Hi everyone, I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas weekend with plenty of delicious food! From the comments on my facebook page, I'm pretty sure there was some amazing Thermomix cooking going on out there. Our kids have been enjoying their homemade treats in their Christmas stockings. In fact, they were sent some lollies from the USA for Christmas, and much preferred the homemade ones - yay!! (One of the boys had a few licks of his lollipop then said, 'Mum, do I have to eat this??' Music to my ears!)
Christmas with family & friends
I know a few of you received the extra-special present of a THERMOMIX for Christmas - congratulations!!! I hope these menu plans will be helpful to you in knowing where to start, and inspire you to use your Thermomix to it's full potential. (At the bottom of the page are links to other sites with Thermomix menu plans, so check them out too!) If you'd like some more ideas for starting off with Thermomix cooking, and how to convert your own recipes for the Thermomix, check out this post: Converting Recipes for the Thermomix. And please join us on my Quirky Cooking Facebook Page for tips, links to recipes, and lots of Thermomix chatting. :)
Guess what? Today is the third birthday of Quirky Cooking!! Thank you all for following and commenting and helping to make this blog (and my facebook page) a great place to get some Thermomix inspiration... I've enjoyed chatting with many of you, and hope to 'meet' many more. Hopefully the new year will see Quirky Cooking becoming not only a blog, but a Thermomix cookbook too! Exciting times ahead... I'll be letting you all know of a couple of birthday giveaways very soon - just as soon as I can get them posted! So stay tuned for the chance to win.
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I've found a lot of Thermomix owners don't use the Varoma as much as they could, and don't seem to know where to start with it. I use mine pretty much every day - it's very easy to use, and it's not just for steaming veges. If you haven't had a Varoma demo yet, you really should book one in - for one thing, the food is delicious, and for another, you'll be inspired to use your Varoma a lot more! To help you with some simple Varoma meal ideas, I've planned all Varoma meals this week. There are so many more that we make on a regular basis, like Chicken & Cashews with Coconut Rice and Coconut Satay Sauce, Sausage Casserole with Dumplings, steamed fish with rice and veges, potato salad, spaghetti and meatballs, steamed cakes... the list goes on. I'd love to hear from you what your favourite Varoma dishes are - leave a comment below and share your ideas. And if you have a Thermomix menu plan of your own on a blog, website, or public facebook page, please feel free to link up and share it with everyone! Have a great week.
One of our favourite Varoma recipes: Chicken & Cashews
with Coconut Rice & Coconut Satay Sauce
Monday:
Steak with mashed potatoes & veges: Steak cooked in pan (with a couple of ground beef patties made with some of the steak, minced in the tmx - my daughter won't eat steak); potatoes cooked in tmx bowl while veges steam above in Varoma. (Use 200g milk, 200g water, 1kg cubed potatoes & seasonings in bowl; thinly sliced veges in Varoma tray; cook for 25 mins at Varoma temp speed 1. Remove Varoma, insert butterfly in bowl and mash potatoes on speed 4 for 20 seconds.) Takes 25 minutes. 6-8 serves.
Tuesday:
Tomato pasta with vegetables (pg 72 in the Thermomix Vegetarian Cookbook): Vegetarian pasta sauce cooks in the tmx bowl while lots of sliced veges & herbs steam on top in the Varoma, with fetta if you like. You could crumble some macadamia cheese on top instead of fetta for a dairy free option, or just leave it out. (I cook it for 20 minutes at Varoma temp, then add 250g gluten free pasta to the sauce (uncooked pasta) and continue to cook for another 8 minutes. Mix pasta sauce & veges all together in a big serving bowl.) Takes about 30 minutes. 8 or so serves, depending on how much veges you use.
Wednesday:
Vietnamese fish curry & sticky rice: Curry sauce cooks in tmx bowl while sticky rice (presoaked) cooks on top in Varoma. Cubed fish is added to the curry in the last few minutes of cooking time. Takes 30 minutes, makes about 8 serves, or maybe more. (You can cook the whole bag of sticky rice at once this way!)
Thursday:
Meatloaf & veges with red sauce (pg 100 in the Thermomix Everyday Cookbook): Meatloaf is made by mincing up cubed beef, bread, parmesan (opt), veges, herbs & egg in tmx and making into loaf which is placed in Varoma. The sauce cooks in the bowl while the meatloaf and veges steam in the Varoma. Makes a large amount of the tasty sauce, which is great as the base of a pasta sauce or soup for another meal. Takes 40 minutes. Serves 6 (plus leftover sauce).
Friday:
Chinese white chicken with steamed veges, rice & an Asian sauce: A whole chicken steams in the Varoma; towards end of cooking time, water is topped up to a litre and rice basket with basmati rice is added; broccoli, carrot & bok choy added to Varoma tray, around chicken and cooked until all done. Sauce is made from remaining stock in bowl with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, shallots. Chicken is very white, tender and juicy! Takes about 1 hour. Serves 6-8.
Saturday:
Pork & Chicken Terrine (pg 18 Thermomix Festive Flavour cookbook - out of print at the moment sadly): This is a delicious recipe where pork and chicken are minced in the tmx; mixed with herbs, garlic and onion (chopped, and sauteed in wine in the tmx), pistachios, craisins (or prunes) & baby spinach; made into a roll and wrapped in bacon, and steamed. It's lovely hot or cold. We'll be having it cold at a New Year's Eve party. The recipe says to cook it over water, but if you want a bigger meal, you can have a soup cooking in the bowl while the terrine steams on top. Takes about 50 minutes. Serves 6-8.
Also making some Fried Rice in the Varoma - quick and easy!! (Takes 25 minutes, serves about 8-10) and Breudher - Dutch New Year's Cake to share with friends.
Breudher - Dutch New Year's Cake
A delicious yeast cake recipe which makes 3 or 4 cakes/loaves
from the one recipe, perfect for sharing with family and friends
as a New Year's gift.
Sunday - New Year's Day:Baked Ham, Roast Lamb, veges & gravy (tmx)... New Year's lunch with family.
Leftovers, warmed up in the Varoma (for evening meal): I don't have a microwave (I prefer not to), I use the Varoma to heat up leftovers. Just pour 1 litre of boiling water in the tmx bowl (or boil in there if you like), place leftovers in the Varoma (two layers if you need them) and cook at Varoma temp for 15 minutes, speed 1. You can put a piece of baking paper in each layer if your leftovers are things that will drip through, or to keep the flavours separate. You can also have a soup or pasta sauce in the bowl cooking instead of water, while the leftovers warm up on top - that way if you only have a few leftovers this helps to bulk out the meal. (With pasta sauce, cook for 10-15 minutes then add 250-300g raw pasta and cook another 8-10 minutes.)
And here's a quick and easy dessert using your Varoma - Steamed Chocolate Mudcakes with Orange Sabayon...
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