Chopping to fine

[AnnaD]

Hi there. I have had my Thermomix for a little while but have not embraced it very much as I have had more fails than successes. I am only following recipes via the chips at the moment and so would have thought that was fail proof, sadly not the case. When I cook meat (Chicken to date) or risotto it dices/shreds the meat or the risotto so finely that we it turns out like baby food.  What am I doing wrong? Would appreciate any help as I dearly want to be a Thermo lover. Thank you in advance

[judydawn]

Hi Anna, firstly welcome to the forum.  Sorry to hear you're having trouble with recipes using the chip, have you spoken to your consultant in this regard?

I don't have the latest model so I cannot help you as far as the chip goes but if you type 'risotto' into search on the home page of this forum you will find there are many recipes for risottos.  Check them out, read the comments and perhaps try one using your TM5 manually to compare with what you've been cooking with the chip. Alternatively, using google, do a search for 'risotto thermomix' and you will have many options available from those with excellent blogs.

If it's any help to you, when I bought my Thermomix back in 2008 I had disasters too as the machine is so powerful.  Onions for instance, I only ever chop 2 seconds/speed 5 as I like a bit of texture and not mushed onions. You can always add a second or two after checking so it's best to under chop in the first instance. Over time you will get the hang of it but do give your consultant a call for her advice.

Hopefully someone on the forum who has a TM5 can give you some further advice. 

[cookie1]

Hi Anna. I think that sometimes the chip tells us to chop too long. You can over ride the chip and chop for less time. Go in tiny increments. Judy has a brilliant idea in cooking a few things from the forum here that people have made and do it all manually.
I've found that if cooking chicken it is best to only add it in the last 5-6 minutes and use reverse, making sure it is in fairly chunky. Or alternatively steam your chicken and add it to the sauce for only a short time.
Good luck.

[Cornish Cream]

Welcome Anna to the Forum.

Great advice from Judy and Cookie. I will add don't cut your meat too small and use the butterfly on reverse speed to stop shredding.

[Cuilidh]

Welcome to the forum, Anna, thanks for joining us.

Sorry to hear you are having failures but, be assured, you are not alone (for example, if you read through the forum, you will find that there are numerous stories of coleslaw 'soup'  )!  Just about everyone has failures at some point and we all learn from them and share on the forum offering and giving thoughts, suggestions and advice.

I have the older model so cannot comment on chip times, but I have found, for instance, when chopping onions and garlic I turn to speed 5 then drop the onion and garlic through the lid and that seems to give a better finished result for me.  As Judy says, when you get a chance, browse through all the recipes on here and you will pick up loads of ideas.  Also, don't forget, many of us on here have had our machines for many years now and we have practical experience of just any problems you may encounter.  Just ask us and you should get feed back fairly quickly.