Vietnamese Fish Curry with Sticky Rice

Don't you just LOVE sticky rice? We do! I actually only tasted it for the first time a few months ago at a Vietnamese cooking course run by Geraldine of Rainforest Bounty, and came home and made it for my family, who were instantly addicted! First let me tell you a little about the Rainforest Bounty Cooking School...

Geraldine of Rainforest Bounty Cooking School -

environmental scientist and talented cook!

The Rainforest Bounty Cooking School is in the edge of the rainforest, close to the base of Bartle Frere, on the Atherton Tablelands (about 15 minutes drive from where I live). You can choose from Vietnamese, Malaysian, Indonesian, Laos/Thai, Middle Eastern or Mediterranean classes. It's a 'paddock to plate' class, beginning with morning tea and a chat about the wonderful bounty found in our north Queensland rainforest, and what it can be used for (including sampling Geraldine's gourmet Rainforest Bounty condiments). Then it's on with the gumboots and off to the garden and native fruit orchards to learn more about the local 'bush tucker', gathering what's needed for the class as we go...

 Ingredients for the class are from the rainforest orchard and kitchen garden, together with Rainforest Bounty gourmet condiments, as well as heirloom varieties of fruit and vegetables sourced from local organic farmers, fishermen, gardeners and artisanal producers.

Then it's back to the kitchen where the fun begins...

Making rice noodles and preparing banana flowers for the

banana flower with rainforest lemon salad.

(By the way, you don't eat the purple bits, they're for decoration.

Or the blossoms. Just part of the white, inner leaves.)

I highly recommend the Rainforest Bounty classes - they're a lot of fun and you'll learn heaps! Geraldine has lived, worked and travelled extensively in South East Asia, and is a great teacher. To see more photos, check out my Facebook page.

Anyway, back to the sticky rice... as you can see in the photo above, sticky rice is steamed, not boiled. This is the traditional way of cooking it - in a bamboo mat/funnel kind of thing over a pot of boiling water, with a cloth draped over it to keep the steam in. It must be soaked first for at least six hours. My friend Bel and I were watching the rice being cooked, and thinking there must be a way to do it in the Varoma (steamer) of the Thermomix. And there is! The great thing about it is that you can also cook your curry at the same time as the rice steams!!

I love all-in-one Thermomix meals that make the most of the Varoma, so I was very pleased to find a recipe in the Travelling with Thermomix cookbook that uses this method of cooking sticky rice. (If you're lucky enough to have a copy of this hard-to-get cookbook, the recipe is 'Stewed Beef with Tamarind and Sticky Rice' in the Thai section.) This is a great way to cook rice if you want to cook a lot - you can fit much more rice in the Varoma than you can in the rice basket. Of course, regular rice needs to be cooked in the basket where the water can whoosh through it, but sticky rice cooks perfectly in the Varoma as it only needs steam to cook. Don't forget you need to soak it for at least six hours first though, so plan ahead.

Here's my version of Geraldine's Vietnamese Fish Curry - I've changed a few of the ingredients to make it more to my taste, and converted it to the Thermomix... so it may not be quite so authentic now, but it's still very yummy! Hope you like it :)

Vietnamese Fish Curry with Sticky Rice

1. First, get the rice soaking. I soak mine in the Thermoserver all day, then cook this for dinner at night. You at least need 6 hours of soaking time.
- Glutinous rice (the amount is up to you - you can just use 300g if cooking for a small family, right up to the whole packet for a large family!)
- water to cover

2. An hour before dinner time, start preparing the curry. First you need to make the paste. Mix together in the Thermomix on speed 9 for 15 seconds:
- 2 medium tomatoes, halved
- 1 tsp Rainforest Fruits Jeowbong (this is a prize-winning Rainforest Bounty chilli paste which you can order online; or you could substitute it with a rich, fruity, thick chilli paste of your choice)
- 1 medium red chilli, deseeded (I leave this out as my kids don't like it too hot)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 inches fresh turmeric (or 2 tsps dried turmeric powder)
- 1 inch fresh ginger
- 1 inch fresh galangal (if you can find it!)
- 2 tsp palm sugar
- 2 tsp chicken stock paste (great for flavour, but could use fish or vege stock paste)
- 2 shallots (white part only, save green parts for later)
- 1/2 tsp good quality fish sauce
- 1 tsp tamarind paste
- 1 tsp lemon aspen juice (or a squeeze of lemon juice)
- 2 Tblspns gf soy sauce or tamari

3. Pour half the paste into a bowl, and set aside the remaining paste in another bowl. Cube the fish, and leave it to marinate while you prepare the curry sauce:
- 600g fresh, firm-fleshed white fish (cut in 2cm cubes)

4. Heat the oil in the Thermomix on 100 degrees for 2 mins, speed 1:
- 1 Tblspn coconut oil

5. Add the remaining paste and cook for 4 minutes at 100 degrees, speed 2. Meanwhile, strain the water off the rice and tip it into the Varoma dish, poking a hole in the middle for the steam to get through.

6. Add pumpkin, coconut milk and lemon grass to bowl, place Varoma on top, and cook at Varoma temperature for 25 minutes, reverse speed soft:
- 500g pumpkin, cut in 2cm cubes
- 500ml coconut milk (you can make your own!)
- 2 stalks of lemon grass (white part only), bruised (not chopped - just crush with flat side of large knife)... OR, if you can't get lemon grass, chop up the green parts of the shallots and throw them in instead, saving some for the garnish.

7. Remove Varoma and check if the rice is cooked. It will be all stuck together, so don't stir it too much, just push the sides in a bit with a fork if they need more cooking, and re-poke the hole in the middle.

8. Add the fish and paste to the Thermomix bowl, replace Varoma, and cook for 5 minutes at Varoma temp, reverse, speed soft. If you're worried the fish may break up, you can insert the butterfly.

9. Serve it up... If you want to keep the rice 'sticky', serve it next to the curry, as it 'unsticks' once it gets wet. (The kids love to make balls of rice with their fingers and pop them in their mouths - that's half the fun!) Garnish individual serves with sliced shallots.

I hope you enjoy it as much as my kids do!!

Thermomix Menu Plan - 26th December and Happy Birthday Quirky Cooking!

Hi everyone, I hope you've all had a wonderful Christmas weekend with plenty of delicious food! From the comments on my facebook page, I'm pretty sure there was some amazing Thermomix cooking going on out there. Our kids have been enjoying their homemade treats in their Christmas stockings. In fact, they were sent some lollies from the USA for Christmas, and much preferred the homemade ones - yay!! (One of the boys had a few licks of his lollipop then said, 'Mum, do I have to eat this??' Music to my ears!)

Christmas with family & friends

I know a few of you received the extra-special present of a THERMOMIX for Christmas - congratulations!!! I hope these menu plans will be helpful to you in knowing where to start, and inspire you to use your Thermomix to it's full potential. (At the bottom of the page are links to other sites with Thermomix menu plans, so check them out too!) If you'd like some more ideas for starting off with Thermomix cooking, and how to convert your own recipes for the Thermomix, check out this post: Converting Recipes for the Thermomix. And please join us on my Quirky Cooking Facebook Page for tips, links to recipes, and lots of Thermomix chatting. :)

Guess what? Today is the third birthday of Quirky Cooking!! Thank you all for following and commenting and helping to make this blog (and my facebook page) a great place to get some Thermomix inspiration... I've enjoyed chatting with many of you, and hope to 'meet' many more. Hopefully the new year will see Quirky Cooking becoming not only a blog, but a Thermomix cookbook too! Exciting times ahead... I'll be letting you all know of a couple of birthday giveaways very soon - just as soon as I can get them posted! So stay tuned for the chance to win.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

I've found a lot of Thermomix owners don't use the Varoma as much as they could, and don't seem to know where to start with it. I use mine pretty much every day - it's very easy to use, and it's not just for steaming veges. If you haven't had a Varoma demo yet, you really should book one in - for one thing, the food is delicious, and for another, you'll be inspired to use your Varoma a lot more! To help you with some simple Varoma meal ideas, I've planned all Varoma meals this week. There are so many more that we make on a regular basis, like Chicken & Cashews with Coconut Rice and Coconut Satay Sauce, Sausage Casserole with Dumplings, steamed fish with rice and veges, potato salad, spaghetti and meatballs, steamed cakes... the list goes on. I'd love to hear from you what your favourite Varoma dishes are - leave a comment below and share your ideas. And if you have a Thermomix menu plan of your own on a blog, website, or public facebook page, please feel free to link up and share it with everyone! Have a great week.

One of our favourite Varoma recipes: Chicken & Cashews

with Coconut Rice & Coconut Satay Sauce

Monday:
     Steak with mashed potatoes & veges: Steak cooked in pan (with a couple of ground beef patties made with some of the steak, minced in the tmx - my daughter won't eat steak); potatoes cooked in tmx bowl while veges steam above in Varoma. (Use 200g milk, 200g water, 1kg cubed potatoes & seasonings in bowl; thinly sliced veges in Varoma tray; cook for 25 mins at Varoma temp speed 1. Remove Varoma, insert butterfly in bowl and mash potatoes on speed 4 for 20 seconds.) Takes 25 minutes. 6-8 serves.

Tuesday:
     Tomato pasta with vegetables (pg 72 in the Thermomix Vegetarian Cookbook): Vegetarian pasta sauce cooks in the tmx bowl while lots of sliced veges & herbs steam on top in the Varoma, with fetta if you like. You could crumble some macadamia cheese on top instead of fetta for a dairy free option, or just leave it out. (I cook it for 20 minutes at Varoma temp, then add 250g gluten free pasta to the sauce (uncooked pasta) and continue to cook for another 8 minutes. Mix pasta sauce & veges all together in a big serving bowl.) Takes about 30 minutes. 8 or so serves, depending on how much veges you use.

Wednesday:
     Vietnamese fish curry & sticky rice: Curry sauce cooks in tmx bowl while sticky rice (presoaked) cooks on top in Varoma. Cubed fish is added to the curry in the last few minutes of cooking time. Takes 30 minutes, makes about 8 serves, or maybe more. (You can cook the whole bag of sticky rice at once this way!)

Thursday:
     Meatloaf & veges with red sauce (pg 100 in the Thermomix Everyday Cookbook): Meatloaf is made by mincing up cubed beef, bread, parmesan (opt), veges, herbs & egg in tmx and making into loaf which is placed in Varoma. The sauce cooks in the bowl while the meatloaf and veges steam in the Varoma. Makes a large amount of the tasty sauce, which is great as the base of a pasta sauce or soup for another meal. Takes 40 minutes. Serves 6 (plus leftover sauce).

Friday:
     Chinese white chicken with steamed veges, rice & an Asian sauce: A whole chicken steams in the Varoma; towards end of cooking time, water is topped up to a litre and rice basket with basmati rice is added; broccoli, carrot & bok choy added to Varoma tray, around chicken and cooked until all done. Sauce is made from remaining stock in bowl with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, shallots. Chicken is very white, tender and juicy! Takes about 1 hour. Serves 6-8.

Saturday:
     Pork & Chicken Terrine (pg 18 Thermomix Festive Flavour cookbook - out of print at the moment sadly): This is a delicious recipe where pork and chicken are minced in the tmx; mixed with herbs, garlic and onion (chopped, and sauteed in wine in the tmx), pistachios, craisins (or prunes) & baby spinach; made into a roll and wrapped in bacon, and steamed. It's lovely hot or cold. We'll be having it cold at a New Year's Eve party. The recipe says to cook it over water, but if you want a bigger meal, you can have a soup cooking in the bowl while the terrine steams on top. Takes about 50 minutes. Serves 6-8.
     Also making some Fried Rice in the Varoma - quick and easy!! (Takes 25 minutes, serves about 8-10) and Breudher - Dutch New Year's Cake to share with friends.

 

Breudher - Dutch New Year's Cake

A delicious yeast cake recipe which makes 3 or 4 cakes/loaves

from the one recipe, perfect for sharing with family and friends

as a New Year's gift.

Sunday - New Year's Day:
     Baked Ham, Roast Lamb, veges & gravy (tmx)... New Year's lunch with family.
     Leftovers, warmed up in the Varoma (for evening meal): I don't have a microwave (I prefer not to), I use the Varoma to heat up leftovers. Just pour 1 litre of boiling water in the tmx bowl (or boil in there if you like), place leftovers in the Varoma (two layers if you need them) and cook at Varoma temp for 15 minutes, speed 1. You can put a piece of baking paper in each layer if your leftovers are things that will drip through, or to keep the flavours separate. You can also have a soup or pasta sauce in the bowl cooking instead of water, while the leftovers warm up on top - that way if you only have a few leftovers this helps to bulk out the meal. (With pasta sauce, cook for 10-15 minutes then add 250-300g raw pasta and cook another 8-10 minutes.)

And here's a quick and easy dessert using your Varoma - Steamed Chocolate Mudcakes with Orange Sabayon...

Stocking Stuffers

Christmas stockings are one of the best things about Christmas morning. It's like having a lucky dip all to yourself, with lots of little parcels and goodies to unwrap, making the present-opening-fun last a little bit longer.

Christmas just wouldn't be the same to me without a stocking. (Although it's not quite as exciting as it used to be now that I have to fill my own stocking!) My kids get so excited and dump everything out on the floor to rifle through their treasures, shooting off party poppers, blowing party blowers, opening everything edible all at once and revelling in the fact that it's all theirs!! And it really doesn't matter if the gifts inside are not expensive or amazing - just the fact that they are surprises seems to be enough.

I never fill my kid's stockings with sweets - they have a few, but I also add in lots of other things so they don't get too much of a sugar rush. This year I decided that instead of buying lots of little packets and treats from the shop, I would make all the treats myself. That way I know for sure what's in them, and can cut down on the refined sugars, additives, preservatives, colours, and who knows what else that are in most lollies and snacks.

Here's some great ideas for stocking stuffers, with links to recipes for making your own healthier sweet & savoury treats, as well as small gifts that our kids love finding in their stockings on Christmas morning. For extra fun, make sure you gift wrap every little treat and toy - the kids love that! (And I'm sure the adults do too - we all revert to childhood on Christmas morning...) Feel free to share your favourite stocking stuffer ideas in the comments below!

Homemade Treats . . .

Dried mango & banana; homemade toffees

~ Dried mango, banana, berries, peaches, nectarines: Buy whatever fruit is in season when it's on special, and dehydrate thin slices in a food dehydrator, pop in little sandwich bags, and tie with a ribbon. My kids LOVE dried mango and banana and will eat them like lollies. If you can't dry your own, buy some dried mango and banana, but make sure it doesn't contain sugar and preservatives. It may seem expensive, but it's better than buying lollies!

~ Fruit rollups: Again, make your own in a dehydrator with whatever fruit is in season. Puree the fresh fruit in the Thermomix, and spread it thinly on greased dehydrator sheets. If you don't have a dehydrator, you can spread the fruit puree on a silicon mat on an oven tray and bake at a very low temperature in the oven until dried. Slice the rollups into strips, and roll up (obviously!), wrap in a piece of greaseproof paper, and tie ends with gift ribbon, like a bon bon.

~ Toffees: We love this recipe for Rapadura-Maple Syrup Butter Toffee - it's so good, and very versatile - you can add chopped, roasted nuts or leave them out, top with melted chocolate, sprinkle with naturally coloured sprinkles, pour over whole toasted brazil nuts... or just leave it plain. Break it up into shards, place in little sandwich bags and tie with gift ribbon, then keep them in the freezer til Christmas morning. (At least, that's what I do, because our weather is so hot and humid here that they get sticky after being out of the freezer for a while.)

Rapadura Maple-Syrup Toffee

~ Rice Malt Syrup Toffee: Another version of butter toffee can be made with 1 cup of rice malt syrup and 1 cup of butter, melted on the stove and cooked the same way as the Rapadura Maple-Syrup toffee. It's a little less sweet, and tastes delicious too.

~ Peppernuts: These crunchy little morsels of gingerbread-y deliciousness are perfect for Christmas stockings, instead of much less healthy mini-cookies like Tiny Teddies. Children love to run around with a little bag of these to munch on, and adults love to dunk them in their coffee! (Or you could make little gingerbread stars with some royal icing decorations made with xylitol.) This recipe is gluten free.

Peppernuts

~ Chocolate Hazelnut Balls: These are my substitutes for Ferrero Rocher chocolates. They are dairy free, gluten free and much healthier! First make a batch of Chocolate Hazelnut Spread, but use half the amount of milk. It's best to make this hours before you want to make the balls, so it sets quite firm. Next, toast whole hazelnuts on a tray in the oven (180 degrees C), and once cooled, rub the skins off with your hands or a tea towel (see pic below). Chop some of the hazlenuts in the Thermomix. Make a batch of homemade chocolate, or melt some dairy free chocolate in the Thermomix. When you're ready to make the balls, mold a couple of teaspoons of the hazelnut spread around a whole toasted hazelnut, roll the ball in the chopped hazelnuts, then dip the ball in melted chocolate and place on a baking paper lined tray in the fridge or freezer to set. Wrap individual balls in small squares of foil. (I'll try and get the exact recipe and photos posted soon!)

Rubbing skins off toasted hazelnuts

~ Sweet 'n' Salty Nuts: If you are a nut-eating family, these are a lovely treat. They're very quick and easy to make, and there's plenty of different variations to try.

~ Chocolate or Cinnamon Almonds: There's a few different versions of this recipe, but basically they are like those sugar-coated almonds you can buy with different flavours of coating on them. Here is this recipe for cinnamon-sugar almonds (I would use Rapadura instead of sugar), and they are cooked in the Thermomix. Then there's the one for cocoa-sugar almonds which is baked in the oven. Sonia from Healthy Cooking for Australian Families makes them like this: Whip on speed 4 in Thermomix: 2 egg whites and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract; add 1kg of mixed, raw nuts and mix well on reverse speed soft; tip into a bowl that has 1 cup of rapadura & 4 tablespoons of organic raw cacao powder already mixed; mix around until there is no more dry powder; put onto two lined trays and bake at 120 degrees C for one hour or until crunchy.

~ Granola: This may not sound very exciting, but a little ziploc bag of granola they can pop in a bowl and have for breakfast or a snack is a nice treat - especially if you make it extra special with some dried cranberries in it to make it look Christmassy! For adults, you could fill a jar with granola and tie a spoon to it with a pretty ribbon. Try my recipe for Quick Quinoa Granola. Years ago, I used to buy those little boxes of fun cereals and pop one in each stocking, but the kids found them so sweet they couldn't eat them, and they were full of nasty stuff. So this is a great alternative.

Quick Quinoa Granola

~ Bliss Balls: These are my favourites - Walnut & Cacao Nib Bliss Balls! There's plenty of other variations - you can pretty much make them with any nuts and dried fruit - just use about half of each and add some raw cacao powder and a splash of pure maple syrup if you like. You'll need to keep them in little bags in the fridge until the morning, then pop them in the stocking. They're best cold.

~ Almond Coconut Fudge: If you haven't ever made coconut butter in your Thermomix, you should - it's amazing! This fudge is based on coconut butter, with some cocoa, maple syrup and extracts to flavour. The almond sits on top and is optional, so they're great if you're nut free too. A much healthier version of chocolate fudge from Deliciously Organic.

~ Chocolate: Of course, I have to include some kind of chocolate recipe! I love to make "Almost Raw" Chocolate - it's dairy free, soy free and has no refined sweeteners. You can use it to make chocolate bark (pour over chopped toasted almonds, pistachios & craisins for a Christmas version), pour it into chocolate molds, dip pretzels into it then into sprinkles, drizzle over homemade shortbread, dip cantucci into it, or dip dried mango into it. Yum!

Almond, pistachio & cranberry chocolate bark

~ Homemade pretzels: You could make these with spelt flour and whatever milk alternative you like to use. Plenty of variations, both sweet and savoury!

~ Crackers & Nut Cheese or Nut Butter: I used to put a little packet of crackers & dip in the kid's stockings, but once again, there's too many nasties in them for my liking. So here's another option. There's lots of different cracker recipes online, but these gluten free crackers caught my eye. You could add a mini block of macadamia cheese (wrapped in foil, in a little bag with the crackers - would need to go in at the last minute)... this stuff is delicious - have you tried it? Or maybe a little container of homemade nut butter to go with the crackers.

More Stocking Stuffers . . .

~ Olives: Our kids love a small jar of olives in their stockings. Or maybe a little jar of mini gherkins... :)

~ Nuts in their shells (we always had these in our stocking as kids, and loved smashing them open with a hammer!)

~ A drink (my kids like to have a popper or fizzy apple juice drink in their stocking for a special treat)

~ A mini torch (especially good for Far North Queensland, where we generally get a cyclone around Christmas day that takes the power out! lol)

~ Party poppers, party blowers, sparklers

~ Balloons, water balloons

~ Glow sticks/necklaces/bracelets

~ Mini puzzles, books

~ Mini bubbles & bubble blower

~ Pretty pens, pencils, mini notepads

~ Electric toothbrush (I know, sounds boring, but kids love them!)

~ Stickers, stamps

~ Matchbox cars

~ Earrings, necklace, bracelet, hairbands, clips

What else do you like to put in Christmas stockings?

Gingerbread people

Thermomix Menu Plans - Christmas 2011

'Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the kitchen

It was hustle and bustle and much Thermomixin'!

...And I still have SO much more Thermomixin' to do yet - help!!

It's going to be a crazy week. But fun!

How's your Christmas cooking and planning going? I hope lots of you will link up this week and share your Christmas menus - I'd love to see what other families are planning for the big day! I'm keeping the meals this week pretty simple, and focusing on the cooking for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, as well as baking and making gifts for friends and family. You'll notice a lot of this week's meals are the same as last week's - that's because last week the menu plan pretty much went out the window because I was sick in bed... so it was mostly chicken soup and whatever the family could scrounge. Trying again...

This year I'm aiming to cut out refined, artificial junk at Christmas, so there's going to be more cooking and tweaking than ever! I never let the kids have too much in the way of lollies and candy canes and things like that anyway, just a couple in their stockings, but this year I'm going to cut down on them even further by making my own healthier sweets for the Christmas stockings and to take to parties and give as presents.

I've always loved making my own sweets, ever since I was a little kid. At Christmas time we always used to make candies together - Taffy (so much fun pulling the taffy across the room!), Divinity (which was difficult in Cairns because the humidity was so high it wouldn't always set), Penuche (Mexican brown sugar fudge), Chocolate Fudge and Toffees. I was an expert at these by the time I was ten... I even won second prize at the Cairns show when I was 8 for my chocolate fudge! :D

Obviously, these days I don't make candies very often, and when I do, I use unrefined sweeteners and healthier ingredients, and only natural colours if any. So I'm really looking forward to revisiting and tweaking some old favourites to see what I can come up with. I've posted the recipe for a healthier butter toffee - Rapadura Maple Syrup Toffee - which is terribly addictive, I warn you. Thanks to Deliciously Organic for that recipe - check out her site, she has some great recipes, like this one for Almond Coconut Fudge. And keep an eye out for my post on Stocking Stuffers! Oh, and there's lots of ideas popping up on my facebook page too, so come and add yours there - the more the merrier.

Here's the plan for this week - can't wait to see yours too!

Monday:

Off to the 'big city' for a bit of shopping, then Tuscan Beef Stew with Polenta (yum, looking forward to trying that one from Tenina's Thermomix cookbook, Dinner Spinner!)

Tuesday:

Sarah over at Homemade, Healthy, Happy has been telling me about Spaetzle, and has gotten me curious, so I'm going to try making this tonight - sounds delicious! It's a kind of German egg noodle/dumplings that you serve with goulash or stroganoff. I'm going to make a chicken goulash to go on top of mine, because chicken and dumplings are one of my most favourite meals in the world, and I think it will be similar! Here's Sarah's recipe for the Spaetzle:

Chicken goulash with Spaetzle

Wednesday:

Huevos Rancheros (sauce made in the Thermomix) - another recipe I've been meaning to post!

Thursday:

Fish (pan fried) with mashed potatoes & steamed veges (cooked at same time in Thermomix)

Friday:

Chili Con Carne with green salad & cornbread (all made in the Thermomix, except the salad) Making up a couple of batches of cornbread so I'll have some for tomorrow for the cornbread dressing!

Saturday - Christmas Eve:

We're having our family Christmas dinner tonight with my parents. We traditionally have an American style menu since my family's from Texas. My mum always makes the turkey (yum!), and I haven't bothered posting a recipe for that since there's plenty on the net, but if you need help with yours, here's a great step-by-step recipe, and video of how to carve a turkey.

Roast turkey & roast vegetables

Gravy (tmx)

Baked cornbread stuffing (tmx) - recipe coming!

Cranberry-raspberry jelly (tmx) instead of bought cranberry sauce

Jelly salad (tmx) - mum makes one with green jelly, pecans, cottage cheese & pineapple; I make mine a bit differently with no dairy and jelly made from fruit juice & fresh fruit - no marshmallows in our jelly salads!!

Homemade spelt bread rolls with this recipe (tmx), or maybe sourdough bread rolls if I can get my recipe sorted out by then.

Mini cranberry-raspberry jellies to serve with the turkey

instead of bought cranberry sauce

Dessert will be various pies I think - pumpkin, cherry and pecan usually. That's mum's department, although I am intending to try and come up with a dairy free, egg free, gluten free pumpkin pie recipe - I'll let you know how I go!

I'm also planning to make my gluten free, dairy free, naturally sweetened croquembouche - I'll post some better photos once I do, as the ones on the recipe are awful!

Sunday - Christmas Day:

Today we'll be having a Christmas potluck lunch at church after the service for anyone who needs a family for Christmas or just wants to join in the fun. (All welcome!) Mostly we'll be having cold meat and salads and fresh bread rolls, as well as desserts. We'll be bringing what's left of our turkey, plus jelly salad and a green salad, more bread rolls, and the leftover pies. And I might take a double whammy chocolate cake if I'm not all cooked out... and some of those sweets I've been making.

Plenty of good food planned, and now I'd better get cracking and start preparing! Lots more blogging to be done yet too... Let me know if there's a particular recipe you really want before Christmas.

Here's a photo of my daughter as Mary in the nativity play the kids did last night - I thought it was so cute - a red-hair-and-freckles Mary with a little brown baby. :)

Merry Christmas, and I hope you have a wonderful week.

Add a link to your menu plan below, and please check out the other sites that have linked up!

Rapadura-Maple Syrup Butter Toffee

I love to make homemade sweets for a special treat at Christmas time. There are way too many nasties and refined sweeteners in bought lollies, so it's nice to have some homemade ones to keep the kids happy. Okay, and the adults. :) This toffee recipe has been a favourite at our house for a couple of years now, ever since I found it on a great website called Deliciously Organic! Check out the original recipe here.

Unfortunately, you can't make it in the Thermomix, as you can't cook at temperatures higher than 114 degrees celcius, and to get toffee to the hard crack stage you need to get up to 150 degrees celcius. So, it's back to stirring over a hot stove for this one - but it's worth it! I do make the chocolate (or melt the chocolate) and chop the nuts in the Thermomix though.

If you don't have a candy thermometer, don't worry - neither do I. I've always cooked candies the old-fashioned way, ever since I was a little kid. Mum taught me the method of holding the wooden spoon up to see how the candy drips, and dropping bits in a cup of cool water to see how it sets. Here's an explanation of the cold water testing method, and how to tell what temperature your toffee has reached. For this recipe (or any toffee or lollipop recipe where you want 'crunch'), your syrup needs to reach the hard crack stage (300 degrees F / 150 degrees C). I'll explain a bit more about the 'how to' below.

You can do all sorts of variations with this recipe - the photo above has dark chocolate and sprinkles on some, and toasted pecans and dark chocolate on the other. You can use whatever nuts you like, or leave the nuts out and top with sprinkles instead. I use Hopper sprinkles - they are made from fruit & vege extracts, no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives. They are also gluten free, dairy free, egg free and nut free. For the chocolate, I prefer to make my own (with this recipe), but since I didn't have any cacao butter left I used Lindt 70% cocoa chocolate.

Here's how I make it:

1. First, toast 2 cups of nuts if you want nuts in the toffee. (Whatever nuts you like - almonds, macadamias, pecans, brazil nuts - even pine nuts.) Start with raw, unsalted nuts and toast them in the oven on 180 degrees C for 10-15 minutes, stirring once or twice, then roughly chop in the Thermomix (or leave whole if you like).

2. Then prepare a tray for the toffee - either grease a pizza or biscuit tray with butter, or line it with baking paper.

3. Measure into a large, heavy based saucepan and mix with a wooden spoon over medium heat:
- 1 1/4 cups Rapadura
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/3 water

4. Once it starts to bubble, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for 3-4 minutes.

4. Stir in the butter:
- 225g (1 cup) butter (place a bowl on the Thermomix & weigh the butter into it - it's easier than measuring it into a cup!)

5. Continue to simmer until mixture reaches 150 degrees celcius (if you have a candy thermometer) - or hard crack stage (if you don't).

Testing to see if toffee is at hard crack stage:

Have a cup of cool water handy. As mixture simmers over low heat, try to only stir it a little now and then. Don't constantly stir it or you'll end up with a grainy, fudge-like texture. You want to keep the sugar from crystallizing on the sides of the pan - if it starts to do that, brush down the sides with a pastry brush (preferably silicon) dipped in water.

You'll notice the mixture starting to get darker and thicker after a few minutes. Give it a gentle stir, then hold the spoon up and let most of the mixture drip off. The last couple of drips will become a string of toffee - if the string thins out to a fly-away hair, it's about ready. (See picture below)

Let the string of toffee drip into the cup of cool water. If it hardens quickly into a brittle thread that snaps when you bend it (or crunches when you bite it) the toffee is ready - take it off the heat immediately! There's a fine line between ready and burnt. (Be careful it's not too hot before you pop it into your mouth to taste it!!)

6. Quickly stir in the salt, baking soda and nuts, making sure there's no soda lumps:
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup toasted, roughly chopped nuts (optional)

7. Pour the toffee onto the prepared tray, working quickly before it sets in the pan. Spread it flat with the spoon and leave in a cool place to set.

8. Meanwhile, chop (speed 5) then melt the chocolate in the Thermomix on 50 degrees for 3-4 minutes, speed 3:
- 200g dark chocolate, broken in pieces

9. Spread the melted chocolate over the toffee with a spatula, then sprinkle with the remaining chopped nuts, or with sprinkles. Place toffee in the freezer to set hard.

10. When it's ready, crack the toffee into shards with the point of a sharp knife.

I find this keeps best in the freezer in our hot, humid climate - I leave it in one big piece and crack some off as we want it, or break into smaller pieces and place in ziploc bags.

Make a couple of batches and share it with your friends - it's perfect for Christmas presents! You can make a little paper box, line it with baking paper, add the toffee pieces and pop on the lid. Sweet!

Here's a link to making your own paper gift boxes - I use a large, square sheet of scrapbooking paper for the lid of the box, and another for the bottom of the box. Cut 1 centimetre off two adjacent sides of the second sheet for the bottom of the box, so the lid will fit over. Use the offcuts to make a curly decoration for the lid, stuck on with double sided tape.

Thermomix Menu Plans - December 12th (plus a recipe for Melty 'Cheese' Sauce!)

My menu plan is a bit late today, as I'm sick in bed and haven't felt like blogging, or thinking too much about food. (I must be sick!!) It's my own silly fault... I always end up like this when I have dairy and wheat a few days in a row. I can usually get away with a little bit of butter or bread now and then, but to have it a few days in a row (and a piece of chocolate mudcake with ganache!) was not a good idea. Anyway. Here I am, laptop in bed with me, and I'm determined to post at least a simple menu plan.

Okay, so here's the basic plan for this week - I'll let you know what else I'm cooking on my Facebook Page as the week progresses, so come on over and join the chats there!

Monday:
Salad, leftover roast & gravy (tmx), leftover fried rice (tmx), and a rib fillet steak cooked for me by my daughter :) Oh, and my 10 yr old baked the Too Easy Chocolate Cake in the EDC all by himself, substituting grapeseed oil for butter, spelt flour & baking powder for the SR flour, rice milk for the milk, rapadura for the sugar, adjusted the amounts to suit, and it worked out great! (He calls it 'FAR Too Easy Chocolate Cake', as you can just chuck in all the ingredients at once when using oil instead of butter! lol)

Tuesday:
My daughter has requested Tenina's 'Fisherman's Pie' (tmx) from her new mini cookbook, 'Dinner Spinner'. I will have to tweak it to make it dairy free - probably will use my cheesey sauce on top and leave out the marscapone. Here's the recipe for the Melty Cheesey Sauce (sorry, can't find a photo atm)... use it as a substitute for melted cheese on pizzas, casseroles, lasagne, broccoli/cauliflower with cheese,  potato bakes, etc.

Melty Cheesey Sauce
Whiz up the ingredients in the Thermomix for 1 min, sp 9:
- 75g raw cashews
- 15g savoury yeast flakes
- 15g cornflour
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 130g red capsicum
- 2 Tbspns lemon juice
- 30g oatmeal
- 1 tsp sea salt
- pinch of each: oregano, turmeric, garlic powder, ground sage, dry parsley, celery seed
- 650g water
Then cook for 7 mins, 90 degrees, sp 4. If it's not smooth enough, pulverise for another 30 seconds on sp 9. Yum!

Wednesday:
Cashew & vege satay with coconut rice (tmx), based on this popular recipe!

Thursday:
Spaghetti & meatballs (all in one Thermomix meal) since we never got around to that one last week

Friday:
Baked potatoes & sweet potatoes (baked in crockpot) with leftover melty cheese sauce & toppings

Saturday:
Quinoa salad with pomegranate dressing (quinoa cooked in tmx; onion, herbs & nuts chopped in tmx; and dressing made in tmx)

Sunday:
Tuscan beef stew with polenta (tmx - another recipe from Tenina's Dinner Spinner)

...And probably lots of baking and Christmas treats in preparation for the big day - like this rapadura-maple syrup toffee which is a firm favourite at our house!

Have a great week, and link up your menu plan below...

Caramelized Onion & Olive Spelt Bread

On Sunday afternoon's I usually bake bread, and today was no exception, even though the weather was awfully hot and sticky, and I wasn't really sure I wanted to turn the oven on... My brain didn't seem to be working too well either, and it took me ages to decide what kind of bread to make. I finally came up with the idea of experimenting with caramelized onions in the Thermomix, so I could make some onion bread.

I know a lot of people love caramelized onions (including me!), but don't think they can make them in the Thermomix because of the low heat it cooks at. Well, I did it! They ended up so mild and sweet and delicious, and the bonus was I didn't have to stand over the hot stove stirring them.

I also added some garlic, herbs, and Kalamata olives to my bread for extra flavour, and it turned out lovely. The whole, gigantic loaf was quickly demolished tonight at supper after church. I was in a rush and didn't get a photo taken before I left home, but thankfully a friend loaned me their iphone so I managed to snap a couple of photos before it was all gone! Hope you like it as much as we did. :)

 

First make the bread dough.

1. Mix together all the dough ingredients on speed 6 for 6 seconds:

- 500g unbleached white spelt flour (or part wholemeal)

- 3 teaspoon instant dry yeast

- 30g extra virgin olive oil

- 1 or 2 teaspoons sea salt

- 2 tsps mixed herbs (dried)

- 270g lukewarm water

2. Turn dial to closed lid position, and knead on interval speed for 1 1/2 minutes.

3. Remove dough from bowl, wrap loosely in a silicon breadmat (or place in an oiled bowl, turning over once, and cover with plastic wrap). Leave the dough to rise while you prepare the onions.

[Note: you may need to change the amount of flour or water a little if you use wholemeal flour. It's best to have the dough a little bit sticky, but not so sticky that it's unworkable.]

Caramelizing the onions (and garlic) & preparing the olives.

1. Place in Thermomix bowl and chop on speed 5 for 3 seconds:

- 2 garlic cloves

- 2 large onions, halved

(I used brown onions, but red onions would be lovely too.)

2. Add ghee or butter and cook at Varoma temperature for 25 minutes, reverse, speed soft, with the MC off so steam can escape:

- 70g ghee or butter

3. You will find there is some browning on the bottom of the bowl - it will come off easily, just rub it off with the Thermomix spatula and mix it into the cooked onions. It adds flavour!

4. Set onions aside to cool a bit.

5. Roughly halve (and deseed) the olives and set aside:

- a couple of big handfuls of whole Kalamata olives

(or other olives if you prefer.)

Prepare the bread.

1. When the dough is risen (doubled in size), punch it down and flatten it out on the silicon bread mat with your hands, forming it into a large rectangle about 2 cms thick.

2. Sprinkle the dough with the olives and onion. (Scoop the onion out of the Thermomix bowl with the spatula, leaving the melted ghee/butter behind.)

 

3. Roll the bread up into a long loaf. Or roll up into a sausage shape then twist into a circle so the ends join up. (I made a roll, twisted it into a circle, then squished it together a bit to make a round loaf. Because my dough was soft and a little sticky, it molded together easily.)

4. Place loaf onto a baking paper lined tray, and brush with the remaining melted butter/ghee in the Thermomix bowl. Sprinkle with some extra herbs and some sea salt flakes. Place loaf into the cold oven.

 

5. Leave the bread for 5 to 10 minutes to rest, then turn oven on to 190 degrees C and cook for about 30 minutes, or until outside is browned and crusty, both on the top of the loaf and underneath. (In some ovens, you may need to turn the loaf over to brown underneath for the last 5 minutes.)

6. Allow to cool for a few minutes before cutting.

Thermomix Menu Plans - 5th December

December is here, and the countdown to Christmas has begun! Actually, it began weeks ago for my kids, but I refused to think about it. But now it's just about here and I really must get organized. I would love to know what kinds of dishes you are planning to prepare for Christmas...

Christmas Jelly Salad

We're still tossing up ideas, but we'll probably mostly have our traditional Christmas fare, with maybe a couple of new things to keep it interesting. My family (being from Texas) always have a more Amercian style menu: roast turkey and dressing (baked separately in a pan), roast veges, green beans, gravy, cranberry sauce, hot bread rolls, a jelly salad, pies (pecan, pumpkin, cherry), and the highlight of Christmas dessert - homemade ice-cream!

 

Cornbread dressing makes a great side dish served with turkey

When we were kids we'd make the ice cream in an old wooden churn every Christmas, taking turns churning it and adding ice and rock salt to the wooden bucket. My favourite flavour was always mum's peach ice cream made with fresh, juicy peaches. Eventually mum got an electric ice cream maker and we used that for a few years (until it broke); now we use the Thermomix to make ice cream. Sadly, I can't handle dairy, so I have to make my own dairy free ice cream for me and the kids. I'm working on some ideas for a new one this year, getting lots of inspiration from a great vegan ice cream recipe book, Vice Cream!

I'm hoping my busy schedule will slow down once the kids finish school this week, and I'll be able to get some Christmas preparations done. And the Christmas lights up!

Crustless macadamia pie - gluten free & naturally sweetened

(Also delicious as a crustless pecan pie!)

Here's my basic menu plan for the week - I'm sure I'll manage to fit in some baking too, and will try and get some Christmas recipes blogged this week. If you're planning a menu too, you can share it by either linking to this post (instructions here), or by leaving a comment below this post with your menu plan. Have a great week!

Monday:

(lunch) Chicken & sweetcorn soup (tmx - with leftover roast chicken & gravy)

(dinner) Beef & vegetable curry with sticky rice (all in one tmx meal)

Making gluten free artisan bread

Tuesday:

(lunch) Demo here

(dinner) Steak & baked potatoes with dairy free sour cream (tmx) & green salad

 Wednesday:

(lunch) Linguini with squid (tmx - from the Seafood Cookbook, except with gluten free breadcrumbs & pasta), green salad & gluten free artisan bread (tmx)

(dinner) Pizza with dairy free avocado topping (tmx), base made with gluten free artisan bread dough (tmx)

Thursday:

(lunch) Spaghetti bolognaise (all in one Thermomix meal) with green salad

(dinner) Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic, mashed potatoes & steamed veges (tmx), cornbread dressing (tmx)

Friday:

(lunch) Fish crumbed with cornmeal, shallow fried, with green salad

(dinner) Demo; kids having dinner out

Saturday:

(lunch) Thermomix fried rice

(dinner) Leftovers, sandwiches

Sunday:

(lunch) Roast & veges (gravy in tmx)

(dinner) Leftovers

The avocado topping for pizzas also makes a great dip

Add a link to your menu plan below!