Vice Cream with Crio Beans

I saw this idea over on one of my fave blogs to read when I have a little time to relax, Not Quite Nigella. I changed it up a little because it was so totally perfect for your fave kitchen appliance and mine! I even made it as a Thermomix demo at my book launch, which incidentally WENT OFF! I hope if you were lucky enough to join me for that, you are still buzzing AND enjoying the spoils in For Foods Sake! I had a ball….If you would like a piece of the action, please go and purchase the book at the STORE.

If you would like a little Vice in your life, best make it this Vice, as it is all good for you! You could add all sorts of crunchy elements, as opposed to the macadamias, but add a little salt if you don’t use salty nuts. The salt will just elevate the flavor a little. Try Choc coated Crio beans, other nuts, chocolate chips or cacao nibs…or add orange zest and enjoy Jaffa Vice Cream…oh the possibilities.

NEED:

400g bananas, peeled and sliced, frozen

1 avocado

90g maple syrup

2 tsp Heilala vanilla bean paste

40g Margaret River Chocolate cocoa powder (or other premium cocoa)

Handful roasted, salted macadamias

DO:

Place bananas into Thermomix bowl and chop 5 sec/speed 10.

Add remaining ingredients except nuts and blend 10-15 sec/speed 6. Scrape down sides of bowl and add nuts and blend a further 10 sec/speed 6.

Serve immediately.

Ice Magic, Magic Shell or good ole crack shell chocolate topping

NOT good for you…really, if you have guiltily bought that stuff ever, you will have read the ingredients (unless you were just so guilty that you figured ignorance was bliss!) ANYHOO, you know it is all bad…not a lot of chocolate going on, but here we go…Crio Bru is about to come to the rescue yet again, and I am happy to say, this is the best darn ice magic ever…and it’s good for you. (If you are in the states, I think this stuff is called Magic Shell…but hey, you say to-mate-o and I say to-mah-to!)

I ate two bowls of ice cream for this shoot…the sacrifices I make, and right before I go test the theory that tanned fat is better than white fat as I lay on deck on the very lovely Legend of the Seas and sail around Bali etc…tough gig, but my private nervous breakdown has been scheduled for some time now…I’ll be back in a couple of weeks…but don’t fret…I have planned heaps of recipes to pop up here without me…now who do you love??

NEED:

100g dark chocolate (or milk or white)

65g brewed Crio Bru liquid

65g coconut oil

1 tsp Heilala vanilla bean paste

Pinch sea salt (optional…but I do love the little salty sweet yin yang)

DO:

Place all ingredients into Thermomix bowl and cook 2 min/50º/speed 2. Place into sterilised jar and do not refrigerate. It will stay liquid in the pantry. If you need to make it more liquid before pouring over ice cream, just place into Microwave for a few seconds and stir briefly to re mix.

Use over ice cream…and watch the magic happen!

Raw Lime Tartlets

I put a little note up on Facebook…not that I am short on ideas, but I did ask what you (the 52,000 + readers of this blog!!) would like me to convert or make in Thermomix. The answers came thick and fast and one of them was this; a Raw Key Lime pie…now this is not quite a Key Lime pie…more of a tart tart and using just plain old limes…Key Limes are a variety with a more tart or acidic flavour. Certainly raw though…made in moments, so easy and so delicious. Happily, also fitting the parameters of my new year mantra, Empty the Pantry (before shopping for more!) I had all the ingredients except the limes. So here you go Chandler…enjoy!

NEED:

Crust;

130g macadamia nuts

70g cashews

Generous pinch sea salt

20g maple syrup

25g coconut oil

Filling;

Finely grated zest 3 limes

60g lime juice, fresh (approx 3 limes)

140g ripe avocado flesh

70g maple syrup

10g coconut oil

Pinch sea salt

DO:

Place all crust ingedients into Thermomix bowl and blend 10 sec/speed 6. Press into 5 tartlet tins or one large. Place into freezer.

To make filling place all ingredients into Thermomix bowl and blend 5 sec/speed 5. Scrape down and blend 10 sec/speed 4. Check the mixture is smooth and lump free.

Reblend if necessary.

Fill tartlet shells and return to freezer for at least an hour. Garnish with coconut flakes or additional lime zest. Serve straight from the freezer. A great dollop of whipped coconut cream is awesome on these.

Crio Bru Blox and Smoothie

Its finally hot! It seems that summer has been just around the corner for months, and even though Perth sustained a whopper of a storm last night, (Armageddon thunder and lightening stuff!!) we knew it was definitely summer this morning when our local lake was dive bombed by water carrying helicopters, plundering its water for fire and rescue drops on local fires not too far from here. And it did shape up to be a hot and humid one today! In an effort to cool off as fast as possible and knowing how impatient my own children are, I thought this may work for you all…Certainly did the trick at ours!

NEED:

100g CrioBru granules of choice

1 L water

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp Heilala vanilla bean paste

150g maple syrup

Pinch sea salt (optional)

Ice and milk of choice to serve

DO:

Place all ingredients except ice and milk into Thermomix bowl and brew 10 min/90ºC/speed 2. Cool slightly.

Strain liquid through fine sieve (or use Coffee Plunger) and pour liquid into mini muffin trays. Top with 1/2 tsp of brewed grounds per muffin cup.

Freeze.

To serve place 1-2 frozen blox into Thermomix bowl with additional ice if required and mill 8 sec/speed 10. Scrape down sides of bowl and add milk (200g milk to 1-2 blox) Blend 10 sec/speed 10. Serve immediately.

Adding ice will thicken the consistency but dilute the taste.

To tizzy up your glasses, dip rims into melted white chocolate, then dip into a flat tray of dry Crio Bru grounds.

Ice Cream Cheese Christmas Pudding

Well it is summer down under folks…so that is what we do here! Similar in everyway to a traditional Christmas pudding, this is just frozen and gluten free! (And with the benefit of Crio Bru, I think we can safely call it a health food!) A little planning is required due to the soaking of the fruit…and I am not talking about myself when referring to either the soaking or the fruit…let us be clear. I have been as frantic as the rest of the world with things to attend, shopping for all and sundry, plates of goodies to provide, and sometimes up to 3 functions on a single day, but this was seriously so easy that you can whip this up and be serving it on the 25th without any dramas at all!

NEED:

60g each dried cherries, craisins, raisins

60g each glace cherries, figs, apricots

A few pieces glace citrus

Zest each 1 lemon, orange, finely grated

80g brandy or rum

60g left over brewed Crio Bru grounds (the soft sludgey stuff)

60g chopped chocolate

50g sugar

1 cinnamon stick

1 whole nutmeg

1/2 tonka bean (optional)

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp ground ginger

250g cream cheese

Juice each 1 lemon, orange,

200g cream

300g milk

DO:

Place all fruits, zests and brandy or rum (or both!!) into an insulated bowl and stir to cover. Allow to soak for around 2-3 days, stirring occasionally.

Add Crio Bru grounds and chopped chocolate to fruit mixture and set aside until use.

Place sugar and all spices into Thermomix bowl and mill 10 sec/speed 10.

Add remaining ingredients except fruit/chocolate mixture and blend for 30 sec/speed 6. Scrape down sides of bowl and repeat.

Add fruit, chocolate mixture and incorporate 5 sec/Interval. Stir by hand to finish, ensuring that fruit is separated and well coated in the ice cream mix.

Line 1-2 pudding bowls (or deep bowls) with baking paper, pushing the paper against the walls of the bowls, so that the surface is flat. If you have big folds of paper, the mixture will get inbetween and you will lose some of it when unmoulding.

Pour mixture in and freeze for at least 24 hours. To serve, dip basin into bath of cold water, and up turn onto serving platter. Remove paper, garnish with holly, fruit, nuts, chocolate syrup, or whatever takes your fancy.

The options for this are highly adaptable; if you don’t like nutmeg, leave it out, if you don’t like glace cherries, leave them out, but replace them with same quantity of something else and so on…if you don’t like chocolate, I can’t help you…and if you don’t have Crio Bru, you need to get on to it immediately before Christmas is upon us!

Vanilla, Lemon, Coconut Sorbet

I know you are all used to making sorbet. There is a sorbet recipe for practically every fruit on the planet that has been invented and/or demonstrated at every Thermomix demo, Varoma demo or cooking class that you have ever attended in Australia at least! Officially sorbet is made with a syrup which is then added to other ingredients, frozen and churned. Of course the Thermomix method is a whole lot easier because of its amazing blending speed. But just for a moment, lets go back to tradition. Freeze this mixture in an ice cube tray, then blend as you need it. Almost as good as the instant thermomix version…and well, I am not afraid to admit it, I actually ate a lot of this without the usual brain freeze that I get from the Thermomix sorbet. Needless to say, it is all gone!

NEED:

Zest 1 lemon in long strips

300g sugar of choice (as unprocessed as possible)

300g water

2tbsp Heilala vanilla bean paste

2 x 400ml tin coconut milk

DO:

Place zest, sugar and water into Thermomix bowl and bring to a boil for 5 min/100ºC/Reverse + speed 1.

Cool slightly. Remove lemon peel.

Add vanilla and coconut milk and blend 10 sec/speed 4.

Pour into ice cube moulds and freeze until solid.

Remove frozen cubes and blend 1-2 min/speed 8 with the aid of the spatula.

Serve immediately or refreeze in loaf tin.

Can we have a little conversation about sugars? Like salts and oils, they really make a difference to flavour in the finished product. I personally love all the Billingtons range and am also hooked on La Perruche (worth a visit to their website just for the cruisy music they play!) pure cane cubes which is what I used for this recipe, thus the caramel hue to the finished result. There is an excellent article on Quirky Jo’s website discussing all of this and I would love you to go and read it. It is totally the best source for you to understand all the differences between sugars and the processes by which they are manafactured.

Christmas Stollen

I cannot believe it; I have blinked and Christmas 2011 is here! Phew, what a year…can I just recap?

• Turned 50, but don’t tell anyone! I went to Phuket with the whole family (and that in itself is a story!)
• Went to Dubai and worked with George Calombaris, as my alter ego Candy Liscious the failed beauty queen.
• Thermomix in Australia launched the Asian cookbook, which I had been working on for a long time.
• Went to Melbourne and spent a couple of days with the amazing Dani Valent on the In the Mix shoot.
• Then went to Germany and Switzerland as part of the International Jury for a beautiful new Vorwerk Cookbook, out soon.
• Completed the recipes and photo shoot for the Thermomix in Australia 2012 Calendar available now.
• My number four child went to the States to study.
• I LEFT THERMOMIX in Australia! (Phew, thats a biggie, so deserved capitals!) July 4th, need I remind you, Independance Day, was my last day at head office and if you thought I was busy thus far, can I just mention…things then went into overdrive.
• Had a 3 part skype interview with Super Helene from SuperKitchen Machine, arguably the most prolific and up to date blogger on all things Thermomix. (Which interview served to press the fast forward button on a number of things! Seriously, if you want the thermomix world to know about something, just mention it to Helene, she probably knows it already, but she can spread the word faster than anyone.)
• Created a Dinner Spinner, a small book consisting of 21 recipes that you can create yourself in a Thermomix, which in one week, sold 700 copies …and many more to go yet!
• I also got all jiggy and wrote, and styled a cookbook called For Food’s Sake which has 160 pages, full colour pictures for every recipe (80 of those) and is so gorgeous, that I can scarcely stand the excitement. It will be available on here really soon, as well as in good bookstores and also online at Hub and Spoke or at my cooking classes!
• Speaking of which; I started running my own advanced cooking classes using Thermomix. These have been held in Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle, Perth and Mandurah to sell out crowds of amazing lovely people. It has been my pleasure to meet some fantastic people who are truly as passionate about the Thermomix and making great food as I am.
• Started importing a chocolate product called Crio Bru to Australia which is the most amazing healthy yummy product around and if I can put it into food or recipes, I will…but perhaps you know that already? I totally love it, and so do thousands of other happy customers. We will be in retail outlets just as soon as I can take a minute to help my very valuable marketing guru business partner more than I am at the moment!
• I opened two online shopping carts…(HUGE! When I say ‘I’, I mean the royal ‘we’…) Thanks honey!
• Have plans in place for another exciting project to be launched hopefully before December 25th…but you never know! Stay tuned…
• Started working for Kleenmaid in Australia, and am truly impressed by their new range of products which are about to get installed into my kitchen Monday. We have already had some successful sales as a result of my running classes in their amazing Sydney showroom, so thank you for that, and for believing that I would not get involved with anything that was less than excellent!
• I have been approached on an almost weekly basis by other appliance companies and I am still considering some offers…when the travel options to Italy and Germany are secured, so will be the deals! (hahaha)
• I have happily welcomed Heilala vanilla, Margaret River Chocolate Factory, Fini Olive Oil, Lighthouse Flour, and fantastic branding from Braincells to the Cooking with Tenina team.
• The other team Tenina members that I have to mention are Hub and Spoke publishing and Scott Print. I just love getting the phone calls from Hub and Spoke and mentioning casually in conversation, ‘just talking to my publisher’ or ‘please hold for a second, my publisher is calling’…you get the idea…still makes me smile/downright grin!
• And last but not least, the guy that got all this web stuff started for me, made me join Twitter when it was still something that only birds did, and now screens my calls because there is always something new I need him to add, remove, fix from any and all of my sites, the very patient, Luke Holder, nephew, son, dad, inspirational Tech guru!

Sorry to put you through all that, but hey, what a year no?

I am looking forward to a great 2012 but before we can get there, we have the little matter of Christmas to attend to…so to the job at hand.

I would like to introduce you to some of the better Christmas recipes I have on here…there are now quite a lot, but here are my picks! (Well for this year anyhoo!)

ONE:

Pistachio Marzipan Christmas Trees

A little sneaky one from this year. Pistachio Marzipan, which I have to say has 100’s of applications and may just start showing up in all sorts of recipes from here on in…If you do not like marzipan, do yourself a favour and give this a go…it is not like any marzipan you have ever tasted.

TWO:

Toblerone Dip

Toblerone Dip…The fruit at Christmas in Australia is fantastic, so joosh it up a bit with this one. Simple enough to whip up in no time, and impressive enough to make your guests come back for more.

THREE:

How about a little tradition? I make this every year and this year I have made it and tweaked it, so essentially, this is a new recipe! Aren’t you lucky? Stollen is buttery, almond and fruit laden with just a hint of in this case, pistachio marzipan…there I go again with that marzipan…its the new Umami…for Christmas this year. All the good recipe blogs are wearing it!

FOUR:

Sugar Roasted Plum Salad

Well its all about sugar plums…so this had to make the cut. For me the lead up to Christmas is about eating yummy light meals that will get me through in between the myriad of parties and eating festivities that dominate the calendar at this time of year, so Sugar Roasted Plum Salad is delish, light and a great mid week lunch or an accompaniment to something more substantial on the weekend.

FIVE: Make a date with these rolls and you won’t be disappointed in love!! I enjoy a little sweetness with savoury from time to time and for some reason at Christmas time, we do that a little more often. (Think glazed ham, cranberry sauce etc) So these Date rolls go extremely well with Christmas Dinner, or lunch, or just after with left over sliced ham, turkey or both.

SIX:  I make these every year, without a doubt. They make the cutest presents ever and of course I can but for a fleeting moment, imagine that I am in Italy…that far away place that I still have never been to…is there anyone out there willing to send me? I pledge to bring back more than just a big smile, recipes and knowledge to share. Siena Cake originates from, well, Siena and  is sticky, fruity, and far nicer than anything you can buy.

SEVEN:

White Chocolate Christmas

When it comes to gifting food, I am not short on ideas and I did a post last year about just this, so not strictly a recipe on its own, but a great post that just may get you thinking about how clever you could be with a little prod, some cellophane, curling ribbon and a Thermomix…Gourmet Gifts couldn’t be easier…go on, go see.

EIGHT: Whilst we’re on the whole giving gifts from the kitchen routine (and white chocolate as well), these Minty White Choc Truffles were an instant hit at our house and I must say, I have had a lot of great feedback about them as well. Easier than running to the shop and fighting the crowds…prettier and more personal.

White Chocolate Minty Truffles

NINE: You can’t go past a great cookie recipe at Christmas and this is a bit of a grown up version of a Choc Chip cookie. Developed way back in my original Kleenmaid days, these are even easier in the Thermomix.

TEN:  Time for a quick salad? Red and Green Salad will always look festive and is so easy, I can barely call it a recipe…it is more of a suggestion. Enjoy on a hot day pre Christmas, throw a steak (or a prawn) on the barbie and you’re away!

ELEVEN and TWELVE: I don’t think Christmas can be complete without a little gingerbread…am I right? So even though these just went up on here, you must agree, they deserve a mention in the twelve recipes of 2011…I am hoping at some point to contruct a gingerbread house out of this cookie recipe, but with the big day fast approaching, I am not confident it will be this year it shows up! The flavored sugar recipe is delish as a Christmas tweak to anything requiring a little sugar, so think whipped cream, coffee, Crio Bru, your partner….you get the idea.

So from me, to you; and from Cookingwithtenina on Facebook, I wish you all a Merry Christmas. May you all have the time to Celebrate and Bake, and to feel the spirit of the season and may you all look forward to a wonderful 2012. (Cue the Christmas carols here….)

 

Crio Bru Ice Cream with Crio Beans

I am no award winning Azzura…believe me, but the thought of a rich chocolatey gelato on a hot day does things to me that just aren’t normal when discussing ice cream…or gelato as the case may be. Of course I have also been known to wax lyrical about another product which I can claim to have some links to; Crio Bru. ‘Brew the Bru’ is the catch phrase in my family every morning and now as my thoughts turn to hotter weather, I am thinking I may need other methods to get my daily Crio fix. What a wonderful way to eat something that’s good for you! Use the best cream, the best organic eggs, organic raw sugar…and of course, fantastic, amazing, healthy, superfood Crio Bru.

You can almost convince yourself this is better than oat bran! (I did say almost!)

NEED:

350g  heavy whipping cream
250g whole milk
75g Cavalla Crio Bru granules
1/2 cinnamon stick
1 tsp Heilala Vanilla Bean paste
5 large egg yolks
140g sugar
70-80g Crio Beans

DO:

Place cream, milk, Crio granules and cinnamon stick into Thermomix bowl and warm 8 min/70°/speed 2. Allow to infuse in the bowl for 30 minutes. Strain.

Return liquid to bowl and add all remaining ingredients except Crio Beans.

Cook 8 min/80ºC/speed 4.

Pour into flat tray and freeze minmum4 hours.

Break up into pieces and return to Thermomix bowl. Whip for 1 min/speed 6.

Add Crio Beans if using and blend 2 sec/speed 7.

Refreeze for several hours until solid.

Serve in large waffle cones and cue the Italian Opera playing in the background! (Really!)

Crio Bru chocolate milk.

Unless you have been under a big rock, you will know by now that my new health food of choice is something called Crio Bru and so naturally my little brain keeps ticking over ideas with which to use this superfood.

Can we just take a moment? I am feeling so great from drinking Crio Bru that I have to become a little evangelical about it right now and let you know about the happy side effects of drinking chocolate! (I know, its tough, but someone has to do it!)

I have more energy than ever, I feel extremely healthy and have seemingly avoided several nasty bugs that have been doing the rounds, I am sleeping like a baby, I have a feel good mind set all the time, I have lost weight and overall feel fab-you-lahs dah-ling.

Now that we have that all out of the way;  back to our regularly scheduled programming. So ways to get your kids to get the health benefits of  this, as it does have the taste of very dark and bitter chocolate, which isn’t normally something kids would be dying to drink without adding untold sweetners…this recipe does have sugar, but by the time you have added milk, ice, whatever, of choice, you will find that it is fairly low in sugar. Less than in fruit juice in fact.

Here’s hoping the little darlings like it!

NEED:

150g Crio Bru of choice

500g water

1 tsp Heilala vanilla bean paste

150g sugar of choice

Pinch sea salt

DO:

Place Crio Bru granules and water into Thermomix bowl and cook 15 min/90ºC/speed 2.

Cool completely. Strain through fine mesh sieve, nut milk bag, or muslin. Reserve solids for lots of other uses such as rebrewing to drink, brownies, stirring through thickened cream, body scrub, herb garden mulch.

Return strained Bru to the Thermomix bowl and add remaining ingredients. Cook 5 min/100ºC/speed 2.

Serve with icy cold milk of choice, over ice cream, in any recipe that requires chocolate syrup, or as a Crio Bru Concentrate to which you simply add boiling water, steamed milk etc of choice to enjoy when in a hurry.

Salted Caramel Ice Cream

This is probably my fave ice cream recipe of all time…I don’t make it often, because it is not pretty to see me eat an entire tub of it in one sitting…seriously, I steer clear. It makes a beautiful textured ice cream, the flavour is amazing and I promise you, you cannot just have one spoonful of this and walk away. Thus, it remains a favorite, but it has been banished. Luckily I am so busy trying out other stuff, that we hardly notice its absence.

NEED:

250g raw sugar

50g 100% maple syrup

50g unsalted butter

2tsp Heilala vanilla bean paste

2tsp Celtic sea salt

100g whole milk

500g cream

4 eggs

150g dark chocolate chopped (optional)

 DO:

Place sugar into Thermomix bowl and mill for 15 sec/speed 9.

Add maple syrup, butter and vanilla and cook for 15 min/Varoma/speed 1.

Add salt, cream, milk and whisk together for 30 sec/speed 5.

Add eggs and beat for 20 sec/speed 4.

Cook a further 5 min/80ºC/speed 4.

Pour into cold metal tin and freeze.

After 3-4 hours when partially frozen, remix for 1 min/speed 5 to give a creamier consistency.

Fold through chocolate chunks after remixing for a few seconds/Reverse + speed 1.

Return to cold tin and freeze for up to 12 hours before serving.

It is helpful to place frozen ice cream in the fridge for about 2o minutes prior to serving.