morrocan carrot salad....my way....revisited....

bb invited me over for dinner a few nights ago and asked me to make a few things; one was salad. after some thought, i decided to refine it - i'm not mad about the one i posted earlier. to me, it was a bit boring and i wanted something with more ooomph. so this is my new version.

the leaves of half a bunch of parsley
3 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1 spanish onion, peeled and quartered
1 red apple, quartered and cored
1 green apple, quartered and cored
1 rib celery, cut into 5cm lengths
1 teaspoon ground corriander
1 teaspoon toasted cumin seeds
a few drops orange flower water
a good few sploshes of extra virgin olive oil
the juice of a lemon
3 tablespoons hommus (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons currants
toasted slivered almonds

place everything except the currants into the thermomix bowl and chop for 4 seconds on speed 5. add the currants and almonds and reverse stir the salad on speed 3 for 10 seconds.

thank you for anzacs

i'd like to say thank you for the anzacs; without them, where would we be today?

a big, heartfelt thank you.

we will remeber them today with our favourite anzac biscuits.

almond chews

miss k was needing something to take to school for her tutor group's morning tea, and i decided that i wanted to try a new recipe. if it worked, well and good, and if it didn't, it was going to be cut into little pieces and i doubt any of the girls would knock it back, so it would at least get eaten. miss k oroginally wanted to do the mini cupcake thing but got lazy, hence my opportunity to make this, if you must know....i seize opportunities as they present themselves.

2 eggs
1 1/4 cups (310g) sugar
1/4 cup (45g) brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
160g butter, softened
250g self raising flour
150g white chocolate bits
200g flaked almonds

preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

line a 20cm x 30cm shallow baking tin with baking paper, leaving the papr hanging over the sides to assist in lifting the cooked slice out of the tin.

whisk the eggs, sugars and vanilla until thick. add the butter and beat until well combined. fold in the flour, white chocolate and 75g the almonds.

sprinkle 35g of the almonds over the base of the tin and spoon the mixture into the tin. sprinkle the remaining almonds over the top of the batter and press gently to spread the batter out evenly.

bake for 30 minutes or until golden. the slice, whilst cooked, will be soft and chewy in the centre.

allow the slice to cool in the tin. lift out of the tin and cut as desired.

hokey pokey

the first time i ever had hokey pokey icecream was when i went to new zealand....north island....pokono....i think that's how it's spelt. this was quite a long time ago. a tiny little place, but famous (well, it was back when i was there) for their icecream. their icecream was the same as everyone elses', but it was the way they scooped it. they were big scoops of icecream which supported other big scoops of icecream. from memory, the double cone had 2 scoops of icecream, one in each cavity, then another scoop on top.

today, i sit here chomping on my cornetto hokey poke cone. typical cornetto size and should be greatful it doesn't contain the calories a pokono icecream cone has, but still reminiscing about the pokono icecream.......

minty things

let me tell you how anal i was when i was in primary school (that was in the seventies)...remember perkin's paste (you really have to be my vintage to appreciate this)? in the magenta coloured container? the paste was all nice and smooth on top, and when i used it, i never disturbed the nice smoothness, and would just carefully use the paste next to the paddle thing so as not to mess it up.....i'm the only person i know who kept their paste like that....it was so traumatic when someone borrowed it and messed it up, and you know what? it still is. i lent my copy of bridget jones' diary to someone once and it came back so battered (it was like new - the spine didn't even have a crease....)....sad...i know....i really have to lighten up...i am much better these days.

morrocan carrot salad....my way

this is the thermomix morrocan carrot salad (a taste of vegetarian, page 56), but done my way. instead of three process steps in the themomix, i've chosen to condense it to two, partly because i'm a lazy sorta girl, and partly because i like how it looks - the herbs are less pastey looking, and look like they're more part of the salad when it's done my way. naturally, if anyone is allergic to almonds or pistachios, omit them, but they add such a nice crunch to the salad.

mint
italian parsley
3 large carrots, cut into chunks
1 teaspoon ground corriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
a few drops orange flower water
30 grams extra virgin olive oil
the juice of one lemon
salt, pepper, sugar to taste
2 tablespoons currants
2 tablespoons toasted slivered almonds or pistachios

place the herbs, carrots, spices, orange flower water, oil, juice and seasonings into the thermomix bowl and chop for 4 seconds on speed 5. add the currants and nuts and combine on reverse speed 3 for 5 seconds.

another reason why i like my thermomix...

not only is it fast, but flour doesn't fly all over the place when i use the thermomix when i make cake. this is actually a big plus for me when i make cake.

nutty pumpkin salad

i love this salad. the original came from the austalian womens' weekly's great barbeque cookbook, but as with so many things, i can't leave them well enough alone.

1 kilogram pumpkin, cubed (i like jap/kent pumpkins best)
2 bacon rashers, chopped
3/4 cup pepitas
1 apple, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1 stick celery, chopped
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sour cream
1/2 teasoopn ground nutmeg

microwave the pumpkin until just tender. cool.
cook bacon until crisp. drain and cool.
gently combine the pumpkin, apple, celery, mayonnaise, sour cream and nutmeg together. place in serving bowl and sprinkle the pepitas and bacon over before serving.

to thermomix or not to thermomix

tomi expressed to me that all the recipes i've posted requiring the thermomix don't apply to her...well....yes and no. most of them can be made without a thermomix except for the sous vide cooking. the thermomix just makes things easy - one doesn't have to cook the stock concentrate in a saucepan, then blend it with a food processor or blender and have all the washing up to do. the same applies for making soup...then it comes into its own where sauces and risottos are concerned.

then, there was someone i met whose friend bought one. the friend said she had to use it everyday to justify having purchased it, so is always wondering what to make with it. i simply said i don't do things with that mind set - i was more of a person who thinks about what i want to make and then thinking the thermomix can do it. the thermomix has to fit in with me, and not the other way round....and so far it has.

poached chicken revisited

miss c went to canberra earlier this year and off she went not knowing how to cook. i had no reservations about her going, after all, i knew she wouldn't starve - in this day and age, there are so many places to procure food - take away joints, supermarkets have preprepared meals etc...so i knew she wouldn't starve. however, whether she would be eating well would be up to her. enter the odd recipe here and there, and this is one of them. tomi drew my attention to the fact that i hadn't posted this ...and she came here just to try and find it (she must have found other things).

1 whole chicken breast
water
vegetable stock concentrate

get yourself a saucepan which your chicken breast will fit in comfortably. fill it half way with water and set it on the stove and bring the water to the boil. you should aim to have sufficient water in your saucepan to cover your chicken once you place it into the pot.

while you are waiting for the water to boil, give your piece of chicken a rinse. place a spoonful or two of stock concentrate into the water, and once the liquid boils, gently place (you don't want the liquid to splash) the chicken into the liquid and simmer gently for 5 minutes*. switch off the heat and leave the chicken in the liquid to finish cooking. once the liquid has cooled, your chicken should be cooked through and nice and moist. now you have some chicken to add to sandwiches, salads, pie fillings...and you also have a well flavoured stock with which you can make soup.

*if you have an electric stove which takes time for the element to cool, switch the power off after adding the chicken as there will be plenty of stored heat in the element - you don't want to overcook your chicken - overcooking chicken breast dries the meat out and makes it less palatable.

irony number 3974

i'm overweight, but not fat enough for liposuction....

call me lazy....

i find that i am always making stock concentrate whenever i can just so i have it on hand...so i made some today. not one to waste anything, i usually make a soup in the thermomix bowl after bottling the concentrate. it serves a dual purpose - the little bit of concentrate in the bowl isn't wasted, and the bowl gets a washed out with soup.

today, i changed things a little and made bread/pizza dough. it's slightly pale green, but i'm sure it's going to be flavoursome. because the dough is kneaded so well in the thermomix, the bowl is virtually cleaned of concentrate so i can clean as usual. i do it my favourite way and heat about a litre of water up in the thermomix and let it clean itself on full speed when the water is hot. nothing could be simpler.

eggs...cooked sous vide...sort of....

a couple of weeks ago, wenty took me sean's kitchen to have tapas. the most delicious dish was the simplest..sort of....it was called eggs and chips. the chips were slices of parcooked potatoes fried, and the eggs were "cooked at 60 degrees celcius for an hour". i asked the waitress about it and she said the eggs were cooked very soft and formed the sauce for the chips. i ventured further to ask if the eggs had been cooked in the thermomix....she said they were cooked in a thermo something.....

well, today, i tried cooking my eggs like that, and they were the best soft boiled eggs i have ever had. the egg white was all opaque, but soft, runny soft. i then tried cooking the eggs a bit more at 70. these were also very good. i set the thermomix on for an hour and left it to go and ice some cupcakes. i think this is really the way to go if you want to do lots of reliable soft boiled eggs, and i don't think i'd mind doing them this way in future - by the time i finished mucking around doing things in the morning, the eggs would be done to my liking.

fruit and nut pretend truffles

last week at jan's, we decided to go through her cupboard and use up all the scraps of dried fruit, nuts and seeds...we even used up all the honey making these.

300 grams nut and seeds (we used a combination of brazils, almonds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds)
150 grams dried fruit (we used cranberries, apricots and pears)
100 grams honey
extra sesame seeds to roll the truffles in


pop everything into the thermomix bowl and blitz on speed 7 until the desired consistency is acheived.

form into balls, roll in the extra sesame seeds and refrigerate until firm before serving.

chef laurent vancam's cooking tips

last night, i went to chef laurent vancam's cooking class, and these were a few words of wisdom:

mayonnaise lasts 3-6 months...did you know that? i always would only keep my mayonnaise a week, max. laurent used the thermomix to make the mayonnaise, and it was really thick.

pesto should be made with half basil and half parsley - that way it stays nice and green; if it's made with just basil, it goes black.

if you whip cream in the thermomix and it starts to turn to butter, throw in an ice cube to return it to cream

when making mousse, don't whip the cream stiff, just a light whip is good - it stops the mousse from becoming grainy - mixing the cream with the egg and chocolate mixture whips the cream more and gives it a grainy texture if the cream was whipped too stiff before folding through.

the healthiest way to prepare chicken is to poach it and have it when it is just done - the worst thing to do is to overcook it. he even said that chicken could be cooked at 80 degrees in the thermomix! he said people tended to overcook chicken, which dries it out - the trick is to stop cooking once it is done.

when using herbs, use the asparagus test - if the herb stalk snaps easily, you can use it; stalks contain lots of flavour, and if the final product is pureed (eg, pesto), it will be fine.

despite what all the books and experts tell us, it isn't necessary to brown meat when cooking a casserole. chef laurent said he did a side by side taste test with his cheffy pals and they couldn't tell the difference.

whisks' chicken and sweetcorn soup

since there was sweetcorn and chicken in the fridge i thought it might be nice to have some chicken and sweetcorn soup made from scratch. obvious choice, eh?

the potatoes thicken the soup nicely and whilst the soup looks and tastes nice and creamy, there isn't any cream. very comforting.

3 potatoes, peeled and quartered
3 cobs sweetcorn, shucked
vegetable stock concentrate to taste
1 litre water
1 double breat of chicken, cut in small cubes

place the potatoes and sweetcorn kernels in the thermomix bowl and blitz on speed 10 for 10 seconds. add the stock concentrate and water and cook the soup on speed 3 at 100 degrees for 17 minutes. add the chicken and continue cooking for another 2 minutes at 100 degrees on speed 3.

vegetable stock concentrate revisited.

i feel like i've been making this by the bucketload. everyone wants it even though i give them the recipe. it's all a matter of proportions. i use a kilo of aromatic vegetables and herbs. the combination is endless. vegetables i like using are onions, garlic, celery, swedes, parsnips, leeks. the herbs i use are whatever i can get from the garden: parsley, rosemary, basil, sage, tarragon, marjoram, thyme and bay leaves. to this, i add 200 grams of sea salt and a really generous amount of oil. i whack it all into the thermomix and blitz until chopped. cook it for 20-30 minutes at 100 degrees celcius on speed 3, blitz until smooth and pour into clean containers. this keeps in the fridge for 6 months as the salt acts as a preservative (this is what i've been told, but i wouldn't know because mine gets all used up before i get to the expiry date).

it's so much better than a stock cube because you know what goes into it and there isn't any msg, but mind you, it give such a kick to the things you cook you'd think it was.

su-lynn's lime cheesecakes

this is a great recipe of su-lynn's. you can make them ahead, in fact, you have to, and the are make nice, neat servings.

su-lynn's lime cheesecakes

500 grams cream cheese
1 cup castor sugar
1 cup cream
rind and juice of 1 1/2 limes
butternut cookies

place the butternut cookies at the base of the serving 12 cups.
beat the sugar and lime rind together. this releases the lime oil.
add the cream cheese and beat to combine.
add the cream and beat until smooth.
add the lime juice and beat again.
spoon into the mixture over the butternut cookies.
refrigerate for several hours. this softens the cookies.

goat milk soap with honey

since i started making soap, i've been on a quest to find an easy, fail proof method way of making it. to date, my favourite way is to make room temperature cold process soap. it is cold process soap without all the temperature checking and can be done in stages. there are 2 types of room temperature cold process methods. i've tried both and like both; each has their own application. one method uses the heat of lye mixture to melt the solid oils and the other needs the solids to be melted on the stove. the one i find more reliable is the one where the solid oils are melted independantly of the lye, especially when i use something like palm kernel oil.

i've received recipe requests for this soap, and have decided to post it here for everyone.

before soaping, prepare your work surface and protect it with newspaper. wear suitable protective clothing, including goggles and rubber gloves. lye (sodium hydroxide is highly caustic and can cause damage to work surfaces, and serious burns to skin and other bodily parts).

100 grams purified water
2 tablespoons honey
132 grams sodium hydroxide (caustic soda)
280 grams goat milk
250 grams coconut oil
750 grams olive oil

get your moulds ready. you can use empty milk containers, plastic containers, lined cardboard boxes....just don't use anything aluminium or of an unknown metal. lye doesn't react well with any metal other than stainless steel.

place the water in a heatproof glass or stainless steel container. add the honey and dissolve completely. add the sodium hydroxide very slowly to the honey water and stir to dissolve. this mixture will be very hot. set aside to cool. add the goat milk (straight from the fridge is fine) to the cold lye mixture slowly.

melt the coconut oil gently in a stainless steel stockpot, remove from the heat, and add the olive oil.

when both mixtures are no longer warm, pour the lye into the oil and stir to combine. i have an old handheld mixer i use solely for soapmaking to do this. i stop the mixer every so often and use it to stir the mixture around while switched off. the mixture will thicken and once it does so, your soap is nearly ready to pour. i tend to like to pour at what they call light trace. trace is the stage where the oils and lye are combining and thickening and if you lift the beaters from the batter, it will leave a trail behind.

pour the soap into the prepared containers once you have reached trace and set aside to solidify. because this soap contains honey and goat milk, it is best to set it aside somewhere cool and not to wrap the soap to insulate. you may find the soap might generate some heat on its own and it's best not to let it overheat.

leave the soap a day or two and cut it with a sharp knife or wire, if necessary, once it has set. place your soap pieces on a rack or box lined with some paper towel and leave to cure for 4-6 weeks.

all in the soap pot

having not made any soap for nearly 2 months, i got back into it a few days ago and made 2 batches. in the 2 months break, i didn't stop reading about soaping, and didn't stop getting things for soap making either.

a very nice person in victoria sent me some clay to try in the soap (supposed to give it better "slip", a creamy lather and act as a fragrance fixative) and another lovely person in queensland sent me some silk to use (to lend the soap a silky texture). in addition to the silk and clay, i had read that salt and sugar are supposed to have value in soaping as well.....so i added all 4 new things to my soap. i know i should do a batch of soap to test each variable, but i didn't know which one i wanted to try first, so threw it all in. i can't help myself.

i then fragranced them. both batches smell so nice, and if i didn't know better, i'd say they were the best fragrances i've used thus far. i swirled lilac ultramarine and a plain base for the red currant, and used green clay and a plain base for the vera wang signature frangrance. the green also had imbedding, and rather than a swirl, i just blobbed it all in. what is really nice is that both fragrances are not overpowering, but just strong enough. i'm hoping they don't morph into something unpleasant. at the moment, i really like the way they look and smell, but only time will tell whether they are good soaps. i hope they are.