Playing With My Thing

Since I took possession of my new baby, I've been using it everyday, but more for the everyday mundane things like chopping, grating, crushing digestive biscuits for cheesecake bases. The big bowl capacity means I can make at least 3 bases at one blitz.

One of the things that sold me with the magimix was the ease with which the demonstrator (not the one holding placards saying, "save our judiciary"), whipped up a simple swiss roll. Now, I am NOT a swiss roll fan at all, but after pouring through numerous cook books, they always say the test of true chef is the light-handedness with which he folds the flour into the sponge. I've got the light-handedness of an elephant doing a pirhouette.

So, when Gina the Genie blitzed the swiss roll, all in the one bowl, without even having to switch blades and attachments, AND the result was pretty good, I was like, WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! The same kind of expression if you happened to catch an aerial glimpse of Nigella Lawson's Rubenesque Rubies.

Yesterday being Sunday and all, and the kids were away, I had time on hand to play around. So I also tried, with intermittent sms-es to Gina, my hand at the swiss roll. Nothing to it, and quite a pleasing result, minus the mess.

Rolling the Swiss Roll for the first time kinda sent shivers up my spine. I've always been daunted at the thought of rolling something so tubular, but it was surprisingly not that hard, and I think once you've done it once, you overcome your initial fears. Just like most things you try for the very first time.

My texture was a bit springier than I would have liked, but according to the see foo, I must have overbeat the egg whites. I decided to fill the roll with whipped cream, (real cream, non of that fake non dairy cream thank you), and durian puree. Alright, its not the most orgasmic thing I've ever tasted, but passable as a quick dessert.



Another product of the magimix was the baked orange cheesecake. The texture looked nice and fluffy. The biscuit base is also made by this baby.

Taking Possession of New Baby

She can slice, chop, grate, knead, whisk, juice, blend, and as a result, you can make bread, cake, soya bean milk, fish paste, mayonnaise, rojak, .....the list goes on, but we were only shown those few items for starters.... almost as good as a wife, except it doesn't perform conjugal duties, and if Teckiee was grossed out by grated flesh from fingers on a blood coulis....well, .....doing it with the magimix will certainly be a lot more colorful....like these bottles of colorings and essences.

Such bright happy colors, dont you think. It reminded me of a rainbow, so I had to take a picture.

These here are some of the items meant for the "hands on getting to know you" session when we took over the magimix. It's like post natal classes, where you are taught how to diaper up, wipe ass, burp, etc. I think. I wouldn't know, I've never been to one, cos I'm a natural at those things.



Thats the mozarella destined for the grater.


It took her all of 10 minutes to whip up the batter for this butter cake, and that is using the separated egg white method. No need to worry about light handedness in the folding of flour, etc etc.


She demos how to knead and roll the bread dough. That's way too much work for me.


A deep pan pizza. Not my cup of tea, cos I like thin crust with lots of unhealthy, sinful filling, and don't like getting full on bread dough.

The butter cake texture was lovely, and the cake, moist and delicious.


Flesh from a mackerel (tenggiri) being transformed into fish paste, for yong tau foo, fishballs, whatever.


Look at how uniformly and finely it can shred the pumpkin. Although I have no idea why I would need such wonderfully shredded pumpkin.

There's nothing quite like freshly baked bread, although it's unlikely you'll ever get that from me. Anything more than 3 steps is too much work, and measuring, mixing, kneading, proofing, kneading again, proofing again.....true, you can watch episodes of CSI in between, but I like my work concentrated and concise, not dragged over a long stretch.

But I guess if I trained the right laborers to do this, it would be nice to have thick slabs of unhealthy kopitiam style white bread in the morning, slathered with SALTED butter, and a dollop of kaya, with two half boiled eggs. Heaven, I'm in Heaven.....(different one from the Living in Food Heaven)

As an added bonus, Salad Chef Ryan brought out some of his leftover pan seared fish with his self made pesto sauce. I found the fish a bit sang, but the pesto sauce was very good. A burst of flavours, ranging from sweet, to tangy, and basilly all at once.

And I present you, my new baby. Hope Kenwood Chef dont get jealous.

Christmas Comes Early

Oooh, so many new toys to play with. Rubbing hands in glee, whistling, "My chest nuts roasting on an open fire"....

First in, thanks to dear DEAR friend, Ms LTA, who lugged these babies back all the way from the States for me. I ordered them via Amazon.com, and had them mailed to an address in Texas somewhere, for Ms LTA to bring em back for me.



I hope my pores aren't as large as these.

Look at how finely these babies grate. What GREAT GRATERS!!!! God forbid you should ever run your finger through that thing though....imagine ribbons of human flesh in a pool of blood coulis.... bleagh. The microplane grates the surface, without entering the bitter pith region of the fruit, and the aroma from the grated zest is delightful. You can smell the lovely almost aromatherapeutic scents of citrus as they waft up your olfactories. The other longer one is for grating parmesan, etc. Price: USD 11.95 (RM48) for the zester, and USD 8 (RM 28) for the grater...what a steal. Considering they retail for at least RM 80 here.


The next toy, (unlike Christmas gifts though, all these I have to buy for myself), is this wonderful piece of equipment that will revolutionise my life forever, I believe. Other boys go for boys toys like expensive handphones. My present handphone was probably used by that T-Rex from Jurassic Park. Even my blind masseur has a more canggih handphone than mine.

I was asking ex classmate, sister of Edyth who runs Cooking House, as to what food processor to get. My little Kenwood is more overworked than an african slave in the 1800s in the cotton fields, and the one year warranty is due soon. I have great faith in electrical goods these days, they hardly ever fail me. The day after the warranty expires, so do they.

Anyway, Ms Ban recommended me the Magimix range, and offered to set up a demo, as they are one of the distributors. Demo = free cooking class. Why not!!!

The 3 items on demo (but there was more actually) were Swiss roll, Indonesian Rojak, and Chicken Floss Bun With Mayonnaise.


Look at this baby!!!!

Chopped up gula melaka which is for the rojak sauce.


The magic machine whips up egg white, and fold in your flour for you as well.


Chopping, slicing, grating, (except the fine grating that only microplanes can do) are a thing of the past. Lucky maids.

The machine kneads bread dough, juices citrus fruits, and has a juicer component for other fruits, whips up mayonnaise faster than you can say KRAFT LOW FAT, blends ice coffee, makes cakes, whips egg white, chops up nuts, ...... put it this way, if Magi Mix was a woman, I'd be asking Papa Mix for her hand in marriage.

For the indonesian rojak, which turned out most yummylicious, it was all done in the one bowl, from scratch. Nuts in first, followed by palm sugar, chilli, tamarind, blitz, change attachment to slicer, slice fruits, cucumber, and presto, rojak enough for 4. Amazing.


And apparently you can make these things too. But you know me, I'd never endeavour a recipe that takes more than 20 minutes, so this is out of the question.


Check out the vegetarian egg yolk. Go figure. No, a carrot didnt lay an egg, its made from gluten.