Strawberry and Rhubarb Pie in the Cuisine Companion

This is a S3 post - I received a Cuisine Companion for review purposes

For full details please see my disclosure policy

The Cuisine Companion bloggers were challenged to bake on the theme of Spring this month, which is perfect because a) it's spring here, and b) I'm all for seasonal eating, so Strawberry and Rhubarb Pie it is!

There's a few reasons I like to eat with the seasons:

• It's better quality (i.e. more delish)
• It's cheaper (and I'm all about saving money)
• I'm supporting local businesses
• There is a lower carbon footprint getting it to my door

I'm not against buying produce from overseas or out of state if needed (hello, Valencia oranges in Winter), but I do prefer my fruit and veg to have less frequent flier points than me.

I got a whole stack of beautiful fresh, local ingredients delivered to my door for the challenge, and as soon as I saw rhubarb I couldn't go past a pie. Plus we'd just been strawberry picking in Gnangara, and the two are a match made in taste bud heaven.

My family are rather obsessed with rhubarb, and we were even hoping to plant some to harvest in a few years because we go through so much of it.

Strawberry and Rhubarb Pie

Base
240g plain flour
120g soft butter (you can use Nuttelex to create a vegan base)
70ml water
pinch salt

Filling
A bunch of rhubarb, chopped
500g of strawberries, chopped
1 teaspoon of gelatin (you can use agar agar to make a vegan filling)
Optional: 1 tablespoon of sugar/honey/sweetener of your choice (or more if you like - my lot like it really tart!)

Place all the base ingredients in to the Cuisine Companion with the kneading/crushing blade, press pastry program and start. Yep, that's it. When it's finished, ball up the dough in cling film and leave it to firm in the fridge for 15 minutes, clean the bowl, but don't panic about being super thorough.

Chop your rhubarb and strawberries in to 1-2cm pieces and whack them in the bowl with the stirring blade. Set on speed 4, 100C, for 8 minutes. Your kitchen will start smelling amazeballs.

While that's happening, grab your dough out of the fridge and divide it. If you'd like a fully topped pie then use half the mixture, or if you'd like a lattice style pie with a bit of the ol' peekaboo happening, take out 3/4. This will become your base.

Roll out your pastry portion on a floured surface until it's big enough to cover a lightly floured 24cm/9.5inch pie dish. Gently lift the pastry on to the dish and push in to the edges, trimming any overflow. You can put the excess back with the rest of the pastry if you need to, but the more your work the pastry, the less forgiving it becomes.

Blind bake the base using baking paper and ceramic stones or uncooked rice in your oven for 15 minutes at 190C. When done, remove the stones and put aside until it is cooled slightly. If the Great British Bake Off taught me one thing, it's that blind baking helps minimise the chances of a "soggy bottom". Nobody likes a soggy bottom!

When your Cuisine Companion beeps, add your sweetener and the gelatin, set on speed 4, 100C for a further 4 minutes. When finished, pour the mix on to your base.

Roll out your remaining pastry on a floured surface and shape or cut how you'd like it. If you are covering the entire pie make sure to leave a steam hole somewhere or your pie will explode in the oven. It's not pretty. Trying to keep with the spring theme, and also because I'm a bit of a wanker, I used a flower cutter and arranged the blossoms around the edges and worked my way in.

Place in the oven for 20-30 minutes at 190C or until golden.

Allow to cool slightly before serving because the pie filling will be like molten lava at first. Serve with a dollop of vanilla bean icecream and enjoy!

Choc chip cookie dough protein balls

This is a S3 post - I received a Cuisine Companion for review purposes

For full details please see my disclosure policy

I've been playing with some recipes for protein balls lately. Bliss Balls. Amaze Balls. Whatever you want to call them, it's just fun to be able to say balls a lot, right? Balls.

Most of my recipe creations invovle me throwing random seeds and nuts in, whizzing it up and hoping for the best. This has resulted in me having some very sad balls. Over processed balls. Powdery balls. Even cardboard tasting balls. When you're including these in your diet to replace delicious Mars bars then cardboard balls just ain't gonna cut it.

I've been working on this one for a while now. I could have googled someone else's recipe but I really wanted to see if I could translate what was in my head (and what my taste buds were calling out for) in to a recipe. I think I've done it. Because these Amaze Balls really are amazeballs.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almonds
• 1/3 cup cashews (I use roasted unsalted)
• 16 dried dates
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
• 1 tablespoon protein powder (vanilla flavour preferably)
• 1/3 cup choc chips

Method:

•  Soak your dates in the boiling water for a few minutes
• While they're soaking, place almonds, cashews, vanilla and protein in the Cuisine Companion and blitz on speed 12 for 10 seconds. If you're using a different food processor, you want it to be small chunks after this stage
• When your dates are a bit soft, add them to the bowl and blitz again on speed 12 for 10 seconds. Don't discard the water just yet
• If the mix is not coming together, add a few teaspoons of the date water to help it combine
• When it's at your desired consistency (don't over process, it will be like nut butter and won't form) take a teaspoon of the mixture out, add two or three choc chips to it and roll it in to a small ball. It's easier if your hands are slightly damp but not wet
• Repeat until you've done it all, I usually get about 25 from this recipe
• Refrigerate until set, try not to eat them all at once!

These are a great little hit of sweetness to help with cravings and they're not terrible for you. You can use cacao nibs or sugar free choc chips if you'd like to make them healthier, and if you're using fresh dates, start with half the amount and add more if necessary.

Enjoy your balls!

Five reasons I love my Cuisine Companion - plus healthy brownies recipe!

This is a S3 post - I received a Cuisine Companion for review purposes

For full details please see my disclosure policy

I've been playing with Tefal's new Cuisine Companion non stop since I got my paws on one last month. It's been an interesting ride, seeing what it can do, checking out new recipes and adapting old ones. Mostly I've made one meal at a time, but I did do a bit of bulk cooking, whipping up some freezer meals for a friend who is about to welcome twins in to her family, and some yummy "I can't believe they're healthy" brownies for her older kids lunchboxes.

I've been trying to think of the five things I love about it the most, and narrowing it down to five is actually bloody hard. Akin to choosing your favourite child, if your child was a kitchen wonder machine. But I'm being ruthless and capping it, otherwise I'd be here all weekend, sounding like I was writing a brochure.

1. Clear Lid
You know how little kids sit and stare at the washing machine? Well, I stand and stare at Cosette. Oh, you don't name your appliances? This is awkward. French machine, French name, a nod to Les Mis, it had to be. But I digress. The clear lid is just so freakin' handy! If you're cooking and the condensation stops you seeing in, the centre does pop out so you can have a peek through. The lid comes apart for easy cleaning if needed - but I've only needed to do that if I've been milling my own flour or crushing up nuts and the teeny particles get everywhere.

2. Big Bowl
A whopping 2.5L capacity bowl means making large batches a breeze. But it's not just big, the mouth and base are wide enough to get in to with your spatula without turning yourself in to a contortionist.

3. Easy Blade Swap
Slide blade in. Mix things. Slide blade out. Pick up new blade, slide in. Repeat. There is no locking and mucking about, it goes in and stays in. When it's time to pour out the mixture, slide out the blade and away you go. It makes it sooooo easy to get every last drop of soup or sorbet out when you don't have to be dodging blades. Although you may want to leave a few traces of cake batter for bowl licking purposes. Let's not ruin childhoods, OK?

4. High Display
My eyes are not the best, even with contacts, so I have been known to bend down close to appliances to find out what the remaining time is, what setting I've got it set to, or even if it's turned on. Not any more. Hurrah! It seems so simple to have the display higher and angled up. Clever.

5. One Touch
A heap of the recipes in the Million Meals book are one touch recipes. Chuck in the ingredients and select the pre-set function and off you go. So say you're cooking a soup, it goes slowly at first, stirring it all together, then when it's all cooked through, it changes speed and temperature by itself to whizz it all up in to a creamy deliciousness. It even changes temperature again to keep it warm when it's finished, so you don't have to worry about it either burning or going cold.

Grating cheese, finely dicing garlic, blending chickpeas to hummus,
cooking bolognaise, perfecting "cauli rice", and mixing cakes and loafs

I could have mentioned so many other things (it's quiet, the temperature increments are great, the adjustable steam vent, the stay cool handle on the steam basket, and heaps more), but I'm trying to restrain myself.

I've had a few questions thrown my way from readers about what I don't like about it, and so far I can't find anything - I was originally saying I didn't like that the lid didn't come apart for cleaning, but then I realized it does and I was just a bit daft. Others have asked if the fact that it doesn't have in built scales is annoying, and for me, it isn't an issue - I rarely used the inbuilt scale in my competitor product because my pouring skills suck. Instead of gradually adding 30g of flour I would add 5g, 10g, 15g, 20g, 80g. SHIT. Then the next five minutes are spent trying to fish out excess flour or whatever or adding more liquid and OMG TOO HARD!

So let's get to the best bit:

Healthy Chocolate Brownies Recipe

Because I can never just leave something be, this recipe has come about from experiments with a few different recipes and is most heavily influenced by a Get Commando Fit brownie that has been all over the internet for a while now. I have to play  with recipes until it suits me, my budget and my taste buds! And duuuuuude, these are gooooood.

You'll need:
250g sweet potato, peeled & roughly cut in to large cubes
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup of evoo
1/2 cup of rice malt syrup (use honey if you want it to be sweeter and don't mind adding sugar)
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarb
2 tablespoons of protein powder (if you don't have this, you can use flour but it won't be as high in protein obviously)
1 cup of cocoa
2 tablespoons of plain flour

Grab Cosette, or your own Cuisine Companion then:

• Preheat your oven to 180C
• Place sweet potato in to Cuisine Companion bowl, using the Ultrablade*, set to pulse for 30 seconds (the machine automatically selects speed 12 for pulse)
• Add in your eggs, vanilla, evoo and rice malt syrup** and mix on speed 6 for 10 seconds then scrape down the sides
• Add protein powder if using, cocoa and flour and mix on speed 6 for 20 seconds, scrape down the sides and mix again for 10 seconds if necessary
• Pour in to a lined lamington tray and bake for 20-22 minutes DO NOT OVER COOK!
• Allow to cool slightly before cutting - I usually get 20 brownies from this

These are so rich, moist and utterly delish! You won't feel bad for eating one (two? three?) because they're full of the good stuff.

To serve in lunchboxes, cut them in to your desired size and freeze in an airtight container with a layer of baking paper or similar between so they don't stick together. Grab one out, wrap it in an eco wrapper and put it straight in to the lunchbox frozen and they'll thaw by recess.

*HOT TIP: If your sweet potato is super hard, maybe use the Crushing blade for the first step.

**HOT TIP: Measure your evoo first, pour it in, then use the same measuring cup without washing it to measure the rice malt syrup - the oil coating will mean the syrup comes out easily and you don't waste any.

If you have any specific questions about the Cuisine Companion or a recipe you'd like me to make in it, please let me know in a comment below as I'll be doing a full twelve month review.

I went to Sydney and all I got was this AWESOME KITCHEN MACHINE

This is a S3 post - I received a Cuisine Companion for review purposes

For full details please see my disclosure policy

Recently I was asked if I'd like to be one of the first in Australia to try out a new whizz bang kitchen machine. Who me? The one obsessed with kitchen appliances? Sure! Oh, the launch event is in Sydney? Hells yeah, I'll be up for that! An event, a mini holiday, a catch up with friends, and a night in bed without children kicking me in the back? How could I possibly refuse?

And so it came to pass that little ol' me got up at an ungodly hour to catch a flight to the other side of the country. But excited tired and exhausted tired are not one and the same, so I was up and at 'em.

Last Thursday, I, along with 15 other bloggers from all niches all around Australia, walked in to the Sydney Seafood School for our first glimpse of the Tefal Cuisine Companion. I'd Googled it because I am terribly impatient, but I was pumped to see what it could do in front of me. It was so new and shiny that I couldn't resist taking a reflection picture.

Champagne on arrival and through to a lecture theatre with a sleek test kitchen in front of us and screens on the top that showed close ups of the cooking - I felt like I was in the audience of a cooking show. After a demonstration, a taste test (thank you!), and a bit of a question and answer session, it was time to get hands on.

We moved through to the school kitchen... It was like being in Masterchef. Stainless steel appliances, freezer drawers, amazing ingredients, super sharp knives and the best bit, a Tefal Cuisine Companion each to play with.

And play we did. In teams of two we created a main and a dessert - I was with Karen from Yellow Dandy - she made a cheesecake while I made a summer risotto. I'm a hands on learner, so for me it was great to be able to press buttons, insert blades and take the lid on and off for real.
The machine was amazing and it surpassed my (very high) expectations and blew me away. An all-in-one kitchen wonder that lets you prepare meals easily - sometimes with just one touch!

Bloggers clockwise from left: Me, Kristyn from Mummy K, Jules from Zippy Zappy Life, Jess from Essentially Jess, Karen from Yellow Dandy.

We "slaved away over a hot stove" or, more accurately, laughed and joked while we pressed buttons, let the machine do the hard work, and generally pretended we were chefs on a cooking show. When our gourmet meals were cooked, I thought we might go back to the first room to eat them. I was wrong...

We moved to the banquet hall. A flippin' BANQUET HALL! Together we sat down to enjoy our meal in comfort with a glass of wine, friendly chatter, and quite a few Instagrams. We are bloggers, after all.

The awesome table and Jess from Essentially Jess having a taste of cheese cake

I'm very impressed with the machine. I own a competitor product, so of course I can't help but compare, but this has won me over, it's brilliant! I'll be doing a full review post very soon, pointing out my favourite features.

The Tefal Cuisine Companion is available at major electrical stores (think Harvey Norman) for $1699 and comes with scales, a recipe book with one million meal combinations, four blades in a storage container, an apron, a cleaning tool, a silicone spatula and a two year warranty.

If you have any specific questions about the Cuisine Companion or a recipe you'd like me to make in it, please let me know in a comment below as I'll be doing a full twelve month review.