Golden Fish Curry and Rice

OK, so we’re supposed to eat more fish, and I have to admit, I don’t eat anywhere near enough, I am way too busy testing recipes that normally don’t have fish as the starring ingredient…but this is one of my older recipes that appeared in last year’s Thermomix calendar. It is fragrant and quick, and definitely a great way to include fish in your weekly menu. I have another one of these fragrant curries up my sleeve as well…so stay tuned if you like this one….more to come.

NEED:

3 cm peeled ginger
Few kaffir lime leaves
1-2 red chilli es, de-seeded or to taste
3 cloves garlic
20 g dried prawns
1 tbsp ground turmeric
2 tsp tamarind purée
1 tbsp oil
20 g palm sugar
500-550 g coconut cream
1 kg white fish fillets cubed
1 tbsp fish sauce
Juice 1 lime
Few sprigs coriander to garnish

DO:

Place ginger, lime leaves, chillies, garlic, prawns, turmeric, tamarind purée, oil and palm sugar into Thermomix bowl and chop for 4 sec/speed 6-7. Scrape down sides of bowl and sauté for 4 min/Varoma/speed 1.

Add coconut cream and cook for 8 min/100°C/speed 1. (It is OK if the oil separates.) Add fish, fish sauce and lime juice and cook for 9 min/100°C/Reverse + speed soft.

Garnish with coriander and additional lime wedges, serve with steamed rice….and feel your heart breathe a sigh of relief….

Tom Yum with Prawns

I have wanted to do this for ages. I absolutely love Tom Yum and always made it with a bought paste, until now! A bit of investigation, a little tweaking, and here we have it. The paste is a recipe in its own right and of course will keep for ages in an airtight jar in the fridge and can be used for anything that Tom Yum paste can be used for. So I give you not one, but two recipes…you gotta ‘LIKE’ that kids?

Paste;

NEED:

2 stalks lemon grass, white part only

3 kafir lime leaves

30g galangal

25g Nam Prik Plao (Roasted chilli paste)

2-4 Thai birds eye chillies (I used 2, with seeds)

75g eschalots (about 1 large)

10g gula melacca (melaka? rock pam sugar? jaggery?)

25g fine shrimp paste

20g fish sauce

35g peanut oil

Good handful coriander, roots, stalks, leaves

Juice and zest 1 lime

DO:

Place all ingredients into mixing bowl and blend 30 sec/speed 5 then increase speed and blend a further 1 min/speed 6.

Scrape down sides of bowl and lid and cook 15 min/Varoma/speed 2 with the MC on an angle to allow reduction.

Soup;

NEED:

3-4 cloves garlic

30g ginger

1L water

400g tomatoes chopped

1 birds eye chilli

200g mixed mushrooms

100g baby corn

1kg prawns in shell

DO:

Place all ingredients, except mushrooms, corn and prawns into mixing bowl with cooled paste.

Place prawns into Varoma dish and set into positon.

Cook 15 min/Varoma/speed 2.

Add corn, mushrooms and cook a further 15 min/Varoma/speed 2.

When soup is cooked serve with the following accompaniments;

Shredded Chinese cabbage

Diced tomatoes

Sliced spring onions/shallots

Diced red caspicum

Lots of fresh coriander leaves

Lime wedges

You can pretty much add any other chopped veggies that make it for you! Or add chicken, or pork…I think this might make me a Tom Yummy Mummy!

Well here I go again…the fruit in the salad routine! Can’t help it, just adds that piquancy that a salad needs. This salad is quick, to the point and totally great to increase or decrease to suit the numbers you are feeding. Add more spinach, avocado, prawns, peanuts, and/or pineapple to suit.

A great summer option, or as in this case, autumn (‘fall’ down under) option…we are still having 35°C (95°F) days here! Frankly I’m looking forward to a good ole rainy day and the chance to cook up a batch of soup or something, but in the meantime, this sort of food reminds me of why I love summer. My pic was compromised somewhat due to the earlier setting of the sun, (damn Thermomix office that holds me till all the good light has gone)! And of course I am off to Melbourne this week, of all weeks, for a food shoot on a work project with a proper stylist and photographer and everything, so this pic hardly sells me does it…oh so much to learn, and so excited to do so…I may never come back!

NEED:

Dressing;

3 cloves garlic

1/2 red onion

50g fish sauce

juice of 3-4 limes (50-60g)

40g EVOO

2 tbsp palm sugar

3 handfuls fresh mint leaves

few sprigs fresh coriander leaves

1 bunch chives thinly sliced

1 *roasted large red chili sliced thinly

Salad;

300g peanuts

500-600g forzen prawn cutlets (use fresh, but alter cooking time significantly!)

1 whole pineapple, peeled, cored and diced

1-2 large avocadoes peeled and diced

200g baby spinach

DO:

Make dressing by placing garlic, onion, fish sauce, lime juice, EVOO, palm sugar, mint and coriander into Thermomix bowl and blending for 15 seconds on speed 6.

Add chives and chilli and stir through for a few seconds on Reverse + speed 3. Set aside. (You can premake the dressing and allow flavours to blend for up to 24 hours prior to use. This dressing would also be excellent on other salads.)

Roast peanuts by placing nuts into 200°C oven and cooking for 10 minutes or until fragrant. Cool slightly.

Prepare prawns by placing into paper lined Combi Steam Oven tray, or Varoma tray and steaming for 15 minutes. (This time refers to frozen prawns, if using fresh you will need significantly less time.)

Gently toss all salad ingredients together with dressing and add a few extra coriander leaves. Serve immediately.

*I roasted my own chillies by simply placing them on top of the naked flame on my Kleenmaid wok burner for around 5-7 minutes. I did need to keep turning them (used one, saved one) until they were fairly evenly charred. Wrapped them in foil after that, until the skins blistered and rubbed off easily. The flavour difference in doing this is significant…and it is so easy and quick to do, I hope you try it.

Thai Flavors Chilli Jam

I have a little chilli bush and honestly, at this time of the year, I can barely keep up and still they ripen like little candle flames on the bush. They do look so appealing (especially if you have just returned from Phuket and a week of crazy hot food)!

So a little Thai flavored chilli jam, to honor the Phuket trip (and unfortunately only uses 8 little chillies!) Not sure how to use the other thousand that are ripening as we speak! What are your favorite recipes using lots of chillies?

NEED:

8-10 cloves garlic

100g fresh ginger

100g fresh galangal

8 small chillies (or 4 long)

2-3 kaffir lime leaves

zest and juice 4 limes

100g water

220g Gula melaka sugar in chunks

60g fish sauce

90g rice wine vinegar

20g soy or tamari sauce

DO:

Place garlic, ginger, galangal, chillies and lime leaves into Thermomix bowl and mince together to form a paste. This may take a couple of turns on speed 7-8 with a scrape down in between.

Add remaining ingredients and blend for 1 minute on speed 7.

Tip all into a saucepan and cook on Induction 5 until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to Induction 6-7 to bring to a steady simmer. You will need to reduce the jam until it changes colour and becomes sticky.

Meanwhile, sterlise a glass jar and keep it hot.

Decant cooked jam into hot jar, seal and allow to cool.

Check seal by trying (not too hard) to open the jar. If it is difficult to open the jar, it is sealed and will keep in the pantry indefinitely. If the seal breaks easily, keep refrigerated until use. Serve with any meats, to add  heat to a salad dressing, as a side with Thai food…or straight out of the jar if you need a chilli hit!

Soft Buttermilk Rolls

With all my new found Asian recipe experience, you would think that rolls would be the last thing on my list for this site….but truly, the most beautiful bread rolls I have ever eaten were prepared during my Chinese journey…and I had to share this method, if not the ingredients. Slightly different, (largely because I had made butter and had a surplus of buttermilk!) I used all buttermilk for the liquid component and despite (or because of?) a sticky dough, the outcome was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!

A little science about buttermilk in baking can be found here, but essentially, the acid in the buttermilk breaks down the gluten in the flour and voila, you have amazingly Soft Buttermilk Rolls. Eat at your own peril, because one just isn’t enough!

NEED:

Roux:

30g flour

30g sugar

120g buttermilk

Dough;

350g bakers flour

Good pinch salt

25g butter

210g buttermilk

1 sachet dried yeast (2tsp)

DO:

Place Roux ingredients into Thermomix bowl and cook for 3 minutes at 80°C on speed 3. Cool slightly. Leave in Thermomix bowl.

Add all dough ingredients except yeast to cooked Roux in Thermomix bowl and mix for 10 seconds on speed 6. Add yeast and with dial set to closed lid position, knead for 4 minutes at Interval speed. Scrape out onto floured Silicone mat and wrap. Prove until doubled.

Shape into rolls with wet hands. (This makes the stickiness easier to cope with.) Place onto lined baking sheet, cover and rise until doubled. Place into cold oven and bake for 15-20 minutes at 180°C.

Serve hot with loads of the butter you had to make to get the buttermilk! (They are pretty darn good cold later as well…)

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?

Char Sui Pork Bun, De-Constructed!

WARNING: Long ingredient list…but don’t be put off!

You could call this ‘De-constructed Pork Buns or Pot Stickers’…almost. As you know (if you read this blog regularly), I am into anything that is easy and quick, can be adapted to feed 1000′s, and naturally, gotta be tasty. Pork Buns officially fill most of the said requirements, but these are easier and quicker still! And yes, I did the Char Sui Pork myself…see note below.

NEED:

Water Dough Pastry;

50g rice

150g bakers flour

50-100g boiling water

pinch salt

Oil Dough Pastry;

200g bakers flour

pinch salt

50g oil

50-70g hot water

Dressing;

1 dried chilli

2-3 cloves garlic

2cm piece peeled ginger

1-2 tbsp sugar

50g soy sauce

20g Chinese black vinegar

Juice 1 lemon

Remaining Filling;

600g Char Sui Pork, sliced

1/4 Chinese cabbage, shredded

A few sliced spring onions (shallots)

Bean shoots to taste

Crispy fried shallots to taste

500g cubed and roasted sweet potato

Roasted peanuts to taste (optional)

Few sprigs coriander

DO:

To make hot water dough, place rice into Thermomix bowl and mill for 1.5 minutes on speed 10. Add remaining ingredients and only about 50-60g of the water, mix for 6 seconds on speed 6.

With dial set to closed lid position, knead for 1 minute on Interval speed. (Add more water at this point if not forming sticky dough.) Turn out onto Silpat mat and wrap tightly. Allow to rest for at least 10 minutes.

Meanwhile make the oil dough by placing all ingredients into Thermomix bowl and mixing for 6 seconds on speed 6. With dial set to closed lid position, knead for 1.5 minutes on Interval speed. Wrap tightly and allow to rest for at least 10 mintues.

Place both doughs back into Thermomix bowl and with dial set to closed lid position, knead for 2 minutes on Interval speed.

Roll into long sausage shape and cut into rounds which you then roll flat into large circles before placing into a hot, well oiled fry pan, Induction 7-8. Add a ‘slosh’ of  water and cover the pan immediately so that the wrap is steamed. When the water has almost evaporated, remove lid and when golden, turn and brown the other side. Set aside, but keep warm until service.

To make Dressing, place all ingredients into Thermomix bowl and blend together for 15 seconds on speed 6. Set aside.

Assemble wraps as you would any other, salad, sweet potato, dressing, pork, garnishes and more dressing…don’t forget anything now! Is there something you would like me to ‘de-construct’ to make it simpler? Let me know…perhaps that should be my new alter ego…Recipe Doctor.com, or De-Constructs R Us! (Only in my spare time of course!)

Char Sui Pork

Make the Char Sui marinade by placing to taste honey, sugar, oyster sauce, five spice powder, soy sauce, Chinese black vinegar, Chinese wine, chilli, garlic and ginger into Thermomix bowl and mixing until blended. Heat for 4 minutes at 60C on speed 1 to form a syrup. Marinate up to 2 kg of pork fillet slices for several hours. (I marinated for around 24 hours) Cook under a very hot grill until charred and fragrant. Slice as needed.