Chilli Mussels - Variation

EDC recipe with adjustments: I doubled it (some stuff) & substituted a few fresh items from pantry.

Step 1 - Additional whole onion, halved. 4 pcs garlic & 2 medium red chillis (1 with seeds inclusive). Basil leaves, two sticks of rosemary. Choppe on Speed 5, 5 seconds.
Step 2 - Add 2 cans of tomatoes (I purchased the one with pre mixed basil & oregano - adds extra flavor). Add 1 Tbspn of TM vegetable paste. Add 1 Tbspn of pizza base tomato paste.
Step 3 - Then place Varoma receptacle filled with cleaned mussels (2kg) on top of locked in lid).
Step 4 - Add 200 mL of white wine by drizzling it over mussels.
Step 5 - Cook for 20 mins on Varoma temp, at Speed 1.
Step 6 - At 16 mins, pick out the opened mussels, keep cooking the rest.
Step 7 - most mussels will have opens by 20 mins mark. Serve with sauce poured on top, garnish with chopped parsley / lemon rind / finely chopped spring onions.

Note: upon testing different branded & variation (diced, whole) cans of tomatoes. Coles or the generic brand canned vegetables will be more watery. So reduce the wine accordingly.

Asian Meal for 4 (Pt2) - Miso & Tofu Soup & Steamed Kailan

You should have plenty of spare Tofu left from the Tofu & Mince dish in Pt1.

To make Miso Soup:

Add in 1 Ltr of water

Add 2 Tbspn fo Miso Paste (white or brown)

Add some wakame or dried seaweed (you can find this at local Asian grocers)

Add your left over tofu.

Stack your cleaned kailan on the Varoma Tray. You can spread the vegetables out onto Varoma Receptacle as well.

Turn on your TM for Varoma, Speed 2 for 15 mins. For a nice soup.

Pour a dash of oyster sauce & a sprinkle of sesame oil over your kailain to serve!

Even better if you have left over spring onions from your previous dish, sprinkle some on for garnish.

Ok, so I sort of threw it altogether and the timing ... and steps will need further refinement. But this is pretty much the way to serve 4 dishes in under an hour. I use my rice cooker on the side to make rice at the same time.

Dessert: See my Hei zhi ma hu (黑芝麻糊), my final recipe version is here on teh Recipe Community: Black Sesame Paste/Soup

If you already prepped this, just add into a clean TM bowl and cook for 7 mins with the appropriate amoutn of liquid.

Asian Meal for 4 (Pt1) - Kecap Manis Pork Belly & Tofu with Minced Pork

This is essentially a variation of my braised pork ribs made easy using pork belly and substituting 1/2 the sugar with kecap manis - which brings out the sweet flavours. I add 1/2 a tbspn of the TM Vegetable paste instead of using soy sauce as the salt content. Brings in extra depth in flavour.

While this is cooking on the bottom you can make Tofu with Minced Pork. In order to demonstrate this for friends or customers, I general use a strip of the frozen pork belly skin removed and mince this myself in the TM. You can just use a lean pork mince for this.

The recipe is available on teh Recipe Community so I won't repeat unnecessary info here. I've added a few photos to whet your appetite.

The pork belly takes about 20 - 30 mins, but your tofu dish takes longer. When combined, go for 35 - 40 mins at Varoma, Speed 1. Trust me the meat will not get tougher, it will only become more tender and melt-in-your-mouth!

 

Fundraiser for August :)

The cause is a really good one.

I'm baking up a storm for Australian Red Cross, a cause that is close to my heart and I would welcome any contribution, great or small, that you could make!

Please visit my Fundraising Page: http://bigcakebake.gofundraise.com.au/page/nekoTMbakeoff

All donations to this site are electronically wired to Australian Red Cross and an automatic receipt is emailed to you immediately.

Help me bake the world a better place by making a donation - every little bit helps to reach my modest target of $200.

My promise to sponsors: Donations above $50, will receive a cake order or cupcake order at a date of your choice! Contact me to arrange!

Thank you for your support!

Quick winter salads

Fast & easy side dish to off set any meat or just a healthy vegetarian main meal!

Ingredients
2 beetroot
1/2 a medium Spanish red onion
100 g walnuts halved
200 g baby spinach or mixed leaf salad
100 g Danish feta
Salt/pepper to taste

Method
1. Peel & quarter the beetroot
2. Place beetroot & onion in TM bowl. Speed 5, 3-4 seconds.
3. Add walnuts, whole block feta and chop at Speed 3, 2 seconds.
4. Place salad green in bowl / plate.
5. Scoop out salad & apportion onto plate for presentation. Serve with toasted Turkish bread for a main meal lunch :)


Sprinkle salt & pepper if you'd like. I found the fresh sweet taste of the beetroot, the salt in feta & the bite of the Spanish red onion was enough.

Short Post: hiatus of 5 days while on holiday

Well 5 days have passed, I haven't cleaned up the previous recipe posts yet.

But here's some food for thought or rather a brain-freeze! I love strawberries but they're no longer in season, at about $8-10 a punnet for fresh ones... it's hard to come by to make my favourite sorbet. Here's a recipe that uses frozen for a strawberry ice-cream. I'll shortly put up a Cherry Ripe Ice-cream recipe kindly provided by a fellow Thermomix consultant (I'll have to check who she got it from but it's delicious!).

Yes I know it's winter in little old Perth, but after a trip to Melbourne I know there's a difference. I literally feel like it's soooo warm here. And the gelato I had in Melbourne ('W'inter) were delicious. And I know in the warmth of your own home, a healthy icecream really is an ideal snack to go with your favourite movie!

Healthier Choc Chip Cookies

Well, this is a spelt and whole meal flour with brazil nut & peanut butter & dark chocolate chip cookie recipe variation ;) turns out its even more delicious on the 2nd day!

Porridge or risotto

Mom always figured out a way to make me eat what I didn't like the most: celery!

This is a mince & celeriac porridge/risotto, which tastes a lot like her pressure cooker rice porridge version, using arborio rice instead!

Easy Asian meal for four in <1 hr

A combination of dishes in the TM will provide you with a delicious meal for 4 in under 1 hour. Here are some of the images from my Asian food demonstration.

Recipes include: 

• Tofu with Minced Pork
• Kecap Manis Pork Belly
• Miso & Tofu Soup
• Steamed Kailan
• Black Sesame Paste/Soup



Staples

Everyone has staples they must keep in the house, below a few of my favourites:

• the TM Five Seed Bread (2 loafs each batch).
• TM Vegetable paste (funny how each batch churns out a different amount and somewhat different colour). This current batch is saltier, but more zucchini-ish than celeriac flavoured.
• TM Mayonnaise, I think I've over using Bran Seed Oil - it is so tasteless. So healthy but so tasteless!!!

Tomato soup try-outs!

I hate tomatoe soup. After a team meeting where we talked about how to not be prejudiced against a recipe (roughly) and try things out and have a new perspective, I went home to try this out. I bought a whole bag of tomatoes and thought this can't be hard. It is soup season, and I can't just keep to potato and pumpkin. Exploration was called for.

Followed the EDC Tomato Soup recipe somewhat. Added my own twists: I thought it would be too slim and sour, so I added risoni (rice shaped pasta) and a can of white beans to padd it up. The beans I blended in with the cooked tomatoes and then added the risoni. I served it with soft Greek feta cheese. Have to say, it wasn't as sour as I had expected and the melted feta was delicious. But then again cheese always is!

What I do look like about this dish is that it's heartier the next day. The Risoni absorbs the flavours thoroughly and also reduces the acidity, extra sugar at the cooking stage will help too if you like a "sweeter" soup. I had my own milled pepper and put that in as well so it was quite spicy & peppery.

This works really well with the Five Seed Bread or a nice cheese scone!

Would I cook it again? Maybe not... I'm still a Potato & Leek Soup girl no matter how many I've tried. Maybe I'll take a crack at the new "purple" cauliflower - and make that into a creamy soup next time!

Braised pork ribs made easy!

Pork short ribs are cheap at the Chinese butchers. It's that piece that's not really a proper "spare rib" so it's not as nicely presentable, but it's not the 'finger' portions in between the ribs because it still has bits of bone.

Here are all the ingredients used:

2 spring onions chopped to 2 cm

1 kg of pork short ribs (they can come already cut into pieces if your butcher is nice or you just chop them up when you get strips of them)

the bowl contains a mixture of Oyster Sauce, Light Soy (almost equaly portions of 50mL)

Raw Sugar (80g)

Shaoxing Chinese Cooking Wine (50mL)

50mL cooking oil (I use EVOO)

The Method to my madness:

1. Cooking oil & raw sugar, heat at Varoma temperature for 2 mins, Sp1.

2. Add meat and spring onions. Cook for 6 mins, Varoma, Sp soft (rev). Until meat is slightly browned.

3. Add cooking wine, sauces. Cook for 22 mins, Varoma, Sp soft (rev).

Tips? Hmm, I guess you could cook it for as long as you wish. It actually is cooked through by about 20 mins, leave it in longer if you want more falling off the bone meat. Also leaving the MC off is a great idea. Whole house smelt of braised pork!

Scones and Soup!

I love a hearty soup with the right breads. After a hint from a work colleague about a favourite soup being Potato & Bacon, I took a look in the cupboard and fridge on the weekend and decided that's a pretty hearty one to make.

The soup is pretty simple, follow the normal Potato & Leek (take out leek), maybe use some spring onions instead. Add a few slices of bacon with onion to fry up at Step 1 and of you go!

I had made the staple of 5 seed bread but it's really so yummy to eat by it self I didn't want to use it with soup! So I made scones! Cheeze and chive ones! Added dash of pepper and about 80 g of cheese or so.

A couple of different decent butter / dairy cheese replacement can be found at PAWS. Careful when you pick out margerines from the regular stores, a couple of the brands are actually not vegan-friendly.  

I shook out a Rochelle Adonis recipe and used the tip of flouring my "cookie cutter" before cutting my scones. The don't stick as badly and look prettier.

Before & After photos:

Absolutely delicious and quick meal on a Sunday winter's afternoon!

Before you start the soup, mix the dough for scones and set up for oven baking.

By the time the soup is done in 17 - 25 mins. You will have the scones piping hot (cooling down enough not to burn yourself). Watch out... cause I did burn my tongue on these.

I absolute adore easy meals. Feeds 4 to 6. In my family, that only went enough for 3. Too bad my stomach only allowed me to have 2 per bowl of soup! (But I managed to sneak in seconds and trick my tummy!)

TM Meeting & a late night snack

Went to a TM Team Meeting and ate out at Siena's in Mt Lawley! Had to say the pasta/pizza deal on Mondats/Tuesdays are still worth it at $13.95 (volume/price wise). Service and the wait left much to be desired. I realised upon ordering my usual penne al pollo style dish, I could cook this! And I could make it saltier and tastier with more cream & cheese without feeling guilty in a Thermomix! (I've yet to learn portion control really after I've tested a recipe)

So went home and decided to try out the Bee Hoon dish in the Taste of Asia Cookbook. Upon reading it, I realized there was no way at 10pm at night I was defrosting a couple of chicken breasts pieces just to put into my lunch tomorrow - I settled for vegetarian bee hoon.

Since I was taking out the chicken strips, the ingredient portions weren't really right - but then again, considering I never follow recipes this wasn't a surprise.

Here's my version, and no I didn't really re-invent the wheel. Bee hoon is one of those dishes that left over stir fried veggies actually make it taste better.

Ingredients:

200 g Bee hoon (lukewarm water, soak for at least 1/2 hour to more - you don't want it mushy but all must be separated into 'strands')

4 dried shitake mushrooms (soaked for while - I put these to soak before I left the house for dinner at 6:30 - started cooking at 10:30; generally it will only need an hour or two)

200 g carrots (julienned)
100 g of left-over stirfried green beans (you can use raw but will have to put in at same time as carrots)

3 garlic cloves

1/2 sml - med brown onion

1/4 lrg red onion (sliced)

1 sml dried red chilli
1 tbspn Oyster sauce
1-2 tspn Sesame oil

50 mL Cooking oil (extra virgin olive oil)

2 tspn of vegetable paste
1/4 tspn of cracked pepper (I used TM milled pepper)
320 ml of liquid (I used the soaking water/liquid of the mushrooms = mushroom stock)
1 spring onion (chopped / julienned)

Method:

1. Garlic & brown onion & chilli into bowl, Sp 6 & 5 seconds.

2. Add 50 mL of cooking oil, set to 3 mins, Varoma, Sp Soft - Reverse. I put it on reverse now in case I forget later.

3. Attach Butterfly.

4. Add carrots & red onion (& green bean if using raw). Set to 5 mins, Varoma, Sp Soft - Reverse.

5. Add bee hoon, space it around the butterfly (having too much curled on top could 'skew' your butterfly during the turning process).

6. Add spring onion.

7. Mix vegetable paste, oyster sauce, sesame oil, cracked pepper in with the 'mushroom stock'. Pour into TM Bowl on top of bee hoon & spring onions.

8. Set at 7 mins, Varoma, Sp Soft - Reverse.

9. Pour into Thermoserver, stir through with chopstick as mixture may not be as even when poured out. Don't worry it's all cooked through & evenly cooked!!!

Taste: 4 out of 5 stars. I don't give full points. It lacked in presentation.
The spice might not be to what you normally prefer - but this way it provides a little bit of heat during "winter". Asian winter warmer!

Tips/Recommendation:

Things to note namely is the presentation... it's a bit "blobby". As in gluggy looking. This is because I tried to reduce the liquid portion when I took out the chicken - but I didn't reduce this enough! Change to 250 mL of liquid and it'll be perfect. Depending on the vegetables you use - always keep in mind they have water content, when cooked this liquid comes out and can replace

The 'mushroom stock' also gives the noodles a darker colour - so I don't use soy sauce.

Side note - prefer saltier? Add light soy - this adds salt. If you prefer 'darker coloring' - add dark soy sauce - this adds colour and not as much salt as the light soy.

I used extra oil:

1. carrots 'eat up' oil when stirfried, and you can stirfry this longer.

2. this also keeps the noodles from becoming extremely starching - other method is to drain out water & dry out the bee hoon and add a drizzle of oil on before placing in TM bowl . This means extra prep time, but it does actually reduce the overall amount of oil used.

Options with bee hoon: buy the ones which are already cut - in noodle packets - this way you don't have to worry about how long each strand is and it getting stuck on your butterfly. Or just trim the "roll/woolspun" ones at ends. So far I haven't found a favourite brand. The one I used was called the Chilli Brand (not chilli flavour, but somehow looking at the picture, adding a small chilli sounded like a good idea).

Also - upon tasting, I realized chopping the onion in with garlic really didn't do much. It's better to have it as slices, instead of the red onion, to add in with carrots. Why? Cause the red onion actually loses colour & vibrancy - it also adds colour to the overall dish. Use yellow or white onion - it will lead to a 'clearer' bee hoon dish at the end.

Always remember to have something white, green, red or yellow. Bellpeppers is a good one to add. The original calls for cabbage, cabbage requires quite a bit of cooking time and liquid. I'd recommend against it if you're doing a straight vegetarian one - extra liquid leads to a much more starchy bee hoon texture.

Hei zhi ma hu (黑芝麻糊) - Trial #1

Just some basic notes about my first trial with making hei zhi ma hu (黑芝麻糊).

Ingredients:
100g glutinous rice
100g black rice
200g black sesame (roasted)
100g raw sugar

Method:
1. Mill glutinous rice (Sp 10, 30 seconds).
2. Roast on Varoma, Sp 3, 3mins. Remove to separate dish/bowl to cool.
3. Mill black rice (Sp 10, 30 seconds).
4. Roast on Varoma, Sp 3, 3 mins. Remove to separate dish / bowl to cool.
5. Add in glutinous rice flour, black rice flour, sessame and mill. Gradually increase speed to prevent escape from lid/spillage.
6. Roast on Varoma, sp 4, 4 mins.
7. Add sugar mill gradually.
8. Pour out , cool & store.

I left 200 g or so in the bowl and added 1/2 ltr of boiled water, and stirred on 90C, Sp 3, 5 mins. Taste tests throughout the process. The method is direct conversion from the wok fry / toast method of the milled flours. I wasn't sure how long to toaste the milled flour as most Chinese recipes states, look out for golden colour of cooked flour.

I see a way of simplifying the receipe, by milling the black rice & glutinous rice together. Then toasting in total 5-6mins. Add toasted black sesame & sugar and broil in water 100C for 7-9mins. This is 1) to boil the water, 2) to cook the rice flours a bit more. Will try this method next. Combining the rices might make milling easier too.

This produces over 1/2 kg of sesame mix ready to eat (just add boiling water). The 200g I left in made enough for 3 small bowls. Will also see if I can try a version by removing the black rice, as this is slightly chewy in texture.

Dad loves this stuff - we buy pre-made mini packets. I'm sure the sugar content is way high!

Mom loves the bubur pulut hitam (black rice porridge) with coconut milk. So a drizzle of that would make it taste almost the same but with a sheen of sesame oils. Might also re-adjust recipe for a quick & easy version of the bubur pulut hitam!

Yum Cha for Dinner

I don't have to go out for yum cha now - well, maybe. There's only one restaurant that does yum cha at night in Perth: The New Moon on James Street.

I sometimes have a craving for mini siu (烧麦). I used to buy this specific brand of pre-made frozen siu mai. Basically, you snip the package corner & just microwave for 2-4 minutes. 12 instant mini siu mai as a snack! Easy much simpler than driving out for one bamboo basket of 4 pcs.

Ok not the healthiest snack: there's probably additives and very little actual meat or prawns in the pre pack.

Tuesday nights are my non-TM work night. So I cheated with what I had on hand to make this! It's not restaurant standard pretty... But I can work on that.

The Taste of Asia has the recipe p. 72. I didn't have prawns on hand, so my variation contains:

350g pork mince

4 spring onions (white & green bits all chopped finely)

1 tspn of Massels vegetable concentrate powder

1 tspn of chicken stock powder

20-30g of soy sauce

2 eggs

Wonton skins (used 1/2 a large packet)

Some Chinese cabbage (inner heart leafs roughly broken/chopped)

Method:

- you can use the TM to mix but I found it pretty easy by hand.

1. Boil 1ltr of water in TM bowl (7mins, Varoma temp, Sp3-4) cover lid w measuring cup.

2. Meanwhile, spoon mince mixture on to sheet of wonton add small pinch of leaves to cover top of siu mai. Squeeze tight flatten bottom. Place in Varoma tray/receptacle.

3. Repeat 2 until mince all used or receptacle filled.

4. Remove measuring cup.

5. Place Varoma receptacle set on TM bowl, cover with wet clean towel. (18mins, Varoma temp, Sp3). Chinese steamers always 'seal' so less steam escapes. Wonton skins are sometime dry so if not enough steam soaks in it will be chewy!

6. Sides:

I roughly chopped 1 bunch of bakchoy and added that to the bowl's remains water (3mins on 100C), removed vegetables as side dish/garnish. You can add some oyster sauce on top of the vegetables but I like the plain which went well with my siu mai.

I had the left over liquid as a clear soup :) what you might call "short soup" in restaurants. The flavor/oils from the siu mai had dripped down. If you had left over mince you could add to this with left over Chinese cabbage for a delicious 'longer soup'.

If you followed the steam rice recipe in EDC, you can definitely have this & vegetables with the rice. If this is the case and you want soup left - consider adding more water in the beginning (start with 1.5 ltr).

Tips:

1. Lightly greasy the Varoma receptacle.

2. Don't pack the siu mai too tightly!

3. If using soy sauce either use only the chicken stock or Massel. Both I found to be too salty to eat without rice or soup.

Honestly, sometimes life gets in the way of living.

Sometimes, life throws us curve balls to test if we still have the tenacity and elasticity of mind to bounce instead of *k-splat* on the pavement. Two interest curve balls these past two weeks to 1. excuse my lack of posts and garner sympathy, 2. to just share what's been on my mind:

Curve ball 1:
There's been a restructure at my day job. My position / role is fine, but... it's a different environment now to work in. This is the second one I've been through in approx. 6-8 months. Well honestly, was in an environment previously that had the "restructure" thing hanging over my head for over 10-12 months, it's nearly 1.5 years of pending "redundancy" feeling. I'm a bit over it and just over-exhausted to even pep myself up.

Curve ball 2:
Recently, I woke up one morning and couldn't turn my neck and move my left arm. This is not to do with any sports injury - I'm not a sportswoman by any stretch of that word. It freaked me out - still in quite a bit of pain and can't lift anything with my left hand. Tingly sessions sporadicly go through my arm. Overall an uncomfortable experience. Yes I've seen a doctor, there was a pinched nerve, some vetebrae adjustments and inflammation of the muscle/tendon groups around the area.

I'll bounce but... it just means I will be spending more time else where for the time being. With that being said, it's likely I'll use cooking as a way to de-stress. Lifting the TM bowl on my left hand is a bit difficult right now...

I'll fix up the previous posts on receipes and maybe add a little something to my other "dining out" blog. don't give up on me, I'll still keep posting. So keep an eye out and I'll surprise you later.

Baking night: Mighty Muffins for Puffins

Ok honestly who feeds puffins? I don't even work in academia.

I made banana muffins & savoury cheese scones/muffins! Post on recipe variation later here's some photos to tempt your taste buds.

The smell is driving me mad despite having a full dinner out! I don't know how many of these would actually make it to work.

Banana Muffins:

I read up on various recipes and here's what I used & did:

Ingredients:

2 large ripe bananas

100-120g Butter (room temp)

100g Brown Sugar (more if you like sweeter - original recipe said 180g, I nearly died from a heart attack. Bananas are generally pretty sweet already)

240 Self rising flour

2/3 tspn of bi-carb soda

1 tspn of vanilla essence or you can use vanilla pod ground/extract

2 eggs

3 tbspn of warmed milk

Method:

1. Add Sugar + Butter, Sp 4, 30 seconds to mix in

2. Add all other ingredients, Sp 4, 25 seconds.

3. Canola spray/grease up muffin trays. Pour in. / otherwise, use little cupcake paper wraps and just pour straight in! No greasing required.

4. Bake for 20 - 25mins on 180C.

5. Leave in tray for 2-4 mins, remove and cool on a cooling rack.

You can probably combine Step 1 & 2 together and have no problems!

I really like Savoury above Sweets. So Savoury Cheese Scones were next.

Ingredients:

Method: