1/3 cup hot water
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup powdered milk - this can be full cream or skim milk
3 tablespoons butter

Add all ingredients to Thermomix Bowl and blend for 3 minutes on speed 3 - 4.

The tastiest is this one:

1 litre whole milk
400g raw sugar
25g butter

Place in the Thermomix bowl and cook on Varoma at speed 4.5 for 45 - 50 minutes.
The high speed is necessary or the milk will volcano out of the Thermomix. The MC needs to be in place to stop any extraneous spitting!
This tastes and looks like regular condensed milk. I used raw sugar, so the final result appears a bit darker than normal.
If cooked for longer, you will get caramelised Condensed Milk.

Here's a great mayonnaise recipe:
Mix 200g of the condensed milk with 125g white vinegar, 2 tsp dry mustard and 1/2 tsp salt. This is basic mayonnaise.
For a delicious Broccoli Salad Dressing,  add 2 tsp wholegrain mustard, 1/2 cup yoghurt and juice of 1/2 a lemon.

Light Vanilla Ice Cream

Light Banana Ice Cream with Peaches and Real Passionfruit Jelly

My dear husband loves everything that comes in a bottle, jar or tub. It has to be bought stuff, none of this home made rubbish.
Unfortunately, as with most things in our lives, I'm the complete opposite.So, everything I make is an imitation of a bought product - 'Rosella' Chutney, Tomato Sauce and Pickle, 'Peter's' Ice Cream, 'Cottees' Jam.
The normal ice cream that I make is a very creamy one with 8 egg yolks and 600ml of cream, making it very rich and nothing like Peter's Ice Cream. A search for a 'light' ice cream turned up one that used only 2 yolks and whole milk.
I doubled the recipe and churned half in my Kitchen Aid Ice Cream bowl and half in the Thermomix (after adding 2 bananas). There was absolutely no difference in texture. Both were a little icier than the rich, creamy ice cream, but the flavour was wonderful.
I've since read that adding a tsp of gelatine will make it creamier and less icy, so I've added that to the recipe.
The ice cream does go quite hard, so it's best to take it out 10 to 15 minutes before serving.
Delicious with Real Jelly.

Light Vanilla Ice Cream
150g sugar
25g cornflour (3 Tbsp)
pinch salt
880g whole milk
2 egg yolks
3 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp powdered gelatine

Add all ingredients, except gelatine to the TM bowl and cook for 7 minutes/90/speed 3 - 4.
Sponge the gelatine over hot water.
While continuing to mix on speed 3, add the liquefied gelatine. Make sure it's all incorporated and there are no lumps.

For Ice Cream Maker:
Pour into a jug and place plastic wrap over the top. Cool completely.
Follow directions for your Ice Cream Maker. For Banana Ice Cream add a mashed banana.

Place in a container in the freezer.


For Thermomix:
Pour into a large flat container and freeze. If you are making this the next morning, or you have a second bowl, place TM Bowl in the freezer too.
Cut frozen custard into chunks and place into TM bowl. Churn on speed 8 until creamy and softened.  For Banana Ice Cream  add a chopped banana and continue to churn until smooth.
Place in a container in the freezer.

Raspberry and Apple Jam

When I made Real Raspberry Jelly recently, there was some delicious looking raspberry flesh remaining. I used this to make a yummy Raspberry and Apple Jam.
The taste is very similar to the 'jam' that bakers use in doughnuts and cream matches.

Raspberry Apple Jam

200g or so of leftover Raspberry
2 green apples, peeled and cored, cut into 1/4's
4 Tbsp of sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
Raspberry flavouring, if desired.

Place everything into TM bowl and cook on Varoma speed 2 for 10 to 15 minutes. Check regularly and add a little water if necessary.
Sieve to remove raspberry seeds.
Place in a jar and refrigerate.

Real Jelly

Real Passionfruit Jelly, Peaches and 'light' Banana Ice Cream

I recently made a trifle with some of my left over Thermomix Sponge Cake. I make an English Trifle, sponge on the bottom, spread with strawberry jam, sprinkled heavily with sherry, pour warm custard over the top, then broken up set jelly on top when cold. Optional toasted slivered almonds on top and served with whipped cream.
When I added the jelly, I licked the spoon (as one does) and the jelly tasted horrible! It had a gross, sickly sweet artificial flavour. Since I didn't have enough jelly to cover two Trifles, I began a search for  Real Jelly, made with Real Fruit.

The folks on forumthermomix.com helped me out with some recipes. The first one I made was a Raspberry Jelly. I was amazed at the wonderful flavour of fresh raspberries and will be making this one again and again.
Next, a Mandarin Jelly which was simply divine. Today, I'm making Passionfruit Jelly as I have masses of whole passionfruit in the freezer picked from our vine last summer.

These jellies are well worth the effort, which really is minimal anyway. My dear husband is in heaven. For the last few nights he's had jelly for dessert. First, Trifle with Raspberry Jelly, then Raspberry Jelly with tinned pears and whipped cream, then Mandarin Jelly and home made 'light' Vanilla Ice Cream. Tonight it'll be Passionfruit Jelly with tinned peaches and 'light' Banana Ice Cream.

I used Gelatine Sheets to make my Raspberry Jelly, but since I've run out of those, I'll be using regular powdered gelatine. There's not a lot of difference, the sheets are just easier to use. If you want to make a moulded jelly, you'll need to add more gelatine, probably half as much again.

I halved the following recipe:

Real Raspberry Jelly
550g Sugar
Juice 2 lemons
1 litre water
750g frozen raspberrries
6 sheets gelatine or 30g powdered gelatine

1. Place sugar into TM bowl and blitz on speed 9 for 30 seconds. Scrape down and add lemon juice and water to bowl.
2. Cook for 5 minutes/100/speed 2.
3. Add raspberries and cook for 4 minutes/90/speed 2.
4. Place into a bowl and allow to cool.
5. Place a sieve over a bowl and line with muslin or cheesecloth. Pour liquid into sieve and allow to drain. This may take about 4 or 5 hours. Reserve the left over raspberry flesh to make Raspberry Apple Jam.
6. Place half of the liquid back into the TM bowl and reheat for 5 minutes/90/speed 1. Meanwhile, soak gelatine sheets in a bowl of cold water until soft. Squeeze out. Or, if using powdered gelatine, place in a small glass dish with a tiny bit of water and stir over a container of hot water until melted.
7. While still mixing on speed 2, add gelatine through hole in TM lid. Continue to mix for 1 minute on speed 2 until it's all dissolved.
8. Add remaining liquid and mix lightly.
9. Pour into a glass dish to set in the fridge.

Real Mandarin (or Orange) Jelly
110g sugar
500g freshly squeezed mandarin juice (about 7 mandarins)
Thinly peeled skin of one mandarin
3 ½ sheets gelatine or 15g powdered gelatine

1. Place sugar into TM bowl and blitz on speed 9 for 20 seconds.
2. Add juice and peel and cook for 5 minutes/90/speed 2. Strain to remove peel and place juice back into TM bowl. Meanwhile, soak or dissolve gelatine as above.
3. Set TM for 1 minute/speed 2 and add gelatine through hole in the lid.
4. Pour into a bowl to set in fridge.

Real Passionfruit Jelly
150g sugar
16 - 20 passionfruit
Juice of ½ an orange - around 35g
Around 2 ½ powdered gelatine or 3 sheets


1. Blitz sugar on speed 9 for 20 seconds. Scrape down.
2. Place passionfruit pulp and orange juice in TM bowl and heat for 3 minutes/70/speed 1 - 2.
3. Strain seeds out using a sieve.
4. Weigh liquid back into bowl and add about 20g water per 100g juice. Take note of new weight.
5. Measure out 1 tsp powdered gelatine per 100g liquid and sponge over hot water.
6. Set TM for 1 minute/70/speed 2 and add liquefied gelatine through the hole. 
7. Pour into a dish and set in the fridge.

Creamy Pasta with Salmon & Peas

This recipe is based on a Pasta Carbonara Recipe from a Forum Thermomix member, known as Rainbow. I have adapted it so much, that I now call it my own.

I was halfway through demolishing this when I remembered that I should take a photo! It was so delicious. I asked my darling husband what he thought and his response was, 'It's the best pasta I've ever had'.
Coming from someone who usually just says, 'That was good', that is incredibly high praise indeed.

Creamy Pasta with Salmon & Peas
Can serve up to 4


50g Parmesan Cheese
2 shallots, peeled and halved (or half an onion)
1 garlic clove, peeled
40g butter
150g Fettuccine pasta
350g warm water
200g cream (or a mix of milk and cream cheese)
100g white wine
2 heaped tsp fish stock powder (chicken will do)

1 beaten egg (doesn't make a difference if you leave it out)
1/2 cup frozen peas
Cracked Black Pepper

2 to 3 pieces Atlantic Salmon
Lemon Pepper (or any seasoning you like),
Lemon Juice

First, crumble the Parmesan by chopping on speed 7 for 5 seconds or so until finely ground. Set aside.
Don't wash the bowl.
Place shallots and garlic into bowl and chop on speed 5 for a few seconds.
Add butter and sauté for 4 minutes, Varoma, speed 1. You can reduce the butter, but I love butter...
Add remaining ingredients except for egg, peas and pepper and cook on Reverse, 100, speed soft for 13 minutes.
Add beaten egg, (or forget to add it, as I quite often do) peas and pepper and cook for 2 minutes, Reverse, 100, speed soft for 2 more minutes. Place into ThermoServer and sprinkle half of the reserved Parmesan over the top.

Don't wash the bowl. Add 500g hot water to bowl and place Salmon into Varoma Tray. Sprinkle with seasoning and lemon juice. Steam on Varoma, speed 2 for 7 minutes or until done to your liking.

Top Pasta with salmon and serve with a green salad and remaining Parmesan Cheese.

Salmon can also be flaked and added to pasta to make the meal go further.

Almond Cashew Milk

As mentioned in a previous post about dairy free alternatives, I make my own nut milk which I use primarily for hot drinks.

I've come up with the best recipe, I believe that looks very similar to milk and won't separate in my tea or coffee.

Cashew Almond Milk
30g raw almonds, skin on
30g raw cashews
960g filtered water
1 Tbsp coconut oil
30g Maple Syrup
1 tsp lecithin granules*
1/2 tsp bi-carbonate of soda**

Place nuts into TM bowl and grind on speed 9 for 20 seconds.
Add remaining ingredients and cook on 60 for 4 minutes at speed 4.
Gradually turn up to speed 8 and blend for 30 seconds.

Place a large square of muslin or cheesecloth into a mesh strainer and strain over a jug. Squeeze gently to extract all liquid.
Pour into bottle and refrigerate. Keeps for about 4 days.

*The lecithin granules are available at Health Food Stores or at www.2brothersfoods.com. The reason for adding is to assist with stopping separation in the bottle.
**The bi-carb increases the alkalinity of the milk, helping the lecithin in preventing separation in tea and coffee, both of which are acidic.

Beef Stroganoff

Today is a rare day when my husband is home. The weather is so lovely today inviting a late BBQ breakfast on the patio this morning.

At around 1pm, I was starting to feel hungry again and had a hankering for Stroganoff.

I've made the Beef Stroganoff from the Every Day Cookbook a couple of times, but have replaced the beef with chicken, and I really like it.
However, I thought I'd try another recipe developed by a fellow blogger, Chelsea, published on her Full Little Tummies Blog
This recipe came about as forum members reviewed the original EDC recipe and tweaked it to their tastes.
The changes I made was to cook it for 5 more minutes as I had used more mushrooms and my steak was still a little frozen. I added ground black pepper instead of cayenne pepper. I also cut my steak in the traditional stroganoff way, thinly sliced strips.

N.B. It appears that Chelsea has removed the recipe from her blog. Since I've made quite a few changes, I think I can add the recipe here. I like to acknowledge Chelsea's original idea as it's brilliant. My version is below.

I used 500g of Scotch Fillet. This may sound an extravagant use for good quality steak, but this small amount of meat makes enough to feed 6 people with pasta and vegetables. For tender steak, whether using rump, blade or scotch, cut semi frozen steak into strips 4cm x 2cm. Turn the strips on to their side and slice thinly. You get about three slices per strip. This means that the meat has been cut against the grain and it will be so tender it will melt in the mouth!

It's amazing how much the Thermomix can cope with. Here's the bowl after placing  in all ingredients:

The finished Stroganoff went into the Thermoserver while the pasta was cooked in the rinsed out bowl.

So incredibly easy and so delicious!

1 onion, peeled and halved

2 garlic cloves, peeled

100g bacon rashers, cut into strips

30g butter

500g rump or scotch fillet, (blade steak may take a little longer)

250g Swiss Brown mushrooms, sliced

2 Tbsp tomato paste

100g red wine

50g water

1 Tbsp Thermomix Vegetable Stock Concentrate (recipe found in the Everyday Cookbook that comes with the Thermomix)

3 Tbsp cornflour

1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

150g sour cream

1 Tbsp paprika

¼ tsp ground black pepper

pinch dried thyme or tsp fresh 

1 tsp dulse flakes or Himalayan Salt

fresh chopped parsley to garnish

Drop garlic on to blades running at speed 7. 

Add onion and chop at speed 5 for a couple of seconds. Scrape down and chop again if necessary.

Scrape down and add butter and bacon. Cook on 100/3 minutes/speed 1/Reverse.

Add remaining ingredients and cook on 100/25 minutes/soft speed/Reverse.

Place in Thermoserver whilst preparing pasta or cooking mashed potato in the Thermomix. I like to serve with a green vegetable or salad as well.

Megan

Easy Marmalade

If you've ever made marmalade before, you'll know that it entails lots of cutting up of fruit, making it a time consuming process.

Not so with the Thermomix! It's all in one chopping and cooking functions allow the whole process to be completed in the one machine in fraction of the time.
This took no time at all to make after tea last night and I enjoyed it on my toast this morning.

It's always a good idea to add a lemon or at least the juice of a lemon to help the marmalade set.

Orange Marmalade
500g oranges or a mix of citrus fruit
150g water
400g sugar

Wash oranges to remove wax. Cut into quarters or eighths and remove pips.
Place into TM bowl.

Chop for about 6 seconds on speed 6. Add water and cook for 15 minutes on speed 1 - 2.

Add sugar and cook for a further 15 minutes, Varoma temp,  on speed 2. Place basket on top to catch any spitting. Check for setting point by placing a small amount in a little dish and placing in the freezer.

Place into sterilised jars and let cool before placing lids on top and storing.