Thermomix - my cooking miracle

 Last year I joined a facebook airstream group called ThermoStreamers.  A group of enthusiasts who use their Thermomix in their airstream to cook delicious food.

I watched for awhile and decided I did indeed need one of these versatile machines.  The price is not for the faint of heart for sure, but I will say it has changed my cooking life.

At best I am a so so cook, returning to old tried and true favorites and often resorting to the simple fish/chicken/salmon with some rice and a vegetable.

I needed inspiration!  Thermomix comes in handy with that, providing a recipe index that can be catalogued and accessed directly from the machine.  They call this 'guided cooking' and is a great way for learning what your machine can do and it can do a lot!

It can steam, boil eggs (soft, soft medium, medium, medium hard or hard) ferment (yogurt), sous vide, slow cook, saute, heat up to any temperature and those are the cooking functions.  It will also grate, grind, chop, puree, and knead dough.  I regularly grind up almonds to use as a topping on yogurt, or grate fresh parmesan, or grind coffee to use in coffee ice cream.  Pizza dough and bread making have become staples.

There are also accessories. I purchased the juicer which is a great way to make fresh orange juice, or margaritas!

One of my favorite things it does is measure accurately each ingredient as it is added in the guided cooking function, so no intermediary measuring cups to deal with.  

The other great feature is the easy clean up with a stainless steel bowl which is easily rinsed and blades that are easily removed.  There is also a self cleaning function to use with a drop of detergent and some water.

So it may be clear I love this machine.  It's big and it's heavy so it stays out on the counter at all times and gets used daily.  So many different tasks it is up to.

Let's review just this week:

Pizza dough

Sandwich bread

Plain yogurt

Butternut squash soup

Chinese chicken salad (one of my most favorite recipes)

My morning protein shake with coconut millk, banana, turmeric, protein powder, some ground almond or flaxseed and a few ice cubes

Honey thyme ice cream with honey powder (soooo good)

Steamed broccoli with hollandaise on baked potato

I'm going to start to take some photos of the various makes and devote the occassional blog post to my favorite kitchen tool! Cooking is making after all.

Here it is steaming the chicken for the chicken salad.  The top bit is called a varoma and is used for steaming.  It has an insert so that you can do two tier steaming.  Maybe a salmon filet in the bottom and a layer of asparagus on top.  If you're really ambitious you can cook rice at the same time in a steaming basket in the bowl below.

Here's the packet of marinated chicken (a little sesame oil and soy sauce) steamed for 20 minutes or so on varoma speed. When done you dump the water, put the chicken in and set to 6 seconds on speed 4 or 5 to shred the chicken.  Chill the chicken and start the dressing.  Sesame oil, vegetable oil, 1 garlic, 1 inch fressh ginger and a teaspoon of Thai chili sauce.  Cooked for a bit, add some honey, drizzle in the oils to emulsify and then chill.  Dry out the bowl and chop a few peanuts.  Dinner is ready and waiting in the fridge.  Chop some romaine lettuce or napa cabbage whichever you prefer (I do this with a knife, I haven't tried but not sure the thermomix would excel here).  Add the chicken, toss with the dressing and top with the peanuts.

Here's the honey thyme ice cream.  I just used my favorite sweet cream base ice cream, soaking the thyme sprigs in the heavy cream and simmering for a few minutes then chilling.  In place of sugar I used honey powder and then just carried on with the recipe.  The thermomix does not churn ice cream, for that I have my cuisinart ice cream maker.

Not every cookidoo (Thermomixes subscription guided cooking recipes) recipe is a win.  But for the most part I've had great success with the majority of them.