New bloke on the block - total newbie

[Rotorchef]

Hello Everyone,

I am brand new to the forum, indeed I am brand new to the whole Thermomix way of cooking.

After being in Australia for a few weeks at the beginning of the year I was introduced to this culinary bundle of amazingness. It was an informal lunch at my fiancés best friends house, who has a very young family. Anyway, long story short, the bread turned up hot and was nothing short of superb, then there were the pates and other morsels of goodness, not to forget (how could I) the scones afterwards. All of which I was told at the time were homemade. I was quietly working under the impression that Sophie (the mother and best friend of the Mrs to be) had slaved in the kitchen all morning. Anyway, it was only after we had all finished and I was helping to clean up that I came across the most bizarre looking blender / smoothie making machine only to be told that "it" was responsible for doing all the hard work. So that was the first introduction.

A few weeks after this, I had my second encounter.

A dinner party at a new friends house (making lots of new friends as I am moving to Aus as the Mrs 2 B is Aussie), and we were being treated to the whole 9 yards of culinary delights. On the main course menu was "Garlic & Butter Morton Bay Bugs on a bed of Chilli and Lime Risotto" - Yep, my first thought was, What the hell are Morton Bay Bugs 

Anyway I thought nothing of the 'cooking process' until I offered to help with the Risotto as I know what a pain in the rear it can be if made traditionally. Well I started to become dubious when I was told that it wasn't needed as the 'Thermomix' was in control. So, being a typical bloke my mind automatically hit 'cynical mode' as no machine can make a meal that sounded so good yet be a machine, let alone one that you could just leave to pretty much its own devices, after all we were having risotto!

All I can say is that the dinner was fantastic, the hostess was completely unflustered to the point of she was sat with us drinking wine until we had to make our way to the dining table and I was utterly confused as to this thing called a 'Thermomix'.

I had to find out more! Well, in the weeks prior to leaving Aus to return to the UK  I asked many many questions and conducted many many web searches, and the end result is..........

Tonight I will cooking my first dinner in my used but new to me TM31 - am I looking forward to it? You bet I am!

Anyway, I am off to search for some recipes now.

TTFN

RotorChef
 

[Cornish Cream]

Welcome to the forum Rotorchef.Great news that you finally tracked down a Thermomix and are about to cook your first TM meal.You are certainly going to have fun.Enjoy your cooking experience.

[Cuilidh]

Welcome to the forum Rotorchef.  Sounds like you are all set to have a brilliant time with your TM31.  Loads of great recipes and ideas on here and, if you have any questions that your fiance's friends can't answer, just ask and we will always try our best to give you answers - often within an hour or two of asking!

[chrissa]

Welcome to the forum. Let us know how your first TM meal goes 😀

[courton]

What a lovely anecdote about your encounters with TMX. Enjoy cooking!

[Aussie Brenda]

Welcome , nice to,have you on board, you will have to give the risotto 's a go,so,you too can impress your friends.

[goldfish]

What a lovely anecdote about your encounters with TMX. Enjoy cooking!

Have to agree there!!! Looking forward to hearing more from you soon... And the very best of all good wishes for your forthcoming marriage~ many exciting and memorable times ahead for you !!  

[astarra]

Hi and welcome RC,
loved your introductory post, you were obviously convinced about a TM - and you are correct!!! 
Best wishes for your upcoming wedding,
look forward to reading more posts and reviews from you. 

[judydawn]

Hello RC, welcome to the forum.  Thank you for sharing your lovely story with us and I must say your fiance's friends sure turned on the hospitality during your visit to Australia.  Wishing you all the best for your forthcoming marriage and move to Australia.

[trudy]

Welcome to the forum RC.  Goodluck with your coming move over here and your new found kitchen friend TM.

[cookie1]

RC what a lovely story. Thanks for sharing it with us. Welcome to the forum and all the best for the upcoming nuptials.

[Deniser]

Hi and welcome to the Forum.  Love your introduction(s) to the Thermomix.  I know you will enjoy the experience and sounds like many meals just waiting to be tried.  http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=7006.0  - not sure if I got this link thing right but we love the Creamy Garlic Prawn Risotto.  If link doesn't work just search "Creamy Garlic Prawn Risotto" and it will take you there.  Waiting for your next installment.  Have fun.

[Rotorchef]

Hello everyone

Well, what a great welcome - Thankyou, very flattered.

Deniser,

It would appear that great minds think alike as the Risotto link that you very kindly suggested was exactly the meal of choice for last night - OMG!!!!

So, where do I start..........

At the beginning I guess but I won't draw it out too much.

After arriving back in the UK after being in Aus for the best part of 10 weeks I was cagey about a number of things to the folks back here in the UK, not least of all my mother. For good reason too as I knew she would literally go "off the chart" when I told her I was not only moving back to Aus (I lived there for 3 years a long time ago) but that I was getting married too! She has nothing against Australia indeed she loves the place, what she doesn't like is the fact its the other side of the planet from pretty much anything else except NZ and Antarctica (no offence meant to anyone!).

Anyway, after dropping the bombshell I sort of tried to make small talk as she wasn't overly pleased with the whole 'moving to Aus' topic. We were in a restaurant so I brought up the Thermomix topic as she is a good (very good actually) cook and has more kitchen aids, tools, blenders, mixers, implements and cook books than you can shake a stick at. Naturally I thought that she would not only have heard of this kitchen 'genius' but probably already have one and I was blissfully ignorant to its existence. Well, imagine my surprise when she asked me more about the Thermomix than I had answers for! Maybe she was just being difficult at the time, who knows 

To the present day........

Well, imagine my mothers face when she returns from London (she divides her time between Staffordshire > London > Tenerife), walks into the kitchen only to be welcomed by the culinary behemoth sat in pride of place on the cooker hob.........."What the hell is that" came the shriek - it is at this point that I should probably point out that I firmly believed forgiveness was a better prospect than permission (her house after all whilst I am sorting out my house and subsequent move!)

So after much discussion about the 'new toy' she acquieces to its current (temporary) location as it sits rather fetchingly in the kitchen and we could play with it whilst its still here - yep, I will be bringing it with me to Australia!!!  Much discussion was had about what it is, what it does, "how much was it", and then she starts telling me all about Heston whatever his name is and the number of TMX devices that he has and uses in his restaurants - things are looking up for the device, seemingly it is a tool of choice for chefs so it must be ok was apparently the rationale. On this note I just listened to her and took it as a meagre sign of TMX acceptance. TMX 1 - Traditional Chef Tools 0! 

Dinner last night,

Well, I did a frantic search for something that I knew would be appealing to a diner that is a good cook but also bloody minded and fussy when they want to be. I also needed a level of certainty for success as I needed a quick win with the mighty kitchen acquisition. The choice of meal thus maiden dinner effort was the Garlic and Prawn risotto. I didn't have sufficient prawns so I complimented it with haddock, not a bad substitute either if I may say so.

All the ingredients were arranged and sorted in such a way that all that remained was just weighing and following the recipe which we diligently did. I say we as I pretty much got relegated to the spectator seat as there was a "internet taught TMX God" at the helm. Yep you guessed it, YouTube had taught my mum everything she needed to know about this new kitchen implement of amazingness. Right up until the point of sautéing the butter and spring onion and garlic. It would appear that the youtube video didn't mention anything about having to set a time and temperature for things to work. And that it wasn't just a case of throw it in, set a temperature, set a speed and watch the timer.......oh the small things and the attention to details! Anyway after a couple of scoffing and grumbling remarks under her breath and me frantically reading through the user guide (and cursing not having attended a demo!) the error of her (our???) ways was obvious - from this point on everything else was plain sailing. Right up to the point of adding the stock, setting the temperature / speed / time and then leaving it.................yep, walking away, white wine in hand and leaving it. Now to the uninitiated this would literally be a risotto disaster in the making and I will admit my mother was in no way assured by my confidence, possibly due to me never actually making anything in a TMX. So, off we toddled to the back garden to watch the burning flames in the miniature inferno that was the chimenea.

14 minutes later, and the moment of truth........nervous? YEAH only slightly! This needed to be a good risotto as the reputation of the TMX in my family was resting on this one single meal.

Needless to say, the only things I heard from my mother that whole meal was, "is there any more". Well, without it appearing as too much of a slight I naturally reached to pour her some more wine, imagine my smugness when she said "NO, I meant the risotto"!

I think that pretty much summed it up, other than, the creamy sweet potato mash has some pretty big boots to live up to - oh, thats tonights dinner!

Take care everyone, and again thanks for the warm greetings.

TTFN

RC

[Cornish Cream]

Good news you won everyone over with your news and the Thermomix Rotorchef.Best of luck with the sweet potato mash tonight.

[Rotorchef]

Creamy Sweet Potato mash update.....

Followed this recipe, although I doubled the quantities as we needed slightly more - mainly because I am a pig!

http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=3826.15 - down towards the bottom, Formesby was / is the author.

Well, I can safely confirm that these mashed potatoes produced the smoothest, creamiest, easiest (both cooking and 'mashing') spuds that I have ever had! And I classed myself as something of a mashed potato aficionado!

All I need to do now is work out what setting and blade configuration I need to use in order to do my washing as I am certain that TMX will have that sorted in a jiffy too!

Thanks everyone. Very much enjoying myself at the moment.

TTFN

RC