Luschka – Page 22 – Keeper of the Kitchen

December 17, 2013June 19, 2017

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December 9, 2013

Tinker Bell’s Fairy-Wing Cupcakes

You know how a cupcake is a cupcake, and they all pretty much taste the same, right? No? Oh. Of course not. I’ve always loved our ‘usual’ cupcake recipe, but I have to tell you, we may have a new favourite. These “Tinker Bell Fairy Wing Cupcakes” from Issue 3 of the Disney Cakes and Sweets Magazine series are beautiful. We all loved them, and I’d make them again with or without the fairy wing bit.

We substituted the caster sugar in this for Rapadura, just to cut some of the ‘bad’ out and replace it with something better. Even though the calorie count is about the same with the Rapadura, they aren’t empty calories. My husband, who does not like Rapadura at all, didn’t even notice and when I told him, was surprised. They are absolutely gorgeous.

(The stunning table decorations were from Zulily on a sale, but you can find them at Amazon too.)

Tinker Bell’s Fairy-Wing Cupcakes

Recipe Type: Dessert

Cuisine: Cakes

Author: Disney Cakes and Sweets

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 18 mins

Total time: 33 mins

Serves: 10

Ingredients

125g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
125g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the decoration
icing sugar
jam (raspberry recommended, we used strawberry)
300ml double cream

Instructions

Original Instructions:

Pre-heat the oven to 190C/375F. Put the butter and caster sugar into a large mixing bowl and beat together until really light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, stirring in a spoonful of the flour if the mixture show signs of curdling.
Sift the flour into the mixing bowl, together with the baking powder. Fold it into the mixture. Stir in the milk and the vanilla extract.
If using individual silicone cupcake cases, place them on a baking tray. Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases. Place in the centre of the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cupcakes are well risen and springy to the touch. Cool on a wire rack.
Dust each cupcake liberally with icing sugar. Using a small, sharp knife, slice off the top of each cupcake so that you have a slight indentation left in each one – set aide the cut-off pieces. Spread a little jam over the indentation in each cupcake.
Whip the double cream until soft peaks form and then use to fill a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle. Pipe a swirl of whipped cream on top of the jam on each cupcake. Take the reserved cupcake tops and cut each one in half. Push two halves into the whipped cream on each cupcake. so that they look like fairy wings. Dust with a little extra icing sugar, if liked, and serve.

For the Thermomix:

Pre-heat the oven to 190C/375F.
If you’re using regular sugar, start with that, and beat on Turbo for two or three pulses.
Put the butterfly in place, and add the butter into the mixing bowl. Beat together until really light and fluffy speed 4/ about 1 minute. You might have to scrape down the bowl half way.
Add the eggs, flour and baking powder, milk and vanilla and mix speed 2/30 seconds.
If using individual silicone cupcake cases, place them on a baking tray. Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases. Place in the centre of the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cupcakes are well risen and springy to the touch. Cool on a wire rack.
Dust each cupcake liberally with icing sugar. Using a small, sharp knife, slice off the top of each cupcake so that you have a slight indentation left in each one – set aide the cut-off pieces. Spread a little jam over the indentation in each cupcake.
Whip the double cream until soft peaks form and then use to fill a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle. Pipe a swirl of whipped cream on top of the jam on each cupcake. Take the reserved cupcake tops and cut each one in half. Push two halves into the whipped cream on each cupcake. so that they look like fairy wings. Dust with a little extra icing sugar, if liked, and serve.

Issue 3 also contains Woody’s soft and chewy toffee, Minnie’s marvellous cookies, Lightning McQueen cake Baloo’s chocolate fudge cake, and Piglet’s snuffle truffles

I’m all about the healthy. We experiment with raw food, drink water kefir, and cook from scratch. I even make my own butter. But to be great 80% of the time, we allow ourselves a break 20% of the time. For the next while, we’ll share recipes from the Disney Cakes and Sweets magazine series. They are not healthy. The name kind of gives it away. But that’s okay. Sometimes we adjust the recipes a little to fit in better with our style, and sometimes I use a Thermomix instead of following the directions. As part of a balanced diet, we hope you ‘ll join us. We’ll have fun!
(If you prefer completely raw, healthy, but still delicious snacks, have a look at Bliss Balls For Beginners)

December 4, 2013

Red Wine Bacon Chunks With Rice And Steamed Vegetables

I’ve always wanted to try an Asian style dish in the Thermomix, because it’s something I really enjoy, but I’ve had a hard time finding recipes that ‘suit’ us. When I opened my meat box to find chunky bacon I decided it’s time to try something different, and here we have it. My husband actually said it’s the nicest chunky bacon meal we’ve ever had, so that’s got to count for something. Even my children enjoyed it. That’s saying something too!

You can adjust the vegetable to what you have, and I’d probably sprinkle toasted sesame seeds on it too, if I had any, but as it was it was delicious. Hope you enjoy it too!

Red Wine Bacon with Rice And Steamed Vegetable

Recipe Type: One Pot Meal, Mains

Cuisine: Asian

Author: Luschka

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 40 mins

Serves: 3

Ingredients

1 small onion
1 tsp ginger (grated or powder)
3 small or 1 large garlic clove(s)
1 tsp sesame oil
500g bacon chunks +- 3cm
3 tbs soy sauce
3 tbs chinese cooking white wine
2 tbs rapadura
2/3 cup (160ml/ 120g) red wine
5g corn flour
250g rice
Carrots (optional)
Asian greens like boy choy, pak choy, or other winter greens like rhubarb chard or similar.(optional)

Instructions

Traditional cooking

Finely chop onion, ginger and garlic and shallow fry in sesame oil until onion is translucent.
Add the bacon, soy sauce, cooking wine and rapadura (or brown sugar) and simmer for 7 minutes.
Chop vegetables and place in steamer (Or in a colander that fits over the pot with the rice in it)
Add red wine and corn flour and boil for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and keeping an eye to make sure the wine doesn’t dry up.
At the same time, boil the rice.
Drizzle sesame oil over the steamed vegetables and serve hot.

With Thermomix

Place onion, ginger and garlic in the TM pot. Turbo for two seconds. Add sesame oil and cook for 3 minutes/speed 2/100C.
Add the chunky bacon, soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine and rapadura (or brown sugar). Cook for 7 mins/spoon setting/100C.
Chop and slice vegetables and place in Veroma.
Add red wine and corn flour and cook for 10 mins/spoon setting/Veroma. Add Veroma and steam vegetables.
Meanwhile, cook rice in your preferred way. Under season your rice as the bacon is quite salty already. (If you’re going to wait and prepare the rice after the meat, keep the meat warm in a separate pot).
Drizzle sesame oil over vegetables.
Serve hot.

December 2, 2013

Rosetta’s Cute Coconut Ice

Issue 2 of the Disney Cakes and Sweets magazine brought with it some childhood memories for me. I remember making coconut ice as a child. I remember it including boiled sugar, however, which this recipe doesn’t, but maybe I’m confusing it with fudge?

If you take away the serious sugar overdose in this recipe, coconut ice is a brilliant treat to get kids involved in. I haven’t made it in years – not since I joined the Nestle Boycot – but my husband found some Farmlea condensed milk recently and it’s reopened a world of sweet pleasures that were off limits unless I wanted to make my own condensed milk!

Anyway, traditionally coconut ice is pink and white, but I can’t seem to find a reason why. We decided to make ours red (which failed and look more pink than it should) and green to be all Christmassy. In future I’d rather do red and white and green and white. I think it would look better. Anyway, whichever colours you choose, here’s the recipe for you.

No Bake Coconut Ice

Recipe Type: Dessert

Author: Disney Cakes And Sweets

Prep time: 10 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Serves: 16

The original recipe says to stir all the ingredients together with a wooden spoon. If you’re not using a Thermomix, you’re going to have to get in there with both hands. The kids love it. It’s sticky and messy and tasty fun.

Ingredients

397g can [url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Farmlea-Condensed-Milk-397G/dp/B00BHFEF3K/” target=”_blank”]condensed milk[/url]
300g (11oz) icing sugar
300g (11oz) desiccated coconut (we used organic)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
food colouring of choice

Instructions

Line or oil your baking tray. I use [u][url href=”http://amzn.to/1iI0G6l” target=”_blank”]an awesome brownie pan[/url][/u] for most things, and for this too.
Pour condensed milk into a large mixing bowl and sift in the icing sugar.
Add the coconut and vanilla essence or extract and mix together until well combined.
If you’re having a white layer, spoon half the mix into your baking tray and flatten out pressing down tightly. If you’re having two coloured layers, split them into two bowls and add the required colours to each bowl.
Mix well and add to pan, flattening till all the first layer is covered, and it’s all flattened.
Place pan in the fridge for six hours or overnight to set.
Once set, turn out and cut the coconut ice into squares.
If you use the brownie pan, cut it while still in the pan. This will make huge slices though, so use a knife to cut again.

For the Thermomix:

Make your icing sugar first, if you’re making your own.
Add all but the colouring and mix on speed 2 for 30 seconds.
Split the mixture into two, put one layer in the pan, then add the food colouring to one.
Layer the next into the pan and leave to set in the fridge for at least 6 hours.
Cut the set coconut ice into squares and enjoy.

Issue 2 also has recipes for a Winnie the Pooh Cake, cream-tea scones, fudge, florentines, 101 Dalmatians cake pops and Winnie the Pooh and friends silicone molds

I’m all about the healthy. We experiment with raw food, drink water kefir, and cook from scratch. I even make my own butter. But to be great 80% of the time, we allow ourselves a break 20% of the time. For the next while, we’ll share recipes from the Disney Cakes and Sweets magazine series. They are not healthy. The name kind of gives it away. But that’s okay. Sometimes we adjust the recipes a little to fit in better with our style, and sometimes I use a Thermomix instead of following the directions. As part of a balanced diet, we hope you ‘ll join us. We’ll have fun! (If you prefer completely raw, healthy, but still delicious snacks, have a look at Bliss Balls For Beginners)

This recipe features in A Very Thermie Christmas, where you can find it and 50 other recipes perfect for a Thermomix assisted Christmas. Read more about it here.

November 27, 2013

Vegetable Stock Cubes / Bouillon

I want to share a really basic recipe that I use in a lot and should add here to refer to. It was the very first recipe I made by Thermomix: Vegetable Stock Cubes / Bouillon.

At first I wasn’t sure if it was worth bothering, to be honest. Vegetable stock cubes are so cheap, and having them in a box is so convenient. But then I had a look at the ingredients and I realised that an attempt at cutting preservatives and additives out of our food falls flat if the very basic underpinning foundation ingredient contains those things.

Here are the ingredients of our usual vegetable stock cubes:

Salt, vegatable oil, potato starch, yeast extract, sugar, carrot (1.5%), tomato (1%), herbs (parsley, tarragon), spices (turmeric, pepper, celery seed), bell pepper (0.2%), garlic, leek (0.1%), flavourings (contains mustard), caramelised sugar, maltodextrin, dextrose

It’s not exactly poison, but compare it to this:

celery, carrots, onion, tomato, courgette, garlic, mushrooms, basil, sage, rosemary, parsley, oil and salt.

If I were to lay those ingredients out on a two plates, I know which one I’d go for.

While this recipe is an adaptation from the Australia Every Day Cookbook and is written for the Thermomix, there’s no reason why you couldn’t mix it in any high powered blender and make it part of your every day seasoning.

You cant freeze this stock, due to the high salt content, but it lasts really well in a jar in the fridge, and can be topped up with whatever you have on hand, really, but here’s a great starter recipe.

Home Made Stock Cubes/Bouillon {{Thermomix Recipe}}

Cuisine: Basic

Author: Luschka

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 1 litre

Don’t taste this recipe and fret over the salt. It’s VERY salty, but it’s a concentrate. A tablespoon full goes into a litre of liquid, i.e soup, of which you have a cup at a time. It’s lower in salt per serve than an egg! If you lower the salt amount you will have to freeze the stock, but with the correct salt, it won’t freeze at all but can keep in the fridge. The great thing about this recipe is that it is very flexible. You can use whatever you have in the fridge. I know a few people who pop all their vegetable scraps into the freezer to keep particularly for making this stock concentrate.

Ingredients

2 celery stalks, with leaves
2 large carrots, cut into chunks
1 onion, peeled and quartered
1 tomato, quartered
1 courgette, chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled
50g mushroom (optional)
a teaspoon each of basil, sage, and rosemary
20g parsley
30g olive oil
200g sea salt or pink salt (don’t use table salt, it’s very high in Sodium, which is what you want to avoid in a healthy diet)

Instructions

Chop all the vegetables and herbs for <b> 10 seconds on Speed 7 </b>
Add the oil and salt, and <b> cook at 90 for 20 minutes on speed 2 </b>
It turns into an unappealing looking green gloop, but adds amazing flavour to all your dishes.
Leave to cool and place in a jar in the fridge for up to six months.
If using less salt, freeze in spoonfulls or ice cube trays and use as needed,

Calories: 2.3 Fat: 0.2 Carbohydrates: 0.2g Sugar: 0.0 Sodium: 3.8g Fiber: 0.1g Protein: 0.0 Cholesterol: 0.0

November 25, 2013

Fruity Chocolate Chunks Recipe

I’m not really sure why I feel like I should apologise for loving the Disney Cakes and Sweets series? Is it because it’s Disney? Or because it’s sugary cakes and sweets? Who knows, but what I do know is that I’m not even sorry. I’ve been slotting our new arrivals into the accompanied binder today, and I am excited, not only to bake and make with my four year old, the way we used to before her sister was born, but also to develop and grow my own baking – and more specifically decorating – skills.

The first recipe we made from Cakes and Sweets were Minnie’s fruity chocolate chunks. We pretty much changed everything in the recipe, but hear me out. It was so good, we made it again and again.

The original recipe calls for white chocolate (yuk! sorry, but no). It also called for freeze-dried raspberries which we didn’t have on hand, so we used mixed peel instead, and it called for pistachio nuts, which again, I didn’t have, so we used hazelnuts instead. I’m sure their version would be fine, but ours was awesome!

We’ll be putting some of these in jars with a ribbon or two for Christmas gifts. I reckon it beats a box of bought chocolates hands down. This is also a brilliant recipe for children to help with too.

Fruity Chocolate Chunks

Recipe Type: Disney Cakes and Sweets

Cuisine: Confectionary

Author: Luschka

Prep time: 10 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Serves: 300g

Originally from Disney Cakes and Sweets, this recipe has been adapted to our personal tastes.

Ingredients

225g (8oz) good quality dark chocolate
40g orange peel
40g hazelnuts

Instructions

For the Thermomix:

Lightly crush hazelnuts at speed 5/10 seconds
Temper the chocolate to a perfect 37 degrees Celsius
Sprinkle orange peel and hazelnut over a silicone pan. Pour the chocolate over it.
Set aside for an hour to cool, then roughly crack into chunks. (Or if you have a chocolate bar mould you can use that instead.

Without a Thermomix

Temper the chocolate in a double boiler, or in a glass bowl over boiling water.
While it is melting, crush the hazelnuts lightly.
Sprinkle orange peel over the hazelnuts and mixed them together in a silicone tray before pouring the perfectly tempered chocolate over it.
Set aside to cool, then crack and enjoy.

Issue 1 also contains Giant Mickey Mouse cookies with a cutter, Honey cupcakes, marshmallow pillows, 101 Dalmations cake, passionfruit tarts, and part one of how to build a fairytale castle.

I’m all about the healthy. We experiment with raw food, drink water kefir, and cook from scratch. I even make my own butter. But to be great 80% of the time, we allow ourselves a break 20% of the time. For the next while, we’ll share recipes from the Disney Cakes and Sweets magazine series. They are not healthy. The name kind of gives it away. But that’s okay. Sometimes we adjust the recipes a little to fit in better with our style, and sometimes I use a Thermomix instead of following the directions. As part of a balanced diet, we hope you ‘ll join us. We’ll have fun!
(If you prefer completely raw, healthy, but still delicious snacks, have a look at Bliss Balls For Beginners)

November 23, 2013December 10, 2017

Squash and Spinach Soup With Goat’s Cheese And Bacon Recipe

Considering how often I make soup these days, you’d be forgiven for thinking that I actually enjoy it! I’m not really a lover of soup, but with two children, a job and a home to run, it’s certainly an easy to prepare food, and easy to eat.

In the Thermomix soup is a 15-minute (non)effort, but of course you can adapt it to cook on the stove top or however you usually make your soup.

We have a further problem in our home, because I don’t like any kind of chunkiness in my soup, but my hubby prefers a chewable soup. If I’m feeling generous I’ll cook everything, remove his portion and then blits up mine. Otherwise, we have smooth soup. He’s coming round to it!

In this particular soup I used a Turkish Squash, which had a grey-ish colour, which no one was going to eat so I added some spinach to at least give it colour, additional nutrition and great flavour.

I particularly wanted a luxurious soup here, so we added goat’s cheese and bacon. These are optional extras, but totally worth it.

Also, because I was blending it with the Thermomix, I used almost all of the squash, seeds and all. This is best with a young squash so the skin is still soft. You don’t have to do that though!

Squash and Spinach Soup With Goat’s Cheese And Bacon Recipe

Recipe Type: Soup

Author: Luschka

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 60 mins

Total time: 1 hour 15 mins

Serves: 6

You can use any squash for this recipe.

Ingredients

400 – 700 g squash
1 onion
1 garlic clove
200g bone broth or stock
1 sprig fresh rosemary
6 rashers bacon
50g spinach
250g goats cheese
add cream/stock to preference
add salt/pepper to taste

Instructions

Cut squash into easy to bake portions – a pumpkin or large squash could go in 8 pieces, for example. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 45 minutes at 190C
Cut an onion in half, add garlic, then blitz for 3 seconds on speed 5.
Sweat the onions for 3 minutes, speed 1, 90C
Add the squash, skin and seeds too, if you like.
Add the stock or bone broth, rosemary, and salt and pepper.
Cook for 15 mins/speed 2/100C
Meanwhile fry bacon to make it crispy, and set aside.
When the soup is finished, add the spinach and goat’s cheese and blits for 5 seconds on speed 7. (or as bitty or smooth as you like it).
Add cream or extra stock to make the soup as thick or thin as you prefer.
Serve with crusty bread or [url href=”https://www.keeperofthekitchen.com/2013/11/22/thermomix-brioche/” target=”_blank”]brioche [/url](without the chocolate!) and enjoy!

November 22, 2013

Thermomix Brioche

Yesterday I shared the traditional French Brioche recipe from Brioche Pasquier with you. I told you about how they’re made in the factory, and showed you some photos from our masterclass in Brioche making from the professionals themselves.

I came home from the event and decided I had to make another batch as fast as I could, so that I would remember how it was done. Of course I had to tweak it a little for the Thermie, but it sure turned out beautiful!

Here’s pretty much the same recipe, but with some Thermomix tweaks for you.

Thermomix Briochettes

Recipe Type: Baked, Bread

Cuisine: French

Author: Luschka

Prep time: 100 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 1 hour 50 mins

Serves: 12

A lovely, light brioche recipe perfect for the Thermomix. Normally I wouldn’t knead more than a few minutes in the Thermomix, but this recipe needs the dough to be silky and stretchy and around 7 minutes works really well.

Ingredients

120g Sugar
500g Strong White Flour
40g Bread Yeast
10g Salt
90g Water
3 Free Range Eggs
125g Unsalted Butter
250g [url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dgrocery&field-keywords=beyond+dark+chocolate&rh=n%3A340834031%2Ck%3Abeyond+dark+chocolate” target=”_blank”]Chocolate Chips[/url]
Milk for Milk Wash

Instructions

Place the sugar in the bowl and pulse for a few seconds to make it into caster sugar. Remove half (60g) and put it aside.
To the bowl, add the flour, bread yeast, and salt and pulse a few seconds to mix.
Add the water, egg and butter and knead on the dough setting for about 5 minutes. Add the extra sugar and knead for a further 2 minutes.The dough will look silky and smooth.
Add your chocolate chips and stir on speed 2 for 20 seconds.
Divide the dough into about 12 even sized portions and role them as round as you can.
Leave aside to rise for about 2 hours.
Heat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6.
Brush milk over the dough to glaze.
Bake for 10 minutes.

November 21, 2013

Brioche The Way Pasquier Do It

A few days ago I attended a brioche making class compliments of Brioche Pasquier. Apart from a lovely day out, I also got to try a range of their products, and I must say quite honestly that I am rather impressed, and my family and I have been enjoying our goody bag treats for days.

While I always steer away from buying pre-baked packaged treats because I’m not keen on all the preservatives that give them the shelf life they have, I had to opportunity to speak to the grandson of the founder of the company, and learn that actually I’m pretty comfortable buying the Pasquier range of baked goods for the occasional treat.

A few facts about Pasquier that really changed my view on this particular brand:

Their brioche and other product are baked with a live sourdough yeast that imparts a specific taste to their baked goods. These sourdough yeast cultures are kept in five different locations around France to ensure they are kept save and able to continue.
The factory is a sterile environment and everything is made in complete sterility, so that when things are packaged and sealed, there are no bacteria or other factors that would cause them to go off or stale. Because of this Pasquier does not use any preservatives and their goods only have a 28 day shelf life.
Because of this, while they aren’t as fresh as home baking, it seems they’re pretty much as close as you’re going to get without doing it yourself or going to a bakery. And you know what? For a bought good, not freshly made, they are pretty great! My family certainly devoured them.
One of the products Pasquier make are a gorgeous brioche, which they gave us a masterclass in on the day.

That was quite fun!

This recipe makes a lovely sticky, silky dough.

It’s important to make the dough balls as round as possible.

And a few hours later, you have beautiful Brioche.

Here’s the recipe if you’d like to make your own, and a Thermomix recipe will follow soon!

Brioche The Way Pasquier Do It

Recipe Type: Bakery

Cuisine: French

Author: Luschka

Prep time: 105 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 1 hour 55 mins

Serves: 12

I’m sharing with you the recipe almost like it was given to us, although since making it at home I’ve had to substitute a few ingredients here and there. For example, these [url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CD65WSO/” target=”_blank”]sugar crystals[/url] for topping, rather than what we were given on the day.

Ingredients

500g strong flour
90g water
3 free range eggs
125g unsalted butter
120g caster sugar (divided into two 60g portions)
40g bread yeast
10g table salt
[url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=beyond+dark+chocolate+drops&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Abeyond+dark+chocolate+drops” target=”_blank”]chocolate chips[/url] (optional, to taste, we use Beyond Dark)
1 egg and milk for the egg&milk wash

Instructions

Put the flour into the bowl of a mixer fitted with a dough hook.
Add the salt and half the sugar to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other.
Add the water, eggs and butter and mix on a slow speed for 2 minutes, then on a medium speed for 5 minutes.
Add the rest of the sugar and continue to mix for a further 4 minutes.
The dough should be soft, shiny and elastic.
Divide the dough into even pieces of roughly 50g each. Shape each piece into a smooth ball.
Very lightly brush the dough with water to avoild the brioche drying out.
Leave the rise in a warm place for about 90 minutes till doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 200C/390F/gas mark 6.
Brush the brioche with egg and milk wash.
Sprinkle some pearl sugar/sugar crystals on the top.
When the brioche is proved, bake for 10 minutes.
Leave the brioche to cool before serving.

Notes

Thanks to Brioche Pasquier for the fabulous recipe!

November 6, 2013July 3, 2017

Chicken Soup And Steamed Dumplings Recipe

I’ve had the most awful of colds this week. Normally, I get on with things, but this week I have largely felt like the world was ending and intent on taking me with it. As luck would have it – note the sarcasm – we were also in a hotel at the seaside, and I barely left the room. I’m actually happy to be back home and the first thing I did was make a chicken soup and some dumplings.

If preplanned, I would add ginger (I don’t have any) and possibly noodles for the not unwell members of the family, but I grabbed frozen chicken out of the freezer, and used what I had available to make this sickness comfort food in as little time and with as little effort as possible.

I’ve done this as a Thermomix recipe, but I’m pretty sure a mildly confident cook would be able to to convert it to a stove top and steamer recipe.

Also, if you don’t have buttermilk on hand – I did left over from butter making before we went away – you can use a buttermilk substitute. (Just short of a cup of milk, and a tablespoon of lemon juice [bringing it up to the 1 cup mark]. Leave it for five minutes and use as buttermilk).

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