Pan fried snapper with kumara purée and thai salad

~ nzthermomixmum
Pan fried snapper with kumara mash and thai salad
Pan fried snapper with kumara mash and thai salad

http://chelseawinter.co.nz/tag/healthy-fish-recipe/

Another amazing dish from Chelsea Winter’s blog. The buttery snapper with the sweet kumara against the salty spicy salad is so yum. Salad dressing leftover from her vietnamese salad  used for the salad.  None of the kids are hungry tonight because they’ve had the bacon rolls with salad already, so there is going to be a lot of leftovers tonight.

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/basics-recipes/basic-pumpkin-puree/233634

Made the kumara purée in the tmx using the pumpkin purée method in the above link. Chop the peeled kumara roughly and steam 25 mins, Varoma temp, speed 2.  Pop steamed kumara into the TM bowl, add salt and pepper and blend at speed 5 for a few seconds, then blend speed 10 a few seconds. Added a bit if boiling water to thin slightly.

Cheese and Bacon Rolls

~ nzthermomixmum
Cheese and Bacon rolls
Cheese and Bacon rolls

http://thermomumma.com/cheese-bacon-bread-rolls/

Another great recipe from thermomumma.com. These are as good as the Bakers Delight ones.  Crunchy on the top and soft and fluffy in the middle … Perfect ! Took them out of the oven not a minute too soon, after  18 mins on fanbake, they would have been burnt by 20 mins and probably would have been done by 12-15 mins in our oven. Finding we don’t need to fanbake any of her bread recipes either, made these another time on nomal bake and increased to fanbake last 5 minutes to brown a little more. Will be going straight into freezer after they cool for lunchboxes. Hah…Well and truly fallen off the paleo wagon, it’s impossible when you see and smell the bread baking.

Chicken Caesar salad

~ nzthermomixmum
Caesar salad
Caesar salad

The kids love Caesar salad so Chelsea Winter’s Caesar salad was a must try. The dressing differs slightly from Pete Evans family food recipe in that her recipe has a tsp of sugar and  basil added. We didn’t have basil tonight but added some italian parsley and extra lemon juice.  And instead of 2 eggs yolks in his recipe, hers uses one egg  yolk and one whole egg so less whites to use up later.  Poached the remaining egg white to add to the salad, then no leftover egg white. The dressing is enough for two huge salads, perfect for our dinner and lunches tomorrow.

Caesar salad dressing adapted for tmx

  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 free-range egg yolk
  • 1 whole free-range egg
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 200ml canola or rice bran oil
  • 2 tbsp mayonnaise
  • 4 anchovy fillets
  • 1 cup fresh basil leaves (or 1 x 25g-40g packet)
  1. Add garlic to TM bowl, blitz 3sec speed 7. 
  2. Add eggs, lemon juice and sugar, blend 1 min, speed 4 until pale.
  3. With blades spinning  at speed 4, add oil in a thin slow stream to top of lid. The oil will slowly slip into the dressing through the gaps under the measuring cup and should emulsify.
  4. Add rest of ingredients and process until smooth ( few seconds at speed 5-6)
  5. Salt and pepper to taste, add more lemon juice to thin or to taste.

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/main-dishes-others-recipes/steamed-chicken-caesar-salad-yummy-style/141578

NB:- some handy tips from the above recipe ( recipe community)  for chicken Caesar salad, oven baking bacon and croutons together saves time and washing up and steamed honey marinated chicken in Varoma would be another healthy option. We used a supermarket roast chicken this time. And this was a great dish for getting the kids in the kitchen to help washing, cutting, and preparing all the ingredients. Alternatively to reduce oil content, a lighter dressing to use is her yoghurt dressing which was published on her blog as part of the Lebanese style meatballs recipe or the yoghurt based dressing in the recipe community link above.

Yoghurt dressing
1/2 cup unsweetened yoghurt (plain or Greek)
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup finely chopped mint/parsley/coriander – one or all

Cottage Pie

~ nzthermomixmum
Cottage Pie
Cottage Pie

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/main-dishes-meat-recipes/cottage-pie/44741

Our Friday afternoon snack, we were off for a spot of late night shopping. The photo is poor, clearly no food styling. The kids took it out of the oven and helped themselves while I was preoccupied and slapped this piece on a plate for me, the rest was not fit to be photographed because it looked like a dog’s breakfast after they started helping themselves.

Its a super easy, tasty recipe from the community ( link above) , took note of a few comments and reduced liquid to 100g so I didn’t have to thicken it later. Add some vegetables to make it a one dish meal. Mash potato topping uses  the guided recipe for mash potato.

From Wikipedia : what is difference between cottage pie and shepherds pie ( always thought they were the same thing )

….. The term “shepherd’s pie” did not appear until 1877,and since then it has been used synonymously with “cottage pie”, regardless of whether the principal ingredient was beef or mutton. More recently, some people have used the term “shepherd’s pie” when the meat is lamb, the theory being that shepherds are concerned with sheep and not cattle……

Vietnamese Chicken Salad

~ nzthermomixmum
Vietnamese chicken salad
Vietnamese chicken salad

http://chelseawinter.co.nz/vietnamese-beef-salad/

Chelsea Winter’s Vietnamese Salad dressing. Used Thermomix to make the dressing ; grate a cm piece of ginger (speed 7) as a sub for the ginger juice , then added all the other ingredients per the recipe blitz (speed 5). Marinated some chicken thigh pieces in some of the dressing. Tossed all salad ingredients with dressing and topped with roasted peanuts. (Can use tmx to coleslaw the vegetables and herbs then add cooked rice noodles and chicken to the coleslaw.) left out chillies and added a little sweet chilli sauce and chopped chillies to adults plates.  Delish.

Raisin buns

~ nzthermomixmum
Raisin buns
Raisin buns

http://thermomumma.com/sweet-bun-dough/

In love with all thermomumma’s bread recipes ( see link above) When I  thought we’d lost them because they were no longer to be found on the recipe community website, ridiculously, depression had set in. (note print off  your favourite recipes just in case) As soon as they were discovered on a new blog, of course I had to make one up and retest.  Around midnight these glorious soft fresh raisin buns popped from the oven.  And the smell of bread baking woke miss 14, together we had a midnight feast of raisin buns.  Completely wrong but soooooo good. This is her sweet bun recipe made into raisin buns instead of iced finger buns. But they can be made into scrolls, plain sweet rolls, iced buns, custard buns and perfect frozen straight after cooking and cooling. You can reheat in microwave so easily or pop into lunchbox frozen, defrost perfectly by lunchtime.  Awesome recipe.

Charlie’s thin pizza base

~ nzthermomixmum
Charlie's thin pizza base
Charlie’s thin pizza base

The guided pizza dough recipe is great but if you prefer a lighter thin pizza base, Charlie’s thin pizza base from the recipe community  is perfect. It is as simple to make as the guided recipe and even shorter proving time.  And it’s as light as pita bread. Miss 14 topped with standard ham cheese and pineapple. (Chop cheese at speed 8 until sound changes, check consistency through lid)

Plum and Almond Tart

~ nzthermomixmum
Plum and almond tart
Plum and almond tart

Been wanting to try the guided sweet short crust pasty for months. Found this tempting award winning Watties recipe, it was time to try it. Like many recipes for the first time there are always certain aspects that may feel not quite right. The almond filling in the published recipe was more than enough for two 20cm tarts instead of just one. And an 850g tin of Watties Doris Plums can be perfectly  divided into to two tarts. And one quantity of pastry from one guided  sweet shortcrust pastry is enough for two 20cm tarts. So we ended up with two lovely tarts, one eaten for afternoon tea and dessert another put in fridge for dessert during the week. The sweet shortcrust pastry is great; sweet and crunchy, the tart is delicious served  with whipped cream or yoghurt.

Converted recipe for the Thermomix

Plum and Almond Tart (makes 2 x 20cm tarts)

  • 700g sweet short crust pastry (one portion of guided recipe)
  • 150g butter
  • 150g sugar ( I reduced to 130g)
  • 1 large egg
  • 210g ground almonds
  • 1 TB pistachios, shelled and chopped (opt)
  • 850g can Watties Black Doris Plums
  1. Preheat oven to 200C. Grease or line with baking paper 20cm pie plates.
  2. Make one quantity of the guided sweet short crust pastry. Roll out the pastry and line pie plates with it. ( Can save half the pastry and filling in fridge for another day) Prick pastry with fork and bake 8-10 minutes.
  3. Cream butter and sugar, mix in egg. Then fold in ground almonds. (Thermomix tip from forum to cream butter and sugar – blitz  sugar on speed 9 for about 10 secs then add the  butter.  Soften by heating to  37 degree to soften your butter on soft speed for a minute before whipping with butterfly on speed 4 (no faster when you are using your butterfly) for about 30 secs to a minute.)
  4. Dot or place the almond filling into the cooked pastry. Drain plums, cut in half removing pips and place cheek side up on the filling. Doesn’t matter if the filling is not smooth, it smooths out when baking.
  5. Bake 30-40 mins, serve with cream or yoghurt. ( 30 minutes for our oven)

image

The sweet shortcrust pastry should make delicious base for apple pies. Only  takes a a couple minutes to make the pastry in tmx , just needed to cool in fridge for an hour after.

Chicken and cashew nuts with coconut rice

~ nzthermomixmum
Chicken and cashews with coconut sauce and coconut rice
Chicken and cashews with coconut sauce and coconut rice

http://www.recipecommunity.com.au/main-dishes-meat-recipes/chicken-and-cashews-coconut-satay-sauce-and-coconut-rice/17249

Quirky cooking’s recipe for Chicken and cashew nuts with coconut sauce and coconut rice is a clever all in one recipe that makes a great standard family meal.  Uses the Varoma to steam vegetables and chicken while the rice cooks in the bowl.  Sauce is made from the remaining coconut liquid in the bowl blended with extra herbs and nuts. Very yummy and enjoyed by us all. Would top with extra roasted cashews next time. Note: use basmati as it cooks quickly in the recipe  time and add the chicken stock to the sauce before the final cooking stage.