Morroccan Lamb Braise

I don’t want you being put off by the long list of ingredients on this one…just suck it up, print off the list (note Printer friendly version button now on each post…thank you Luke!) and go for it…you won’t regret it, really. It makes a LOT, so feel free to cut meat, tomtoes, and garnishes as needed…but please don’t alter cooking times.

NEED:

Juice ½ orange
780-800g lamb fillet, cubed
Few sprigs coriander
Bunch mint leaves
1 onion peeled and halved
4 cloves garlic
1 small red chilli
110g red capsicum
20g olive oil
15g ground smoked paprika
1 tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp ground cinnamon
Generous pinch saffron threads
450g Roma tomatoes , quartered
3-4 anchovies, rinsed
6 fresh pitted dates
6 dried apricots , soaked in boiling water for 1 hour
400g tinned chickpeas (around 230 g after draining)
100g black or Kalamata olives
Crumbled fresh feta to garnish
Sliced red chilli to garnish
Sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste

DO:
Marinate lamb in orange juice in non reactive bowl for several hours.
Place coriander and mint into mixing bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 5. Remove from bowl and set aside.
Place onion, garlic, chilli, and capsicum into Thermomix bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 5. Add oil and sauté 5 min/Varoma/speed 1 with MC off.
Add spices, tomatoes, anchovies, dates and apricots and cook 10 min/100ºC/speed 2.
Blend 5 sec/speed 6.
Add lamb (with juice) and cook 10 min/100ºC/Reverse +  speed 1.
Add chickpeas and cook 3 min/100ºC/Reverse + speed 1.
Add chopped herbs and olives and stir through 3 sec/Reverse + speed 1.
Adjust seasoning to taste.
Garnish with crumbled feta, sliced red chilli and additional fresh herb leaves. Serve with steamed couscous or rice.

Tandoori Chicken

GUYS…the Dinner Spinner iPhone, slash iPad App is OUT…its available now…really! SO exciting to get an email on Saturday from our developer with the news that Apple Inc had got their skates on and the app is out! So go check it out; reduced introductory price for the first 30 days, so buckle up and pay the price of a coffee and a cake and have the convenience of your Dinner Dilemma solved where ever you are!

*25 delicious, easy to make dinners

* All using a Thermomix

* 4 brand new, never previously released recipes

* Versatile to suit all tastes

* Includes 8 tasty vegetarian dishes

Solve your Daily Dinner Dilemma now!

Just to peak your interest, here is one of the more popular recipes from Dinner Spinner, yes that would be the BOOK and the APP…hope you enjoy. (OH, and of course, Merry Christmas from me!)

NEED:

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tsp black peppercorns

3 tbsp paprika

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tbsp turmeric

2 cloves garlic

2 red chilies, deseeded

100g onion

2 tbsp EVOO

15g ginger, peeled

30g lime juice, fresh

70g tomato paste

80g Greek yoghurt

Sea salt to taste

4-6 chicken Maryland (thigh and breast attached, skin on, on the bone)

DO:

Place cumin, coriander, peppercorns, paprika, cayenne & turmeric into Thermomix bowl & dry roast 10 min/Varoma/speed 2.

Cool slightly before milling 1 min/speed 10.

Add all remaining ingredients except chicken and blend 10 sec/speed 4. Scrape down and repeat.

Place chicken into large baking dish & slash the skin in large diagonal strips. Rub tandoori mixture into skin & cover chicken for several hours to marinate.

Heat grill to minimum 200°C (or hotter if available). Grill chicken for around 20-30 minutes until well cooked.

 SERVE:

With steamed rice, Naan bread or oven fries & a garden salad.

Mexican Meatball Soup

Well I managed to make dinner, (and take a pic and write up the recipe!)…what a superstar! I am off to NSW tomorrow morning for 5 Celebrate and Bake classes using a thermomix…I had a final edit on my big book chock full of thermomix methods and recipes this morning plus a photo shoot for the front cover or something…glamour, glamour all the way! (You should see me at the moment, and then you would recognise the irony in that!) Dinner Spinner, my self published thermomix recipe book, has come in handy for me already..but this is not in it and of course (dear reader) I must look after you all on here still…for free…right? SO happy Mexican Soup…and yes…it feeds a tribe…did I mention? All using a Thermomix!

Soup;

20g Fini EVOO

3 onions, quartered

1/2 red chilli

4 garlic cloves

300-350g capsicum

40g Umami Paste

2  bay leaves

500g water or liquid stock

2 x 400g tins diced tomatoes

100g Chunky Tomato Salsa

Sea salt to taste

Meatballs;

3-4 cloves garlic

40g red onion

1/2 red chilli (that would be the Other half)

600g beef fillet, cubed

300g pork fillet, cubed

60g polenta

30g whole milk

1 large egg

1 tsp salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/2 tsp ground cumin

SERVE:

Sprigs coriander

Crumbled tasty cheese of choice

Fresh lime wedges

Steamed long-grain white rice as needed

DO:

Make meatballs first; Preheat oven to 200ºC and line a large tray with baking paper.

Place garlic, onion and chilli into Thermomix bowl and chop 2 sec/speed 6. Scrape down sides of bowl and add remaining ingredients.

Mince 20 sec/Reverse + speed 8-9 until desired consistency is reached. You may need to assist the process with the spatula.

Form walnut sized meatballs and arrange on tray. Bake for 30 minutes until well browned and fragrant.

Meanwhile, without cleaning the bowl,  make the soup;

Place EVOO, onions, chilli and garlic into Thermomix bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 6. Saute 5 min/Varoma/speed 1.

Add remaining ingredients to Thermomix bowl and cook 16 min/100ºC/speed 1.

Serve over steamed rice and meatballs, topped with cheese, coriander and lime juice.

AND DONT BURN YOUR TONGUE in your haste to down this fantastic soup!

Chunky Tomato Salsa

An almost instant flavor hit to most things savoury, add it to any Mexican cuisine, tomato based sauce, or just bring on the Corn Chips and you have a healthy snack sorted in seconds. (Well, after the prep work is done!) This has the potential to keep in the fridge for up to three weeks, but we all know that is a pipe dream. It will be eaten almost immediately!

NEED:

600g Roma tomatoes (approx, do NOT use 1/2 tomato, whole tomatoes only)

1L water for steaming

Iced water in a large bowl

80-100g red onion

1 clove garlic

Handful coriander leaves and stalks

1 flame grilled red chilli (discussion below)

1 tbsp raw sugar

Good pinch sea salt

1 tsp ground cumin

130g tomato paste

50g white wine vinegar

Juice 1 lime

Corn chips to serve

DO:

Score the base of each tomato with a cross. Place tomatoes into Varoma dish. Pour water into Thermomix bowl and steam tomatoes 10 min/Varoma/speed 4. Cool tomatoes by plunging them into iced water. Peel.

Place onion, garlic, coriander and chili into Thermomix bowl and chop 2 sec/speed 6. Scrape down sides of bowl.

Add remaining all ingredients (do I have to specify this?) other than Corn Chips but including tomatoes into drained Thermomix bowl and cook 60 min/80ºC/speed 2. Cool completely.

Serve with diced avocado as a garnish and with lots of corn chips…or toasted tortilla wedges, or as the sauce for char grilled chicken or beef strips wrapped in soft tortillas; you see where I am going with this? Its another pantry item…yes, I think so!

Now to the flame grilling discussion: Place whole chilli on an open gas flame and turn it a few times until it is charred and the flesh is soft. This will not take ages, but nor will it take seconds. When you are happy that it is well charred, place into a glass bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow the chilli to sweat. Rub the blackened skin off prior to using in the recipe. This will add a lot of flavour to the salsa.

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.

Chorizo, Egg and Potato Salad

What a day I have had! Crio Bru Australia, my new foray into the wonderful world of retail has gone C.R.A.Z.Y. thanks to you dear readers! My partner in crime is on an overseas holiday and left me holding the phone…and it has been insane. I am still trying to get ready for the Big Important Food Photo Shoot starting next week, kids are on holidays, um….Paypal would like me to sign away my first born grandchild as collateral, should I perhaps abscond with someones money…and I can’t think of anything else right now…but happy in the knowledge I needed to eat and blog something other than Crio related food, I threw this together for you all…and damn delish it is too I might add. If you are opposed to charred sausage, you can cook it in the Thermomix without any danger of the charred effect, but I personally needed some flame grilled tonight.

 NEED:

6 eggs

600g baby potatoes, skin on, halved

1L water

300g snow peas

50g EVOO

Coarse sea salt to taste

300g chorizo sausage, sliced on an angle

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

40g lemon juice, fresh

Handful snipped parsley

DO:

Preheat oven to fan forced 220°C and line a baking tray with paper.

Place eggs into simmering basket and potatoes into Varoma dish.

Insert basket into TM bowl, add water to bowl, and place Varoma into position. Cook 15 min/Varoma/speed 4.

Place snow peas into Varoma tray and insert into Varoma. Cook 5 min/Varoma/speed 4.

Plunge snow peas into a large bowl filled with ice water.

Place potatoes onto prepared baking tray. Roast for 20-30 minutes until golden. Sprinkle with salt.

Fry chorizo in fry pan until charred to taste and oil is released. Add garlic and pour lemon juice over whilst still in the pan.

Toss all together, shell eggs, quarter lengthways and arrange over the salad. Garnish with snipped parsley.

Serve warm.

Malabar Fish Curry

Can you have too much fish curry? Already posted one earlier in the week to help Mrs Azzura Gelati, with her dailydinnerdilemma…am now thinking that will be a feature on my app…How do you all feel about that? Apparently she loved it, (and I quote; “ and the true test was I actually followed the recipe. I never do that. You are way better than those arsey #masterchef contestants!’) and so hoping we get the same repsonse here kids…enjoy!

NEED:

Coconut Relish;
1 large green chilli
3-4 coriander roots and stalks
35g peeled ginger
Juice 1 lemon
200g frozen young coconut (Asian stores)
Curry;
4-5 large cloves garlic
1 red chilli de-seeded
1 small piece palm sugar
1 tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp cinnamon
700g white fish fillets cubed in large pieces
250g prawns , peeled
25g peeled ginger
1 large green chilli, de-seeded
1 large brown onion, peeled and quartered
20g oil
400g tin coconut milk
120g water
1 tbsp TM stock concentrate
Juice 1 lime
Fresh coriander leaves, sliced red chillies and lime wedges to serve

DO:

Make coconut relish by placing chilli, coriander and ginger into Thermomix bowl and mincing for 3-4 sec/speed 7. Scrape down sides of bowl and add juice and chunks of coconut, slightly thawed. Mill for 7 sec/speed 8.
Set aside.

Place garlic, red chilli, palm sugar, turmeric and cinnamon into Thermomix bowl and mince for 3-4 sec/speed 7.

Place cubed fish and prawns into ThermoServer and scrape marinade over. Rub into the fish and prawns and leave for at least 1 hour.

Without cleaning bowl, place ginger and green chilli into Thermomix bowl and mince for 3-4 sec/speed 7. Add onion and oil and chop for 3 sec/speed 4.
Sauté for 5 min/Varoma/Reverse + speed soft  with MC off.

Add coconut milk, water, stock and juice and cook for 15 min/100ºC/Reverse + speed soft.

Add fish and prawns and any residual marinade and cook for 2-3 min/100ºC/Reverse + speed soft.

Pour into ThermoServer to rest before serving with steamed rice, coconut relish, coriander, red chillies and lime wedges.

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!