Blueberry, oat and rose muffins (Vegan)

February 20, 2010 at 11:34 pm (Thermomix, vegan)

This recipe is taken from the book “The Enlightened Kitchen. Eat your way to better health” by Marie Oser.  If zero grammes of cholesterol and only 2g of fat per muffin sound good to you, try them out.

Heat oven to 350F or 180C.

You’ll need 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat pastry flour, so if you always mill your grains fresh in the TMX, you’ll need to do this first and then set the flour aside for later.

Then prepare a prune puree in the TMX. Marie Oser explains that prune puree is a good fat replacer in baked goods. Place 2 cups of ready to eat prunes, 3/4 cup of water and 4 tsp of vanilla extract in the TMX (I used 1 tsp vanilla powder). Puree until smooth. Put 1/2 cup of the prune puree aside for this recipe  and then fill the rest in a container, close and store in the fridge for the next baking day.  Quote Oser “Because prune puree is very high in sorbitols, a natural preservative, it will keep in the refrigerator for more than two weeks.”

Coat your muffin tray with fat to stop sticking (I used paper muffin cases).

Add the following to the TMX:

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry

3/4 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup yellow cornmeal (next time I’ll mill this with the wheat)

2 tbsp soy flour

1 tsp non aluminium baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup prune puree

3/4 cup evaporated cane sugar (I used 1/2 cup agave syrup)

2 tbsp egg replacer (I used extra 2 tbsp soy flour)

1/2 cup cold water

1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp vanilla soy milk

1 tsp rosewater

Mix in the TMX until you get a homogenous mixture. Add 3/4 cup dried blueberries (I used chopped, ready to eat apricots). Stir a few times on reverse to mix in. Pour mixture into muffin tray, sprinkle  1/4 cup soynuts on top  (I cannot get them here, next time I’ll used chopped almonds).

Bake 25 minutes or until tester comes out clean.

Very filling, very delicious;) As DH said “They’re great but they are not muffins….” Very cake-like consistency and worth a try.

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French lentil soup (Vegan)

February 14, 2010 at 2:45 pm (soup, vegan)

This recipe is taken from the book “Voluptuous Vegan” by Myra Kornfeld. I ordered the book today and thought I’d try out the lentil soup. You’ll find the recipe online under: www.myrakornfeld.com/recipes.php

This is my first attempt at restructuring the recipe for the Thermomix 31. Yes, experienced users would probably have got this soup quicker on the table but I had oodles of time, it’s Sunday, it’s snowing (yet again) so I don’t mind spending a little more time in the kitchen.

Start with the tomato sauce:

1. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in the TMX 1.5 minutes, 100C, soft stir. While the oil was heating, I cut 2 medium onions (about 2 cups)  into small dice and minced 3 garlic cloves. You could chop these in the TMX first and then set aside while you heat the oil but I preferred to chop the vegetables myself.
2. Add 1/4 tsp hot red pepper flakes, the onions and garlic to the TMX and cook about 8-10 minutes on 100C/speed 1 (I left the MC off). Then add 1/2 cup of red wine and cook on 100C/soft stir/MC off for 5 minutes until it reduces a little.

3. Then add 1 tbsp tomato paste and 1 tin of tomatoes (400g). Cook for  a few minutes more (I cooked them for about 10 minutes on 100C/soft stir). Blitz for 3 seconds on speed 5 to break up the chunks. Pour the tomato sauce into a large bowl and set aside while you cook the lentils.

4. Pour 6 cups of water and 1 cup of puy lentils (I used normal brown ones) into Thermomix. The recipe states you should cook the lentils for about 25-35 minutes or until the lentils are soft. You’ll also need to add a bouquet garni of 5 fresh thyme sprigs, 3  rosemary sprigs, 1 bay leaf, and 5 flat leaf parsley  stems to give the lentils and the broth more flavour. I set the timer for 30 minutes/100C/reverse/soft stir. (I chose reverse because I was afraid the lentils would turn to mush on the normal setting). Remove the bouquet garni.

5. Add the tomato mixture to the TMX along with 1 1/2 tsp salt and black pepper to taste. Cook a further 5 minutes/100C/reverse/soft stir to allow the flavours to marry. Taste and add more salt if desired.

6. Add 3 cups chard leaves with1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme.  Allow chard to wilt for 5 minutes in the hot soup, stir through, adjust seasoning if necessary and  serve hot. ( I used frozen, chopped organic spinach and just tipped it into the soup at step 5, mixed on speed 5 for 1 second and cooked for the extra 5 minutes).

This turned out to be a delicious soup, much lighter than a “normal” lentil soup. It also looked beautiful with the specks of green in among the lentils.

Since I had no fresh herbs, I added dried thyme, dried rosemary, frozen parsley and a bayleaf to the tomato sauce while cooking. Before blitzing I removed the bayleaf. At the end of cooking the soup I added a little more thyme and rosemary.

Now I can’t wait to get the book;)

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Sour cream cake with mandarines

January 15, 2010 at 8:16 pm (cake, Thermomix, Uncategorized)

OK, I admit it: This is a recipe that just uses the TMX as a food processor to quickly whip up a cake in a matter of minutes. It’s taken from a recipe on www.chefkoch.de (http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/852941190731804/Schmandkuchen.html). You’ll find a photo there of the finished product. It tastes better the next day.

One word of warning: In Germany we have something called “Schmand” which roughly translates as sour cream. If you decide to make this you’ll need 800g of sour cream with the highest fat content you can find because Schmand is so thick over here that you can cut it with a knife.

It’s a good “emergency cake”, i. e. it calls for ingredients from the store cupboard/larder that you probably already have on hand.

65g butter (NOT margarine)

65 g sugar

150g flour

1/2 packet of baking powder (I used 1 generous tsp)

1 egg

Tip all the ingredients into the TMX and blitz on speed 5 until you have a smooth dough. Press this into a greased 26 cm cake tin.

Then add the following ingredients to the TMX (no need to wash it out first – I couldn’t be bothered):

500 ml milk

2 packets of vanilla pudding powder

800g Schmand (really thick sour cream)

200g sugar

Tip the ingredients into the TMX, whizz on speed 5 until the mixture is smooth. Add the contents of two DRAINED tins of mandarines and stir on speed soft spoon REVERSE for a bit to mix the mandarines into the vanilla cream.  Pour this into the cake tin. Bake at 180 C for 1 hour.

This cake contains a lot of sugar and probably isn’t all that healthy but -  as I said -  it’s a good cake for emergencies.

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Steaks with a pepper-cognac sauce

December 25, 2009 at 3:52 pm (meat)

This year’s Christmas Eve dinner was celebrated with my in-laws. I decided that we would serve something simple but delicious, a meal which didn’t require hours of slaving in the kitchen. I served these steaks with Nockerl (tiny dumplings. I made about 1.5 kg by hand) and a potato gratin. Afterwards I served a crème bavaroise (see recipe review here: http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=2591.0). And then we couldn’t move.

This recipe is taken from the German recipe forum www.chefkoch.de and serves four.

Ingredients:

4 steaks (each approx. 200g)

4 all spice berries

1 tbsp black peppercorns

1 tbsp white peppercorns

1 tbsp green peppercorns

2 tbsp oil

4 tbsp cognac

20g butter

25oml cream

salt to taste

1. Coarsely grind peppercorns and allspice berries (I used the TMX, pushing down the peppercorns until they were coarsely chopped, speed 10 worked best).

2. Rub this mixture onto the steaks and press it onto the meat.

3. Fry the steaks on a high heat for 1 minute on each side. Reduce the heat and then fry for 2-4 minutes on each side. Remove from frying pan, wrap in tin foil and leave to rest.

4. Pour off the oil from the frying pan and add cognac to the juices in pan. Allow to bubble before adding butter and cream while stirring. Reduce to desired consistency.  Season to taste with salt.

5. Remove the steaks from the foil and place on four plates. Add the meat juices to the sauce in the pan and stir. Pour the sauce over the steaks and serve.

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Christmas Cake 2009

December 25, 2009 at 3:30 pm (cake)

English Christmas cakes are very popular here in Germany among my friends and family. This year I decided to try out a recipe published  in this month’s BBC Good Food Magazine (P. 148) called Bubble and Bake Christmas Cake. It was written by Sara Buenfeld who I am very grateful to because I managed to supply friends and family with lots of Christmas cakes with hardly any effort at all. I made this on the stove top and only used the TMX to grind or chop the almonds. I made a non-alcoholic version for my favourite Turkish greengrocer who is learning English and she was thrilled. I hope you like the recipe too. Merry Christmas!

Add the following ingredients to a heavy bottomed saucepan:

200g dark muscovado sugar, 175g butter (chopped), 700g luxury mixed dry fruit (I used organic where possible), 50g glace cherries (I used candied orange and lemon peel),  2 tsp grated fresh ginger, zest and juice of one orange, 100ml dark rum, brandy or orange juice.

Bring to the boil slowly and let the mixture simmer for 10 minutes. Stir frequently, otherwise the mixture will catch. Leave to stand for 30 minutes to cool.

Then add:

85g pecan nuts (roughly chopped – I used almonds), 3 large eggs (beaten), 85g ground almonds, 200g plain flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp mixed spice and 1 tsp cinnamon.

Stir everything together gently but thoroughly.

Grease and line a deep 20cm round baking tin and spoon in cake mix. Level the top with a spoon. Bake in preheated oven 150C/130C fan assisted for 45 minutes. Then turn down temperature to 140C/120C fan assisted for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes until done. Leave to cool on a wire  rack.

You can then decorate the cake as you wish.

Tips: If you have an oven thermometer it’s a good idea to use it for this recipe. I used mine and found that the longer baking time was just right. The great thing about this recipe is that the cake doesn’t become dark/burnt, instead it is a beautiful caramel colour when it comes out of the oven.

If you also live in Germany and would like to bake this cake, you’ll probably experience difficulties finding a 20cm round cake tin since most German cake tins are 24-26 cm. Luckily, TK-Maxx has been sprouting out of the ground like mushrooms in North-Rhine Westphalia and this store often has British size cake tins at a very reasonable price.

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A simple rice and red lentil soup

October 23, 2009 at 7:48 pm (soup, vegan, vegetarian)

Here’s a vegan recipe taken from the book “Vegetarian Dishes from the Middle East” by Arto der Haroutunian. He says it’s a popular Syrian soup that is also eaten by Turks and Armenians. You can use burghul instead of rice. Of course, you can add any seasonings you like to the recipe if you want added heat or spice. I added my tandoori masala mix taken from a cookery book that I have, can’t remember which, unfortunately (probably the “Balti Cookbook” by Pat Chapman).  It turned out more of an Indian soup for me (probably because I was listening to “The Greatest Bollywood Hits” at the time) and it was delicious. I needed to add a bit more salt than stated below. The great thing about this recipe is that you’ve probably got all the ingredients for the soup in your pantry.

This recipe serves 4-6.

Ingredients/Procedure:

Mince 1 onion in the TMX 3s/speed 5. Add 4 tbsp olive oil and fry 2m/varoma/speed 1. Add 75g long-grain rice that has been washed thoroughly under cold water and then drained. Fry the rice 2m/varoma/speed 1. Add 1.8 litres water, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1/4 tsp cinnamon and a pinch of ground cloves (or your choice of spices). Simmer 5m/100C/speed 1. Add 175g red lentils and cook 15-20m/100C/soft stir until the rice and lentils are tender but not mushy. Cooking time depends on the quality of the lentils.

Garnish with a pinch of cayenne pepper and serve immediately.  My lentils seemed to dissolve even though the rice was tender. The soup still tasted good. I placed a few lemon slices in my soup because it reminded me of the mulligatawny soup that I used to love to eat as a child at the local Tandoori Palace in Rayleigh. Shame you can’t get Bombay Duck anymore. Loved that stuff.

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Sweet and sour vegetables (preserve)

October 23, 2009 at 12:01 am (preserve, Thermomix, vegan, vegetarian)

Since we are now in the midst of Autumn, I had a sudden impulse to make some pickled vegetables to fill our pantry. This recipe appears on http://www.rezeptwelt.de/node/200. I adapted it slightly because I wanted to use up a lot of vegetables that were lying idle in the kitchen. The recipe calls for courgettes and red peppers but I used carrots, peppers and cucumbers in the second batch. The reviews for the recipe were all positive, but I haven’t tried the veg yet because I want them to mature a little first.

Ingredients:

800g courgettes, cut into bite sized pieces

400g red peppers, cut into bite sized pieces

200g onions, cut into rings

350g herb vinegar

240g water

240g apple juice

200g sugar

1/2 tsp salt (I added 1 tsp)

1 tsp curry

(I also added 1 tsp HOT Hungarian paprika for an extra kick and a few garlic cloves to the TMX with the vinegar, etc. Since I wanted a bit more spice, I also added 1 tbsp pickling spices).

1. Lay the chopped courgettes and red peppers in the varoma and lay the onion slices on top. Close the varoma. (Yes, it seems like a lot of vegetables;) The second time around I brought the vinegar mixture in the bowl to a boil first before setting the timer for cooking the vegetables. I think this technique was more successful. I also placed a teapot on top of the varoma to close it more tightly at the beginning).

2. Add the remaining ingredients to the TMX bowl. (Tip: I placed the spices and garlic in the basket, because the juniper berries in the pickling spice mix got jammed under the TMX blades causing the machine to make rather nasty grating sounds).

3. Cook 25m/varoma/speed 1. After 13 minutes, mix the veg in the varoma around so that everything is steamed. Watch out because the steam is HOT.

4. Fill the veg into clean twist-off glasses and cover with the vinegar. Close the jars and place upside down on table for 5 minutes to create a vacuum.

With the second batch, I didn’t have enough vinegar to cover the veg so I just cooked up half the recipe for the vinegar mix and then poured it over the vegetables.  I ended up with 5 large glasses of pickled vegetables.

This is a good recipe because you can use any veg you like and vary the spices. Plus it’s a good gift for a hamper. The colours of the vegetables are radiant.

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Pumpkin risotto

October 22, 2009 at 11:43 pm (rice, Thermomix, vegetarian)

I have seen a lot of blogs saying how easy it is to make risotto in the TMX, although I’m sure risotto purists will throw up their hands in horror. This week I finally got around to making my first risotto in the Thermomix. Actually, it’s my first risotto EVER. I don’t know if I got the consistency right, but I ate 3 portions in one sitting, so it must have tasted OK. This recipe was found on http://www.rezeptwelt.de/node/1859 and posted by the user sanneoli.

Ingredients:

1 onion

400g Hokkaido pumpkin (cut into 1.5 cm chunks)

500ml vegetable broth

2 x 30ml olive oil

180g risotto rice

100 ml dry white wine

2 tbsp dry parsley (I used about 4 tbsp fresh, finely chopped)

2 tbsp walnuts (I used almonds)

50g Parmesan

salt and pepper to taste

What to do:

1. Grind Parmesan 10s/speed 10.  Set aside.

2. Mill walnuts 7s/speed 8.  Set aside in bowl, add 30ml olive oil and parsley and mix well. (I added a small, crushed clove of garlic).

3. Chop onion 3s/speed 5. Add rice and cook 3m/varoma/reverse/speed 1.

4. Add pumpkin and cook another 2m/varoma/reverse/speed 1.

5. Add white wine. Cook a further 1m/100C/reverse/speed 2 without MC.

6. Add broth, salt and pepper, cook for 20m/90C/reverse/speed 1 without MC.

7. Pour into serving bowl and stir in Parmesan. Serve with parsley-walnut oil (I stirred it into the rice).

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Plum jam with Amaretto

October 22, 2009 at 11:27 pm (jam, Thermomix, vegetarian)

Well, I’ve spent this week living according to the motto “use it or lose it.” I discovered some ripe plums in the fridge, browsed through the new German Thermomix recipe forum www.rezeptwelt.de and found the following recipe by the user m.one (source: http://www.rezeptwelt.de/node/1274).  It’s really easy to make (with or without the Thermomix) and tastes delicious.

Ingredients:

1 kg plums

70-100ml Amaretto

500g preserving sugar (containing pectin), ratio 2:1

What to do:

1. Stone the plums and leave to soak in Amaretto for 30 minutes.

2. Place in TMX and chop to desired consistency at speed 7.

3. Add preserving sugar and cook for 13m/varoma/speed 3-4.

4. Pour into clean jam jars, close tightly and place upside down to cool.

I added a little cinnamon for extra flavour.

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Green Spelt Bake (vegetarian/vegan)

October 18, 2009 at 12:46 pm (Thermomix, vegan, vegetarian)
Tags: , , , ,

Unripe spelt grain (German: Grünkern) is a wonderfully versatile ingredient and very popular among vegetarians in Germany when preparing sweet and savoury dishes. I use it to make patties, bakes and pastry.

The advantage of cooking the spelt mixture in the Thermomix is that you don’t need to stand next to the machine and stir constantly to stop the spelt from sticking to the bottom of the bowl.

I added tomato paste and the paprika to give the dish a bit of colour. If you can find them, chilli olives are great in this and give the spelt bake a little heat. Ovo-lacto vegetarians can use 2 eggs instead of soya flour to bind mixture and add 40g grated cheese. If you’re vegan, you could try adding a bit of nutritional yeast to give the mixture a cheesier taste.

Servings: 4-6

2 onions, quartered

2 carrots, cut into 1-inch lengths

1 leek, white only, sliced lengthways, cleaned, cut into 1-inch lengths

40 g oil of your choice

200 g green spelt grain (Grünkern)

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp mild Hungarian paprika

400 ml vegetable stock

40 g nuts

2 tbsp soya flour mixed with 4 tbsp water to replace two eggs

sliced olives to taste (can be omitted)

80 g oatmeal

sea salt

black pepper freshly ground

nutmeg

oil for greasing baking pan

1. Before you start: coarsely mill spelt (approx. 6s/speed10) and nuts (5s/speed 5) separately in TM. Set aside nuts for step 5 and spelt for step 3.

2. Cut onions, leek and carrots into chunks. Chop on speed 5 until finely chopped.

3. Add oil and spelt to vegetables with vegetable stock. Scrape any ingredients from sides into bowl. Add tomato paste and paprika. Cook 100/20m/speed2/reverse. (You may have to increase the speed up to speed 3/4, reverse at the beginning to mix the ingredients thoroughly).

Make sure you insert the measuring cup, because the mixture starts to splutter after about 10 minutes.

4. Open the lid carefully, because the mixture is really hot. Scrape out the contents of TM into a bowl. Set aside until mixture has cooled a little.

5. Heat oven to 175C. Add nuts, soya flour with water (or eggs), sliced olives and oatmeal (and grated cheese if using) to spelt mixture. Season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

6. Grease a baking pan (I used a square, silicon one) with oil and pour spelt mixture into it. Smooth top before baking for 35-40 minutes. Leave to stand a few minutes before cutting.

This is great served with a spicy tomato sauce and steamed vegetables from the Varoma.

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