April 12, 2016

Making Thermomix Butter

Arwen Basics, Thermomix, Thermomix Recipes, Thermomix Tips blade fling, Butter, buttermilk, cream, Flavour Saving, Salt, Thermomix tips 2 Comments

My friends from A girl, a guy, furkids and food have the best butter recipe or check out Dani Valent’s video on making butter here along with some great flavoured butter ideas. Of course if you have the model 5 Thermomix you can use the guided recipe which is super easy too!

So why would you make your own butter? It tastes so good!! You can save money & you also get buttermilk to cook with as well!

I love to use Ashgrove Cream. There are lots of places around Tassie where you can buy it in 2 litre bottles. Always use the best quality you can get, pure cream & not low fat cream.

Yes you start with cream, I normally do a litre at a time but you don’t have to do that is you are just starting out & you can always make another batch straight after making the first batch.

You insert the butterfly whisk & take it up to speed 4 (which of course you are not allowed to go higher than speed 4 with the butterfly in) & you will have whipped cream in about 20 secs depending on how fresh your cream is.

Whip it for a bit longer & then you have butter!!

And buttermilk!! remove the butterfly whisk & set aside.

Insert the basket

Time to strain off the buttermilk. Set it aside for some yummy baking. Cover the strained butter with cold water & rinse a few times – saving the first lot of rinsing water to put into soups. It is your choice how many time you rinse. It has been said the more you rinse it the longer it will keep.

My friend’s hubby makes these awesome butter paddles or you can use your clean cold hands to remove all the last of the rinsing water.

Then it’s time to put the butterfly whisk back in & add salt, I love salt but it also helps to preserve the butter. you can also add a non flavoured oil about 100g at this point if you want to have spreadable butter. Whip it up! it gives you that texture of buttercream icing mmmm.

After scraping out the bowl you may need to do what i call the “blade fling” put the bowl back into the Thermomix & if you have the butterfly on only go to speed 4 for about 1 sec.

And now the rest of the mix has been flung to the sides of the bowl making it easier to scrape out. Extra Tip – time to “flavour save” don’t wash the bowl & you can make something that has butter in the recipe straight away- a cake or a soup – this means you don’t waste a drop of butter & less washing up!

Then I like to store my butter in this butter dish my Mum gave me – how cool is that?

What is the best thing to do with your homemade butter? Spread it on something delicious some freshly made bread or crumpets – you can also freeze some of it to use later.

Happy Thermomixing!

March 28, 2016

Breakfast at Tessellated Pavement

Arwen Dinner, Foodie Adventures, Photography, Thermomix, Thermomix Recipes bread, Breakfast, Butter, Food Styling, Photography, reflections, smoked salmon, steamed omelette, sunrise, Tasmania, Tasmanian Produce, Tessellated Pavement, Thermomix, Varoma 0 Comments

While driving home from our Food Styling Photography course, we were talking about the sunrise on the Tessellated Pavements & Ellie said it was one of the most iconic & photographed spots in Tassie. I said, why don’t we do a food shoot there?! And we decided to run with it big time. With only a couple of weeks left of sunrise capturing available at the Tessellated Pavements we needed to get cracking! I couldn’t help it, I wanted to change the words to the song “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” to Breakfast at Tessellated. So we had our theme tune sorted now lots of other things to organise.

Our mission: To set up a beautiful delicious breakfast using Tasmanian produce, in time to capture the sunrise reflection on the tessellated pavement – Food photography for “posh ladies” – table for 4.

Food: – (Recipe below) Ellie & I made up a delicious Thermomix steamed fresh dill & feta omelette served with Tasmanian smoked salmon from Tassal Salmon Shop. I made some Ciabatta & homemade butter using Ashgrove cream. We had sparkling wine from Bangor Wine & Oysters. King Island Diary brie cheese wheel. Tasmanian lavender earl grey tea from the art of tea. Apple juice from Lucaston Park Orchards, fresh apples from my friend’s garden & fresh strawberries from my sister’s garden.

Props: I had seen the perfect trestle table that I just had to have but it wouldn’t fit in my small car! I wanted to take my wooden dining chairs too. We had a carafe, my Nana’s tea cups & saucers, napkins, table runner, vase & foliage, glasses & champagne flutes, candles & candelabra.

Sunday early evening scout out: We realised that it was a fair 5 min walk to the Tessellated Pavement from the carpark & it included stairs. So we needed to take a little as possible to make a maximum of 2 trips each. There was a perfect spot with a log up out of the way & this would make perfect seats for us so no chairs needed. Ellie had some old fence palings & I brought my husband’s workshop wooden horses to act as the legs for our portable table. We styled it up the night before at Ellie’s house (thankfully she leaves only 5 mins drive away).

I set the alarm for 5.30am but woke up at 4, we had packed everything the night before & only had a couple of last min things to prepare before we left. Lucky we remembered the torch!! We had 1 person that did 2 trips & everyone else did 1. We got to work setting up our camera’s Taking photos while setting up the table & styling the food. Our photography teacher from TAFE even showed up!

Well we thought it was well worth the effort, I have learnt a lot, (what to do & what not to do), an amazing few hours enjoying the sunrise & serenity not to mention the awesome company, delicious local food & drinks. How on earth will we be able to top this?!

A little video of part of the morning is here .

See Ellie’s blog post.

See my iPhone pictures on Facebook here

Oh I guess you want the recipe for the omelette?

Ellie & Arwen’s Feta Dill Omelette with Smoked Salmon (or Salmon Rashers)

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Ellie & Arwen's Dill Feta Omelette with Smoked Salmon

Author: Eloise Emmett & Arwen Genge

Recipe type: Breakfast or Brunch

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: Serves 4 - 6

Delicious eaten hot or cold

Ingredients

1 clove garlic
2 tablespoon fresh dill
8 eggs
100 grams cream
100 grams Fetta
salt and pepper
200 grams salmon or cooked salmon rashers to serve
Extra fresh dill to serve
1 tbs of Salted capers (optional)

Instructions

Place the peeled garlic clove, dill, eggs and cream to the bowl and a pinch of salt and pepper blend speed 8/10 sec.
Spread a sheet of baking paper on the top tray of the varoma, pour the mix onto the baking paper and sprinkle feta on top.
fill the bowl with 500g water then put the varoma in place and steam for 20 mins varoma temp speed 2.
Serve with smoked salmon or grilled salmon rashers fresh dill & capers (optional)

December 7, 2015

INSPIRE Christmas Cooking Class

Arwen Inspire Cooking Classes, Thermomix, Thermomix Recipes Butter, Christmas Cooking, Christmas Recipes, Cooking with passion, Dessert, Food Styling, Inspire, Mocktail, The Real Food for Kids Cookbook, Thermomix 2 Comments

INSPIRE Christmas Cooking Class

I was so excited to put on a special class for Christmas with my friends, we had 30 guests for a Christmas sit down meal & it was all made in the Thermomix – we demonstrated how most the dishes were made & gave all guests a take home recipe booklet & edible gift pack. I collected fresh herbs & foliage from my friends & my Mum’s garden to help decorate the tables.

We spent weeks testing recipes & working on the menu. So much thought & effort, planning every detail. On the day of the class the venue we had booked to hold the class had a mains pipe burst & they were without water!! Panic – what to do? We had so much food!! We didn’t want to disappoint our guests by having to cancel the class. Thankfully one of my customers Maree who was attending the class owns the cafe’ Venus & was able to save our bacon – almost quite literally! And we were still able to put on our event – phew!!

So we were down almost 1.5 hours of prep & decorating time & working in a smaller space. However as soon as guests started to arrive it was all smiles!! We served each guest a welcome Strawberry & Rosewater Mocktail.

We were in such a rush I didn’t get to take a photo of our plated trio of dips which included my absolute favourite Thermie Green Avocado Dip & Beetroot Hummus with Dukkah & Cream Cheese, Lemon & Herb Dip on cucumber rounds with smoked salmon. We served these with my Christmas Spinach & Cheese Grissini plus Chia & Quinoa Crisps.

The main event was the Steamed Turkey Roulade stuffed with Roasted Rhubarb, Hazelnuts & Garlic Sage Butter, steamed pink eyes & garden greens with Cauliflower & Beetroot Salad with Egg Free Garlic Aioli & Turkey Skin Butter. (Check out Dani Valent’s butter video.)

Our trio of Christmas desserts were Arwen’s Black Forest Trifle, Sue’s Mini Pavs with Smolt’s Lemon Curd & Our awesome Christmas Profiteroles filled with Charlie’s Special Fruit Mince & Vanilla Bean and Brandy Crème Patisserie.

Everyone said they loved the class & asked if we were available to cater for them on Christmas day! As guests left with bellies full & inspiration high -they took their free gift from Chef Ellie Emmett The Real Food for Kids Cookbook calendar & helped themselves to fresh bay leaves & herbs as well as rhubarb from my garden.

It has been wonderful hearing how people have been trying our recipes at home & enjoying them again. I feel so privileged to share my passion for Thermomix cooking & fresh produce, I can’t wait till our next inspiring cooking session!