Jaylen's fajitas

These were an easy choice for dinner last night

First the spice mix:

4 tablespoons cornflour

5 teaspoons chilli powder

3 teaspoons salt flakes

4 teaspoons raw sugar

4 teaspoons paprika

2 teaspoons garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder

2 teaspoons ground cumin

Grind for 10 seconds at speed 9 - this makes enough for 2 or 3 batches

Then prepare some meat strips (we used beef but chicken works too). Mix 2-3 tablespoons spice mix with 1 kg meat.

Slice onion and capsicum

Saute onion and capsicum in non stick pan with a little oil, set aside and cook meat in same pan in 2 batches. Return all to pan and mix together.

We served this with tortillas, salsa, sour cream and Skinnymixers amazing chilli conqueso. There isn't much in the way of leftovers!

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

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 

Chicken with rice (tweaked)

We treated ourselves to the new Weight Watchers cookbook "Takeaway At Home" this week. So tonight I gave the Arroz con pollo (chicken with rice) on page 67 a try.

I dashed out at lunchtime to buy the ingredients
Mexican chilli powder - what's that? could I use taco seasoning - I made a small mountain of that in the Thermomix following this recipe but maybe I should try following the recipe first and tweak it after? So I bought a jar of Mexican chilli powder and found its twin in the cupboard when I got home (I have NO idea what recipe we bought that one for!)

So I got chicken tenderloins rather than thighs as it was easier to get the right weight, but I could not find a 310g can of corn so I grabbed the 420g can instead.

Came home and pulled out the trusty Chefs Toolbox saute pan. You only need the tiniest bit of oil and use a silicon brush to spread it.

In with the chicken which took a while to brown and I didn't want it to look white in a pot full of rice. SO I left it in one side of the pan while I added the onion to the other side and kept it browning

Then I added the capsicum and zucchini

At no time did I need to take the chicken out. Maybe the WW test kitchen only has small pans - you know like they get us to eat off small plates to get our heads around the serving size problem behaviour?
Mexican chilli powder. 1 teaspoon. Well that doesn't sound like a party does it? So I chucked in two.

And stir

And add the corn (remember I used the whole can) and tomatoes - well in our case one huge tomato that looked like the Schwarzenegger of tomatoes from a friends garden, the aroma when I cut i was amazing.

The CT pan has a fantastic twist lid so you can seal it completely (that's the trick to a stove top pizza or no stir risotto) so it was perfect to leave for 25 minutes to cook without my attention. I took the Kid to Kung Fu and went to the park with the dog. While I was out someone took it off the heat at the right time, put it in the Thermoserver and sprinkled it with lime juice and coriander. Thai coriander which looks like this:

because I don't have the other kind in the garden

Here is the finished product (yes he took a photo too!):

It was absolutely delicious - nice and zingy and I put it through the recipe calculator - guess what Weight Watchers - I got it down to 6 Pro Points a serve (serves 6) - yes I managed to lose 4 points a serve out of a new WW recipe. Go me! Oh and you should all go buy that book. Do it now.