STEAMOVENCOOKING with Tenina

Browned butter just sounds delish doesn’t it?
This tart was so yum, that it disappeared within minutes of arriving in the work kitchen…an all time record perhaps. Glad I nabbed a slice at home!
The berries could be fresh or frozen but need to be quite tart, (pardon the pun) to off set the buttery, sweet texture of pastry and filling combined.
Please don’t complain about calories on this one, just have a sliver and enjoy, AND with more cream if at all possible!

NEED:
Pastry:
95g unsalted butter cubed
75g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
250g plain flour
Filling:
120g caster sugar
2 eggs
70g unsalted butter
35g flour
2 tbsp vanilla extract
Enough frozen or fresh mixed berries to cover base (around 300g)
DO:
Preheat oven to 175ºC and butter a loose bottomed flan tin.
To make pastry, place butter into TM bowl and melt for 4 minutes at 60ºC on speed 2.
Add icing sugar, vanilla and flour and with dial set to closed lid position, mix on Interval speed for 20 seconds until it resembles wet crumbs.
Push into flan tin and bake for 15 minutes or until golden and puffed up. Cool.
Without cleaning bowl, insert Butterfly and place sugar and eggs into TM bowl then beat for 4 minutes at 37ºC on speed 3.
Meanwhile, brown your butter by heating it in a light coloured saucepan stirring occasionally until it turns a nutty brown colour. Do not over brown, err on the side of not brown enough. It will smell very fragrant and delicious, without any overtones of burnt!
Set aside.
Complete the filling mixture by adding flour and vanilla to TM bowl and mixing for a further 20 seconds until well blended. Remove Butterfly before adding browned butter through hole in lid for 30 seconds with the blade turning on speed 3-4.
Sprinkle cooked and cooled pastry base with berries, spread filling topping over, using spatula to even out if necessary and then bake for a further 20-25 minutes until puffed and golden.
Serve cold for best presentation.

I have been immersed in a Raw Food Project at work, and frankly this is my break out blog! Not Raw! Not healthy! Calorie Laden! All Bad, but tastes so good!
Enjoy…and don’t say I never give you anything!

NEED:

240g butter shortbread biscuits (I used Walkers as they are so delish and full of butter, which is why you don’t need butter added to the base…though you could if you want!)
210g cream
75g caster sugar
340g cream cheese
370g peanut butter
Topping:
160g cream
30g unsalted butter
150g chopped dark chocolate chopped (coverture 70%)

DO:

Pre heat oven to 180ºC.
Place shortbread into Thermomix bowl and mill for 10 seconds on speed 8.
Press into the base of 22cm springform tin and bake for 10 minutes. Cool.
Place cream and sugar into TM bowl and cook for 5 minutes at 50ºC on speed 2.
Add cream cheese and peanut butter and mix for 15 seconds on speed 7.
Pour onto biscuit base and smooth top with spatula. Set in the fridge until cold before making ganache topping.

To make topping, place cream into Thermomix bowl and heat for 3 minutes at 90ºC on speed 2.
Add butter and chocolate and mix for 2 minutes on speed soft.
Pour over pie filling and allow to set completely before serving in small slices!
(But serve whopping great big slices if you had a week anything like mine!)

I seriously need to go on a sugar free diet…but then this blog will get so boring! As it is I am about to embark on a raw foods project, which I actually think will be educational, hopefully tasty, and perhaps healthy, though if there is a way to make raw food fattening, I am pretty sure I’m the one to do it! Needless to say, my love affair with food will never end, so fear not, dear reader!! There’s more where this little delicacy came from! Enjoy!

NEED:
Base:
120g macadamia nuts roasted and salted
280g plain flour
170g soft brown sugar
150g butter
Topping:
120g butter
100g soft brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
200g milk chocolate chips
DO:
Preheat oven to 180ºC. Line a 20cm square pan with baking paper ensuring edges along one side come up over the top of the pan for easy removal.
Place macadamia nuts into TM bowl and coarsely chop by setting dial to closed lid position and pushing the Turbo button ONCE. Set aside.
Place remaining base ingredients into TM bowl and process for 7 seconds on speed 6 until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Press into lined tin. Spread the macadamia nuts over the top of base.
Make topping by placing butter, sugar and vanilla into TM bowl and cooking for 3 minutes at 60ºC on speed 1.
Cook a further 6 minutes at 100ºC on speed 3. Pour mixture over base and bake for 20 minutes until caramel is bubbling.
Remove from oven and sprinkle immediately with chocolate chips. When they have begun to melt, use a metal spatula to spread evenly over the top.
Leave to cool in tin and using very sharp knife, slice into squares when cold.

Now that could seem a little tasteless, if they weren’t so darn tasty! Full of linseed, a little Chia to chia you up, no soy, but plenty of phyto estrogens going on…and we all know how good they can taste! Crackers with no wheat as well, which as you all know is my new mantra, (well for this week!!)

I was craving bread-like, crunch-like, something to dip into dip-like…so, like… made these!

NEED:
2 cloves garlic
50g Parmesan cheese
1 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp each ground coriander, cumin and cayenne
120g polenta
120g linseed
200g rye flour
20g Chia seeds
2 tsp granulated yeast
1 tbsp sugar
50g EVOO
1 tbs sea salt
200g warm water

DO:
Preheat oven to 175oC.
Place garlic, Parmesan, and dry spices into Thermomix bowl and mill for 8 seconds on speed 9. Set aside.
Place all remaining ingredients into Thermomix bowl and mix for 7 seconds on speed 7.
With dial set to closed lid position, knead on Interval speed for 1-2 minutes until sticky dough is formed.
Tip dough out onto floured Silicone Mat and bring together by hand. Divide into four and working one piece at a time, roll as thinly as possible between 2 layers of baking paper.
Sprinkle with topping and roll into dough with paper.
Lay on baking tray and score with pizza cutter into whatever shapes you desire.
Bake for 10 minutes and then remove until all crackers are cooked. Break apart and mound onto one tray. Leave in 70o oven until fully crispy! (About 30 minutes)
Wrap in foil and keep in the fridge for total crispy-ness to remain…but I bet they will be gone the moment any dip gets near them!

The Love Affair I have with bread apparently should stop or at least slow down. According to an Ion Cleanse I had this last week anyway. Not sure I am completely convinced, but I have stopped eating all gluten for a week, and I must say, I have more energy, so that can’t be all bad. We”ll see if it helped when I go for another Ion Cleanse this week coming…(how’s that for sucked in??)

This recipe for ‘Pain Brioche’ I have developed over a couple of tries (tough, but someone had to do it!) and after half a brioche conversation with chef Martin James from Wai restaurant in Queenstown at his Master Class, this is the excellent result, if I say so myself. Brioche is traditionally tough to make and a real labour of love, but in the Thermomix, cold butter and all, an absolute snap….and on a side note, I have devoted an entire category to ‘Bread for Life’ (see right drop down column) because, as noted before somewhere on here, I have added substantial amounts of bread musings to this blog in recent times.

Golden Pain Brioche

NEED:
120g butter
2 large eggs
2 tsp yeast
2 tbsp sugar
130g milk
360g bakers flour
1 tsp salt
Egg wash for glazing

DO:
Weigh and cube butter, place on plate in freezer.
Place eggs, yeast, sugar and milk into Thermomix and blend for 5 seconds on speed 5. Warm for 3 minutes at 37ºC on speed 1.
Add flour and with dial set to closed lid position, knead for 4 minutes at Interval speed. Through hole in lid, add cubed butter a little at a time. The finished dough will be sticky and glossy, but quite malleable. Scrape out onto buttered Silicone Mat and with buttered hands, knead into a smooth ball. Do not be tempted to add flour.
Place into glass bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and place in fridge over night (or for at least 12 hours) to rise slowly.
Punch down and place into bread or brioche tin. Allow to rise in a 40ºC oven for as long as it takes to double. (It may take a couple of hours as the dough has to ‘wake up’ after being in the fridge.)
Brush with egg wash before baking for 15-20 minutes in 200ºC oven until sounding hollow when tapped on the bottom. Remove from tin and place back in the turned off oven after baking just to dry crust a little.

Serve immediately, and honestly, try not to eat the entire thing in one sitting, as it is excellent when grilled the next day and served with sliced peaches and mascarpone, drizzled with real maple syrup…sorry, must stop drooling and get to the gym.

Yes, always been thought of as nutty, but now to remove all doubt, these gorgeous little Parmesan, Macadamia shortbread’s, with fresh rosemary thrown in for good measure. SO EASY, it barely needs a recipe, just a Thermomix and a couple of minutes…yes really dah-links!

NEED:
65g aged Parmesan cheese cubed
few rosemary leaves
65g salted and roasted macadamias
45g butter
70g plain flour
freshly ground black pepper

DO:
Preheat oven to 200oC.
Place Parmesan with rosemary into Thermomix bowl and mill for 10 seconds on speed 10. Set aside.
Place macadamias into Thermomix bowl and mill for 7 seconds on speed 7-8.
Place remaining ingredients into bowl (including Parmesan mix) and blend together for around 7-8 seconds on speed 7.
Tip out onto floured board, knead together gently with hands, roll out and cut into rounds. Garnish with 1 rosemary leaf in the center of each biscuit.
Place on lined baking tray and cook for 8-10 minutes until golden around the edges. Allow to cool before serving with dips, olives, cheeses or fruit.

Like I said, a little nutty, sweet from the nuts, but pungent from the cheese, and like a good woman, the more aged the better on that front! Go ahead, go nuts yourself, but please enjoy.

Well my son thought I had gone completely vego on him and had served up a carrot tart. Not so crazy beings that we have recently had raw carrot cake, (stunning) amongst other strange and wonderful kitchen creations..all for a good cause, A Taste of Vegetarian, long since finished and almost erased from my memory as other projects take over!
There was some fantastic produce at my local markets on the weekend, and all inspired I came home with Persimmons, Quince and the most amazing orange skinned lemons…still, could only get to the Persimmons at the moment, so here is my offering;
Persimmon Puff Tart.

NEED:
1 batch of puff pastry from Everyday Thermomix cookbook. (I used frozen butter, and you could of course purchase puff pastry, but I must say the overall result of homemade was pretty outstanding, if not impressive!)
4 persimmons peeled and sliced thinly.
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tbsp Agave syrup
Juice 1 lemon

DO:
Make pastry and line a loose bottomed flan tin. Freeze until use.
Preheat oven to 180oC.
Mix filling ingredients in large bowl and allow to macerate for 30 minutes.
Arrange into lined flan dish. Cut lattice from pastry and lay on top of filling.
Sprinkle top of pastry with 1 tbsp granulated sugar.
Bake for 30-40 minutes until pastry is puffed and golden.
Serve warm with lashings of whipped cream.

We were all expecting a tart (and boom boom, we got one) flavor because it didn’t look unlike an apricot filling, but the gentle flavor of the persimmons was enhanced by the ginger and lemon and was quietly unassuming, like all of us really. Delicious!

Well don’t say I never listen to you! SO many people have asked me to do a Turkish bread recipe, and here it is and I have to say, tasting aside, it looks fantastic, smells perfect and no doubt will be demolished shortly by the office crew with some great local EVOO and balsamic vinegar. Hmmmnnn, it’s a good job I am ALWAYS hungry! Of course you can’t make this if you are in a hurry to eat…it is a time taker upper-er, but so worth it! Would I lie to you??

NEED:
Starter:
100g bakers flour
100g warm water
2 tsp yeast
Remaining dough:
2 tsp yeast
2 tsp sugar
130g milk
480g bakers flour
200g warm water
Additional flour as needed
A few Nigella seeds (or black sesame seeds)

DO:
Place starter ingredients into Thermomix bowl and mix for 20 seconds on speed 5. Place into glass or ceramic bowl, cover loosely and leave in warm place for 36 hours.
Place starter (which should be bubbly) into 40ºC oven and allow to improve for around an hour before using.
Place yeast, sugar and milk into Thermomix bowl and heat for 2 minutes at 37ºC on speed 1.
Add remaining ingredients and blend for 5 seconds on speed 5.
Knead for 2 minutes on Interval setting. The dough will be very sticky.
Turn out onto Bread Mat and roll dough around on mat until it forms a ball.
Wrap and allow to double (preferably in 40ºC oven).
Roll dough out on Bread Mat into large rectangle and push into shape by hand. Place on large baking tray, (on Bread Mat) mist with a water spray and sprinkle with Nigella seeds before returning to 40ºC oven and allowing to rise for another 10 minutes.
Turn oven up to 200ºC and cook for 15-20 minutes. Mist with water spray a few times throughout the cooking time.
This makes one large loaf or about 6 Turkish Bread rolls.
ENJOY!