Cooking with Tenina

The Mexican Layered Soup

Grab your bowling shoes and your poodle skirts readers and get ready to be bowled over.  I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the first of Tenina's cooking classes last Wednesday - the Souper Bowl!

And I did this after a day of work...where's my medal people?

The recipes were amazing! I have made three of the items so far - and I worked yesterday and today.  The menu included yellow curry paste, flavoured salts, infused oil, three soups and cauliflower cream but to mention a few. 

The big hit here at Thermominx HQ was the Mexican style chicken soup - think I got that title wrong. Anyhoo - you make this amazing tomato and chicken broth which you then pour over a chopped salad and dress with sour cream, corn chips and tortillas.  If your children like tacos they will love this.  Lil and GG cleaned their bowls and raved.  I love that this was one of those Varoma meals that you cook in a stack; soup steaming chicken and corn on the top and because of that and the trimmings and salad this could feed a huge crowd. 

Salt, zest and dried olives - before blasting!

I made the olive and orange salt.  Very easy and very effective.  I used Celtic Sea salt that I sourced at the Weigh n' Pay shop.  The olives took me longer to dehydrate than the instructions stated but I am sure it depends on the sort of olives you buy.  Don't be tempted to leave the peel in too long - mine lost it's nice orange colour - I will be adding some less dehydrated peel later.  I think this would make an excellent gift as Tenina suggested paired with the flavoured oils.  Oh, yes, the flavoured oil! Also in the class.  The smell of the salt when you take the lid off the TM bowl is absolutely divine.  I can't wait to share this with my friends.  I am going to use some of my herbs from out the back and some lemon zest to create some of my own combinations.

After in my little pewter salt dish..

This evening I made the dessert soup.  Well, it is Friday, you need a dessert on a Friday.  A rhubarb and strawberry warm soup served with seriously awesome gelati - at the class we got to preview Azzura's latest offering Nougat Blossom.  Will definitely be buying some of that when it's officially released.

Strawberry Slooop in a retro champagne glass..

Tenina is a great presenter with TV good looks (bitch) and a great sense of style - I am loving the look of her recipe booklet and branding so far - retro 50's kitchen.  Fabulous dahhhlings!  She delivered the class with humour and personality and I feel the value in the class was in this and the superb recipes.  I was a little disappointed in the format, Thermomix cooking class, plastic chairs in a semi-circle, but have a feeling this will be improved on really soon as the first class was planned in a rush.  This will not deter me from attending more classes and some of the up-coming themes sound really good, particularly if you love to cook for friends.

If you want to have a closer look at what Tenina is all about you can have a look at her blog or her facebook page.  You all know her work as she was the recipe developer for Thermomix here in Aus - she has been inventing your dinners and demos all along. 

Good luck, Tenina I will be waiting with bated breath for the next installment. I am itching for the cook book too!

ThermoMinx
PS.  I am the chubby one in the grey cargo's in her Facebook pics...