Two things happened this week, well two things that weren’t snow related. The first was I did some much overdue blog maintenance and finally created a Thermomix category to share my posts on this kitchen gadget. And I re-jigged some existing posts about it, naming the series “75 Reasons to love Thermomix”. I have no idea it will become 75 reasons, I mean I know there ARE seventy five reasons but I don’t know if I will get around to writing them all down. So this is at least a start.
The second thing was that I made a couple of things in the Thermomix that I would never have attempted without her, as did Jonnie. Yesterday afternoon he said “Is there a Thermomix recipe for Bakewell tarts? I want to make some”.
Well you won’t see me move quicker than I do when somebody offers to cook something for me. Though now I think about it there was no mention of the Bakewell tarts actually being FOR me, hmmm. Might have to check the tin is still there.
But that really got me thinking how over the past few months my cooking has really changed. I am being more adventurous. More capable of doing things beyond my usual repertoire of mince or boring chicken based dishes. I have found it easy to push the boundaries a little and cook other stuff that I would never have dreamed of doing without my trusty Thermie.
Simple things like pesto. I mean, who makes their own pesto when you can buy it? Well I do actually. The homemade pesto takes seconds to do (like ten seconds). Contains just basil, parmesan, pine nuts, olive oil, salt and garlic, so no preservatives or nasties. And it smells divine. Plus it is a green colour that I never seen in pesto before. I adore it and could eat it straight out of the bowl with the aid of a lump of bread.
Beyond that, the bakewell tarts above for instance. Jonnie made those in an hour, from ingredients we had in the house. If you asked me to make frangipan I would have told you to jog on but this was super simple, and the results are amazing.
I have never fancied making sweetcorn fritters before but with a recipe that was a few simple steps, using ingredients we had in the fridge this was lunch one day last week:
It has even given me the balls to play around with recipes and realise that you can absolutely do that, and get some great results. I found a recipe for a polenta cake, but didn’t have any polenta. Something in the back of mind suggested that polenta and semolina are very similar so with Google not being terribly conclusive I decided to wing it and have a go anyway:
And finally this vegan chocolate and coconut cake. I am not a vegan but I love that I can find recipes at the touch of a button and experiment with some certainty about the results being edible. That when a friend pops in who is vegan I can present them with a cake I made especially for them. Or for my mum who avoids dairy and butter.
Just one more reason to love the Thermomix. Here is the link to the category if you want to have a read of some of my other reasons: