If I have these in my fridge/pantry already made my life is so much easier – here is my list!!
Veggies Stock Paste
The first thing you make when you get a Thermomix, it saves you money & it adds extra flavour to soups & casseroles. Made from fresh veggies & herbs & a lot of salt to preserve it. It can last in the fridge for up to 6 months if you didn’t use it up first! 1 teaspoon is equal to 1 stock cube. Here is the ingredients list or you can put other things in too like mushrooms or leftover green parts of your leeks. So versatile & it packs a flavour punch!
Thermomix made natural yoghurt
The automated recipe on the Thermomix model 5 is fantastic, with the option of using cream (yes please) and using powdered milk. it is one of 2 recipes where the blades stop moving & it keeps it at 37 degrees for 8 hours. Yoghurt is a great substitute for anything with sour cream if you don’t have any on hand, good for smoothies & also if you strain it over night you had labne – the most delicious yoghurt cheese!!
Tikka Paste
This paste is pure gold, so full of flavour. There are many variations on this paste recipe, I love the one from the Indian book so I am going to stick with that. Not only is this paste the start of the butter chicken recipe, (once you have your chicken marinating you can have butter chicken on the table in about 1/2 hour a perfect weeknight meal.) You can also use it to marinate any meat before grilling it. It makes a good marinade for a whole chicken before you steam it too. PS Yes you can store chillies, ginger or other fresh herbs in the freezer until you need them.
Pesto
This is just so versatile, a dip or spread or toss through fresh pasta. So many varieties of pesto to try, pictures here is Jude Blereau’s recipe for pumpkin seed & coriander pesto. Here is my regular pesto recipe or my kale pesto recipe. You can use different nuts or a mixture of herbs, or even add some spinach leaves in for some sneaky veggie smuggling! Pesto is also an awesome filling in scrolls with cheese 🙂
Mustard
I hope you like it hot? This is my recipe for spicy mustard yum!! I use it when I make mayo or spread onto cold meats. I also use it in the famous veloute’ sauce we do at the Thermomix demo.
Vanilla Bean Paste
My friend Charlie did extensive testing to create this awesome recipe that I use all the time. TIP: After making it add milk to the bowl and make the best vanilla milkshake ever!! Flavour saving is awesome!!
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. 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! Here is my butter post.
Milled Pink Salt with Dulse (seaweed)
I know I store my pink salt in a pink chook? It’s kind of a bit strange but it’s worked for me the last 4.5 years!! I was first introduced to this salt by Fiona Hoskin at the first demo at my house when I had just decided to become a Thermomix consultant. It’s got lot’s of minerals etc but I just love the taste, it’s a recipe from Cyndi O’Meara. I used to use a recipe for it, but i make up a big container of it & then use it for everything even in my stock paste. I use about 500g of Himalayan rock salt & 50g dulse flakes & mill it up for on speed 10 for about a min until it has reached the consistency I like.
Homemade Mayo or AioliÂ
You can make so many different variations on mayo, using different oils, or egg free, add any herbs you like? I always love having garlic, lemon & homemade mustard in mine. I’ve even made a wasabi & lime version. So good to use as a dip on some bread or to dress a potato or sweet potato salad.
Chlorophyll PasteÂ
Recipe is in the In the Mix Cookbook I keep ice cubes of this paste in the freezer & add them to my smoothies or juices for an intense kick of green goodness 🙂
I normally make this right before starting my curry recipe, and then depending on the curry recipe I use the same TM bowl for the curry without washing the bowl (flavour saving) I love using Quirky Cooking recipe here is a good video that shows how to do it. Yes you will need a nut milk bag to strain it – they are available online or at most health food shops.
Wraps
I need to thank my foodie friend Charlie again for this recipe she got it off her Indian friend’s Mum & converted it to the Thermomix. So versatile I have used different oils or fats added black sesame seeds to make it look a bit different – here is the video of Charlie cooking her roti wraps. You can store them in the freezer wrapped in glad wrap & reheat them in the varoma.
What to make when your teenage son has his mate over for dinner? Well the Bacon Kaboom of course! My son & I bought Billy Law’s cookbook called Man Food & we had bought it mainly to try this epic looking recipe so I decided it was time to give it a go. Of course I thermofied (technical term for converting a non Thermomix recipe to a Thermomix recipe) it where I could 🙂 The mince mixture was done in the Thermomix I used fresh garlic & herbs & chopped them first in the Thermomix I also chopped the cheese in the Thermomix too.
First you weave the bacon on a tray
After mixing the mince meat in the Thermomix with the herbs you flatten it out on some baking paper & add your fillings. (we had to leave out the jalapenos & serve them on the side.)
after rolling up the meatloaf then you have to wrap the meatloaf in the bacon weave.
Then hold into place with bamboo skewers before cooking!
Kaboom – It was a huge success & went down a treat with the boys & their families!!
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.
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?!
Well first I think chocolate & then I think buns – Easter buns that is 🙂 I used to make the normal fruit buns, and they are so awesome when you make them yourself, but as my son says “that’s too main stream”. So here is my current list of hot cross bun flavours for you to try. I have done away with the boring flavourless crosses too & replace them with much more delicious versions!
Now onto the chocolate, well I got some awesome chocolate from the Nutpatch – see the photos from my photo shoot there a couple of weeks ago.
I do love making Quirky Cooking’s raw chocolate recipe too & I sweeten it with honey. I normally make it with my nephews but they are away for Easter this year!
Try making your own Choc hazelnut spread from the basic cookbook – it makes a wonderful Easter gift.
When I was in Sydney I got my very own special Lindt Easter Bunny!!
Where ever you are this Easter, you are bound to have an awesome Easter!! Â I hope you enjoy some rest, relaxation & delicious food cooked from scratch. Happy Thermomixing!!
We had a most enjoyable evening at Three Japanese restaurant with our INSPIRE aprons on.
Owners Yasuko & Ken were so generous with their time & knowledge. This is the 3rd class we have run with them, but the first one in their new location in Battery Point. We first met Yasuko when she bought her first Thermomix, she loved it so much that she kept taking it back & forward to the restaurant & then decided they had to buy one another one for the restaurant.
Arwen, Yasuko & Charlie
I just love how passionate Three Japanese are about sourcing quality ingredients – even the crockery is sourced from their hometown Saga in Japan.
The story behind Three Japanese Ken (Norikazu Hirai) and Yasuko (Yasuko Hayashi) first met at high school in Japan in 1997 whilst playing soccer. After graduating from high school, Ken started working in a kitchen in Japan, where he learned a variety of cooking styles, he arrived in Hobart in 2012 on a working (surfing) holiday. Yasuko moved to Osaka to go to university and her first visit to Hobart was through the exchange Uni program. She then took every opportunity to be in Hobart (8 visits!!) until she finally moved here in 2009. Ken and Yasuko remained good friends throughout this time because of their love of great food! In 2014, they realised their dream when they had an opportunity to start a restaurant together with Yasuko’s partner Yuya who had been a baker in Japan & then graduated from Drysdale, he was working as a chef at the Source Restaurant (MONA). This is why they called the restaurant – ‘Three Japanese’. They love fresh, real food, and use only real Japanese ingredients and freshest local veggies, fish and meat to make delicious authentic Japanese food.
We set the tables ready for our class, everyone was provided with a recipe booklet to take home & emailed a copy in an eBook format.
Our Menu for the Evening
Japanese Green Tea on arrival
Chawanmushi – Savoury Custard (including the recipe for dashi stock)
The Three Japanese Tasting Plate:Â Miso Soup:Â Karaage Chicken:Â Rice: Tsukudani (preserved seaweed & bonito fish)
(It was so much fun recipe testing: here are the photos of all the dishes I tested. After I showed Yasuko these pictures she told me I had the Japanese spice containers upside down!! I had studied Japanese in high school & didn’t notice the writing upside down!! I even used one the images in the recipe booklet!! When we told our guests & they thought it was very funny too !!)
Chawanmushi had been specially requested & put onto the menu for the night. It is not currently on the menu because they don’t have a commercial steamer at their new venue so we had to bring as many Thermomix as we could to the restaurant as we could to steam approx 20 savoury custards.
We had 6 Thermomix in the kitchen & one set up in the dinning room to demonstrate through the class. It was well worth it though our guests loved tasting the dish & learning how to cook it. I showed our guests how to make the dashi stock using shaved dried bontio fish flakes & kombu (seaweed). Dashi is the base for a lot of Japanese dishes so it is important as usual to use the best quality ingredients you can get. You can buy powdered dashi but you won’t have that quality & depth of flavour.
We also used the dashi to make the traditional miso soup demonstrated by Yasuko. The kombu & bonito are not thrown out after making the dashi stock you can then use them with mirin to make tsukuduni a delicious preserve served with rice. Ken our chef came out & demonstrated the tsukudani to the class & showed us his awesome knives. We also showed guests how to make the karaage chicken it is one of the most popular dishes on the menu and very easy to prepare at home. The chicken is marinated for approx 1 hr & lightly coated in potato flour & deep fried. We also came up with some other ways of using the same marinade, either steaming, baking or grilling the chicken.
Then Charlie showed guests how to make the sesame pudding & we learned how to make the Japanese brown sugar sauce. The brown sugar is sourced from Okinawa in Japan. Yasuko also showed us how to make matcha green tea – this is the tea that is traditionally used at Japanese ceremonies.
Our guests left full of delicious food & inspiration to cook some of the dishes at home, they could even purchase some ingredients to take home with them. We are so grateful to have the the opportunity to work with Three Japanese again, their passion for their food is infectious.
I had only been looking forward to this weekend for about 5 months (because it was rescheduled from Nov15) After my busy week at Thermofest I was quite exhausted but still excited to be heading with my camera & iPhone to a fun weekend food styling, with self taught expert stylist & photographer JJ from 84th & 3rd, while eating Ellie‘s delicious food. I stopped at Salamanca Market on the way down to Highcroft to collect a couple of bunches of Lisa Kingston Flowers gorgeous arrangements (My wonderful friend Ulla from Dragonfly Farm grows the proteas for her) Also collected some cucumbers for our special smoothie & a stopped at one of my favourite places Bangor Wine & Oyster Shed for a bottle of their amazing sparkling wine, some fresh oysters & shucking knife – I also grabbed a sneaky coffee 🙂
I arrived at the new location it had ended up being a 1 hour drive from Hobart, from the outside I wondered if I had made a mistake & gone to the wrong address? I later found out was a rustic CWA hall with amazing old tables & retro chairs gorgeous natural light flooding in through the windows, in other words a dream come true. There were 7 of us on the first including Ellie & JJ. Â Oh and did I mention Ellie brought her Thermomix too!!
So there was a big table set up with lots of props & cloths. A little taste of Ellie’s collection & JJ had brought a few things too. So our first mission; can you make canned soup look good?  Answer YES!! We had pumpkin soup, tomato soup & cream of asparagus soup. And Ellie had some fresh baguettes she had made (dough made in the Thermomix of course). We had been all given some Olsson’s Salt in our goodie bags too, so great practice for product placement 😉
I was instantly drawn to the tomato soup & this is what happened!!
This is one of my favourite shots!!
Now it’s time for LUNCH!! (no we didn’t eat the soup!!) When I say time for lunch it means that after about 1/2 of taking lots of pics on our cameras & phones from every angle & every dish we can eat!! Ellie made my favourite octopus salad YUM!!
Octopus Salad
Vegan Tomato Tart
After lunch we moved onto balls – yes round things that are so popular in so many different flavours but it is hard to make them look good or is it?
We have had this honeycomb for a while so decided to get a last few shots before we ate it 🙂
Now we haven’t eaten for at least an hour or so lets set up for dinner outside with fairy lights – this was a dream of Elli’s for the last workshop in August 15 but alas the weather stopped us, but not today it was just perfect! We brought the table & chairs outside & set the table. Then got ready for the fresh oysters, Ellie shucked then quickly in front of us & cracked opened the sparkling wine from Bangor Oyster Shed.
What an absolutely awesome feast we had potato & hot smoked salmon salad, fennel & pepper berry beef with goats cheese, roast beetroot and hazelnut salad and a marinated shark on an Asian style salad. Check out Ellie’s blog for her photos & recipes!
Day 2: Breakfast & then picnic lunch in a pear orchard, how dreamy!!
I made JJ’s smoothie recipe in the Thermomix – yes I carried the Thermomix on my lap on the way in the car too!! JJ will post her recipe soon for me to share but you get a hint when you look in the bowl!!
JJ made her delicious baked apples & Ellie made my new favourite breakfast French Toast with Salmon rashers & maple syrup – AMAZING!!
And now it’s time to picnic – a short drive away & we are in a magic place, a local pear orchard.
Another delicious scene to shoot, eat & drink 🙂 Feeling so lucky & had such a great time too!
Here is a snapshot of images taken on my iPhone & some behind the scenes shots too!
![IMG_6666[1]](https://arwensthermopics.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/IMG_66661.jpg)
![IMG_6667[1]](https://arwensthermopics.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/IMG_66671-e1459655225765.jpg)
![IMG_6665[1]](https://arwensthermopics.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/IMG_66651.jpg)
Recent Comments