Words can not express how excited I was to get my advanced signed copy of this awesome cookbook!! I have been lucky enough to do a bit of recipe testing for this cookbook & was invited for a week of the photoshoot – along with a couple of other cooks I got to cook some of the dishes that were photographed for the shoot. We all had a Thermomix each to use. It was so amazing to watch the pros work their magic with the styling & photography, I learnt so much & had so much fun too. I am so grateful for the experience.
There are so many amazing chapters & delicious recipes to share with you, here are a few pictures of the recipes I have made already & I will continue to update them. By the way don’t forget to check out the official Entertaining with Dani Valent site & register your progressive dinner in Feb to win great prizes.
The day after I got the book in the post – so exciting!!
BRUNCH
Bloody Maria
Kale, Chia, Pear & Orange Smoothie
Wholemeal Crumpets
Green Fig & Lime Marmalade
Rhubarb & Blackberry Breakfast Tart
Spiced Carrot Porridge
Bacon and Cinnamon Scrolls with Salted Maple Glaze
Smoked Salmon Muffins with Steamed Eggs & Herbed Relish
Tiraccino
SPANISH
Sunny Gazpacho
Tuna Empanadas made by my Mum
Tuna Empanadas
Chorizo & Prawn al la Sidra
Herb-Salted Chicken and Chickpea Casserole
Peas & Jamón
Steamed Orange Pudding with Almond Milk Ice Cream
CHINESE
Masterstock Chicken
Daikon Salad (recipe with Masterstock Chicken)
Prawn Wontons
Steamed Fish Black Beans & Rice (I had to use trevally instead of snapper)
Char Siu Bao – Steamed Pork Buns
Sichuan Pepper and Chilli Salt Squid
Chinese greens with XO Sauce
Fortune Cookies
Fortune Cookies
PARTY
Cherry Margarita
Rhubarb & Vanilla Rhumba
Pear Mulled Wine
Romesco Dip
Rice Crackers
Spiced Nut Clusters
Mushroom Cappuccino (Mushroom Soup)
Sweet Potato Blini with Cumin & Sesame Crème Fraîche
Once called a Thermomix Demo the name has changed to a Thermomix Cooking Experience. Just as the name suggests you experience how easy it is to use the Thermomix first hand. You & your 2-3 guests get to cook a dish with your consultant. You will get to use use the guided cooking on the recipe chips for 2 of the dishes. Of course you get to taste the delicious food too, which in my opinion is the best part, seeing & tasting is believing. Cooking from scratch with a Thermomix means you get maximum flavour into your food, enables you to be additive free, while saving you time & money. Plus there are some new menu items (indicated with a *). This Thermomix cooking experience commences on the 1st Feb 2017.
For dessert choose Fresh Fruit Sorbet or *Fruity Berry Dream
(by the way we always eat our dessert first at the Cooking Experience)
Both are quick easy & delicious, the ThermoWOW factors are seeing sugar being made into icing sugar in 10 secs!! See the Thermomix chop ice or frozen fruit in about 1 minute!!
ThermoWOW factors -see how to mill your own flour, the kneading of the dough in 2 mins and we also have fun making different shaped rolls together too!
Pizza bread topped with rosemary & garlic, the ThermoWOW factors are chopping fresh garlic & rosemary in a few seconds & seeing how the Thermomix kneads dough in about 2 mins!
Choose a main dish from these 4 options
*Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
ThermoWOW factors- learn how to make your own mince meat, with this family favourite & versatile meal.
The Mushroom Risotto has the ThermoWOW factors of using the guided recipe, grating parmesan cheese in 5 secs, chopping, cooking & stirring, a quick, delicious & easy meal.
Veloute’ Meal ThermoWOW factors are seeing an all in one meal made, chopping, cooking, steaming & pureeing – you cook a veggie soup, while steaming your protein & veggies. Some of the soup is made into the delicious velvet sauce to go over the protein & veggies.
Being a host is easy & fun, you provide a few ingredients & your consultant brings the rest plus there are some great rewards, choose here.
I remember when a salad used to be quite mundane, maybe some iceberg lettuce, tomato, cucumber & carrot with a bit of dressing, which is till an ok side salad for a quick meat & salad meal. Salads can be just so exciting, start with the freshest ingredients & think colours, textures; with toasted nuts or seeds, flavour combos, roasted veg, fresh herbs, in season veggies or salad greens & delicious dressings, even adding in amazing protein can lift a salad. Even consider using leftovers from a meal cold grilled or steamed meats or meatballs. You don’t really need a recipe for a great salad but sometimes it’s so good you want to be able to recreate that amazing combo. Here are a few of my favourites in no particular order that I will be continuing to update.
Roast lamb salad (marinade made in the Thermomix) with some roasted veg feta & other salad ingredients.
I used Eloise Emmett’s recipe to pickle my octopus & then serve with either a greek style or green salad – also yummy with a creamy potato salad too.
Guess what? Some salads are better made without the Thermomix you might only make the dressing in the Thermomix – this is a favourite of mine Fennel Salad I love to serve it with confit or steamed salmon. (The recipe is from a great book that includes French style recipes – Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard.)
I’m not normally a fan of coleslaw but even using red cabbage & the fresh apple or pear, red capsicum & some fresh dill & try adding some pecans for extra crunch I prefer my coleslaw dressed with lemon juice & olive oil. Of course it is so easy to make your own mayo in the Thermomix too.- Dani Valent had a peanut butter coleslaw recipe in the In the Mix 2 cookbook.
My take on Mum’s Chicken & Mango Salad – Such a versatile salad great to use up left over steamed chicken breast (after steaming a whole chook) or poaching chicken breasts in the Thermomix. You can use any nuts you like either cashews, macadamia or pistachios. Finely chopped celery for the crunch & fresh element, 1 mango sliced, sliced spring onions. Avocado is delicious in it too. I used cucumber because I had some in the fridge & added fresh parsley & mint leaves. Mum dressed it with 1/2 homemade mayo & half natural yoghurt 1 tsp of curry powder & 1 tabs of tomato relish. I used a honey & seeded mustard vinaigrette to dress it, my sister likes to use an Asian style dressing with soy sauce, fresh ginger & garlic.
I love to make Teressa Cutter’s Massaged Kale Salad in the Thermomix – I stir it on reversed instead of massaging it by hand & then I love to add some Thermomix shredded chicken YUM!!
Warm Sweet Potato Salad or use pink eye potatoes instead either with homemade mayo or serve warm with Thermie made Bearnaise sauce with or without crispy bacon!! Of course you can put it in the fridge & serve it cold too 🙂 (Yes you may have noticed there is a sneaky Brussel Sprout in this one so feel free to add any of you other favourite veggies that are in season I steamed the brussel sprout with the sweet potato.)
I love greek salad but serving it with steamed lamb meatballs really makes it into a special delicious meal that is so easy to prepare 🙂
Nico Moretti’s roasted Cauliflower Salad. You will find the recipe in his Delicious Journeys Cookbook – actually it’s on the front cover too!
The classic beetroot salad from your basic cookbook you can jazz up if you want, serve with feta, pistachios, pomegranate seeds, chickpeas or even tuna. Use any fresh herbs you like.
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