Learning to be a Master Thermomix Chef

Dish too big!

For most of my life I've survived with minimal cooking skills. When my wife decided to buy a Thermomix TM6 I decided I needed to know how to use. No use having all this whizz-bang, internet-connected cooking stuff if you don't use it.

So, I started off looking at simple recipes. The first I created was a chili-con-carne. It went okay, but the quantity was a bit large for two. Not to worry, we're accustomed to making more than we need for one meal and freezing it for later meals when neither of us feels like cooking.

I needed help from my wife in relation to a couple of measurements and spices.

My second effort was a Shepherd's Pie and all went well until I had to put the pre-prepared mashed potato onto the mince and vegetable portion and found the dimensions of the casserole dish were too wide to cover with the potato mash available. Such is life.

Noted in my notebook: "Next time use a deeper casserole dish with less surface area on the top." Check.

It was an interesting exercise and the end result was a tasty shepherd's pie as good as I've tasted. There's enough tucked away for another meal too.

Since then I've cooked a buttered chicken meal and next is to learn how to cook a loaf of bread.

Naturally, while cooking of an evening, one has to have a liquid supplement. I chose a McGuigans Pinot Noir. McGuigans is one of my favourites. They cater for buyers in the top end with some expensive wines and people like me who buy cheaper wines.

Many of their less expensive wines have won multiple awards and are of top quality, so you can imagine how good their top of range wines are.

Although I live in the Barossa Valley, one of the largest wine-growing regions in Australia, I buy McGuigans produced in the Hunter Valley, New South Wales. However, I'm not a traitor to the Barossa as McGuigans has interests in most, if not all of the South Australia wine growing regions including Clare, the Adelaide Hills and Barossa Valley.

If you haven't tried a McGuigans, I highly recommend it.

Stay well.