Timmy (the Thermomix TM5) arrived on Sunday morning amidst a flurry of activity! The early hour meant a quick trip to Woolies before the demo, and we had had a 'cleaning emergency' prior to our most lovely consultant arriving!
I was rather excited to say the least!
Unboxing revealed a much bigger machine then I had expected. I feel rather blessed that I have a largish kitchen with a lovely big breakfast bar which is now Timmy's permanent home.
The touch screen is also larger then I had thought making it the perfect size for kiddie fingers to help out, and also big man fingers for husbands to take control of the cooking! This is fabulous given my husband is the cook in the family!
First lesson was that we need to switch the machine off properly before turning it off at the wall!
On to the Vegetable Stock using guided cooking. Easy peasy! Throw stuff in, weighing as you go. You don't have to follow the recipe exactly - you can skip ingredients and add extra - but watch the basics as the salt ratio is important for how long it will last!
We made a mango sorbet (Fruity Dream) which was so wonderful I would have bought a Thermomix on the spot if I didn't already have one! Leftovers are in the freezer to re-whip for dessert on another night.
I should add at this point that you should be starving when the demo begins - seriously! I luckily hadn't had breakfast yet and I am so glad as I was stuffed by the end! So stuffed it was at least 4hrs before I had a play with Timmy by myself for dinner!
We made a mushroom risotto. Not my favourite idea but it was delicious! I'm not a 'fancy' cook so no wine was added but the flavours thanks to the veggie stock were amazing! We put away three serves for my husbands lunches during the week!
My husband took control for the custard using automated cooking. These are the recipes where you put everything in at the start and the program changes temperature and speed on its own. So my husband set it up and pressed start. "Is that it?", yes! He was won over there and then, and again when he tasted it!
We had prepped the bread rolls earlier, the dough left to rise, and they were popped in the oven while we were doing other things. The bread rolls were gorgeous! Better hot and fresh so any leftovers will be ground up to breadcrumbs!
We were taken through the cleaning process and given lots of tips and tricks along the way. I can understand why they insist on the demo/ direct selling model as it really helps you get more out of the machine!
Some tips for the demo:
* have your dishwasher and sink empty and clean ready to use.
* have a large area ready to do the demo, a chopping board, and veggie waste bin on hand.
* have some bowls and cutlery ready for serving and storage jars and containers on hand for leftovers (though there may not be any!)
* be hungry!
* if you want to store the veroma and other bits and pieces out of sight, have a large area of cupboard space ready to go!
I'm writing this a few days after getting Timmy so I've used it quite a bit (more posts to come!) but I thought I would add some of the things I have learnt about the Thermomix since he arrived!
Some notes about what I didn't expect:
* I didn't expect it to be so big! No tape measure but about 50cm squared is the amount of bench space you will need so it's not crowded, plus more in height for the veroma.
* Noise. Generally it is quiet at the lower speeds (quieter then my old dishwasher!), but speed 9 you can barely hear your own voice! Luckily you only ever use high speeds for short amounts of time, and it isn't so bad if you slowly turn the dial up! There will be no midnight milling around here!
* The Thermosaver - I thought it was just a pot, but it is insulated and it holds the temperature really well! It is so worth having a few friends pop along to your delivery demo (note: if you have school age kids, finding someone free in the middle of school holidays at 9am on a Sunday morning is not easy!)
*How fast it is. Where I might spend 20- 30mins standing at a stove stirring, it is only about 10mins in the Thermomix. It heats quickly and evenly and although it doesn't fry as such, you can still do fantastic tasting meat recipes - better then a slow cooker!
* Weighing things in. I honestly thought that was a bit dodge, besides I have scales and can use measuring cups and spoons, and what if you go over? But seeing it in real life and using it, it is so much easier - no dirty cups and spoons to rinse out and wash between use, and its easy to slow it down before the end and get fairly accurate. It also makes it easier when you are making up recipes - just weigh as you throw it in and you can record of how much you put in for next time.
* Guided Cooking. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to adjust recipes and that it would be rigid in the amounts. Well, it's not. You can add extra ingredients, skip past ones you don't need. I still need to work out if I can skip past blending and heating type steps though!
* Cleaning. I thought the whole self cleaning thing was too good to be true and having used a blender before, it is about par with that. Throw in some water and mix on high speed when you are done. But, it is really easy to clean up in the sink and the scrubbing brush that comes with it is the bomb! The biggest mess I've made is with chocolate ganache (think melted chocolate) and it cleaned up in about 5 seconds (after making chocolate milk in the chocolaty bowl!).
All up, we got off to a great start with the whole family very positive that Timmy will fit in well with our family and make life a lot easier!
