If you can't feed a hundred people, then just feed one - Mother Teresa
Me: What are you on about?
Wife: The Thermomix! Don't tell me you haven't heard of it!
Me: Nope
Wife: It is this fantastic machine that chops, and weighs and cooks and blah blah blah...
Sensing my excitement, my wife booked me into a demonstration to check out this amazing piece of machinery, but before that I did some research as I was told this thing was going to cost us 2000 bucks! I'm glad I did the research, and glad I went along to the demo.
The Thermomix TM5 is the new generation of a product that has been around since the mid 80's. Though the company behind the product has been making appliances with similar functions for longer than that, the mid 1980's gave us the first with the Thermomix name. Enough of the history.
The wait for a Thermomix at the time we got it, which was December 2014, was 6 to 8 weeks. Talk about popular, it's not like it is coming direct from Germany, there is a warehouse in Perth. Apparently sales are through the roof at the moment and they are struggling to keep up with demand, those consultants must be pulling some serious cash. The first couple of weeks after receiving it were a bit of a non event. A reluctance to dirty a $2000 cooking appliance accompanied by lack of experience using it meant very few meals were cooked early on, but then came the Nutella Christmas Tree desserts that took Christmas by storm. The Nutella Christmas Tree is a simple dough recipe that is mixed and kneaded within minutes, all inside the Thermomix. You take it out, let it prove and then you start spreading nutella and finally shaping it all into a nutella and sweet dough layered Christmas tree. This tree was such a hit it was almost the only thing that we made in the Thermomix in the 2 weeks leading up to Christmas, but we made it about 10 times. Massive hit!
Having perfected the art of Nutella Christmas Tree making, my wife gained the confidence she needed to start getting into some serious cooking, and now we find ourselves using the machine almost every night for multiple dishes. The beauty of it is the fact that you can prep something like a cake before dinner, get it into the oven and then get into making dinner itself. For instance, the average risotto takes around 20 minutes in the Thermomix, big deal you might say. But think about this, you don't need to do anything! Once you follow the steps getting all the ingredients in and letting them get chopped up, you let it go and it stirs and saute's the risotto for you. That's twenty minutes you get to spend reading a book or sitting down watching some television, at the same time the cake is baking in the oven.
The machine is pretty massive, but when you take into account that it needs to perform all these amazing functions then you kind of figure it makes sense, but it doesn't change the fact that you need to find somewhere on your bench to put the thing. You don't want to be lifting an 8 kilo machine in and out of a cupboard every time you want to cook, plus you will be using it every night, so no point storing it away anywhere.
When it is kneading dough it almost looks and sounds like it is going to bounce off the kitchen bench, but it doesn't which is lucky because it would probably do some serious damage to the tiles. It has some other quirks, like the lid gets locked into place for safety reasons when it about to mix or cook or do anything, if you don't put the lid on properly (which is common), it doesn't let you do anything. I hate that stupid chime it makes when something is finished cooking or it is telling you to move to the next step in the cooking process. Also, I can't imagine how I am going to be able to watch a game of footy with that racket coming from the kitchen... there may be arguments. It is a very loud machine, no one will deny that.
All that matters in the end is that it puts a smile on our faces, like a picture of a minion eating a candle or something (lets face it, they could do anything and make you smile). Nothing beats the feeling you get when you stuff your face with awesome food and share it with those you love. The Thermomix helps you do that by making the whole process of cooking more efficient and less complicated.
My suggestion is to find yourself a Thermomix consultant and get to a demo, it will blow your mind (and your budget, once you realise you just simply MUST have one). I feel like I should say that this isn't for everyone, but it kind of is. It is just a matter of justifying the cost based on how much you plan on using it; but don't forget, it does inspire you.
If anyone at Thermomix wants to hire me for promotional work let me know ;)
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