Slow cooked veal in red wine sauce

We had some veal in the freezer, red wine in the wine rack and homemade tomato pasta sauce in the freezer. I found a Donna Hay recipe that turned out absolutely delicious! I definitely think Thermy can double as a slow cooker for this recipe. I served the veal on mashed potato (done the old fashioned way in a pot) with vegetables steamed in the Veroma (added when the timer was at 20 minutes to go).

I used the same ingredients except only a touch of oil to fry off the onion and garlic in the thermomix, 2 cups of beef stock, and no bay leaf as we didn't have any.

Method:

(adapted from http://www.donnahay.com.au/recipes/slow-cooked-veal-in-red-wine)

1. Add onion and garlic to Thermomix mixing bowl. Chop Speed 8/3 seconds. Cook on 100C/reverse/2 minutes
2. Add tomato paste, cook 100C/reverse/1 minute
3. Add wine, cook on Veroma/reverse/3 minutes
4. Add tomato puree/sauce, cook 100C/reverse/1 minute
5. Add veal, stock, rosemary and cook 80C/reverse/60 minutes
6. Add beans, cook Veroma/reverse/3 minutes
7. Serve

As I have said before, Donna Hay recipes are awesome!!! 

Source: http://www.donnahay.com.au/recipes/slow-cooked-veal-in-red-wine (accessed 30.3.14)

Shredded beef

The slow cooker broke - massive crack appeared last time we used it... There ended my love affair with my slow cooker... It had been my cooking friend for a long time. There was nothing better than preparing dinner the night before, putting it in the slow cooker in the morning and coming home to a house that smelt delicious with minimal effort required after a long and tiring day at work.

Husband, Dad and I went to the Major League Baseball game at the Sydney Cricket Ground last night - Los Angeles Dodgers v Arizona Diamondbacks (Dodgers won). Husband wanted American food and couldn't decide what to eat. He eventually made a decision, but still kept carrying on about the pulled pork sandwiches. We didn't have any pork so I used beef. It was cooked in the thermomix. It was delicious.

I used this pulled pork recipe but used beef, and halved the quantity.

Method:
1. Marinaded the beef with all ingredients (except onion and garlic) for a few hours in the fridge. Chopped the meat into largish chunks
2. An hour before it was required, chopped onion and garlic in bowl 2 seconds/speed 8
3. Add marinaded meat and marinade to bowl
4. Cook in thermomix 60 minutes/reverse/speed 1
5. 50 minutes into cooking, scrape down bowl, and use the mixing spoon to pulverize the meat a bit. Cook for remaining 10 minutes with measuring cup removed. This shredded the meat and most of the excess liquid evaporated.

The meat was shredded and incredibly tender. Served with coleslaw and garden salad on whole grain wraps.

Buttercream icing

The cake my sister's 40th birthday required buttercream icing. This is well outside our usual fondant icing cakes. I found Mum's handwritten recipe and tweeked it for thermomix.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 pound/453 grams of white butter (we got it at Costco as USA butter whiter than Australian butter)
• 6 cups of icing sugar
• 1 drop of food colour (in our case pink)

METHOD

1. Soften butter (let it warm or few seconds in the microwave-should be the consistency of ice cream).
2. Put all butter in thermomix bowl, cream speed 4/30 seconds.
3. Add all icing sugar.
4. Mix Speed 4/15 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl. Repeat until desired consistency achieved. The more you whip the butter the whiter it will become.
5. Add food colouring. Mix Speed 4 until desired colour achieved.
6. Remove from bowl and ice your cake