Sunday, April 14, 2013

Easy Bacon & Lentil Soup

Bacon & Lentil Soup (Thermomix Recipe)

Easy weeknight dinner, or yummy winter warmer!

Ingredients

1 brown onion
a tablespoon of olive oil
3-4 rashers of bacon, sliced
1-2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables
1 cup of brown/green lentils
1 tablespoon of TM concentrated veggie stock
water

Steps

1) Roughly chop onion into quarters. Place into TM bowl and chop at speed 5 for 4 seconds.

2) Add olive oil, saute onions at Varoma temperature, reverse speed 1 for 3 minutes

3) Add sliced bacon, saute at Varoma temperature, reverse speed 1 for 4-5 minutes

4) Add frozen vegetables, saute at Varoma temperature, reverse speed 1 for 5 minutes

5) Add TM veggie stock concentrate and water till max water level is reached. Boil soup at Varoma temperature, reverse speed 1 for 20-30 minutes*.

* Check if lentils are soft enough to individual liking. Cook for 10-20 more minutes and add more water if required.
Note: if lentils are pre-soaked, cooking time can be reduced to 15-20 minutes.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Nuoc Cham Recipe (Vietnamese dipping sauce)

Nuoc Cham Recipe (Vietnamese dipping sauce or salad dressing)












Ingredients
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup warm water
3 tablespoon lime juice (or lemon juice)
1/4 fish sauce
1-2 bird's eye chillies (cut into fine rings)
1 clove garlic (finely minced)

Steps
Simply add all ingredients together. Stir till sugar is dissolved. Now you've got yourself an easy, tasty dipping sauce or salad dressing.

Personally i love it added to sliced poached chicken - coleslaw mix. Makes for an easy healthy lunch! Or as a tasty dip for spring rolls.

Nonya Achar

Nonya Achar - Mixed Vegetable Pickle (Thermomix Recipe)



















Main ingredients
2 large carrots (Julienned)
1 kg Cucumbers (With skin on, cut into batons)
300g cabbage (cut into bite size pieces)
300 g skinless roasted peanuts
3 tbsp white sesame seeds (optional)

Sauce ingredients
9 shallots, peeled and washed
1 piece ginger (1 inch), peeled and washed
2 red chillies, trimmed and washed
2 tbsp chili powder (add more if desired)
1/3 cup unsaturated vegetable oil *
1/2 cup white rice vinegar
2/3 cups water
1 cups sugar
1 tsp Turmeric powder
salt

Ingredients for blanching2 cups white rice vinegar
2 cups water
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp salt

Steps
1) Prepare cucumber by adding 3 tbsp of salt, let sit for 30 mins. Then rinse several times with clear water to wash off salt. Pat dry with kitchen towels.

2) To prepare sauce:
  • add shallots, ginger, chillies into TM bowl. Blend on Speed 10 for 10 seconds or until fine.
  • add in chili paste and oil, cook ingredients on 100deg for 10 mins on speed 1.
  • add in white rice vinegar, water and sugar. Cook for 2 mins on varoma, speed 1.
  • add salt to taste
  • The sauce is now done! Pour the sauce out onto a glass bowl large enough to mix up the achar later on.**

3) Put ingredients for blanching into a saucepan, bring to a boil. Briefly blanch the carrots, cabbage in batches. Spread out the vegetables to cool and dry on large trays (press down with kitchen towels if required)
4) When ingredients are all cooled (and vegetables are relatively dry), mix everything (including peanuts and sesame seeds) in a non-reactive bowl (usually glass is a good medium).
5) Achar is now done! Easy peasy! Place Achar in the fridge, stir now and then to ensure all the vegetables are getting equal love from the sauce. After 24 hours, it's ready to serve. (or if you're craving achar like I was, it was good to eat once it was mixed together :P )
Achar should keep for up to 1 month in the fridge (i don't really know for a fact. I finished all the achar within a week!)

* Important to use unsaturated oil (eg. corn oil, rice bran oil) so it doesn't solidify when chilled.
** Turmeric could potentially stain the TM bowl. So it's important to remove as soon as the sauce is cooked. Clean the bowl and the cover with baking soda.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Almond Biscuits


 
 


Almond Biscuits (Thermomix recipe)

Ingredients

125g Almonds*
1.25 cups oil
500g plain flour
1 cup raw sugar **
2 tspn baking powder
1 egg

Steps
1. Put raw sugar into TM bowl, grind into icing sugar (5 secs, speed 10)

2. Add in almonds, grind for 10 seconds on speed 10

3. Add in flour and baking powder, mix on speed 5 for 10 seconds

4. Pour in oil, mix for 30 seconds on speed 5 (or until evenly mixed)

5. Preheat oven at 180 deg Celsius

6. Mould cookies by hand into little balls, press down with fork and brush with beaten egg for that beautiful golden shine

7. Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes

Recipe makes about 80 biscuits.

*Almonds can be replaced with other nuts of choice.
** Sugar can be reduced if desired