Thermomix

September 3, 2012 Fish

Halibut, with Salsa Verde and a Citrus Dressing…

I have finally found a decent fish supplier – hurrah! Despite the fact that I live less than three miles from a harbour, it’s almost impossible to buy fish locally. I think most of it seems to disappears straight out of the town. I was bemoaning this fact to Matthew at the michelin starred Montagu Arms, and he introduced me to their suppliers – Premier Fish… A quick look on their web site sent me into small ecstasies – there’s brill, turbot, halibut, lobster, prawns, clams, anything you can think of – fabulous. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to do something “big”, so, meet my chum, the 3kg halibut, dubbed Herbert by the 11 year old.

Halibut is a pretty high end fish – it’s delicate yet meaty, a stunning white colour, with an open texture. It can handle pretty robust flavours, and when I spotted a recipe by Tom Kitchin which included salsa verde a citrus dressing, and olives, I knew I had to make it. I’m a huge fan of Tom’s. He’s worked with and for Pierre Koffmann, and a number of other excellent chefs. As a punter, it’s always fabulous when you find a chef who’s palate matches your own personal preferences, and Tom inspires me utterly. Some flavours are understated, others are incredibly bold – but always the produce is allowed to shine through to show respect to the ingredients… That’s my kind of chef!

The joy of a restaurant recipe is that you tend to find the chef has broken the dish down into stages, many of which can be completed in advance. In this case the salsa verde, citrus dressing and vegetables can all be prepped earlier in the day. The fish itself requires no more than 6 minutes cooking in total, so it’s perfectly viable to do that bit of the dish at the last moment.

Now of course it isn’t necessary for you to buy a whole halibut, heaven forbid! I bought one because I really wanted to fillet it :0) Filleting a big fish is hilarious – it’s practically wrestling – but if you’re interested in having a go, there are several excellent videos on YouTube – just make sure you choose the right fish. Oh, and another fishy point, farmed halibut will have a mottled underbelly, where wild will have a white belly…

Ingredients
Salsa Verde
2 tablespoons chopped basil
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoon mint
3 tablespoons capers
4 anchovy fillets
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
150ml olive oil
4 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 lemon, zest and juice
(You might need a tiny bit of sugar to balance the acidity)

Citrus Dressing
4 lemons, segments and zest
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil

Vegetables
6-8 new potatoes (I used fir, didn’t have any new to hand)
vegetable oil
100g fresh samphire (didn’t have any)
12 olives, pitted and chopped (we both used black)
300g baby spinach
2 tablespoons chopped chivesFish
2 x 200g halibut fillets

To Serve
chervil and dill
micro leaves if you have them
diced croutons made with 2 slices of white bread

Method (in advance)

To prepare the salsa verde, blend everything together until smooth, then set aside in the fridge
For the dressing, toss everything together and set aside
Cut the bread into small dice, and fry in oilive oil until golden
Boil the potatoes until cooked, and cut into slicesWhen ready to serveFry the potato slices in vegetable oil until crisp and golden brown
Add the samphire, and chopped olives, then the baby spinach, shallots and chives
Pat the halibut fillets dry, and sason well with salt.
Heat two tablespoons of vegetable oil over a medium head, and add the fish.
Cook until they are golden on both sides, turning once.
This will take around three minutes per side. Allow the fish to rest for 3 or 4 minutes

To plate

Put a pool of salsa verde onto each plate
Top with the vegetable mix, then the halibut
Spoon the dressing over the halibut, and add some croutons
Garnish with the herbs (and micro-leaves, if you have them)

The salsa verde and citrus dressing don’t clash – there are so many other big flavours that they work together well. The last time I had something similar, it was actually a rabbit dish, cooked by an Observer food editor twenty years ago, and had the same earthy and bright notes… I know they sound completely different, but they strike the same note within my palate. Hubby and the 11yo had cleared their plates before I’d even finished photographing mine – and wanted to know when I could make it again! Another victory for the lovely Mr Kitchin.

You can find this recipe in Tom’s first book, and don’t forget his second is due out imminently! >

July 8, 2012 Heston Blumenthal

Heston Blumenthal’s Meat Fruit

I recently had dinner at Dinner, by Heston Blumenthal. For various reasons the Hubby and I weren’t actually going to order “Meat Fruit”, but the kitchen sent us one, and we were completely blown away by the texture of the parfait, and the contrasting acidity of the jelly. The dish is light, but rich, moreish, very slightly palate cleansing – and yes – I accept that those are complete contradictions. It’s the mandarin jelly – it really does release something in the palate that allows the very rich parfait to not become overly cloying.

When I wrote my restaurant review I searched for the recipe, intrigued about how it was made – everyone knows I’m a complete sucker for a culinary challenge :0)

Not only did I found the actual recipe given to the Guardian by Heston, but I also found a tiny bit of video clip which showed it being dipped, a video blog by a Thermomix blogger, and a variation by the Cumbrian Foodie on his blog. I suggest you look at them all. If you’re serious about making this at home, it’s worth making the parfait a week or so before you need it, and perhaps doubling the quantify to allow you time to play with the jelly dipping. All of the procedures up to the jelly are incredibly easy – do give it a go – it’s much easier than it might seem.

Key stages and timings:

Put the marinade ingredients together, leave for 24 hours
Make the chicken liver parfait, leave for 24 hours
Put the parfait into the moulds, and freeze until solid (6 hours maybe?)
Assemble the two halves of the parfait ‘sphere’, and refreeze (1 hour maybe?)
Dip the spheres into the mandarin jelly, then leave to defrost in the fridge for 6+ hours

There are some additional photos of the key stages at the end of this post

For the chicken liver parfait:
100g shallots, finely sliced
3g minced garlic
15g sprigs of thyme, tied with string
150g dry Madeira
150g ruby port
75g white port
50g brandy
18g table salt
400g chicken livers (trimmed weight)
240g eggs
300g unsalted butter, melted

Place the shallots, garlic and thyme in a saucepan with the Madeira, ruby port, white port and brandy. Set aside to marinate for 24 hours.
Heat the marinated mixture until nearly all the liquid has evaporated, stirring regularly to prevent the shallots and garlic from burning. Remove from the heat and discard the thyme.
Preheat the oven to 100C/gas mark ¼. Fill a bain-marie with 5cm water and place in the oven.
Preheat a water bath to 50C.
Sprinkle the table salt over the livers and put them in a sous-vide bag. Put the eggs and the alcohol reduction in a second sous-vide bag, and the butter in a third. Seal all the bags under full pressure, then place in the water bath for 20 minutes. Remove the bags from the water bath.
Combine the eggs, alcohol reduction and meat in a Thermomix and blend until smooth at 50C. Slowly blitz in the butter and blend until smooth. Pass the mix through a fine sieve using the back of a small ladle.
Pour into a terrine dish and place in a bain-marie and cover the bain-marie with aluminium foil. Cook the parfait until the temperature in the centre reaches 64C.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Refrigerate for 24 hours before serving.

For the mandarin jelly:

45g leaf gelatine
500g mandarin purée (I used half a pack of Boiron’s mandarin purée)
80g glucose
0.4g mandarin oil
1.5g paprika extract (the paprika is to colour the gel – instead I used a specialist cake decorating gel, in egg yolk yellow)

Place the gelatine in cold water to soften.
Gently heat the mandarin purée and glucose in a pan to combine.
Add the softened gelatine and stir well until dissolved.
Remove from the heat and add the mandarin oil and paprika extract and stir well.
Pass the mix through a fine sieve and reserve in the fridge until required.

To make the fruits:

Using a spoon, fill dome moulds with parfait, ensuring there is enough pressure to create a completely smooth surface. Level off the tops so that they are flat, and cover with cling-film. Gently press the clingfilm directly onto the surface of the parfait. Place in the freezer until completely frozen. (if you put half the moulds onto a flat tray, you can achieve a slightly inverted dip on top of the fruit – see my photograph below)
Gently de-mould the parfait domes. Place on a board with the flat sides facing upwards. Very briefly run the flame of a blow torch over the flat side, being careful only to just melt the surface of the parfait. Join two halves together and compress using a square of cling-film. Wrap well in cling-film and place back in the freezer until required.
Gently push a wooden cocktail stick into the middle of the rounded surface and re-wrap until all the parfaits are complete.
Gently melt the mandarin jelly in a saucepan and allow to cool to room temperature. Remove the cling-film and dip each ball of parfait into the jelly and stand the sticks, covered in cling-film, into a piece of Oasis (the green material you get in florist shops to help the flowers stand up). Place in the fridge for a minute, then repeat the dipping process.
Dip three times, then gently remove the cocktail stick and place the balls onto a tray covered in cling-film. Place a lid over the tray and leave in the fridge to defrost for at least six hours.
Once defrosted, gently push the top of the ball using your thumb to create the shape of a mandarin. Place a stalk and leaf in the top centre of the indent to complete the fruit.

Not this is the point where I show you a perfect meat fruit, the one I prepared earlier… But I don’t want to do that just yet :0) Instead here are the things I’ve learnt, which you might like to consider, with photo’s to illustrate the points. After all what’s the point of blogging if we don’t share our experiences?

So, example 1. If the parfait ball is too smooth to start off with, the resulting mandarin looks somehow quite fake. I took to roughing up the parfait slightly in the cling-film with my hands before dipping it. Also in this example, the jelly was definitely too warm – I thought it was room temperature, it wasn’t. At this point I decided to take one parfait and dip it every ten minutes. As a result this parfait sat on the side for over half an hour, and you can see that effectively defrosting it at room temperature causes the shape to slump. There’s still not quite enough colour in the gel to cover all the flaws (you can’t see it as well here, because I re-dipped it), but I had to boost the colour to a practically fluorescent orange colour – you’re not looking for natural – you really are looking for an unnatural intensity. You can see all of the above in the photograph.

“Too Smooth” Meat Fruit

In this next example the jelly was far too cool, and it set around the parfait instantly in a slightly monstrous and lumpy version of the skin! Amusing though – we thought this one was great fun. It may look as though you can get away with this, but bear in mind it will have a very thick jelly coating!

“Monster” Meat Fruit

In the next example we whisked the jelly until it was smooth again and a fraction warmer, and then repeated… This was among the better examples.

Meat Fruit

I didn’t make many, but I think you can see that it’s the dipping that requires the work – everything else was easy. I have seen other examples where people just went with the smooth jelly, and if this is your preference, stick to it all the way through to ensure consistency.

The one good thing is that you can keep the parfait balls in the freezer until your ready – I think in future I’ll make everything up to that point at least a week in advance (and make more than I need), and then just keep them in the freezer until they’re required. Pate can be stored for up to a month in the freezer, so you could keep a batch on the go, as long as you date them appropriately.

Does it taste like the real thing? Well, it’s chicken liver and doesn’t have the fois gras included in the restaurant version, but I think it’s a pretty accurate recipe.

As a quick aside, I do have a water bath, sous vide equipment and thermomix, so I followed the recipe on that basis – you can adapt the recipe easily if you don’t have them. Like everyone else, my silicone moulds were too large – you really would be better off trying smaller moulds, and next time I shall try these…

Update: I spoke to Ashley Palmer-Watts on twitter about the dipping process, and this was his advice:

@APWChef Not bad, just need to not rush at the end, let them re freeze between dips and keep the gel at a steady temp pic.twitter.com/aYfFe7cD

@Bebejax Ah, of course, hadn’t occurred to keep it constant! Don’t suppose you’d care to reveal the magic number?

@APWChef 28c but you must not over heat the gel much more than 50

@Bebejax Thanks! Will try it again and post pics! And yes, took the gel above 50, but was using gold

@APWChef bronze gelatine is the one we use

Now that you’re a Heston expert, don’t forget I have his lemon tart recipe on the blog, and for the more adventurous, I’ve just come across his snail porridge recipe! Yes. Good luck with that…

June 23, 2012 Iced Berry Souffle

Michel Roux Jr’s Iced Red Berry Soufflé

Continuing with my soufflé obsession, here we have an iced soufflé. Unlike a chilled soufflé which uses gelatine to stabilise the dish, a frozen soufflé can be much lighter because it’s obviously frozen. The obvious drawback in the average kitchen, I would suggest, is that you need enough free shelf space to sit the dishes for 12 hours.

On the plus side, you can make it in advance, and can actually use up those bags of frozen fruit we all seem to have in our freezer. Use the space you free up to set the soufflés! The perfect summer dinner party dish, if we ever get enough sun to truly call it summer…

…

May 13, 2012 Baking

Heston Blumenthal’s Lemon Tart [Thermomix]

Without doubt the best lemon tart I’ve had, light, just set and vibrant with citrus flavours.

I’ve actually made this recipe several times now, and have gradually refined the process so that now the 11yo actually makes it on her own! The first time I ignored all of the instructions about sticking it into the freezer, and I paid the price. Firstly the dough was far too soft to handle, and broke as I was transferring it to the case. Secondly it went golden far too quickly, and lastly it absolutely fell apart when I mis-handled the tin. Make sure you follow the instructions exactly, use an oven thermometer, your digital thermometer, and if you have one, your laser thermometer too!

Ingredients:

For the pastry:
300g plain flour
150g unsalted butter
½ tsp salt
120g icing sugar
3 large egg yolks
Seeds from ½ vanilla pod
Finely grated zest of ½ lemon
1 egg for the egg wash

Method:

Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix the flour, butter and salt on low speed until it becomes a sand like texture (approximately 2-3 minutes). [Actually, I did this by hand]
In the meantime, in a tall container blitz together the icing sugar and egg yolks with a hand blender.
Add the vanilla seeds and lemon zest to the egg yolk mixture and then add to the bowl in the mixer and continue to mix on low speed until fully combined and a very soft dough has formed (approximately 3-5 minutes).
Mould the dough into a flat rectangle and wrap it in clingfilm before placing in the fridge for at least 1 hour. [Did mine overnight, was pretty firm when I rolled it out]
Roll the pastry between two sheets of baking paper to a thickness of 2mm, using two stacked 2 pence coins as guides, then place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Pre-heat the oven to 190ºC/gas mark 5. Line a 26cm tart tin (2.5cm deep) with the pastry making sure to press it into the edges and leaving the pastry hanging over the edge.
Take a sheet of baking paper and scrunch it up several times to eliminate any sharp edges. Prick the dough with a fork all over the surface. Place the baking paper on top and add enough coins (or baking beans) to fill the casing ¼ of the way up. Place in the preheated oven to bake for approximately 20 minutes or until fully cooked. [Be careful with the coins – once nearly put a watch battery in the oven which someone had dumped in the coin pot – check them!]
In the meantime, mix some of the leftover dough with an egg using a hand blender.
After 20 minutes, remove the baking paper and coins and, using a pastry brush, brush the entire surface of the tart with the dough and egg mixture. This ‘liquid pastry’ will ensure that any holes will be sealed. Return the tart to the oven for an additional 10 minutes.
Remove the tart from the oven and allow to cool completely.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 120ºC/gas mark ½. Place the baked pastry case in the oven to warm up.

[If you’re in a massive hurry, you can use this pastry, it comes in a pre-cut disc and is the best commercial pastry I’ve found to date. This is what the 11yo uses when we’re in a hurry, and it’s pre-rolled to a very suitable thickness]

For the filling:

Finely grated zest and juice of 5 lemons

300ml double cream

390g white caster sugar

9 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

Method:

Put all the filling ingredients into the thermomix and cook for 10 minutes, speed five, at 60ºC – keep a close eye on the temperature, you want to stop it at 60º – do not rely on the thermomix, check it with a digital thermometer! At this point, strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a jug. With a spoon, remove the bubbles from the surface of the liquid.
Slide the oven rack out a bit, then pour the mixture into the warm pastry case inside the oven. Fill the case to the top, slide the rack carefully back in, and bake the tart for approximately 25 minutes or until the temperature of the filling reaches 70ºC. Allow to cool completely at room temperature. [Now. You’re supposed to check the temperature with a thermometer – DO NOT TEST THE TEMPERATURE AT THE EDGE OF THE TART! It’s cooked further than the rest of it, and will mark your custard! I’ve now made this tart several times and I actually now test it with a laser thermometer, basing the reading on the centre of the tart – you can also use the ‘wobble test’ – there should still be a noticeable wobble in the centre.]
Just before serving, trim the overhanging pastry by running a sharp knife round the top of the tart tin and discard.

Notes:

The tart had the perfect amount of wobble, and stood upright, but it was still a little too loose for me, in terms of mouth feel. Unless you’re going to practice it before you make it for something big, do take it a little beyond 70ºC if you want to make sure it’s more firmly set. Also, Heston says to trim the pastry just before you serve? No, think that’s a bad idea… Firstly, I ended up with little crumbs on my tart, not matter how I held it, because the pastry is so brittle. Secondly, I managed to break a chunk off mine at the last minute, which then meant that I was unwilling to really trim it up to the fluted edge for fear of a repeat… Also, the pastry was still too thick… I rolled it much thinner after that.

Make sure your sheet will cover your tin entirely

Rolled to the thickness of two 2p pieces… Eventually…

Remember to test your tart in the centre, not at the edge!

Tart, with nibbled edge and that blooming crack!…

This recipe is in Heston Blumenthal at home cookbook. You can find it here >

May 12, 2012 Butter

Flavoured Butter [Thermomix]

Of course we all know how to make flavoured butter, but in the Thermomix it’s even more insanely easy! Today I made on flavoured with 1 lime, 1 lemon, and 1 blood orange, then chopped some herbs into it. Used it to pop under the breast skin of my roast chicken – yum yum.

Look, this is my chicken before it even went in the oven – but it’s also a cornfed chicken, so the skin is already golden :0) Of course forgot to photo it when it came out… But you get the idea. And yes, I loosen out all of the joints to ensure even cooking, which means I cut off the end of the wing so it doesn’t stick into the breast.

Then I popped all the herbs I hadn’t used this weekend into the Thermomix, put in 1kg of butter, cooked / chopped it at 57ºC for 10 minutes. Perfect herb butter.

Come on, who wouldn’t want that on their fish? Or a quick version of Omelette aux Fines Herbes?

May 6, 2012 Coconut

Tribute Dish – the Roux Pre-Dessert – panna cotta, jelly and granita… [Thermomix]

At Roux Parliament Square, the pre-dessert is a panna cotta, topped with a jelly, and then a refreshing granita. On the day I went we had a coconut/passion fruit/lime, but I notice from trawling reviews that they also do apple/apple/cucumber (yum!), pineapple/coconut/kaffir lime, strawberry/strawberry/meringue. So it’s a very successful formula, onto which you can put your own twist. If you’re going to do this regularly, you’ll need some better glasses than mine, I’m on the lookout for something far prettier, a little like this…

I love dishes like this, you immediately wonder what flavour combinations you’d be able to get away with – is whackier better? Could you go liquorice/pernod/blackberries like some ’80’s throwback drink? How about plum/Prucia liqueur/plum… [I recently discovered Pruci at Gerry’s in Soho, the most amazing stuff! It’s made from the Japanese Ume plum, macerated in grape spirit and aged in French oak barrels – one of the most addictive things I’ve tried in ages!] How about bergamot/apple/elderflower? Earl Grey/Bergamot/Lime? Matcha/coconut/matcha?

The Roux Panna Cotta

Actually, because I’ve been cooking all weekend, I thought I might try Fruit Tea/Pimms/Cosmopolitan Mixer and massively cheat. That may be a bad idea, but the grand thing about a thermomix is that it will only take 20 mins or so of prep to try the whole thing out – so why not?

Fruit Tea Panna Cotta (adapted from the Daily Mail).

3 gelatine leaves
200ml semi-skimmed milk
300ml double cream
50g caster sugar
2 fruit tea bags

A quick adaptation of the standard Thermomix panna cotta recipe gives us a combined technique of…

Soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, put the milk, cream and caster sugar into the thermomix and cook for 6 minutes / 80ºC / Speed 3
Drain the gelatine and squeeze to remove the excess water. Add to the thermomix and stir for 3 minutes / speed 3 to dissolve the gelatine.
Tip into a bowl, then add the tea bags and leave to infuse for 20 minutes.
Remove the tea bags, pour the mixture into your glasses and leave to chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours or until set – there should be a slight wobble in the centre.

Tips: Now, getting this panna cotta neatly into the glass is going to drive you insane! Make sure you know where your funnel is, and that it fits your glass, before you begin! I ended up using a sauce bottle, you know the kind, for putting little dots around the plate – still ended up with the odd splash…

Pimms Jelly (adapted from the Daily Mail)

50g caster sugar

50ml water
Squeeze of lemon juice
2 gelatine leaves
100ml Pimm’s
100ml lemonade

Not going to do this in the thermomix.

Put the sugar, water and lemon juice into a saucepan and heat gently until dissolved. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Place the gelatine in a shallow bowl, cover with water and soak for 4 minutes. Squeeze out the excess water, then add the gelatine to the pan to dissolve.
Cool, then add the Pimm’s and lemonade. Cool at room temperature.

Before you put the jelly onto the panna cotta, make sure it is completely set! From past experience I’ve found it best to put a tiny layer of jelly on first, allow this one to set, then add the rest of your jelly layer – this gives you a clear jelly. I know this picture has a frosted glass, it’s just come out of the fridge. But look at the jelly layer – you can just make out the first, slightly milky layer, and then the clearer jelly on top. Do take the time to do this step properly if you’re doing it for guests – but hey – my kids didn’t even look at it!

Cosmopolitan Mixer Granita:

100ml Funkin passionfruit syrup

2 pouches of Funkin Cosmopolitan Mixer

Juice of 1/2 lime

Ice cubes to blend into a granita

I’m going to cheat, because I can :0) Put the juicy bits into the thermomix and add enough ice cubes to blend into a granita. Make sure you really get a fine grain, as the flavour is much stronger in a finer grain than a really gravelly granita (if you’re using a thermomix that is – will not apply to a normal granita if you make it in the traditional way, as your flavour is your ice!). As usual, mine is far too ungainly, but the flavour is there. I’m going to find a more appropriate glass, and cut back on the quantity and roughness of the granita. Having said that, the panna cotta is flipping perfect! Absolutely the right amount of wobble, smooth, creamy, so I’ll use those ratios again! Think I’d be more inclined too to make a proper granita, the thermomix one is great if your in a hurry, but the texture is difficult to gauge like that.

May 5, 2012 Pierre Koffman

Pierre Koffman’s Pistachio Souffle [Thermomix]

Pistachio soufflé with hibiscus flower ice-cream

We all know I love a soufflé, but now I have a thermomix I’m going through my recipes seeing how I can adapt them accordingly. This Pierre Koffman soufflé was an absolute doodle in the thermo, the creme patisserie is now so simple to do, that soufflés are now a very real option for every day eating (though perhaps not to be recommended!). It also means that it’s a very simple and viable option for a dinner party – the creme patisserie has to be made in advance anyway, but whilst your thermo gets on with that, you can be prepping the rest of your meal! Watch this space, soufflés are going to be flooding out of my kitchen…

Ingredients

Creme Pattiserie:

½ vanilla pod

100g caster sugar

500ml milk

120g egg yolks

50g corn flour

40g pistachio paste

For lining the dish:

25g butter, softened

25g caster sugar

For the Meringue:

4 egg whites (let’s say 140g)

1 tbsp caster sugar
Icing sugar to serve.

Preparation:

Grind together the vanilla pod and caster sugar until smooth. Mix in the remaining creme patisserie ingredients and cook for 7 minutes at 90ºC, speed 4 until smooth. Put in a bowl to cool and cover with cling film and cool rapidly.

Generously butter 4 individual soufflé dishes. Put the grated chocolate inside and rotate the moulds so that the chocolate completely covers the inside, sticking to the softened butter.

In the thermomix, beat the egg whites until firm, add the tablespoon of caster sugar and whisk until stiff. Add a small quantity of the whites to the pistachio mix to soften it, then fold in the rest of the egg whites and pour into the soufflé dishes.

Bake in a hot oven 240°C/ 475°F/ gas mark 9 for 15 minutes or until well risen. (If you’re making large individual ones, 15 minutes will leave them baveuse, which is my preference anyway – if you want them slightly further along than that, you’ll need to watch the oven like a hawk.)

To serve, dust the top with icing sugar and serve with ice cream of your choice.

Serves 4

Additional notes…

I know Pierre recommends the chocolate flake lined moulds in the original recipe, but I always find they go a strange colour. This time have melted some of the pistachio paste into the butter before double lining the moulds. I realise these seem very heavily lined, but having recently seen Alan Murchison line his moulds for an apple and cinnamon soufflé, I’m now trying out this heavier method. It seems to work well, and perhaps offers more ‘structure’ to the soufflé?

And yes Bruno, I know that creme patt doesn’t look smooth, but I was just forking it out :0)

I use the Sevarome purees, fantastic things, though jolly expensive. There are lots of recipes to make your own on-line, and now I have a thermomix, I may just do that :0)

May 5, 2012 Hibiscus Flower

Hibiscus Flower Ice-Cream [Thermomix]

Having made the lavender ice-cream so easily, I thought I should see what else I could do with my thermomix! This time hibiscus flower ice-cream.

Ingredients

1 jar of wild hibiscus flowers in syrup (140g?)

280ml whole milk

290ml double cream

5 large organic egg yolks

100g caster sugar

1 Tbsp hibiscus flower tea liquer

Having adjusted down the liquid ingredients a little to accommodate the hibiscus flower quantities, I pulsed the hibiscus flowers down to a puree before adding all of the other ingredients. Then I cooked it at 80ºC for 10 minutes, speed 5, checking it after 8 minutes to see if it had reached 80ºC. Leave it to cool, then pop into your ice-cream maker until it reaches the desired consistency. The ice-cream will have a strange grey-pink colour, so I boosted mine with a tiny bit of red colour paste, but it tastes yummy all the same. Thought I might serve it with a pistachio soufflé…

Wild hibiscus flower ice-cream

December 16, 2011 Chocolate

Michel Roux’s Chocolate Soufflé [also for Thermomix]

Chocolate souffle – the ultimate hit of chocolate, but without the guilty stodge… You can almost convince yourself that this doesn’t count… This is the joy of soufflés, they satisfy without making you feel as though you’ve eaten a whole tart… Would be delicious served with pistachio ice-cream…

Ingredients
40g softened butter, to grease dishes
40g caster sugar, to coat dishes
50g cocoa powder, sifted
240g plain chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped into small pieces
10 medium egg whites (this is the equivalent of 330g of egg white)
40g caster sugar

For the pastry cream:
350ml milk
80g caster sugar
4 medium egg yolks
30g plain flour

To finish:
icing sugar, to dust

Method:

Butter four individual 10cm soufflé dishes and coat the insides with the sugar.
To make the pastry cream, put the milk and two-thirds of the sugar in a small pan, and bring slowly to the boil. Whisk the egg yolks and remaining sugar in a bowl to a ribbon consistency, then incorporate the flour. Pour the hot milk on to the yolks, stirring continuously with a whisk. Return to the pan and whisk over a low heat for 1 minute, then pour into a bowl, cover with cling-film, and cool slightly.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6 and put a baking sheet inside to heat. Measure 280g of the pastry cream and delicately mix in the cocoa power and the chopped chocolate using a whisk. (Keep the rest of the pastry cream for another use.)
Beat the egg whites to a thick foam, then add the 40g sugar and continue to beat until the form soft peaks. Fold one-third into the pastry cream using a whisk, then delicately fold in the rest with a large spoon; the mixture will be fairly loose.
Divide the mixture between the soufflé dishes, to come level with the rim. Stand on the hot baking sheet and cook for 10 minutes. Serve the soufflés as soon as they come out of the oven on warm plates, dusting with a little icing sugar.

Thermomix Version:

Butter four individual 10cm soufflé dishes and coat the insides with the sugar.
Chop your chocolate in the Thermo bowl and set aside.
Put all the pastry cream ingredients into the bowl and cook for 7 minutes at 90C, speed 4. Give it a quick whizz at the end to ensure it’s smooth, then pour into a bowl and cover with cling film until it’s cool. This stops a skin from forming. You can also leave the Thermo on stir mode, until you’re ready to use it.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6 and put a baking sheet inside to heat. Measure 280g of the pastry cream and delicately mix in the cocoa power and the chopped chocolate using a whisk. (Keep the rest of the pastry cream for another use.)
Put the egg whites into a clean Thermomix bowl, and beat the egg whites to a thick foam on Speed 4 / 6 minutes before adding the sugar. Whisk for a further 3 minutes until the sugar is fully dissolved. Fold one-third into the pastry cream using a whisk, then delicately fold in the rest with a large spoon; the mixture will be fairly loose.
Divide the mixture between the soufflé dishes, to come level with the rim. Stand on the hot baking sheet and cook for 10 minutes. (I think this should be closer to 13 minutes, but that might be the size of my soufflé dishes!)
Serve the soufflés as soon as they come out of the oven on warm plates, dusting with a little icing sugar.

Soufflé Tips:

One of the key factors in achieving a perfect soufflé is to ensure that all of the ingredients are at the same temperature. If you’ve chilled the creme patisserie, bring it back to room temperature before you make the soufflés
I now double line my soufflé dishes – let’s face it – it takes no more time and gives a more consistent result. You could use caster sugar on the first layer, and grated chocolate on the second, if you’re prefer. I’ve found the sugar layer is best as the first layer as the granules allow the soufflé to elevate evenly. Chill the dishes in-between lining them
When filling your dishes, fill roughly half way first, and rap the dishes down onto a board to ensure that the mixture is evenly distributed over the base of the dish – this ensures an even rise… Air pockets can throw the soufflé off track and make it shoot out in strange directions
Always, always, smooth the top of your soufflé with a palette knife to ensure a flat surface. Then take your thumb and run it around the inside edge of the soufflé dish – this frees the mixture and allows it to soar!