3, 2, 1.....Go!

OH YES. I am now the proud new owner of a Thermomix, and now that it has taken pride of place in my kitchen - and tonight for the first time, made my dinner - I am even more in love with it than ever. It looks pretty impressive in its spot I might add. Life is good.

I was ecstatic when the call came a couple of days ago to let me know it was ready for pick-up, from the lovely lady Andrea who signed me up to become a consultant. My mind was in overdrive wondering what to make first.

When I arrived to collect it from her place, she took me through the functions and gave me some very handy tips(like how you could dry the inside of the mixing bowl after it washed itself, simply by putting a clean tea-towel into it, popping the blades on "reverse" and setting them to run on a low speed, hallelujah! I can't believe it dries itself too). And it's got a completely retractable power cord. Heavens, how clever. Oh yeah, and a "butterfly" attachment that makes things like whipping egg whites and cream a dream - tomorrow I'm going to make my own butter with it. Home-made butter. At my house! I am going to very easily get used to this.

On the way home, I made a quick detour at the supermarket and as my laptop was with me, jumped onto Facebook and updated my status in the carpark. In the most lady-like fashion I could muster in that moment, the words "Out of my freakin' skull with excitement right now. I just picked up my Bimby! Off to videotape myself going crazy as I unpack the boxes. arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhh (purrs madly)" suddenly filled the box at the top of my page.

As soon as I was back in my front door, I couldn't wait to unpack them, and as soon as my Bimby was out of its box, I dove straight in with nary a look at the cookbook that came with it. I needed to make my dinner, and I was pretty hungry so first up - dessert! Did I mention that I have a sweet tooth that would melt the scales of most other people? Thankfully I still have all my teeth. I settled on...a raspberry and lychee sorbet, inspired by a strawberry and lychee palate cleanser I had recently as part of a degustation menu at Left Bank, James Tan's great new place on Southbank Boulevard.

Into the mixing bowl, I threw in some ice, some frozen raspberries and lychees, an egg white and some agave nectar. Set the blades to high and less than a minute I was piling blushing, fluffy pink mounds of the stuff into glass parfait glasses. It was a hit. Perfect, instant euphoria in a glass. If only life was always this easy. Raw, vegetarian, gluten-free, fat-free and cane sugar-free happiness. Not bad for my first go.

Raspberry & Lychee Sorbet

200g ice cubes

120g frozen raspberries

120g frozen lychees, peeled

  80g agave nectar, in frozen cubes

    1   egg white

Add half the ice and all the other ingredients to the Thermomix bowl.

Turn speed up to 9 slowly, process for 10 seconds. Add the rest of the ice, blend for a few more seconds then use the tamper through the hole in the lid to move the mixture around and continue blending for another 10-15 seconds til it's light and fluffy. Serve in pretty parfait glasses and eat immediately.

Following that was a shitake mushroom and chicken risotto, and yes, it really did cook in 16 minutes, after first sauteeing the onion and rice for a couple of minutes. And instead of standing at the stove as I normally have to, I gleefully sat down on a comfy chair and checked to see who'd responded to my status on Facebook, because the first time ever, I didn't need to stir and add more stock to the rice every couple of minutes. I got some encouraging replies too. "I don't know what it is but I want one!", "So do I! Sounds too good!" and, "Everyone should have one, have fun picking 1st recipe".

When the timer went off to let me know the risotto was done, I gave some to Mum to try(she was hovering around as all of this was happening). "I'll just have a little", she said, but as soon as she had her first spoonful, she kept saying things like, "What have you put in here to make it so tasty?" and, "How long did this take?", and got me to reel off the list of ingredients. They were very simple - olive oil, onion, arborio rice, white wine, shitake mushrooms, cubed chicken breast pieces, chicken stock, salt and pepper, and a bit of grated parmesan(grated in the Bimby of course, before cooking the risotto), and flat-leaf parsley for some colour and movement. That's it! But it was absolutely wonderful, perfectly cooked and al dente, while being creamy and ever-so-slightly oozy. For that dish, I did refer to the cookbook for blade speeds and temperature guides, but it was just so darn easy, and I decided what flavours to put in. Then Mum asked for seconds.

I did manage to film myself in the heat of the moment when I first unpacked everything, and I'll try to get that video up as soon as possible. I'll put the risotto recipe up too when I can add the video, so please stand by. In the meantime, here's a rather blurry picture I managed to pose for in amongst it all that, that Mum took of me and my Bimby.

I love numbers and yesterday was a "1" day, if you are into numerology. I worked this out while driving home with the Bimby from Andrea's.

1+ 3 + 3 + 2 + 0 + 1 + 0 = 10 = "1", and I thought, "How perfect!"

More kitchen adventures comin' atcha soon.