Vietnamese Summer Roll

One of my favourite things to eat are Vietnamese Summer Rolls, or Gỏi Cuốn.  Served cold, they can include pork, and in the UK I've had them with crispy duck in, which is lovely.  However the more typical variant is a prawn roll.  The wrapper is made from rice flour, but unlike a wonton wrapper that you might use for a spring roll, these become translucent when dampened in water.  The wrappers are assembled with this in mind, so that the prettiest ingredients are placed at the centre of the roll.

Tribute Dish - Verveine's Deconstructed Sherbet Dab

Last week I went to a fish restaurant locally called Verveine, in Milford-on-Sea. Verveine is run buy Chef Patron David Wykes, with a fishmonger at the front and a restaurant at the back.  David and his team cook a variety of traditional and modern dishes.  The one I particularly loved - we all loved - was a deconstructed sherbet dab. An intensely deep and rich liquorice ice-cream is topped with a scattering of sherbet - in this case icing sugar and Texturas Fizzy.  I immediately ordered some Fizzy from my favourite supplier Infusions for Chefs, and got cooking.

Roux Brothers Soufflés Suissesse

This savoury soufflé is one of the Roux Brother's signature dishes, and is one of their first and finest.  The soufflés are cooked in a cream sauce at the last minute to add to the richness of the dish.  The recipe was demonstrated on the Roux Legacy documentary in 2012.

Heston Blumenthal's Lemon Tart [Thermomix]

Without doubt the best lemon tart I've had, light, just set and vibrant with citrus flavours.

I've actually made this recipe several times now, and have gradually refined the process so that now the 11yo actually makes it on her own! The first time I ignored all of the instructions about sticking it into the freezer, and I paid the price. Firstly the dough was far too soft to handle, and broke as I was transferring it to the case. Secondly it went golden far too quickly, and lastly it absolutely fell apart when I mis-handled the tin. Make sure you follow the instructions exactly, use an oven thermometer, your digital thermometer, and if you have one, your laser thermometer too!

Flavoured Butter [Thermomix]

Of course we all know how to make flavoured butter, but in the Thermomix it's even more insanely easy! Today I made on flavoured with 1 lime, 1 lemon, and 1 blood orange, then chopped some herbs into it.  Used it to pop under the breast skin of my roast chicken - yum yum.

Vanilla-Ice Cream, and Chocolate Ice-Cream

Yes, I'm still making ice-cream at a ridiculous rate since I got the Thermomix, but it's now so easy I'm determined never to buy another tub of ice-cream again.  This way I know exactly what's gone into it!

Tribute Dish - the Roux Pre-Dessert - panna cotta, jelly and granita... [Thermomix]

At Roux Parliament Square, the pre-dessert is a panna cotta, topped with a jelly, and then a refreshing granita. On the day I went we had a coconut/passion fruit/lime, but I notice from trawling reviews that they also do apple/apple/cucumber (yum!), pineapple/coconut/kaffir lime, strawberry/strawberry/meringue.  So it's a very successful formula, onto which you can put your own twist.  If you're going to do this regularly, you'll need some better glasses than mine, I'm on the lookout for something far prettier, a little like this...

Pierre Koffman's Pistachio Souffle [Thermomix]

Pistachio soufflé with hibiscus flower ice-cream

We all know I love a soufflé, but now I have a thermomix I'm going through my recipes seeing how I can adapt them accordingly.  This Pierre Koffman soufflé was an absolute doodle in the thermo, the creme patisserie is now so simple to do, that soufflés are now a very real option for every day eating (though perhaps not to be recommended!).  It also means that it's a very simple and viable option for a dinner party - the creme patisserie has to be made in advance anyway, but whilst your thermo gets on with that, you can be prepping the rest of your meal!  Watch this space, soufflés are going to be flooding out of my kitchen...

Hibiscus Flower Ice-Cream [Thermomix]

Having made the lavender ice-cream so easily, I thought I should see what else I could do with my thermomix!  This time hibiscus flower ice-cream.

Lavender Ice Cream [Thermomix]

Lavender Ice-Cream

I found a lavender ice-cream recipe on the Telegraph website, and thought it would be a good one to adapt for the thermomix.