Thai green curry for cooking cheats

I'm a huge fan of Thai green curry and yes I realize you can make the Thai green curry paste from scratch in the Thermomix. It's Alan Quah's recipe in A Taste of Asia Cookbook. But I can't seem to justify making a wholetub of it for myself. Cooking for 1 or two is difficult and I'll never use up the paste (since it doesn't have preservatives, it's not like the jarred suff you can keep for months in the fridge). It does taste ingredible (I've made it before... but I had to throw 1/2 a bottle when I didn't finish it in time). 

 If you have a preferred brand of Thai Green Curry paste, let me know. I've been using this one for a while and it's my current favourite, but I'm keen to see what other ones taste like too. 

Ingredients:

1 medium brown onion

1 clove of garlic

1 dried chilli

50g olive oil

180g pork (in this case, you can use chicken or any other meat of choice - white meat or fish works best)

400g can of coconut milk

2 medium carrots (cubed/roughly chopped)

1 large zucchini (cubed)

100g baby spinach

Method: 

1. Chop & Stir fry onion, garlic and 1 dried chilli. Speed 5, 5 seconds.

2. Add 50g oil, fry on Varoma temperature, Speed 1, 3 minutes.

3. Add 2 tblspn of the Green curry Paste. Cook on Varoma temperature, Speed 1, 2 minutes.

4. Add (cubed/strips) Pork / Chicken or meat of preference. Cook on Varoma temperature, Speed 1 reverse, 5 minutes.

5. Add carrots & coconut milk. Cook at 100C , Speed 1 reverse, 16 minutes.

6. Add zucchini. Cook at 100C, Speed 1 reverse, 4 minutes.

7. Place spinach in Thermoserver, pour out bowl into Thermoserver, stir and leave while you make rice!

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!

 

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!

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.

Pumpkin & Parsnip Soup (Asian Style)

Soup is one of the easiest things to make in the TM. I mean, what could go wrong? Too much soup for too little people.

I had 1 parsnip and 1/2 a medium butternut pumpkin in the fridge, so I thought to myself on Thursday night, I could just change the EDC Pumpkin Soup recipe, a little.

Ingredients:
1 medium parsnip (peeled, chopped into 4 large pieces)
1/2 medium butternut pumpkin (peeled, chopped into large pieces)
1/2 Spanish red onion
1/2 red chilli
1cm piece of ginger (more if you prefer the taste - it's really hard to get me to eat heavy ginger flavoured dishes)
60g olive oil
1 tbspn of TM Vegetable Paste
Water (enough to fill up, up to under max mark, you can use less - depending on thickness)
2 MC of cream
Some coriander leaves (leave a few sprigs aside for presentation, should you be plating properly)

Method:
 1. TM minced and then fried: onion, red chilli, ginger (Sp 6, then fry - 3 mins, 100 C, Sp 1 to fry).
 2. Scrape down sides with spatula. Add parsnip & butternut pumpkin. The two vegetables added to about 600g. I peeled them because the butternut had been sitting in the fridge for a while, if you buy fresh leaving the peel on is fine after a good wash. (Sp 6)
 3. Add water and TM Vegetable Paste.
 4. Follow the EDC recipe for cooking time + additional 20% for the volume.
 5. Add coriander - to taste.
 6. Add 2 MC of full cream.
 7. Whiz/puree (up to Sp 9, 30sec to 1min, depending on the consistency you would like).

I added cream but if you like to make a vegan version just don't use cream. Sadly, I did this and forgot and brough a cup for Vegan Boy. LOL he didn't drink it of course, but it didn't go to waste - someone else at his work drank it.

It was quite spicy, the ginger and chilli combination really hit the throat and opens up your sinuses. I was so glad I didn't use the birdseye chillies I bought and only put 1/2 a chilli in. I also recommend to either up the speed on Step 2 to chop finer before cooking OR add additional puree time. The TM can actually create quite a smooth soup without the cream. I just love creamy soups. Coming to winter, I can see myself soup-ing a lot more.

Customer Challenge: Char Siu Pork (Part 1)

I have a potential customer who says if the TM can make Char Siu Pork like Hong Kong BBQ and do a good stir-fried rice in the TM (comparable to his Jamie Oliver wok-fried rice), then he'd [consider?] buying a TM. I wouldn't like to force the issue if I could accomplish said feat...but the plan is to try this recipe next month.

Thank the blessed gods & goddesses for Tenina. So now... on to practicing!

Simple Asian home cooking

Recipe coming soon... Now to eat!!!