Steamy Dinners: fish, asparagus and beurre blanc sauce Varoma meal
Picture this: you’ve got one hand turning fish that’s cooking in a sauté pan, potatoes cooking in a pot, asparagus or something in the microwave, and you’re stirring hollandaise over a double boiler with your other hand. It only takes a second of inattention for things to go wrong, or at least to get out of sync. Culinary disaster lurks just around the corner.
Enter Thermomix. With its multi-level cooking ability, Thermomix can cook all of these dishes at the same time, while you paint your nails, have a drink or a conversation, clean the kitchen, help with a child’s homework or generally go about your business. Too good to be true? Not on your tin type. It happens all the time, in millions of kitchens around the world.
Here’s how it happened in mine the other day.
As in the word picture above, I had a large and amazingly fresh piece of hake which I wanted to serve with a beurre blanc sauce, asparagus and potatoes. In an unusual acknowledgment of the fat in the beurre blanc sauce I decided to steam everything – in my trusty Thermomix, of course! Here are my layers: beurre blanc in the bottom of the Thermomix bowl; potatoes steaming above it in the internal steaming basket; asparagus on the bottom layer of the Varoma steamer and my fish on the Varoma’s top tray. Fantastic! All I had to do was chop the shallots in the Thermomix bowl, add wine and vinegar and reduce the mixture while steaming the veg and fish; then finish the sauce and voilà – a complete dinner in no time flat.
In addition to such a fast and easy all-in-one dinner, I had little washing up to do (just the Thermomix bowl, internal steamer basket and Varoma and guess what – they are dishwasher friendly). Thermomix is eco-friendly and saves energy, too: I did all of this with the same electricity – rather than several burners on the stove or several different appliances – by harnessing the steam produced by my sauce. Thermomix saves my effort, too, allowing you to do something else while it does the cooking. As a matter of fact, while all the steaming and cooking was going on, Thermo Hubby and I were finishing the bottle of white wine I used to make my sauce 😉
Beurre blanc
Recipe from Fast and Easy Cooking, the 300-recipe cookbook included with every Thermomix TM31 purchased from UK Thermomix. Director Janie Turner says it’s “A classic sauce to serve with fish or vegetables. You can reduce the amount of butter if you prefer.” Serves 6.
Ingredients
60 g shallots, peeled and halved
25 g white wine vinegar
25 g white wine or vermouth
230 g butter, cut in 1 cm dice
salt and pepper to taste
Method
- Drop the peeled shallots onto the running TM blades at Speed 7 to mince.
- Add the vinegar and white wine. Cook 10 minutes/90° C/Speed 4. Set aside to cool.
- Add salt and pepper. Set the timer for 5 minutes/60° C/Speed 4. During this time add the butter through the hole in the TM lid, piece by piece without stopping. Cover the hole quickly with the Measuring Cup each time to avoid the sauce splashing out. Serve immediately.
Bon appétit !
OK, it makes perfect sense. Thanks Madame Thermomix!
Hi Nora! I started by part-steaming my potatoes which take the longest; about 10 minutes on Varoma setting. Then I followed the Beurre Blanc recipe from “Fast and Easy Cooking” just as I have reproduced it above. The fish and the asparagus are ready in 10 minutes and the potatoes were able to finish steaming while the reduction reduced, so 10 minutes on Varoma with all my layers was fine. Trust your intuition and your Thermomix, Nora, and you’ll be fine!
Yes, multi-layered cooking is one of my favourite way to use my Thermomix! I have one question though, when you steam your fish, spuds and veg while reducing the white wine & vinegar, how long did you do it for at Varoma temperature? I would say more than 10 minutes are needed so wouldn’t the white wine+vinegar go completely reduced by the time the other 3 layers are cooked? Would love to try this but need more instructions!