BACONNAISE, DULSE AND ME!
Baconnaise!
Well rather than go shopping for all those bits and pieces one runs out of periodically, I decided to clean out the fridge and do a bit of home made pantry inventory…so on a busy Saturday I not only managed to navigate an early start at the dentist with two (yes two at once!) kids getting their wisdom out, but I made Kulfi (post to come), whipped up a batch of my world famous granola, made Baconnaise, Corn and Cheese Crackers, a batch of Asian flavoured stock concentrate, as well as a Roasted Wheat and Honey loaf, and some dried veggie stock with Dulse…and then went and picked the poor round faced kiddies back up again, and came home to play nurse…
(Just call me super-MUM)
I have had plans for Baconnaise for a while, a heady mixture of rich, creamy egg mayo with the salty smoky flavour of bacon through it…I imagined the home fries I could dunk, the coleslaw I could slather, the straight up lickability of it many times before finding myself here: Done it! Made it! Blogged about it!
Baconnaise
NEED:
200-300g rendered bacon fat (discussed below)
2 egg yolks
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
cracked black pepper to taste
additional EVOO as needed
juice 1/2 lemon or to taste
DO:
Render the bacon fat by placing speck, streaky or relatively fatty bacon (500g approx) in medium heat pan (Induction 4-5) and allow fat to ‘render’. Strain and remove all solids. Bacon will be crisp and could be chopped up finely and added to mayo if desired. Set fat aside and allow to cool without solidifying. The fat MUST BE COOL!
Place egg yolks, vinegar, mustard and pepper into TM bowl and mix for 1 minute at 37°C on speed 5.
Add bacon fat very slowly as you run the blade at speed 5. This process should take approximately 3-4 minutes.
Add extra oil as needed to make up volume if needed. (You can generally add up to 500g fat to 2 yolks as a ratio guide.)
Add lemon juice and stir through for 5 seconds on speed 5. Scrape from Thermomix bowl and serve in whatever way you imagined…
I can attribute this next idea to a Sydney Thermomix consultant who separates her ‘stock options’ (don’t you love it?) into Red, Green and Other…This is quite spicy but for a mild version, reduce or completely leave out the chillies.
Asian Base Stock Concentrate
Asian Base Stock Concentrate
NEED:
4 cloves garlic
3 dried or fresh red chillies
2-3 kaffir lime leaves
2 onions peeled and halved
50g oil
1 lemongrass stalk
handful coriander leaves
handful Italian parsley leaves
600g tomatoes chopped
1 red capsicum roughly chopped
180g Himaylan salt
few Dulse leaves (sea vegetable available at Health Food stores)
DO:
Place garlic, chillies, lime leaves, onion and oil into Thermomix bowl and chop for 4 seconds on speed 6. Saute for 5 minutes at Varoma temperature on speed 2. Add remaining ingredinets and cook for 30 minutes at 100°C on speed 3. Remove lemon grass stalk before pureeing by bringing speed up slowly to speed 9 until well blended. This is quite liquid as opposed to being a paste. Store in sterilised jars in fridge until use. This should keep up to 6 months without any problem.
Veggie Stock Powder
Dried Veggie Stock Powder
NEED:
2 x 100g mixed dried vegetables (I used a peas and corn and a peas and carrot mix)
200g Himalayan Pink salt
5g Dulse sea vegetable
50g dried onion flakes or fried shallots (from Asian supermarket)
DO:
Place all ingredients into Thermomix bowl and blitz for 20 seconds on speed 10. Store in airtight jar. This is very salty, but that is the purpose of stock, and at least you know what is in it. One teaspoon equals one stock cube in conventional recipes.
Pantry replenished. I have plans for a pantry book…but it has taken a back seat to a lot of other projects. What Thermomix book would you like to see most and what elements would you include?
