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!