Using the Intelli as a rice cooker – sorry no photos!

Hi all, 

Sorry, I have been a bit quiet recently! So I thought I would post a quick recipe!

We prefer brown rice at our place and I was never able to master cooking it in a traditional rice cooker, and I only ever managed to get it right two out of three times on the stove… 

This is where Ellie stepped in and has saved my bacon! (or should I say rice?)

I have to say I rarely weigh anything or use measurements, so bear with me, and be brave!

 

STEAMED BROWN RICE

Ingredients:

Your quantity of brown rice

Pre-boiled water up to the 1 liter mark on the jug (you can boil water in the Intelli, but it will take you a long time, I find boiling water in the kettle then putting it in the jug works best for this recipe)

Method:

Put your brown rice in your steamer basket and rinse thoroughly (until you water is dry). I use about 1/8 – 1/6 of the steamer basket worth. 

Fill your jug with boiling water up to about the 1 liter mark.

Insert your steamer basket with your washed rice in it.

Set time to 30mins, temperature to 100 degrees and speed 2. 

Walk away and go and do something fun!

When the timer goes off, leave your rice sitting for about 5-10mins, then pull the steamer basket out. Use the little hook on the back of the spatula for this. 

Cool your rice quickly and safely, or serve with your favorite stir fry! 

 

I normally try to cook a batch a week and freeze it in ziplock bags in single serving sizes for easy to whip up meals. Love it and SOOO easy! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Superchef Maxi recipe booklet

Hi all,

It seems that the Superchef Maxi recipe book has been blocked from public consumption. Which is a shame really… It would be nice to think that Superchef and Intelli owners could share recipes and the love!

I managed to print it off when I first saw it on-line, but didn’t save it!

Although – I have found if you Google search the full link provided in a previous comment (http://maxika.com.au/sites/default/files/pdfs/SuperchefRecipeBook.pdf), then without clicking the link, but clicking ‘quick view’ to the PDF you may be able to access the booklet…

Remember it is a different machine, so recipes may not translate exactly to the Intelli (although the couple I have tried over the weekend have been fine).

Good luck everyone!

Leah

Introducing Elli… Elli, the intelli!

OK, first things first.

I should explain why I have named a kitchen appliance.  I have two reasons.

I figure that I will be talking/writing and based on last night, dreaming about it a lot, and it feels nicer to call it something more personal than The Bellini Intelli Kitchen Master.  And secondly, I realised it is the most expensive thing in my kitchen bar the stove and dishwasher, so it deserves a name!

After much discussion, my son (who is seven) and I decided on Elli – Intelli shortened!

I picked Elli up yesterday afternoon. Transported her carefully home and then went for broke!

Pride of place on my kitchen bench!

With only a brief interruption for Little Athletics, Elli and I smashed out butter (Yes, I did it! Details later!), a cream cheese dip, a risotto and mayonnaise.

And today I made raspberry sorbet and a vegetable concentrate (stock).

We did go a little crazy, but boy are we a good team!

The Intelli is very easy to use. To be honest I just winged it a lot last night whipping up things without even looking at the instruction manual. The buttons are well labelled and quite self-explanatory.

I started with butter as planned.

I got lucky yesterday morning and found Devondale thickened cream marked down so grabbed that to try my first batch of butter.

I didn’t have a particular recipe I was following, but found many on-line which I tried my best to learn as much as I could.  One particularly helpful clip was this one on YouTube as it gave me a good visual reference.  You can find it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_51TFFNWo8

I also have researched the process a little by reading a few blogs and the Thermomix Forum site which is http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php

So I set Elli up with the butterfly (stirring) attachment installed and tipped in the 600ml of cream. I turned it up high – speed setting of between 6 and 8 depending on how it sounded. I was listening for a thumping or slapping sound to alert me that the cream was over whipped and the fat (butter) had separated from the buttermilk.

I didn’t really hear the slapping noise, but i had a busy kitchen with two kids and my mum watching my efforts, so when I checked to see how it was going for about the millionth time (through the hole in the lid, be careful, it can be messy as it sputters everywhere!) I could see that it had separated.

I followed the vague instructions that I had found and tipped what I had into the strainer attachment over a bowl to catch the buttermilk. I then squeezed out what I could of buttermilk from the butter and returned it to jug with 500ml of cold water. I took the butterfly (stirring) attachment out and blitzed it again at speed 6 for about 15 seconds.

This what the butter looked like after the first squeezing, but before the water wash

This step washes the butter and ensures that more buttermilk is removed.  From what I have found online, it is the buttermilk that goes rancid so it is important to remove as much of it as you can.

The saved buttermilk

Again, I drained the butter in the strainer bowl but discarded the liquid this time.

I squeezed as much out as I could and in the process tried my hands, a chux cloth and in the end wrapped it in some good quality kitchen paper and wrapped it in that and squeezed. I found that this made me feel the most confident of getting everything out of the butter.

After that, I popped what I had in a ramekin, then into the fridge. All the while hoping for the best!

After an hour or so, it had hardened up like real butter and I felt happy that I had completed my first and certainly not last batch of homemade butter!

My Intelli butter

This recipe made about 200gr of butter and I have been able to freeze about 200ml of buttermilk to add to savory muffins next time I get the baking bug.

I do realise that I started with 600ml of cream and only really came out with 400gr of product, but as my mum kindly pointed out with a cloth in her hand, I did make a ‘bit’ of a mess, and the other 200ml/gr could probably be accounted for in that respect!

I had so much fun and I am happy with the finished product. I am waiting to see how it holds up, because if it goes off in the next couple of days I will know I didn’t get all of the buttermilk out and will have to search for a better way.

I will make butter again and experiment with the flavors. I will salt some, and make herb and garlic butter, I may even try to make spreadable butter in the future.

I can recommend giving this a try, it really isn’t hard and you get a really great product at the end!  Worst case scenario, you may waste a 600ml tub of cream. Not a huge loss and you can always try again!

One tip I did read nearly everywhere was to use cream with at least 35% fat content. No such thing as low-fat butter I guess!

I know I said I made loads of things over the last 24 hours, but the butter was the only recipe I was really happy with.  The rest of the products I made need some adjustments to flavors before I put then on here!

Downsides

I guess I should talk about the downsides that I have found so far.

After I made my risotto last night I had two burn marks on the bottom of the jug. I was pretty upset, but got it pretty well cleaned up, and it didn’t affect the flavor of the food.

Burn marks after the first night - this is after a good clean 😦

Today when I made the vegetable concentrate I had the same two burn marks, but tonight I could not for the life of me get the blades out to give it a good scrub. The switch on the bottom of the jug to release them wouldn’t budge. Even my husband couldn’t get it to flick across, so I soaked the base of the jug with some bi-carb soda and water and did what I could, but didn’t come quite as good as last night.

I will try the blades again tomorrow and if I still have no luck I will call the manufacturer Monday or Tuesday for advice.

These two things I wouldn’t expect to find in a Thermomix.

But in the greater scheme of things Elli, so far, is shaping up as a very valuable addition to our family!

 

 

Let me know if you have one and how you are finding it. Or, do you make your own butter another way?

My Intelli Experiment

OK, so here it is. My first blog post.

I will try to set the scene for what I expect this blog to be about in future. But, be warned, I am a woman and this is a blog, so it really could end up VERY different to how I had imagined.

I have recently been introduced to the wonders of the Thermomix (TM). And like everyone who has had a good show through of the amazing machine that it is, I have to have one.

Only thing stopping me (I even have hubby on board), is the price. At around $2,000 it just isn’t going to happen any time soon.

So when I received a text from my girlfriend, lets call her G, about the Bellini Intelli Kitchen Master including that it was on sale at Target for only $269, you can imagine that my interest peaked.

I looked at the website, and to be honest it was pretty light on with information. I really wanted to know what the temperature ranges were (lowest-highest) as I would like to investigate a raw food diet and I know that the TM has a 37 degree setting which keeps food technically ‘raw’. And if it had a reverse stirring action, something that the Thermchef doesn’t have.

 After more searching, I had decided to let G buy one, and see how it went whilst still trying to save for the real deal.

Whilst slightly deflated I was comfortable with that decision until about two hours later when I started researching again and chatting to G more about it. By that time Bellini had uploaded the instruction manual and recipe booklet.

It gave me some answers… No, it doesn’t do the reverse action that the TM does and the temperature settings are from 40 – 130(?) degrees. I am not sure that it will keep my food ‘raw’, but I will do more research at some stage and come back to that, and it does not have scales. (Not a big deal I have a set of digital scales that I use all the time.)

Reading the recipe booklet made me hungry and gave some answers on how to get around the non-reversing action. It seems by adding the ‘butterfly’ attachment this alleviates some of the over chopping action. Apparently that is how the Thermochef recipes get around it too.

After a final discussion with hubby, and realising there was 12 month warranty from Target we decided that we would risk the $269 and get one.

G stalked out local Target and purchased one for herself and popped one on layby for me this morning so I can head down over the weekend to pick it up. I can’t wait to start playing with it! I have already cleared the bench space for it to sit pride of place in my kitchen.

The first thing I want to make is butter. Butter is something I have always wanted to make, but I don’t know why. We rarely use it. Maybe it is the part of me that loves real food and getting back to the basics of life.

I will try it out, see how we use it in terms of how often, what types of food and whether this is another kitchen appliance I HAVE to have, but then turns into a space stealer in a cupboard. (I do love a kitchen appliance!)

I am hoping that this blog will become a repository of recipes that I try and how they hold up.  Lets see how that goes. And I will try to take many photos. Everyone loves a good picture!

 So this is My Intelli Experiment.  

Please join in, I love a chat and hearing other people’s points of view, especially about food.

Please don’t be nasty, there really is no need.

Tell me about your food passions. If there is one thing that I love more than kitchen appliances, it is food.

Along with the journey of My Intelli Experiment, I am sure you will get to know me better. Fingers crossed this is a good experience for one and all!!

Note – Just to be clear, I am not buying this with the expectation that it will be anywhere near as good as a TM. But I am investing a little bit in the way of cooking and life that a TM could bring me in the future.