Spicy Chicken & Vege Sausage Rolls with Spelt Rough Puff Pastry

I love to make homemade sausage rolls with spelt rough puff pastry - they're so easy, and really yummy! I use spelt as it's non-hybridized and easier to digest than wheat. It has a lower gluten content than wheat, and the germ contains the enzymes needed to digest the gluten. These are not gluten free - I'd like to try some gluten free rough puff pastry and have seen a few recipes online that look interesting - anyone tried making gf puff pastry? If so, let us know!


I usually make quite a big batch of these, using fresh meat so that they can be frozen uncooked (separated with baking paper), and I can get a few out of the freezer and pop them in the oven as I need them.  


The last time I made them I wanted to jazz them up a little, so instead of tamari and sweet chilli sauce (which I usually use to give them more flavour), I added some of my homemade tikka paste.  It really spiced them up and the kids loved them!  It's best to fry up a little 'taster' of the sausage mince before you assemble the sausage rolls so you can check the seasonings - you might like more or less tikka paste than I use - kind of depends on how spicy your paste is, and how hot you like it.  If you don't want them spicy, just use tamari (or soy sauce) to season them instead of tikka paste.

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The Pastry...


1.  Make a batch of the rough puff pastry from the Thermomix Everyday Cookbook, and place in the fridge.  (I use spelt flour instead of wheat flour, and if you can't have butter, you can just use all lard.)  Don't overwork it - it should be quite rough at first...

 (ready to wrap and place in fridge...)

Chicken & Vege Filling:

2.  Grind up on speed 9 until fine:
- 120g spelt bread
- 2 cloves garlic
- handful of fresh parsley or coriander

3.  Add and chop veges in the Thermomix on speed 5 for 5 seconds:
- 1/2 an onion
- 1/2 a stick of celery
- 1 zucchini, quartered
- 1 carrot, quartered

4.  Add remaining ingredients and mix on speed 6-8 until finely minced and mixed together - you may need to use the spatula to help it along:
- 600g cubed chicken
- 1 egg
- 2 Tblspns vege stock concentrate (from Everyday Cookbook)
- 4 Tblspns tikka paste (from Indian cookbook)

5.  Fry a spoonfull of meat mixture in a hot frying pan and taste to check seasonings.  Add salt or more tikka paste if needed.

6.  Take pastry out of fridge and cut off a third of it in a rectangular shape, (replace remaining pastry in fridge to keep cold).  Roll it out on a floured silicon mat. It should be quite thin, about 2 mm.  Place a third of the sausage mixture down the centre of the pastry...

 Roll it up, seam side down, slice in desired lengths (carefully with butter knife so you don't cut the silicon mat)...

Cut slashes in the pastry with a sharp knife and place sausage rolls on a lined tray, or in a container to freeze (separating sausage rolls with baking paper).

7.  Repeat with remaining two thirds of pastry and sausage mixture.  When you're ready to cook them, preheat oven to 220 degrees Celsius, brush sausage rolls with an egg and water wash, and cook for about 30 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.  If you're cooking them from the freezer and they're not thawed, cook at 180 degrees until nicely browned, and check the centre to make sure it's cooked through!  Will take a bit longer, obviously, but I can't remember how long :)

Hope you like them!

Look at that yummy pastry!

Lime, Kiwi Fruit & Mint Sorbet

There's so many different variations of sorbet you can make in the Thermomix. This is one of our favourites, and I thought I'd post it since Christmas is coming up, and I'm thinking of red and green sorbets and drinks and breads and dips...  This would be lovely with a bright red raspberry or cherry sorbet served beside it!

1. Grind up in Thermomix bowl on speed 9 for 30 seconds:
- 100g Rapadura 
- peel of 1 lime 

2. Add remaining ingredients and blend on speed 9 for 1 minute, or until smooth:
- juice of lime
- handful of fresh mint
- 200g fresh kiwi fruit
- 1 egg white
- ice cubes to fill bowl to 2 litre mark

So simple :)

Christmas Jelly Salad

I love this jelly salad as a side dish with Christmas dinner!  You can also serve it as a dessert, if you'd rather - it's kind of halfway between a dessert and a salad.  You can add or subtract fruits as you like - green grapes and strawberries are nice in it too.  Hope you like it :)

1.  Drain pineapple, and pour juice into the Thermomix bowl; set pineapple aside for later:

- 2 x 440g tins of crushed pineapple, unsweetened

     There should be approx. 400g of pineapple juice.

2.  Add berries to the juice in the Thermomix bowl and cook at 100 degrees for 15 mins, reverse, speed 1:

- 450g frozen berries (cranberries/mixed berries/cherries)

3.  Juice an orange and stir gelatine into juice until dissolved:

- 1 orange, juiced

- 2 heaped Tblspns gelatine powder (3 sachets)

(For a vegan version, substitute agar agar powder for gelatine)

4.  Add thickened orange juice and honey to berry mixture in bowl and cook at 100 degrees for 2 minutes, reverse, speed 2:

- orange juice mixture

- 180g raw honey

5.  Pour juice and berries into a large jelly mold (or bowl), leaving about a cupful in the Thermomix bowl.  Add orange to Thermomix and blend until smooth, moving speed dial slowly up to speed 9 for about 20 seconds:

- 1 peeled orange

     Add orange-berry mixture to berries and juice in the jelly mold (or bowl).

6.  Place in Thermomix bowl and chop on speed 4-5 for 5 seconds:

- 2 sticks of celery (no leaves)

- 1 green apple, quartered

- 65g raw walnuts or pecans

    (if you want pretty slices, you could chop by hand)

7.  Add to the berry mixture in the bowl:

- chopped celery, apple & nuts

- reserved crushed pineapple

     Stir together, and cover.

8.  Chill for a few hours or until jelly is set - you can put it in the freezer for a little while if you're in a hurry!

Menu Plan Monday - 22nd November

So what's cooking at your house this week?  Last week's menu was completely jumbled up, because my brother and nephews and nieces came to visit, and we had some impromptu trips to places like Green Island, and Tinaroo Dam - lots of fun!  Now I need to knuckle down and start thinking of Christmas... it's getting closer, and I am NOT prepared!  Hopefully I'll get some Christmas recipes posted this week - for example my favourite Christmas Jelly Salad, which I meant to post the recipe for last year...

... and a Cherry Fruity Dream with Chocolate Swirls (no pic yet)... and some Christmassy breads and meat dishes... If you've got any great Christmas recipes, please share!  

I've also been experimenting with steamed, gluten free bread - it's more moist and less crumbly than the oven version, and quicker - so I'll be posting that soon too.

I often plan salads into the menu but don't specify what kind, because it really depends on which veges come in my vege box, which doesn't come until Tuesday.  And I don't usually include sweets/desserts in the menu - they're a now and then thing that we make when we have time.  My oldest daughter made a lovely pineapple and pear upside down cake today that was dairy free and gluten free - we'll have to post that one.  

So here's the basic plan for this week - check out Menu Plan Monday at "I'm an Organizing Junkie" for more menu plans and recipes, and of course Forum Thermomix for lots of Thermomix recipes!  Have a great week :)

[tmx = prepared and/or cooked in my Thermomix]

Monday:

(lunch) Chicken & vege pasta (one pot - tmx)

(dinner) Baked potatoes, veges & steamed fish with lemon-parsley sauce (cooked together in tmx)

Tuesday:

(lunch) Beef chop suey with rice (tmx)

(dinner) Dinner out - taking Jelly Salad (tmx), and making Cherry Fruity Dream with Chocolate Swirls in tmx for dessert (I quite often take my tmx with me when I'm invited somewhere for dinner - he gets lonely at home!)

Wednesday:

(lunch) Tuna salad wraps with spelt tortillas (tmx)

(dinner) Beef & bean chilli (tmx) with corn chips and dairy free sour cream (tmx) & salad

Thursday:

(lunch) Baked potatoes with leftover chilli & salad

(dinner) Salmon-rice casserole (made ahead - tmx) & salad

Friday:

(lunch) Sandwiches

(dinner) Steamed stuffed chicken breasts with steamed veges & creamy df sauce (tmx)

Saturday:

(lunch) out at demo

(dinner) Toasted quinoa vege curry (tmx)

Sunday:

(lunch) Roast with veges (gravy in tmx)

(dinner) Sandwiches on steamed gf bread (tmx)

Dairy Free Raw Chocolate

Dairy free, soy free, gluten free, naturally sweetened CHOCOLATE!!

You may have noticed I'm a bit of a chocolate addict - good chocolate, that is, not the cheap 'chocolate-flavoured' stuff - I love REAL chocolate, with cacao butter and 70% organic cocoa and natural sweeteners.  As I mentioned in my first post about making my own chocolate, I really try and avoid refined sugar, dairy and soy, and they are in most chocolates, even a lot of the 'healthy' ones.  So I started making my own.  They were okay, but not quite the right texture.

Then I found this gluten-free, dairy-free recipe for Raw Chocolate made with cacao butter and raw cacao. I played around with the recipe, and this is what I came up with. It's very simple, and you can add in whatever additions you like to make all sorts of delicious variations! You can use more or less sweetener and cacao to taste. I like mine really dark, so just reduce the cacao if you don't want quite so much of a dark taste.

Make sure your bowl, blades, lid and lid seal are REALLY dry before you begin - water and chocolate don't mix!!!   

Basic Dark Chocolate

200g raw cacao butter (I use Loving Earth Cacao Butter)

50-60g raw cacao powder (or to taste)

100g raw honey or pure maple syrup or rice malt syrup

1 tsp vanilla bean paste or natural extract

1/8 tsp fine sea salt

Chop cacao butter roughly with a knife on a chopping board, to approx. 1-2cm cubes. Place cacao butter into mixing bowl. Mill 20 sec/speed 8. 

Melt cacao butter for 10 mins/37°/speed 2, scraping down sides of bowl with spatula towards end of cooking time to ensure all the cacao butter is melted.

Add remaining ingredients to mixing bowl and continue cooking 10 mins/37°/speed 1.

Mix chocolate 10 sec/speed 5 to blend honey or syrup in, then pour immediately into lined dish or chocolate molds or onto a tray for a thin chocolate bark.

You can use other sweeteners, whatever you prefer, to your own taste. Just be aware that if you use a 'sugar' like Rapadura or coconut sugar, you may find that it separates. If this happens, blend it up for 1 min/speed 9, and it will mix in. Pour into molds or onto trays immediately, as it will separate a little as it sits.

Additions:

If you'd like nuts or fruit in your chocolate, sprinkle them over the lined tray or in the chocolate molds, then pour chocolate over the top.  Place in the freezer to set. 

Here's some ideas for additions -

- activated nuts (soaked then dehydrated), or roasted: hazelnuts, almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts

- raw cacao nibs 

- sprouted, dehydrated buckwheat, made into little chocolate buckwheat 'cakes'

- dried fruit: cherries, blueberries, apricots, ginger, cranberries

- pretzels (chocolate drizzled over salty gf pretzels is delish!)

- a mixture of above fillings!

You can also stir into the chocolate:

- shredded coconut

- spices: cinnamon, chilli, cardamom, ginger...

- edible essential oils: peppermint, orange, lemon, cinnamon... just a few drops

Swirl through the chocolate:

- nut butter (or pour a little chocolate into a mold, let it set, add a dab of nut butter, then pour chocolate over to fill molds; or fill with chocolate hazelnut spread ) 

- sunflower seed butter

- dulce de leche

Tips:

If you try to set the chocolate at room temp it will take a very long time and often separates, so is best set in the freezer, or at least the fridge if you don’t have room in the freezer.

You can replace half the cacao butter with cold pressed coconut oil if you want to make a cheaper chocolate - but just be aware that it will melt really easily and needs to be kept in the freezer.

Raw cacao butter

Ice Magic

Here's one more thing you can make with your fresh batch of chocolate. 

Mix 100g of the chocolate with 50g of coconut oil, add a little more pure maple syrup if you think it needs it, and melt 2 mins/37C/speed 2, or until melted and mixed together. Pour into a jar and keep it in the cupboard, and you have instant 'Ice Magic' for whenever you want it! 

It hardens immediately when you pour it over ice cream or sorbet, and the kids love it. Ok, so do the adults. ;)

(If it's cold weather and it hardens in the cupboard, just set the jar into a bowl of boiling water to melt it before using.)

Homemade 'Ice Magic'

Menu Plan Monday - 15th November

Last week I was so busy, I didn't get any recipes posted!  I've got a real line up waiting to be added to the blog - 'Almost Raw' Chocolate, Chicken & Cashews with Coconut Cream Sauce, Spicy Chicken & Vege Sausage Rolls, Christmas Waldorf Salad, How to Make Three Meals from One Chicken, Calzone, Spelt Fruit Bread, Dairy Free Cheesy Seasoning... Phew, better get typing!  If you see one in this list that you really want the recipe for, let me know, and I'll put it at the top of the list. (Most of you are probably saying, "the chocolate!!!")

Our camping trip didn't go quite as planned, as one of the kids was coughing too much, so we didn't stay the night :(  But we still had a lovely day at the lake, and pretended we were camping - we had potatoes baked in foil in the ashes for lunch, and camp-fire stew for dinner, cooked in the camp oven.  Yum!

Campfire Stew

Keeping the stew hot 'til dinner time!

The highlight of the week was the big Thermomix day in Cairns!  It was so lovely to meet other consultants from North Queensland, and especially to meet Grace again (the director of Thermomix Australia), and Uwe and Roswetta (Uwe is in charge of Thermomix sales, worldwide)...  We cooked and talked and were inspired and encouraged, then we held a cooking class to inspire and encourage others :)  Then we went out for dinner and stayed up half the night chatting :D  This has got to be the best job ever!

Me & Felicity (consultant from Townsville)

Consultants Bronwyn (Townsville), Felicity (Townsville) & Leeandra (Herberton)

Did anyone see the Thermomix on Iron Chef again last Tuesday night?  I missed it - had to go out - but I heard it was good...  It's great to see the Thermomix getting more media attention these days - as it should!

So what's on your menu this week?  I've mostly got old favourites, but I'm trying a few more gluten free versions this week, as my son has had to go gluten and dairy free because of allergies (at least for a while).  I really wanted to try gluten free rough puff pastry today, but just didn't get time.  Hoping to try gf pizza dough for the calzone later in the week - we'll see how that goes.

If you'd like some ideas for your menu, or help with menu planning, check out these links:

Menu Plan Monday at "I'm an Organizing Junkie" 

My menu planning tips

The Thermomix Forum (for recipes & to see what other people are cooking for dinner)

And here's some tips for converting your family's favourite recipes for the Thermomix!

Here's my plan... ('tmx' = prepared and/or cooked in the Thermomix)

Monday:

(lunch) Chicken & asparagus fried rice (tmx)

(dinner) Leftover roast & gravy on mashed potatoes (tmx) with steamed veges (tmx)

Tuesday:

(lunch) Crockpot potatoes, bacon & green beans and waldorf salad (tmx)

(dinner) leftover fried rice and/or tuna salad (tmx)

Wednesday:

(lunch) Beef fajitas (tmx) with spelt tortillas (tmx) & gf wraps (for some of us who are gf at the moment)

(dinner) Chelsea's curried pumpkin & lentil soup (tmx)

Thursday:

(lunch) Baked potatoes with tuna-mushroom sauce (tmx) & salad

(dinner) Meatballs in bolognese sauce (tmx) on gf pasta with salad

Friday:

(lunch) Salmon fishcakes (tmx) & salad

(dinner) Calzone made with gf pizza dough (tmx) & tuna or mince fillings (tmx)

Saturday:

(not home for lunch)

(dinner) Lentil bolognese (tmx) on gf pasta with salad

Sunday:

(lunch) Meatloaf & baked veges (slowcooked in oven)

(dinner) leftovers

Menu planning for a busy week!

If I don't plan ahead this week, I will probably go crazy!! (Okay, crazier!)

Monday and Tuesday - camping at the lake (cooking over a campfire, no Thermy - I hope I survive! but I will cook some things beforehand); Tuesday night - a baby shower (need to cook for that); Wednesday - homeschooling, dentist, and cooking for a birthday party (getting paid to make the cake); Thursday - all day in Cairns (70kms away) for Thermomix training, meeting, cooking class and dinner with Grace and Witek of Thermomix, Australia (and some special Thermomix visitors from Germany!) and spending the night at a resort; Friday - dashing back home to homeschool, clean house and prepare for Saturday, and helping run Youth Club; Saturday - more cleaning and preparing, as I'm running an "Allergy Alternatives Cooking Class" here that evening; then Sunday - church and hopefully have a break!!  Phew.  So it's going to be a bit of a juggle to organize meals this week - thankfully I'll have Grandma's help for some of them (as well as with the homeschooling!).  I've cooked some things ahead to take to our lunch in Cairns, but there's still so much to do...

I decided to add in my breakfast plan, as I've gotten a bit slack with breakfast lately, and need to hold myself accountable!! (And I thought some of you might like some new breakfast ideas - I've included photos for some.)  Here's the plan...

For more menu planning ideas, go to "Menu Plan Monday" at "I'm an Orgnanizing Junkie", or see my article here on "How I menu plan".


[tmx = prepared and/or cooked in my Thermomix]

Monday:
Breakfast: Blender Batter Blueberry Muffins (tmx)
Lunch: Sandwiches with cold meat & salad (on spelt bread)
Dinner: Campfire stew & spelt damper

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Fruit, toast (pan-fried damper) & fried eggs
Lunch: Potatoes baked in ashes, df sour cream (tmx-ed ahead of time!), raw vege sticks, fruit
Dinner: Spaghetti bolognaise with lots of veges in it (tmx) on spelt noodles (making double batch)

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Pink fruit cereal (tmx)
Lunch: leftover spaghetti & salad
Dinner: Baked beans (tmx)

Thursday:
Family fending for themselves (with the help of leftovers and Grandma!)

Friday:
Breakfast at Grandma's
Lunch:  Chicken pot pie with spelt rough puff pastry (made ahead in tmx, in freezer)
Dinner:  Leftovers & sandwiches

Saturday:
Breakfast:  Blender Batter Brown Rice Pancakes (tmx)
Lunch: Fish (cornmeal coating, shallow fried), mashed potatoes (tmx) & steamed veges (tmx)
Dinner:  Allergy Alternatives Demo - lots of yummy dairy free, gluten free, naturally sweetened, organic food!  (All in tmx, of course)

Sunday:
Breakfast:  Fruit, toast, eggs (poached in tmx)
Lunch:  Roast dinner (gravy in tmx)
Dinner:  Leftovers/sandwiches

Steamed Chocolate Mudcakes with Orange Sabayon

Steamed Chocolate Mudcakes with Sabayon - decadent and dairy free!

We enjoyed these little cakes for afternoon tea the other day.  I've been wanting to try steaming chocolate mudcakes in the Thermomix Varoma, and they worked really well, turning out lovely and moist, although they cracked open a bit - I just turned them upside down.  ;)  I think they could've done with a little more chocolate though (being the chocoholic that I am!!), so next time I think I'd put in some chunks of 70% cocoa chocolate.  I had some egg yolks in the fridge that needed using up, so I made sabayon too, and they tasted delightful together!  I use fresh orange juice in my sabayon instead of rum, and I use Rapadura instead of sugar, which gives it a lovely, rich flavour.  The cakes were still hot when we drizzled the sabayon over, so it kind of soaked in, but it still tasted delicious.

I got the idea for this mudcake recipe from the 'Budget Busters' Thermomix cookbook, but I've added a few of my own tweaks (of course!).  I also halved the recipe so it would fit in my Varoma in silicon cupcake cups, making fourteen to sixteen cupcakes, depending on the size of your silicon cups.

Steamed Chocolate Mudcakes

1.  Place all the ingredients into the Thermomix bowl in the order listed and beat for 30 seconds on speed 6; scrape down sides of bowl and beat for a further 10 seconds on speed 6.

- 40g extra virgin macadamia oil (or grapeseed oil)

- 200g cool water

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 20g balsamic vinegar

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 100g Rapadura

- 25g honey

- 260g spelt flour or gluten free plain flour

- 30g cacao powder (or cocoa)

- pinch sea salt

Stir in some dark chocolate chunks or chips if you like.

2.  Pour into ungreased silicon cupcake cups (only fill a little over half way!) and place in the two layers of the Varoma.  Pour water into the Thermomix bowl to just above the blades (not hot water), place lid and Varoma on top, and cook on Varoma temperature, 20 minutes, speed 2.  (Mine were filled a bit too full, as you can see below!)  Remove lid and set aside while you make the sabayon.  (Or you could make a chocolate sauce or vanilla custard to drizzle over instead.)

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Sabayon

1.  Make sure the Thermomix bowl is clean and dry.  Place nutmeg in bowl and grind for 10 seconds on speed 9.  Remove from bowl and set aside.

- 1 whole nutmeg

(Of course, you can use pre-ground nutmeg, but you'll get more flavour if you grind your own!)

2.  Mill the Rapadura for 20 seconds on speed 9, until fine:

- 80g Rapadura

3.  Add remaining ingredients to Thermomix bowl and cook for 8 minutes at 80 degrees, speed 4.  (You can use the butterfly if you like - it makes it lighter and fluffier.)

- 1 tsp ground nutmeg

- 5 egg yolks

- 5 tblspns fresh orange juice

- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

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Now turn the cupcakes out of their cups, place them upside down on a plate, and drizzle over some sabayon... Enjoy!