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!

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

Thermomix gingerbread

I have made about four different batches of gingerbread in the last month, Christmas cut outs for teachers and ninja bread men for Sifu at Kung Fu.

Good gingerbread needs to be easy to work with, not get tough if the kids use it as playdough, not be too crumbly when packaged and be delicious at the end.

This is the winner hands down

Put in the Thermomix bowl:

125g butter
75 g dark brown sugar
175g golden syrup

Heat for 4 minutes at 50 degrees, speed 1

Add dry ingredients to bowl

450g plain flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon bicarb soda

Top with 1 egg beaten lightly with a fork in a cup
1 teaspoon vanilla paste

Mix 10 seconds on speed 6, push down sides, .mix a further 10 seconds, push down sides mix 5 seconds

Knead 30 seconds on interval setting

Turn out onto floured board. Knead lightly, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes,
Roll out on floured board or silicon mat and cut into shape

I have a great selection of cutters - look after your cutters they are so precious. If you wash them while your biscuits bake you can pop them in the cooling oven to make sure they dry out properly.

Bake 10-12 minutes until they are just starting to change colour. Take out and cool on racks.

You can decorate with edible ball bearings before they go in the oven or royal icing (1 egg white and 1 cup icing sugar) after they come out

Give to teachers, friends, neighbours and the postman

Merry Christmas everyone!

Something with seafood

That's the Australian Christmas isn't it?

We picked up Red Spot prawns this morning so I don't have a photo but I DO have a recipe

Seafood sauce:

3 tablespoons tomato sauce

1 cup whole egg mayonnaise

2 teaspoons Worcester sauce

1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

1 lemon, juiced

Place all ingredients in Thermomix, press turbo, scrape down sides and repeat 2-3 times.

Store in fridge until required 

Here is a stock image from our favourite seafood supplier

Crunchy curry coleslaw

Are you all looking for interesting salads to include at mealtime over the Christmas period?

I was inspired to make this little gem by the 4 Blades Podcast episode 27 Simple Summer Salads If you aren't listening to these guys cook their hearts out while you stroll around the river of an evening then you really should give it a go. They are in hot competition with my favourite Doctor Who podcasts and that is a sad addiction I should not even mention on a cooking blog

So anyway I read Bec's ideas here as well as the show notes and the original recipe mentioned which is here

And then I made it up as I went along (which is usually what happens here at Cafe Disarray)

Take: a handful of parsley (stalks and all), some coriander (I used 4 leaves of sawtooth coriander from the garden) and 40 g green onions (I only used the tops)

Chop 4 seconds at speed 10 and scrape down the sides

Add what Bec calls the "choppy bits"

I like to put carrot and apple in the bottom because big chunks of cabbage don't bother me so much. So I put in a medium carrot in chunks and a small red apple.

 Top with 1/4 small cabbage - up to about 3/4 full. Cabbage is in chunks too like this:

Chop at speed 4 for 6-8 seconds - watch carefully and stop chopping if necessary so it is only chopped not blended

Add the other ingredients: 

80g sultanas

80g frozen peas

60g almonds (I used whole because that is what we had but slivered would be nice)

4 tablespoons mayonnaise

3 teaspoons curry powder (I used Keens)

Stir on reverse speed 4 for 4 - 6 seconds

That's it. Done. Have a glass of wine while the man does the barbecuing.

Fairy truffles

In Australia we have "fairy bread" at birthday parties - little triangles of fresh white bread and butter with hundreds and thousands on them. Like this:

These fairy truffles were inspired by the 4 Blades Podcast Halloween episode and the original recipe is here I needed something delicious and quick to share at book club so this is what happened.

In Australia we don't have Graham crackers so I have used milk arrowroot biscuits (as the 4 blades suggested)

I didn't read the pack so brought home:

250g White chocolate buttons

375g smooth ricotta cheese 

1pack milk arrowroot biscuits

Large jar of hundreds and thousands

There will be leftovers

Grind 50g white chocolate for 7 seconds speed 7 

I used Cadbury buttons because whenever possible I boycott Nestle - for more information about the Nestle Boycott read this.

Melt chocolate for 2 minutes at 50 degrees speed 2

Add biscuits, broken in half and ricotta

This ricotta is gorgeous - really smooth and creamy

Mix 15 seconds speed 5-6 scrape down and mix again 2 secs speed 5 - 6

Scrape out into a bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes.I am using this time to wash the TM blog, hang washing out and google pictures of fairy bread to put on the blog for the foreigners.

Roll spoonfuls of the mixture into balls, place on a tray and put it in the freezer for 15 minutes. I got about 20 out of this batch. That's a Chefs Toolbox slice tray - silicon is wonderful - no sticking!

Grind the rest of the chocolate for 10 seconds at speed 7

Cook for 2 minutes 50 degrees at speed 2, scrape down and cook 2 minutes 50 degrees speed 2

I went the full retro and put toothpicks in them all

Dip and twist - up to you how fussy you are - chocolate over most of the filling is good

Remember the chocolate will set around the truffle because the truffle is cold

Dip in the sprinkles, chill and serve

Oh and these bad boys are 3 Weight Watchers ProPoints each

Delicious Chilli Lime Hummus

Supposed to be going out now... this is what I made today - I didn't get progress pics but the multitudes are loving the result

Place in bowl
1 chilli deseeded and halved
1 large clove garlic
2 strips lime rind
Process at speed 8 for 5 seconds three times, scraping down sides in between

Add to bowl
can of chick peas (drained)
Juice of two limes
2 tblsp tahini
2 tblsp olive oil
large pinch of sea salt

Process at speed 4 for 2 minutes, scrape down sides and repeat until the desired texture is achieved
Taste and adjust seasoning if required

Great for parties and get togethers - serve with carrots, celery and rice crackers to keep your ProPoints low