Chick Pea, Avocado and Lime Salad

I am trying to include more pulses in our diet; They are cheap, easy to cook if you think about it in advance and so good for you!

This salad happened on Mother’s Day, the day that I should not have been cooking, but any hoo, if I wanted to eat something yummola, it was always going to be up to me! SO, cued the BBQ, and husband…made salads, and this was just one of them…all good, well received. Thinking I would add a little char grilled chilli next time, so go ahead and give it a burl with or without the chilli….(How hot are you??)

NEED:

150g chick peas, dried

Water for soaking and steaming

Generous handful coriander leaves and roots

1 small chilli, deseeded

1/2 red onion, sliced thinly

100g baby spinach leaves

3 avocadoes, peeled and cubed

2 Lebanese cucumbers, diced

2 tsp Murray River pink salt flakes

Juice 3 limes, or to taste

EVOO as desired

DO:

Soak chick peas overnight. Drain and place into steam basket. Insert into Thermo bowl, cover with water to 1L mark and cook 45 min/100ºC/speed 3. Drain and cool.

To make salad, place coriander and chilli into Thermo bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 7.

Toss with all ingredients, including chick peas and allow flavours to marinate for 30 minutes before serving.

The timing for cooking chick peas can vary based on how long you have had them in your pantry. They can easily be replaced with tinned chick peas.

Chorizo and Cabbage Soup

We finally had a cool day! And some rain…lots of it actually…so of course my culinary thoughts turned to soup! I had chorizo in my fridge (a stock standard staple at mine…love redundant alliteration as well) and so this was a natural progression. The marriage with steamed cabbage was also fuelled by what was already in my fridge, and so YUMMOLA, we had dinner. In minutes. Can’t be unhappy with that….no matter how rainy it is outside!

NEED:

2 Spanish chorizo sausages (as opposed to Mexican!!)

1 red onion, peeled and halved

2 cloves garlic

1 red paprika, deseeded (or red capsicum)

700g water

2 tbs Chicken Stock Powder (For Foods Sake recipe)

1 tbsp Umami paste

1 tbsp ground paprika

500g potatoes, peeled and cubed into bite sized pieces

1 small cabbage, cut into thin wedges (enough for your family, don’t go overboard!)

400g tin chick peas, or soaked and cooked equivalent

DO:

Place chorizo, onion, garlic and paprika into Thermo bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 6. Saute 5 min/Varoma/speed 1.

Add all remaining ingredients other than cabbage and chick peas.

Place cabbage into Varoma dish and set into position. Cook 15 min/Varoma/Reverse/speed 1. Set Varoma aside.

Add chick peas to Thermo bowl and cook 2 min/100ºC/Reverse/speed 1.

Place wedges of cabbage into large soup bowls and ladle soup over. Sprinkle with chopped coriander, parsley or both.

Serve. Don’t burn yourself…in your haste to get it down you….really…yummmmm!

Chicken Vindaloo

I love curry…you may have noticed…I love spicy food; you may have noticed. I love chicken dishes; you may have noticed. So combine them all and I am in hog heaven…well…you know what I mean. Fragrant and amazing, don’t stop here, try this mixture with lamb, beef or (shhhh, dare I say it?) pork…It’s not too often you hear of a Pork Vindaloo but I am taking a stand and saying, go ahead…pork it up! But chicken works just fine…more than ‘just’ actually! Yum.

NEED:

1/2 tsp each ground, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, cloves, cardamom, fenugreek, cayenne, mustard, ginger and black pepper

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp sweet paprika

20g Fini EVOO

150g brown onion, cut in pieces

20g fresh ginger, peeled

8 cloves garlic

500g tomatoes, cut in pieces

20g red wine vinegar

900g chicken thigh fillet, cut in large pieces

Steamed rice to serve

DO:

Place all dry spices into Thermomix bowl and heat for 5 min/Varoma/speed 2. Scrape down sides of bowl.

Add oil, onion, ginger and garlic and chop 3 sec/speed 5. Saute 5 min/Varoma/speed 1/MC off.

Add tomatoes and vinegar and cook 10 min/100ºC/speed 2.

Add chicken and cook further 10 min/100ºC/Reverse/speed 1.

Serve with fresh coriander, sliced chillies and chopped cucumber and tomato. A little dollop of plain yoghurt is nice with this too…and the obligatory steamed rice or quinoa.

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.

Crio Bru and Avocado Dip or Spread

Well in Mexico they use unsweetened chocolate in savoury dishes all the time! That is my story and I’m sticking to it. THIS IS DELICIOUS….FYI! So do not judge me until you try it.

Part of our Chic Chocolate Cooking Class, we really had to have more than just sweets all the way through and so our menu did take on a bit of a Mexican theme, a cuisine with which I am totally in love. (Probably something to do with the chocolate they use indiscriminately!!)

Whip up a batch of this the next time you have left over Bru grounds and let me know what you think! And of course, don’t forget all those amazing health benefits you are eating as you polish this off…

NEED:

1 clove garlic

1/2 red chilli

Handful herbs of choice (I used a combo of mint, Italian parsley and coriander leaves)

Pinch sea salt

1 spring onion/shallot

Juice 1 lemon

1 tbsp Crio Bru grounds (left over from your morning cuppa!)

1 avocado, ripe

DO:

Place all ingredients except avocado into Thermomix bowl and blend 3 sec/speed 6.

Add avocado and blend further 3 sec/speed 4.

Eat on crackers, as a dressing for anything Mexicano! (Think Quesadillas, enchiladas, wraps, chilli con carne!)

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…I had a final edit on my big book chock full of thermo 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 Thermo blender!

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 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.

Aish Bel Lahm

Look, lets not beat around the bush….this is Middle Eastern Pizza…or Gozleme, without the folded bit….amongst other things. This is designed to feed a small army….so I suggest if there is only two of you, invite the neighbours for a street party or at the very least, get the kids to bring home a few strays on the night you decide to make this recipe. (Or halve it, bread and topping can both be halved.)

If you would like to use fresh yeast, I suggest that is a great idea…activate it first by heating it for 2 min/37ºC/speed 2 along with the liquid, and without the flour. Then add the flour etc and proceed as directed.

NEED:

680g bakers flour

60g olive oil

½ tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground black pepper

1 tbsp dried yeast

3 eggs

Good pinch sea salt

300g warm water

Topping;

Handful fresh Italian parsley

Few black peppercorns

2 onions peeled and halved

500g beef or lamb mince

salt to taste

1 leek cleaned and sliced

2tbsp tahini

30g pomegranate molasses

200g crumbled feta

Few poppy or Nigella seeds

DO:

Place all ingredients into Thermomix bowl and mix 10 sec/speed 6.

Knead 2 min/Interval speed.

Turn out onto oiled Silpat Mat, wrap tightly and allow to prove in warm draft free place for up to 2 hours or until doubled. (Or if you are lucky enough to have it, use the bread rising setting in your Kleenmaid oven!)

Topping;

Place parsley into Thermomix bowl and chop for 3-4 sec/speed 5. Set aside.

Place peppercorns into Thermomix bowl and mill 8 sec/speed 8.

Add onion and chop 3 sec/speed 6.

Add mince and cook 10 min/Varoma/Reverse + speed soft.

Add seasoning, leek, tahini and molasses and cook  5 min/Varoma/Reverse + speed soft.

Assemble;

Roll dough out into small rounds and dollop meat mixture into the centre of each one. Sprinkle with poppy seeds or Nigella seeds and place into preheated fan forced 220°C oven for approx 10 minutes or until puffed and fragrant. Top with feta and parsley and serve immediately with fresh lemon wedges.

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.