New whizz-bang kitchen gadget

Some time ago my neighbour bought a new kitchen gadget. She told me it’s name, which I promptly forgot, and from time to time brought me tidbits of food she’d made with it, all the while raving about what it could do.

I wasn’t particularly interested until the day she brought me a tub of home-made butter, then I promptly sat up and took notice. This was butter as it used to be many moons ago. Light and fluffy and tasting like I’d forgotten butter used to taste.

So I went and had a look at this machine. It’s called a Thermomix.

While I was there she tossed off a batch of pastry and gave me some to take home and try. When I mentioned that I made my own bread, she whipped a bag of bread wheat out of the cupboard. “How much flour do you use?” 500 gm.  She weighed it out (the machine weighs, too) and flipped a switch. There was a crashing, grinding sound and 30 seconds later she tipped out a batch of wholemeal flour. I made 2 loaves, using 50/50 wholemeal and my usual flour and we declared it excellent.

I’ve always wanted to grind my own wheat and other grains for bread and had been investigating a Champion brand juicer/grinder, but the Thermomix does it all and more besides.

I was definitely interested so my neighbour organised a home demo (Thermomix can only be purchased this way). A friend of mine came and another neighbour. We were treated to a variety of foods, including a strawberry sorbet, hommus and a  pumpkin risotto.

I talked myself into it and have ordered one!

Although it is expensive I feel that I would use it for a huge variety of things. Just being able to grind grain would be great. I would make my own butter and ice cream for a start. Plus mayonnaise, pesto and pasta sauce. Fresh LSA (linseed, sunflower & almond) mix. Pure foods, without all the dubious additives found in supermarket foods.

I have a food processor, but the lid is broken, although it still works. I have only a hand mixer. I don’t have a grain grinder or a juicer. The Thermomix will do it all. I can Freecycle the food processor so won’t have to put it out in the rubbish.

Later:

I wrote this post a while ago and saved it as a draft. I’ve just fished it out of the drafts folder to complete, because my new whizz-bang Thermomix arrived last Saturday.

I am rapt. I made pumpkin soup. It chopped up the vegetables and cooked the soup in 20 minutes. I had it that night with the bread I’d baked that morning. It was great. Two extra meals went into the freezer.

I made beetroot salad. I can’t stop snacking on it.

Later this week I’m going to buy a bag of bread wheat, grind it and make some wholemeal rolls. Then I’ll try home-made butter & ice cream.

Don’t expect to see me on Master Chef, but hey!…you never know.