Thursday, October 23, 2014

Quick Mexican tomato salad (or salsa)

We are having grilled fish tonight so I threw together a quick salad to go on the side. The glut of tomatoes from our garden continues and this has used up a few more...

In a bowl combine:

4 large tomatoes, chopped
125g can of sweet corn kernels (drained)
2 spring onions, chopped
4 leaves Thai (sawtooth) coriander chopped fine
1/2 teaspoon raw sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
 a pinch of cumin
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
juice of one lime
shake of tabasco (optional)



Tonight we are serving this with 200g barramundi fillets and 240g boiled new potatoes dressed with light sour cream with a teaspoon of this taco seasoning (thanks to the4Blades podcast for the heads up) mixed through



Total Weight Watchers ProPoints for the entire salad 1, for the whole meal 9

Monday, October 13, 2014

special pizza sauce

This is just delicious - we are having it tonight on a wholemeal TM pizza base with caramelised onions and some of the lovely vanilla balsamic dressing from Ciabatta Restaurant



Start with
  1 red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced




Saute in
 30ml olive oil

Saute onion and garlic in oil until soft, then add

½ tspn dried chilli
4 tblsp red wine vine
Large pinch sea salt
2 tblsp raw sugar

then cook down about 5 minutes while you chop up the tomatoes.



Add:

 1kg ripe tomatoes roughly chopped
 1 tsp oregano

Stir in tomatoes, cook covered tightly over a very low heat until it is thick (about 45 minutes).


 Pour into Thermomix and turbo 3 -4 times until you like the consistency.

Store in a clean jar - will keep about a month in the refrigerator (if it lasts that long)


And here is our pizza:



Sunday, October 12, 2014

Thermomix Mexican Salsa

My apologies for the lack of posts recently I have been enjoying cooking other people's food especially ideas from the 4Blades podcast and when tired and hungry we always cook this Chicken and Brown Rice soup from Quirky Cooking, which is simply not possible to improve upon.

We have had a really busy couple of months between various theatrical events (participating and viewing) and a wonderful family holiday in Hervey Bay where we went whale watching.

So this week when faced with a glut of tomatoes (here is the gardener's photo from Instagram)


I wondered what I could make with them (I already have a couple of huge jars of passata in the fridge) - I asked on Facebook and people suggested butter chicken, relish, tomato paste, and (oh brilliant idea) salsa!

Of course I thought - off to the 4 Blades they did a Mexican themed podcast a few months ago here

I failed. Botheration - how can it be Mexican with no salsa?

I found some other recipes on the internet, read them, and decided to make my own so here it is:

Place in TM31:

4 cloves garlic
500g brown onions 
300g red onions 

Chop 4 seconds speed 5

Add:
700g quartered tomatoes
1 large red capsicum cut up
1 tablespoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander seed
1 teaspoon raw sugar
2 teaspoons seasalt
80 ml apple cider vinegar

Turbo 3 - 4 times 

Cook 30 minutes Veroma reverse speed 1
Do what you have to do to manage splattering - I used a splatter guard but 15 minutes in things looked like this:



So I added a towel over the counter at the back and the basket upside down on the TM31 lid

While it is cooking cut up another:
 700g tomatoes 

I don't think there is an easy way to do this. Make sure your knife is good and sharp and note this recipe does not include human fingers.
After 30 minutes add the chopped tomatoes and cook another 20 minutes Veroma reverse speed 1


Add:
the juice of a lime

Stir through with your spatula. Did you know that if you wipe the inside of a lemon or lime on your fingers it will remove the garlic or onion smell?

Pour into sterilised jars and store (I am keeping this in the fridge but I think that will depend on your climate)

I will probably add some fresh chopped sawtooth coriander when using as a dip 






Monday, June 9, 2014

Decadent peanut butter and dark choc chip cookies

It is a cold day in Townsville (yes 17 degrees is very cold when you don't have heating) so any excuse to run the oven or the clothes dryer.

I read several recipes for cookies and came up with this which worked wonderfully well
These are a more adult cookie but if you substituted milk chocolate for the dark the kids would probably love them too

Preheat oven to 170 degrees fan forced

Grind 220g raw sugar for 4 seconds at speed 9
Add 60g peanut butter (I used bought but you can always make your own)
120g unsalted butter cut into chunks

Blend 1 minute speed 3

Add  1 teaspoon vanilla extract and 1 egg

Blend 7 seconds speed 4

Weigh 310g SR four into a separate bowl

Add 130g dark chocolate chips (use Cadbury not Nestle for information about the Nestle boycott click here)

Mix on reverse speed 3 for 45 seconds adding the flour through the hole in the lid

Place teaspoons on CT silicon sheet on baking tray - they double in size so leave some space but not too much

Flatten with a fork, your knuckles or I used a CT muffin pan for a neat, flat top



Cook for 10 minutes and allow to cool on racks

This recipe makes approx 40 cookies and they are worth 3 Weight Watchers ProPoints each. But if you have two it's only 5 ProPoints!



Winning!!



Friday, April 25, 2014

Lest we forget

Anzac Day 2014

Dawn service for some members of the household and a facebook profile full of images like this one


I had time to go to a rehearsal, read a book, walk the dog by the river and listen to the 4 Blades Podcast who inspired me to make ANZAC biscuits too!

I followed the first recipe because it sounded very similar to the one I usually make which is from NMAA Cooks (the book anyone without a Thermomix should definitely own, and anyone with a Thermomix should be converting recipes from)

My three tweaks:

I used raw sugar rather than white
I set my oven to 150 degrees as we have a very hot fan forced oven
I used the Chefs Toolbox silicon sheets and rather than pressing down with the MC I used a CT muffin pan

The results:



Delicious!



They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them. Lest we forget.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Doctor Who Gingerbreads

My wonderful Brother in law went shopping in the UK for me

So I did this:






I just used this recipe for the gingerbread dough 

A whole box of angries. Yum!



Friday, March 14, 2014

Zingy thermomix cauliflower salad

I was walking by the river tonight and I took inspiration from the 4 Blades Podcast who accompany me when I am not listening to the Verity Podcast 

Verity's influence is anything but healthy - I feel inspired to make Doctor Who themed cupcakes and biscuits but first I needed dinner.

Rather than come home and make poached egg on toast for tea I put a steak in a pan and mixed me up this salad

The method is based on their Simple Summer Salads episode


The finished product

Chop 60 grams of pecans at Speed 4 for 6 seconds
Set aside

Put 1/4 bunch of parsley in the bowl with 2 cloves of garlic and half a long red chilli deseeded
Chop 4 seconds Speed 10



Add 250 grams of cauliflower broken into florets, a carrot, chopped roughly, a capsicum, chopped roughly and half a red onion, peeled
Chop Speed 4 for 4 to 5 seconds

Add 1 tablespoon cider vinegar, juice of half a lemon and 100g fat free yoghurt We are loving this one from the Tamar Valley because it is delicious and reminds us of home

Mix on reverse speed 4 for 5 seconds.

Is that steak done yet?

No? It must be time for a glass of something then