{everyday spaghetti bolognese in hermie}

There is not one person who I know that does not like spaghetti bolognese. Everyone has their own take on it but one thing that remains constant is that it is a regular in most households. It's a great combination of pasta, vegetables and meat. So, when serving it up to your family, you know they are eating a hearty, healthy, tasty meal especially when it comes to feeding the fussiest of toddlers!

It is also very versatile; the following recipe doubles as the sauce if you're going to make a lasagne (in Hermie) and when you make the full amount, there's enough for a family lasagne and a serve of bolognese as is. Who doesn't like 2 meals for the effort of 1? Enjoy xx

1 carrot (~120 grams), roughly chopped
1 zucchini, roughly chopped
1 brown onion, peeled & halved
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1 celery stick, roughly chopped (optional)
50 grams olive oil
500 grams beef mince, slightly frozen in 4cm pieces
5 medium size mushrooms, sliced
3 dried bay leaves
1 tablespoon TM vegetable stock concentrate (from the EDC)
salt to taste
50 grams tomato paste
800 grams chopped tomatoes (1 large tin)


1. Place carrot, zucchini, onion, garlic (& celery) into TM bowl and chop 3secs/ speed5. I find this still provides texture and the vegetables are not too fine. Scrape down sides of bowl.
2. Add olive oil and cook 5mins/ varoma/ reverse/ speed1. Scrape down sides of bowl.
3. Add mince to TM bowl. Cook 5mins/ varoma/ reverse/ speed1. Scrape down sides.
4. If using mushrooms, add them to the TM bowl. Also add bay leaves, TM stock, salt, tomato paste, and tomatoes to TM bowl. This will bring the contents near the 'max' mark on the bowl. Give the sauce a quick manual stir with the spatula and cook 15mins/ 100C/ reverse/ stir speed.
5. Check the sauce and manually stir through again. Cook for a further 25mins/ 90C/ reverse/ stir speed.
6. Serve with pasta and grated parmesan cheese.

Makes ~1.6L of sauce

Bon Appetit xx

Notes: slightly frozen mince is used as it takes longer to break down and therefore, the bolognese sauce still has the texture to it when fully cooked.

{beef 'with hidden vegetables" meatballs in hermie}

Our family has just returned from a holiday in Singapore and on this holiday I discovered something very important. Miss A does not eat any food that is pre-processed. In fact, she spits it out and pulls a funny face.

On one hand, I should be happy and delighted that she likes my home made food. However, there are those times in your day when you're really tired and you look in your fridge and freezer and there is nothing already cooked to feed your family and you just wish you could feed them 'takeaway'.

Having said that, I also like to feed a variety of foods to Miss A and am always on the hunt for something new for her to try in her repertoire of weekly foods. This week, I had some beef mince in the fridge which I was originally going to make spaghetti bolognese with (one of the families favourites) but thought, lets try and make this mince more versatile. I looked at the rest of my fridge contents, and have come up with the following recipe.

2 slices wholemeal bread, torn roughly
170 grams zuchinni (about 1), chopped 4cm lengths
1 leek, chopped 4 cm lengths
20 grams olive oil
500 grams beef mince
salt to taste
Good shake of paprika
Garlic oil for frying (or vegetable oil)

1. Place bread into TM bowl and chop 5-10 secs/ speed 7. Remove and set aside.
2. Add zucchini and leek into bowl and chop 3 secs/ speed 6.
3. Add oil and saute 2 mins/ 100C/ stir speed/ reverse. Add to bowl containing bread crumbs.
4. Add mince, paprika and salt to rest of ingredients in bowl. Mix through thoroughly.
5. Form 3-4cm size balls and set aside on a tray ready for frying.

6. Using garlic oil, fry the meatballs until golden brown. I like to use garlic oil to add a bit of extra flavour. Serve with your favourite tomato based sauce with pasta or as is for your little one with some mashed potato.

Makes 25-30 meatballs.

Bon Appetit xx

Tips: If you run out of bread like I did for the bread crumbs, you can use a crushed up weet-bix as a substitute. Also, if you don't want to use garlic oil (or cannot find it) but still want the extra flavour, just add 1 or 2 garlic cloves at step 2. For a healthier version, you can bake these in the oven but you will have to turn them half way through.

{spiral curry puff in hermie}

I like puff pastry. What's not to like? It's crispy, flakey and can be used in so many different ways that the ideas are endless. One of these ways is the cheat's way to an easy curry puff. Up until recently, I always used puff pastry for a curry puff because I thought that making them the traditional way was too hard and time consuming. Also, because you could just bake them in the oven and that was it. However, with my sister's kitchen tea looming, I thought I'd give these babies a go and surprisingly, they're not that hard.

These spiral curry puffs are found all over Malaysia and Singapore and I love devouring them when we visit. The fillings are always similar yet different so everyone has their favourite 'best' place to go. Now that I have made my own, I have a lot more respect to the people that make them day in and day out. Another thing to note is that they are deep fried hence the crispiness of the pastry but probably not so good for those thinking about their health. Also, I'm not sure that they store well (frozen or not) when making a double batch, so for me there will always be a place for the puff pastry curry puffs in my freezer. Enjoy!

This dough recipe is from the "Taste of Asia" Thermomix cookbook with some tweaks.

Water Dough:
210 grams plain flour (plus extra to get the right texture. I found my dough was too wet & sticky so needed more to be able to work with it)
pinch of salt
100 grams warm water
1 egg
60 grams butter

1. Place all ingredients into TM bowl. Mix 4secs/ speed 6.
2. Knead the dough 1min/ closed lid position/ knead button.
3. Wrap in cling wrap and set aside in the fridge.

Oil Dough:
150 grams plain flour
100 grams butter

1. Place all ingredients into TM bowl. Mix 4secs/ speed 6.
2. Knead the dough 1min/ closed lid position/ knead button.
3. Wrap in cling wrap and set aside in the fridge. Meanwhile, make the filling.

Filling:
500 grams beef / chicken mince
half an onion, peeled
1 small potato, peeled & cubed 1cm
20grams vegetable oil
2-3 heaped tablespoons curry powder
50 grams water
salt to taste

vegetable oil for deep frying (e.g. rice bran, canola)

1. Chop onion, 3secs/ speed 6. Scrape down the sides.
2. Add cubed potato and oil. Saute 8mins/varoma/ stir speed/ reverse.
3. Add beef mince, curry powder, salt and water to TM bowl. Cook 8mins/ varoma/ stir speed/ reverse. Cool entirely in fridge before filling curry puffs.

NOTE: when you taste the filling with the salt already added and it is just right, add just a bit more. This is so that the filling of the curry puff will be delicious and flavoursome when only a small amount is used in each curry puff.

Curry Puff Assembly:
1. Get doughs out ready for rolling. Separate each ball into 4 lots. Lightly flour rolling surface. Place oil dough in water dough and wrap water dough around oil dough.

2. Working with one portion, roll water dough piece into a large circle. Place oil dough in the middle and wrap up.

3. Roll this into a long flat rectangle and then roll this into a 'swiss roll' style starting from the short end.

4. Turn the dough 90 degrees and roll into a thin long rectangular shape again. Roll up into a 'swiss roll' again.
5. Cut across the roll in slices so you see the cross sectional layers

6. Flatten each piece into a round disc and place filling in the centre.

7. Fold over pastry to cover filling and pleat the edges. If you need help with this, I learnt from this youtube video.
8. Put aside and complete all other puffs.

9. After curry puffs have been made, heat oil in deep fryer or wok to about 190 degrees. Fry a few (I can do about 6) at a time until golden brown.

Makes about 30.

Bon Appetit xx

Notes: Store these in a dry air tight container. If you want to reheat, place them in the oven on about 180 for 10-15 minutes.

{beef rendang in hermie}

One of the lunches that we used to eat on the weekend growing up was a curry or rendang with roti. Because my mum was a working mum and constantly time poor, the rendang that she would cook would often have a spice paste that originated from a packet and then she would add various ingredients of her own. I ate this from quite a young age so it was one of a number of dishes that I used to 'train' my chilli eating skills on. Not to say that I can eat very hot chilli now however, whenever I eat this beef rendang in a Nasi Lemak with Acar, I toe the line of eating chilli for the pleasure, and crossing over into a world of chilli pain where your tongue slowly starts to lose its feeling from the edges in and you can feel the sweat forming on your head! 

Anyway... back to the beef rendang. After going to cooking school in Singapore a few years back, I realised that all the ingredients that were in the spice paste of a rendang were readily available in Australia and that I was familiar with all of them. A simple trip to the local Asian grocer is all that was needed to come up with a home cooked version of the tasty dish. I then made it my mission to find a super tasty recipe and I didn't have to look far. One of my favourite blogs is Not Quite Nigella and she has written her mother's recipe on the site. I have previously tried it using a good old pot, stick mixer and stove and it was delicious. In fact, I gave some to my mum and dad to try and they too think that it's the best beef rendang that they've had for some time. 

So, this time round, I've tried to convert it (and have also adjusted some quantities) so that I can cook it in the Thermomix. I think it's just as good however, I didn't get the dark caramelly colour of the sauce as dark as I like. It may have been because I wanted to eat it but we'll see what happens when I make it the next time.

120 grams desiccated coconut
1 1/2 teaspoons tamarind paste
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
800-1000 grams beef, cubed about 3-4 cm

Spice Paste:
2 brown onions, peeled & halved
16 dried chillies, soaked in hot water (the original recipe was 30 so adjust to your chilli taste)
2 red chillies (more or less depending on how much heat you would like)
1 big thumb of ginger
1 small thumb of galangal
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons of toasted coconut (from above)

Curry Sauce:
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
3 kaffir lime leaves
2 stalks lemongrass, white part only, bruised
1 slice galangal
2 1/2 tablespoons palm sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
4 teaspoons dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (e.g. canola)
560ml coconut milk

1. Place desiccated coconut in a normal fry pan. Dry roast until golden brown. I have tried doing this in the Thermomix and can't seem to get it to brown. I think it's a combination of too much moisture in the coconut and not enough heat from the Thermomix.

2. Meanwhile, place tamarind paste, salt and sugar in an extra bowl. Mix together and add beef.

3.  Add all spice paste ingredients to TM bowl and chop 10-12secs/ speed 6. Scrape down sides of bowl. Note: be careful when opening the lid, a big hit of chilli will hit you in the face and make you cough!

4. Add in rest of spice paste ingredients and cook 5mins/ varoma/ stir speed/ reverse until fragrant.

5. Add in half the coconut milk (the thicker,creamy milk) and the beef. Depending on how much beef you're using, I add in the beef pieces and leave the desiccated coconut behind until I see it's not going to exceed the maximum level of the TM bowl. If there's space, I then add in the rest of the coconut. Cook 40mins / varoma/ stir speed/ reverse. Note: Depending on how full your TM bowl is it may 'bubble' over through the MC. If this is the case, change the temp to 100C.

6. Add in the rest of the lighter coconut milk and cook further 40mins/ 90C/ stir speed/ reverse. Check to see how tender the meat is and if you like the sauce runnier or thicker. Cook a further 60mins/ 90C/ stir speed/ reverse if required for a thicker and darker sauce (i do this bit due to the amount of meat cooked but if you use less, then adjust accordingly).

Bon Appetit xx

Beef Rendang shown here as part of Nasi Lemak with Acar, Ikan Bilis and Eggs with Prawn Sambal