I've developed a locale file for Gourmet especially for Australian Thermomix users.  It has conversions from UK and US weights and measures to Australian weights and measures. It also has weight information for a number of common ingredients to allow volume measures to be converted to weight for use with the Thermomix.

The file is attached.  Just copy it into your gourmet/defaults directory and restart Gourmet.  If your computer has the correct locale for Australia, it should pick up the new values automatically.

Note: This will default Gourmet to use Australian measurements ie. cup = 250ml, tbsp = 20ml.  US/UK measurements are entered as 'UK cup', 'US cup' etc.  You may need to adjust the units used in your existing recipes.

UPDATE: An earlier version of the file had an incorrect conversion for white sugar.  The corrected version has been attached

Does it matter if the buttermilk is cultured (store bought) or homemade? 

I'm not sure.  I've only ever made it with cultured buttermilk left over from making buttermilk & oatmeal pancakes. Cultured buttermilk is much thicker than homemade (traditional) buttermilk so that may make a difference.

I found this interesting article about the difference between traditional and cultured buttermilk

In "olden times," farm families would let freshly milked milk sit for half a day and skim off the cream which had risen.  This cream would be set aside in a cool place, around 50-60 F.  Each milking's cream would be added until several gallons had accumulated.  In the meantime, naturally occurring bacteria in the cream would cause it to slightly sour.  This souring increases the efficiency of churning.  The accumulated, slightly sour, cream would be churned at the optimum temperature (approximately 58 F) such that the butter was firm enough to separate out, but soft enough to stick together into a mass.  The butter was removed, washed in very cold water to remove the remaining milk, and salt worked in to preserve it.  The remaining liquid after the butter was removed was called buttermilk.  I call it "old fashion buttermilk,"  which is slightly sour, has the consistency of  milk, but is slightly paler.  It has flakes of butter floating in it.  Commercial manufacturers sometimes add colored "butter flakes" to imitate the old fashioned buttermilk.  However, the two products are very different, cultured buttermilk being thick and tart, old fashioned being thin, and slightly acid, depending on how sour the cream got before it was churned.

The article also explains how to make your own cultured buttermilk.

Probably had about 250 genuinely interested people.  A few people even came to the show just to see the Thermomix after reading the article in the Canberra Times.

This is what the stand looked like:


Here is Tenina giving the cooking demonstration:

Ours is the Food Robot.  The 5 year old named it.  I was watching the next series of "The Great British Menu" and the 5yo walked in and said "Hey, they've got a food robot too!"  I was so proud of him.  Was there any truth to the rumour that a TM31 was on Masterchef last week?  I stopped watching when the person that I knew on the show left.
Happy Cooking!
K3

Hi Y'all,

1. Butter chicken
2. Pumpkin soup
3. Frozen custard ice cream (like Goodberry's)
4. Mushroom risotto with porcini
5. Mandarin sorbet
6. Cyndi's gluten free bread (it's amazing & in the GF cookbook)
7. Not having to chop up onions anymore!!!!
8. Milling rice and spices (saves truckloads of money)
9. DH will cook because it is so easy using the TM31 (I came home the other day and he'd made meat pies from scratch for lunch)
10. Home made dim sims!

What's not to love?
K3

Hi Everyone,
I use kombu to make up my iodised salt.  The kombu is like leather and takes a long time to mill.  I'll try the seaweed flakes mentioned earlier next time    Kombu is naturally high in iodine and apparently it is easier for our bodies utilise iodine from plant sources.  I don't know where the other iodine found in iodised salt comes from.  As for sea salt vs. normal salt - I have no idea.  As far as I'm aware, all inland salt was deposited when the continent was underwater.  Useless trivia - Himalayan salt is pink due to the trace elements it contains.  It doesn't contain iodine though.   
Karen3

Hi Everyone,
So what is the FAILSAFE diet?  FAILSAFE is an anagram (well sort of) of a diet free of additives, low in salicylates, amines and flavour enhancers (FAILSAFE) for health, behaviour and learning problems.  We've been additive free in our household for about a year but decided to do the FAILSAFE elimination diet about a month ago.  It has certainly been very challenging, but having a TM31 made life a lot easier.  We've had mixed success so far, but I've been pleasantly surprised by how much calmer I have been.  Now I just need to find the food triggers....
For more information please go to http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/
Best wishes,
Karen3

Hi Everyone,
Great photo!  It must be time I made another batch of playdough.  Hope everyone is well, we haven't dropped off the planet, just been busy.  We've also been FAILSAFE for 3 weeks so haven't been doing anything adventurous. Thank goodness for the TM31 or I would have gone balmy with all the extra cooking.  I'm off to check out Ralo's blog.
Karen3