Macadamia and Lemon Cookies

Have just made these delicious cookies.....now my cookies never seem to be great because - well who know's why - I always blame my oven....but these cookies have actually turned out great - i'm pumped and everyone loves them.....we've eaten far too many today already....

The recipe is from the new Devil of a Cookbook - I have altered it slightly.  I know macadamias are expensive but a treat sometimes is worth the expense.

100g raw macadamias 
60g sugar
Zest of 1 lemon (avoid as much white pith as you can)
170g Self Raising Flour
120g butter
1 egg

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line baking tray with mat or baking paper
Place macadamias in bowl and chop for 15 seconds on speed 4/5 - you want some texture, so not too long. (SET ASIDE)
Place sugar, zest and 1 Tbs of flour into bowl and mill for 10 seconds, speed 9 (I didn't bother to clean my bowl)
Insert butterfly and add butter, beat for 1 minute, speed 3
Add egg and beat for a further minute on speed 3
Remove butterfly and add flour and reserved macadamias and mix for 30 seconds on speed 3 or until well combined (I did push it all down half way through)
Form into small balls and place onto tray at least 5cm apart, bake in oven for 10 minutes or until firm on the bottom.....

Mine didn't go golden on the top, whether it is because of my oven or the recipe - but they taste DIVINE....definitely a must.  Next time might try with some other flavours too!

* Recipe taken and slightly adapted from "Devil of a cookbook"

Chicken Noodle Soup - Asian style

I got this recipe from a friend who is always trying recipes that her kids will love!  She said this was a winner, I've made it - it's delicious and thought i'd convert it to a Thermomix Recipe....it's very simple.

• 2 Tbsp dried Shitake mushrooms (I mill mind first - see how on my blog Here)
• 1 tablespoon Vegetable oil or 20g butter
• 1 onion peeled and halved 
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2cm nob of ginger
• 2 carrots sliced thinly
• 800g water
• 2 Tbsp chicken stock paste (see Quirky cooking recipe Here) - it's at the bottom of the soup reicpe
• Half a bag of egg noodles (cooked and drained first)
• 200g Broccoli 
• 250g sliced chicken
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoons rice vinegar
• Sesame oil to taste

Place garlic, ginger, onion in Thermomix, chop speed 7 for 3 seconds 

Add oil/butter and saute on 100 degrees, speed 1 for 3 minutes

Add carrots, chicken, water, stock, mushrooms to bowl and cook on 100 degrees, speed 1, reverse for 12 minutes 

Add broccoli, noodles, soy sauce, rice vinegar and cook on 100 degrees, speed 1 for a further 5 minutes. 

Add sesame oil, stir gently and serve. 

Hope this is also a winner in your household, kids and all!

Enjoy

I am wondering if i could get away with not cooking the noodles first.....just putting them into the soup raw....perhaps i'll try that next time??!!! 

Vanilla Custard

If you've been to one of my demo's you may have tasted this lovely vanilla custard......It's the basic custard recipe with a tsp of vanilla bean paste!  It is just delicious and the specks of vanilla bean are stunning!
I buy my vanilla bean paste from Gaganis bros - it is 320grams worth, so it's pretty expensive but it lasts a long time.  If you don't go to Gaganis then you can get the small tub from most supermarkets in the cake decorating section....it's about $10 for 65g.

90g raw sugar
30g cornflour
2 eggs or 3 for a richer custard
700g milk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Put sugar and cornflour in Thermomix, mill on speed 9 for 10 seconds.
Add eggs, milk and vanilla bean paste - 90 degrees, 7 minutes on speed 4.

As easy as that.  It is a runny pouring custard - nice with puddings or just on it's own or even with sliced banana it's good.  If you want it thicker just reduce the qty of milk.

Enjoy!

Mushroom and Baby Spinach Quinoa Risotto

Mushroom and Baby Spinach Quinoa Risotto

1 garlic clove

1/2 red onion

20g EVOO

100g white white

340g soaked quinoa (overnight preferably) 

10 swiss brown button Mushrooms sliced

200g tomato puree

700g water

2 Tbsp vegetable Stock concentrate 

100g baby spinach

Place Garlic and onion in bowl - Speed 7 for 5 seconds

Add oil and saute on 100 for 3 minutes, speed 1

Add wine and drained quinoa and saute on 100 for 3 minutes speed 1 - Reverse

Add remaining ingredients and cook on 100 for 30 minutes speed 1 - Reverse 

Place baby spinach at bottom of Thermoserver and pour quinoa on top, let rest for 5 minutes then stir well.
Top with Parmesan if you wish.

Thanks Quirky Cooking for helping me get my measurements correct - quirkycooking.blogspot.com

NB:  IF you're using soaked Quinoa you might want to lower the water content by 150g or so.  Depending on how you like your risotto texture to be....obviously when it's been soaked it's holding a lot of water already.  Hope that makes sense.

How much can you SAVE??

Item	Qty	Shop Cost	TMX Made Cost	Difference
Takeaway Pizza	x 2	$20.00	$10.00	$10.00
Loaf Bread Bakers Delight	x3	$9.00	$3.00	$6.00
Yoghurt 1kg Ski	x1	$5.00	$1.50	$3.50
Daily Juice 2 L	x 2	$9.00	$3.00	$6.00
Chicken Tonight Jar - Stroganoff	x1	$3.50	$2.00	$1.50
Cakes/Biscuits/Slices	x3	$12.00	$5.00	$7.00
Jams/Spreads	x1	$4.00	$2.00	$2.00
Hommus dip	x1	$3.50	$1.50	$2.00
Stock 1 Litre	x2	$7.00	$1.00	$6.00
		$73.00	$29.00	$44.00

BASED ON A FAMILY OF SAY 4 OR 5 OR LIKE MINE 6......


I wanted to put this up to show everyone either who owns a Thermomix or is thinking of buying a Thermomix how it DOES save you money.  


This is only 9 items, think of how many other things you put in your grocery trolley each week.....so many more savings....but at the least you'll save $44 a week.  
Love to hear comments back from those who own a Thermomix and how it too has saved you money on everyday items like above.....


I've been VERY realistic with my figures and perhaps you'd even pay more at the shop than what I've listed, but i wanted to make it realistic and show even those who are on a budget how it really works.  


It worked in our household, when i first got my Thermomix I was saving this much within the first week, my cupboards and fridge looks so different now with what's inside.  


AT $44 a week do you know how much you'd save over 5 years?


OVER $11,000......what do you or would you do with $11,000 every 5 years????

Tim Tam Frappe

Okay, a friend/client of mine gave me her recipe for a Tim Tam Frappe - tested it out (gee that was hard) and it is a must to blog about.  I had tried before to get this right but just couldn't quite work out how much milk or ice etc.   Give this a go it is perfect and I hope you enjoy it.    Thanks Jaclyn for your expertise in this..... :-)

Ingredients:
1 tray ice cubes (approx. 350g)
2 scoops vanilla ice cream
4 Tim Tams
200g milk

Method:
1. Crush ice in TM, 10 seconds on speed 8
2. Add all other ingredients then blend for 10 seconds on speed 6 or until desired consistency is reached


Serves 2 to 3

Variations:
- To make a chunky version just put 2 Tim Tams in first and hit turbo 2 times, then set them aside and continue, using the other 2 Tim Tams at step 2. Then just stir the Tim Tam chunks through and/or sprinkle them on top before serving.
- Try using 2- 3 Oreo biscuits instead of Tim Tams, or 2-3 Mint Slice biscuits, or 4 fun size Bounty bars for a yummy coconut twist. Use whatever you like!
- Adjust the amount of milk and ice cream to suit you. 

Focaccia Bread

I used to do this bread in my bread maker but it NEVER turned out this great!  This recipe is from the EDC Cookbook and I haven't altered it at all - it's a winner.  Even though the dough is a bit gooey and messy it does give the best outcome!  I used to think I should add more flour but no, no - give it a go if you haven't already. 

400g Warm Water
2 tsp Dry Yeast
20g Olive Oil
500g Bakers Flour
2 tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Dried Mixed Herbs (1 tbsp reserved for topping)
Rock Salt for topping
Garlic granules for topping

Add water, yeast and oil to bowl and mix on speed 5 for 6 seconds 
Add remaining ingredients (reserve 1 Tbsp of herbs for top) and mix on speed 6 for 20 seconds 
Interval Speed (Wheat symbol) 2 minutes
This one rises in the tin you're cooking it in.  Slowly start pouring dough into oiled tin - try and get it to flow out all together, use the spatula to keep the dough coming if you need to or even your hands (pre oiled)
Cover with tea towel or baking mat and let rise for up to an hour.
Punch out air - use your finger tips to dimple it - gives a good look and and helps with the texture while it's cooking, poke, poke, poke and poke some more till it is all dimpled.  Sprinkle with remaining herbs a pinch of rock salt and garlic granules (optional) plus a drizzle more of olive oil.
Let rise again for 20 minutes, Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through

I make this quite often, great for school lunches or even great to cut in half and toast for lovely garlicy herb bread (I use my george foreman grill) 
It's great to do it at night, so the all the rising doesn't seem like such a delay!