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Cooking

Cooking, Thermomix

.Thermomix Cooking: Canned Tomato Relish.

I was listening to a cooking talk show on the radio one Saturday morning as I was driving to an appointment and heard about using canned tomatoes to make relish.  I looooove relish and always want to make it, but don’t want to commit myself to a large quantity at one time and always seem to miss the tomato season so when I’m finally ready to get around to making it the tomatoes are too expensive.

Lately I’ve been using my Thermomix to make jams, sweet sauces and homemade butter with success.  I love knowing exactly what is going into them and the taste is far superior to store-bought, mass produced products. So this got me thinking…using canned tomatoes + the Thermomix to make relish…I hunted around for recipes, but didn’t find anything that looked just right, so melded a few together and adjusted the taste once I’d finished cooking and have come up with a delicious Thermomix tomato relish recipe using canned tomatoes!  

Canned tomatoes are mega cheap…for 80c or 90c a can, you can make a few jars of relish for just a few dollars!  It is sooo tasty, we’ve been eating it on ham sandwiches, with crackers and cheese, chips, burgers and homemade sausage rolls.  I’m excited to have a quick, cheap and easy recipe to use now and it makes a great gift too.  This quantity of relish filled about 4 jars – they were all random sizes, but at a guess I’d say it makes just under 2 liters.  You could easily halve the recipe if you didn’t want to make as much.

Canned Tomato Relish

2 x 400g cans tomatoes
2 large onions, cut into small cubes
1 apple, peeled, cut into small cubes
1 Tbs curry powder
1 Tbs salt
1 dessert spoon mustard
180g white vinegar
80g white sugar
60g brown sugar
1 Tbs cornflour 

Place all ingredients except cornflour into Thermomix bowl.  Cook on 100 degrees, speed 1 for 30 minutes. 
Make a paste with cornflour mixed in a little vinegar.  Add to relish and cook on 100 degrees, speed 1 for a further 1 minute.
Pour relish into sterilised jars and seal. (Relish will be runny, but will thicken on cooling).

 

(NOTE: Because I only make a small quantity of relish at one time, I’m not too pedantic about my jars.  To sterilise them, I half-fill them with water and place in the microwave for a couple of minutes, until the water comes to a rapid boil.)

 

September 18, 2012
Cooking

.Banana Sour Cream Cake with White Chocolate Icing.

Nothing beats a perfect banana cake and this one ticks all the boxes…light and moist, not too sweet, easy to make and a delicious icing to top it all off. When bananas get too old and brown in our house, I peel them and pop them in a snap-lock bag in the freezer ready to use for smoothies or baking.  I find that if I peel them first, they are much easier to use and you don’t have to defrost them and peel off a wet, stinky skin – not very appetising!  Anyway, this cake is always a hit – and of course you can spread any icing over the top…passionfruit, lemon, cream cheese or just leave it plain with a dusting of icing sugar.

 
Banana Sour Cream Cake with White Chocolate Icing.
 
125g butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
3/4 cup sour cream
1 cup mashed banana (I used 2 big bananas)
2 1/4 cups self-raising flour
1/4 tsp bicarb
 
Icing
180g white chocolate
1/4 cup sour cream
 
 Beat butter, sugar and vanilla until light and creamy.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Fold in sour cream and mashed bananas.
Fold in flour and bicarb.
Place in square 20cm pan and cook in a moderate oven for 50-60 minutes. 
To make icing, place white chocolate and sour cream in a microwave-safe bowl.  Cook for 30 seconds on high then stir well.  Continue cooking for 30 second bursts and stirring in between until just melted and smooth.  Pour over top of cake.
Icing will thicken and set upon cooling.
September 11, 2012
Cooking

.Ham, Lentil & Vegetable Tomato Soup.

For a hearty, quick and tasty soup this is my usual go-to recipe.  It’s ready to eat in 30 minutes and is one rare lentil meal that the rest of the family will happily eat.  

Ham, Lentil & Vegetable Tomato Soup

1 Tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 celery sticks, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
300g smoked ham, chopped (I get ham off the bone from my butcher cut into 1/2cm thick pieces)
2 cups chicken stock
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can brown lentils, rinsed
1 can tomato soup

Heat oil in large saucepan over high heat. Add onion, garlic, celery and carrot. Cook, and stir for 5 minutes or until softened.
Add ham, stock, tomato soup, tomatoes and lentils. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat.
Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

August 31, 2012
Cooking, Thermomix

.Thermomix Cooking: Chocolate Weetbix Slice.

This slice is my favourite.  It tastes amazing with a great crunchy texture, is simple to make and lasts for awhile (if you don’t eat it first!) and I guess you could justify this slice as being healthy with all that weetbix, right?!  I used this recipe from Taste, but didn’t make as much icing and sprinkled with 100s and 1000s instead of rainbow choc chips.  A great slice for the lunchbox as it is nice and firm and the icing sets completely so it travels well.

Chocolate Weetbix Slice
170g weetbix
200g butter
30g cocoa
170g brown sugar
40g coconut
1 egg
 
Place weetbix in Thermo bowl.  Crush on speed 9 for 5 seconds.  Remove from bowl and set aside.
Place butter into Thermo bowl. Heat on 50 degrees, speed 1 for 2 minutes or until melted.
Add weetbix, cocoa, brown sugar, coconut and egg to bowl. Mix well on speed 4 for 30 seconds.
Press into a lined slice tin.  Bake in moderate oven for 15-20 minutes until firm to touch.
Cool and ice with chocolate icing.
 
To make chocolate icing:
Mix 2 cups icing sugar, 2 Tbs cooca, 1 Tbs soft butter and enough boiling water to give a smooth consistency.
 
 
 
August 26, 2012
Cooking, Thermomix

.Thermomix Cooking: Cheese & Bacon Scrolls.

Oscar looooves cheese & bacon scrolls.  When ever I make a batch of these everyone complains because they are gone too fast – they really are super delicious (really, what bread fresh from the oven isn’t delicious?!). I made a batch this week so that they came out of the oven just as Oscar stepped off the school bus…talk about coolest Mum ever!

This is how I make them in the Thermomix – but I’ve been making them by hand or using the bread maker for longer than that.  I used to use the basic bread recipe in the Everyday Cookbook for all of my breads, but a friend shared this bread recipe with me and it’s all I will use now.  It does take a little longer, but the bread is much nicer and lasts way longer.  

Cheese & Bacon Scrolls
 
300g water
600g plain flour
2 tsp dried yeast
2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp bread improver
15g oil
grated cheese
diced bacon
 
Place water into Thermomix bowl and cook on 1 minute on speed 2 at 37 degrees.
Add flour, yeast, salt, sugar, bread improver and oil. Mix for 5 seconds on speed 5.
Knead for 6 minutes on interval speed.
Place Thermomix bowl in a warm place to allow dough to rise until doubled in size.
Once risen, knead for 30 seconds on interval speed.
Remove dough from bowl and roll into a rectangle about 60cm x 30cm.  Sprinkle grated cheese and diced bacon over rectangle.
Starting at long edge, roll up into a scroll shape.
Cut into 1″ pieces and place in a baking paper lined tray.
Cover with plastic wrap or a tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise for about 30-45 minutes.
Place into a cold oven and turn onto 200 degrees celsius.
Cook for 20-30 minutes.
 
July 26, 2012