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

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

Go to Lamb Stew from the 4 Blades (with extra wine)

Well because today was my birthday I was planning not to cook, and had gone to great lengths plotting a menu which included lots of leftovers last night. I was driving around today and listening to the 4 Blades Podcast and wouldn't you know it they were doing a recipe which sounded easy, delicious and would use up  some of the split pumpkin out in the garden as well as the exact leftover vegetables I had in my fridge. This was obviously meant to be so I bought 800g of diced lamb and came home to try out my best birthday present - a new camera with a food setting!

The recipe can be heard here or you can just read it here The only thing I really did differently was double the wine and that was because I wasn't paying attention.

This is really easy to do ahead and you could walk the dog, transport the kids or put your feet up with a gin and tonic while it cooks.

First you go out in the garden and pick a chilli and some parsley. Put them in the TM with the garlic and onion.

 Then you scrape down and fry it and the kitchen smells heavenly

Add lamb (I had 800g)

 

 and tomatoes and pumpkin

 and vegetables I used capsicum, broccoli, and cauliflower

and wine and stock. I was listening to another episode of the podcast and got completely distracted and put in 250 ml of wine instead of 100 ml (WHOOPS!)

As Bec says it is very full when you start

Here is where the MC sat

after 10 mins it started to smell really good

after 40 minutes it looked like this

so I took out the MC and put the basket on it to hopefully reduce it a little

And in an hour we had this and it was absolutely delicious! Sorry about the picture quality (still making friends with my camera) - there is a nice one at the original place here 

6 serves easy - and only 6 Weight Watchers Pro Points per serve so you can have bread, rice, pasta, dessert, whatever you like!

Thai Beef Salad

This has become one of our favourite meals, especially since we got the Thai basil and mint well established in the garden.

so for us step one is go outside,  enjoy the sky, and pick mint, coriander, thai basil, limes and chilli.

Then come in, fill a glass and do this:

Make the salad base:
2/3 cup Thai basil
2/3 cup mint
1/3 cup chopped Thai coriander
1 bag salad leaves
1 punnet cherry tomatoes (halved) I am looking forward to picking our own again soon

mix these together using your hands in a large bowl or on a platter

Top with
1 lebanese cucumber cut into ribbons using a vegetable peeler
3 spring onions chopped on the diagonal
1 large red chilli de seeded and sliced

Then slice your beef into thin strips. I buy skirt steak especially for this kind of recipe as it is beautifully tender when cut right. I used 400g skirt steak

put all the meat in a bowl and top with the marinade ingredients:
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
juice of one lime
1 tablespoon oil (I used rice bran oil)
Mix through.  I use chopsticks to mix, as it helps build strength and dexterity when using them. All the marinade stays on the meat too, I find if you use a spoon the marinade sticks to the spoon rather than the meat.

For the dressing shake these ingredients together in a jar.
2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
juice of one lime
2 tablespoons palm sugar (chopped finely)
A shake of sesame oil

Cook the meat in batches in a fry pan or on the barbecue

this is Taff's hand, not mine

Assemble at the last minute

pile on the meat then pour on dressing then sprinkle 1/2 cup fried shallots (from an Asian supermarket) over the salad

Enjoy. This is another 6 propoint meal, if you use a Chef's toolbox pan and only brush a teaspoon of oil over it for cooking. And it's OK to go back for seconds...

Asian inspired rice wraps

A friend sent me this recipe a few years ago and it has become a real favourite I use skirt steak, trimmed and sliced very thin against the grain. This week my lovely butcher did it for me. A whole 1.5kg but you can adjust quantities to suit yourself Mix marinade in a glass or ceramic bowl. I use my old 1960s Sunbeam mixmaster bowl. The mixmaster is long gone but both bowls are still going strong.

Marinade:

2 teaspoons light brown sugar

1 teaspoon each chopped garlic and ginger

1 tablespoon each mirin, soy sauce and fish sauce

add beef, mix well and refrigerate for at least two hours

By the way if you have never tried using chopsticks to mix stuff - do - they are excellent!

Heat about a teaspoon of oil in a frpan or wok. I used my Chefs Toolbox wok which is a dream tool. I actually threw out the wok I got for my sixteenth birthday after 6 months using this one!

Cook the beef in batches so it goes nice and brown and crispy not grey and soggy.

Put the beef aside. It's OK - it doesn't need to be served hot. You can do this in advance and was up BEFORE dinner if you like!

But this bit has to be done at the last minute. Boil a kettle and while it is boiling unpack some rice vermicelli. I always chop mine up with scissors a little bit to make the length of the strands more manageable

Pour the boiled water on and soak for two minutes, then drain.

At some stage you prepare your vegetables. Clockwise from front - baby spinach leaves, cucumber batons, fresh mint from the garden, finely grated carrot, shredded letuce (use cos or iceberg), bean sprouts and in the middle there is a mix of chopped spring onions and red chilli

Put the beef, noodles and vegetables on the table with one or two large flat bowls and some soy and sweet chilli sauce. Fill the bowls with boiling water while you search for every pair of teeny tiny tongs you own.
Each person makes their own wraps. Soak each wrap till it softens.

Fill with beef, noodles, salad and sauce. Don't overfill.

And roll. You don't have to close both ends, although if you are doing some extra for tomorrows lunch it is best to seal both ends. You can also make a vermicelli salad for lunch the next day out of all the leftover bits.
No idea on the ProPoints but if you go easy on the noodles it won't be too many.

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.

Green curry turkey and quinoa balls

Warning people this came out HOT! If you don't like spicy - go choose another recipe.

Tonight was another one of those time pressure nights - mum's taxi in action and people needing to go out so the meal had to be ready on time as well as suitable for reheating. Initially I had pulled turkey mince out of the freezer and I intended to make turkey balls similar to a Thai fish cake but the weather today has been so miserable (the wettest July day in Townsville since 1950) that salad and meatballs really was not going to cut it.

I started by chopping the seasoning for the meatballs in the Thermomix for 4 seconds on speed 9

I included:

1 clove garlic

1 long red chilli (halved and seeds removed)

handful of coriander

1 small carrot

(No harm in some hidden vegetables)

The coriander I use is Thai or sawtooth coriander. It looks quite different to normal coriander but once it is established in your garden you will never run out. You use the long flat leaves and it reseeds from the prickly flowers.

after chopping

Then I added the other ingredients:

Before

1 egg
500g turkey mince

1/4 cup quinoa

1 teaspoon sesame oil
salt and pepper

After

Mix 2 minutes at speed 2

Roll into little balls - I made 36 - and place in the veroma - I put some in the top and some in the bottom. They felt quite delicate at this time so I let them stand 10 minutes before cooking. Put 400g water in the Thermomix and steam 15 minutes at Veroma speed 1

While the meatballs are steaming quickly chop up your vegetables. I used red capsicum, snow peas and broccolini. Don't chop them too small.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in your pan. I used our Como saute pan because it heats evenly and is so easy to clean. Fry some Thai green curry paste in the paste. I used a can of Maesri brand paste that came from an asian supermarket and was only 1 Weight Watchers ProPoint for the whole can. I have found lots of the supermarket brands are quite oily. 

Pounding the palm sugar is a task you can delegate

Then add the vegetables and 

a can of light coconut milk

 a can of stock (I just used water and a spoonful of TM stock) 

2 chopped kaffir lime leaves

1 tblsp fish sauce

juice of a lime

2 tsp palm sugar (pounded to a fine texture)

1 can of chick peas (drained)

Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 3-4 minutes till the vegetables are just starting to cook. Then add the meatballs and simmer gently 5 more minutes, just long enough to let the flavours develop.

And serve! This meal is only 8 Weight Watchers ProPoints if you are careful to choose a light coconut milk with less than 7% fat in it. We added 2/3 cup of jasmine rice (steamed in the Thermomix) for a meal totalling 13 ProPoints which ticked all the boxes for flavour and comfort as well as being quick to prepare and clean up and suitable to reheat.

13 ProPoints of spicy deliciousness