Frying Roti

Rolled Roti with honey

You know I need to knead…and as I am developing a ‘Thai Thai Again’ advanced cooking class, I have been playing around with breads and flatbreads that may or may not be eaten in Thailand. I have to say, in traditional Thai cuisine, you will not find a lot of bread. SO: Disclaimer is thus….I have seen these served on the street with condensed milk AND sugar AND banana, and they are delicious. Full of carbs, and fat, so not for the diet conscious…but when has that ever been my mantra anyway?? Perfect for a hungry crowd with the sweet stuff or as an accompaniment to a great curry. The trick is in the pulling and folding, so go and watch a few videos with the technique. Once you get it, it is quite easy though I confess I must stick to square roti…I get the thinnest result that way. (And as mentioned…I am all about thin!!)

NEED:

500g bakers flour

200g water

35g milk

Good pinch Murray River pink salt flakes

2 tbsp sugar

1 egg

Oil and butter as needed

DO:

Place all ingredients except oil and butter into Thermo bowl and mix 15 sec/speed 6. Knead 2 min/Interval.

Leave in bowl for 20 minutes. Knead again 2 min/Interval.

Place onto oiled Silpat mat and divide into 16 pieces using your trusty SuperKitchenMachine spatula. (Don’t have one yet? Head on over to the store and order immediately!!) Roll into balls and drizzle generously with oil. Cover and rest again.

Heat a large flat pan on Induction 6 for at least 10 minutes.

Roll one ball at a time into a circle with a rolling pin. Slap the flat bread onto the mat and pull, turn, slap and pull again. It should catch on the mat and so pull the dough thinner and thinner without breaking. If it doesn’t stick, just use a very little oil on the mat and it should work. Pull it into a circle or square and then oil your hot pan. Fry each side, adding some butter once the bread has puffed up.

Remove, drizzle with honey, condensed milk, sprinkle with sugar, whatever takes your fancy…or serve with an amazing curry to mop up all those juices…

Ugly, yet delicious….are you spinning a dinner lately?

No time to cook? Then this is for you. Steam some rice while you marinate the beef strips, and you are eating Fake Away in absolutely no time. (Good on you mum!) If you really want to fire up the wok, go ahead, this works just as well. Use a high heat and pre heat the wok as you do the Thermomix bowl…the key to non stick cooking! Of course in the summer, wokking it is hotting it as well….so think about that first.

This has recently been added to the upgrade of Spin A Dinner, the ever so slightly wonderful iPhone app that is my brainchild…well one of them! So hoping you are all over that like a rash…well, like icing sugar or corn flour or finely grated Parmesan…or something foodie related…

NEED:

1 tbsp fish sauce

3 tbsp oyster sauce

4 tbsp chicken stock powder (recipe in For Foods Sake)

½ tsp sugar

2 tbsp Fini EVOO

4 cloves garlic

1 red chilli

500g fillet steak, finely sliced

Handful snow peas

Large handful Thai basil

Place fish sauce, oyster sauce, chicken stock, sugar, EVOO, garlic and chilli into Thermomix bowl and blend 10 sec/speed 6. Pour over meat and marinate for 30 minutes.

Preheat Thermomix bowl 5 min/Varoma/speed 2. Add 1 tbsp oil to bowl during last minute.

Drain marinade from beef and fry 5 min/Varoma/Reverse + speed 1. Remove from bowl and place into insulated serving bowl.

Add snow peas and basil leaves allowing residual heat in to wilt basil.

Serve immediately with steamed rice.

Cold Chilli Noodles….with all the fixings!

Someone asked me for this…cannot remember who…are you out there? They were hoping to approximate those horrible noodles the kids eat I think, ‘Mee Goreng’ and I am not ashamed to say it, my 16 year old eats them like there is no tomorrow. It is a cheap filler for his hollow legs, and I have bowed to the pressure. We have great hoardes of them in our store room….(he is child number five and seriously hungry ALL the time!)

This is a lot healthier than Mee Goreng, and so much nicer. It could join the fake-away list I am compiling for those of you who prefer fresh healthy fast food! Enjoy!

NEED:

400g noodles of your choice (I used udon stick noodles)

1L water

Sauce;

2 eschalots

2 cloves garlic

2 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 dried chillies, soaked in boiling water

55g miso paste

2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 tsp shrimp paste

2 tbsp tamari or soy sauce

2 tbsp honey

2 tbsp dark brown sugar (or Billingtons molasses sugar)

2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

Sea salt to taste

Garnishes;

Lettuce

Red or green cabbage

Carrots

Cucumber

Sprouts of choice

Spring onions/shallots

Kimchi (optional)

Sesame leaves, shredded (Perilla leaves, optional)

2-3 eggs, hard boiled

DO:

Place noodles and water into Thermomix bowl and cook 10 min/100ºC/Reverse + speed 1.

Drain noodles and plunge into cold water. Keep in insulated serving bowl in cold water until ready to assemble.

Prepare sauce by placing all ingredients into Thermomix bowl and blending 6 sec/speed 6. Scrape down sides of bowl and saute 5 min/Varoma/speed 1. 

Meanwhile prep all the garnishes, boiling, shredding or julienned as needed.

Stir sauce through noodles and top with all prepped garnishes before serving.

Chicken Mango and Noodle Salad

Perth has been having a mini heatwave…of sorts, and now it is all cloudy and threatening, but I do have the airconditioner in full swing. The first air conditioning day for the season in fact…here we go…summer is on its way!

So for a hot day, a quick and easy salad. Make the dressing. Chop the cabbage, fire up the barbie or the grill and dinner dilemma is solved…to everyones satisfaction I think.

Speaking of Dinner Dilemma’s being solved…VERY SOON…in my store (see tab above), I will have my first little self published project available for sale. Now let me just make a fuss…21 fabulous recipes, all main meals with lots of variety, whether you are carnivore or vegetarian, whether you enjoy Asian or Mexican food, spicy, salads, winter warmers, its a bit of a mixer and hopefully you will find that you have a new friend in the kitchen in this book. It is small enough to carry in your bag;  just call it a prehistoric app…bring it out at the shop to just check on a recipe ingredients and yes, dinner is sorted. It will be that easy…so hope to have a big SOLD OUT sign up really soon!

In the meantime, enjoy this…

NEED:
Dressing;

20g peeled ginger root

1 lemon grass stalk, white part only

1 kaffir lime leaf

1 red chili

2 cloves garlic

30g palm sugar

Pinch sea salt

40g fish sauce

100g lemon or lime juice, fresh

60-80g Fini EVOO

Handful fresh mint leaves

Salad;

One chicken breast fillet between 2 servings

1/2 Chinese cabbage

Few spinach leaves or other salad greens of choice

1-2 avocadoes

1-2 mangoes

1-2 pkts Changs fried noodles

DO:

Place all dressing ingredients into Thermomix bowl and blend 10 sec/speed 7. Remove from bowl and set aside.

Place up to 400g of cabbage at a time into the Thermomix bowl and chop 4 sec/speed 4. Remove from bowl and place on serving platter. Repeat with remaining cabbage until all is chopped. Place a few baby spinach leaves or other greens on top.

Meanwhile heat a griddle pan over a high heat on Induction 12. Oil it and then cook each chicken breast, until well charred and marked. Turn heat down to medium heat, (Induction 6), cover and cook until cooked through completely. Rest chicken,  covered in pan with heat turned off.

Chop avocado and mango and toss through the dressing.

Slice chicken on the diagonal and arrange over bed of greens, top with avocado, mango and drizzle with dressing. Garnish with noodles and additional sliced red chilies.

Voila, Summer is Served!

Chicken Biryani with Pistachios

From my understanding, Biryani is a recipe that takes all day, (and then some) if done in the traditional manner! It is also a dish cooked with the bone in the meat, which naturally adds flavor as well as nutrition, the variety of spices used is wide and every region/family has its own version! I believe that cooking all day with love for the dish, the flavours and the potential diners is wonderful and there are occasions when I do that, but not tonight! At the risk of offending the true Biryani aficionados, and throwing caution to the winds and WAAAY too busy to spend a whole day on one recipe, armed with a trusty Thermomix…(what else??) this is my version. And damn delicious it is too…if I say so ‘may-self’! You can use brown/red/white or black rice if you wish or a combo and if you are really going out on a limb, how about replacing the rice with quinoa….there are no bones, no layers of rice and chicken, it is simple in the extreme. So perhaps I should call it something else? Suggestions willingly accepted.

NEED:

1/2 cinnamon stick

2 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tbsp dried chili flakes (or to taste)

1 tsp sea salt

6 cloves garlic

2 eschalots

1 brown onion (80g)

20g piece peeled ginger

20g EVOO

1200g chicken thigh fillet, cut in large pieces

400g liquid chicken stock

400g water

200g rice of choice

50g dried currants

2 bay leaves,

2 tsp cardamom seeds

Pinch saffron threads

50g butter or ghee

Pistachios, almonds or other nuts of choice, toasted

DO:

Place cinnamon, coriander, chili flakes and salt into Thermomix bowl and mill 5 sec/speed 10.

Add garlic, eschalots, onion, ginger and EVOO and chop for 2 sec/speed 6. Saute 8 min/Varoma/speed 2.

Add chicken and stock and cook 6 min/100ºC/Reverse + speed soft.

Preheat oven to fan forced 200ºC.

Pour chicken mixture into large oven proof dish and stir through water, rice, currants, bay leaves, cardamom seeds and saffron threads. Cover and bake for 1 hour.

Check liquid and add more water if needed. (Rice will absorb more or less water depending on variety used.)

Taste and adjust seasoning if required. Stir through butter or ghee.

Serve with nuts and sliced chili’s and garnish with fresh bay leaves. A dollop of natural yogurt is also nice.