To like this recipe, you are going to have to like aubergines and anchovies, although the flavour combines really nicely in such a way that you don’t really taste much of either – it’s more a third, new flavour. I think so anyway, and I really love it.
This goes well with the obvious things like crackers, but it’s also a good filling for baked potatoes or sandwiches. I had initially wanted to make a bagna cauda soup, but didn’t have enough aubergine, so converted mid-recipe to a tapenade instead.
Also, aubergine, egg plant, whatever you call it, is ridiculously hard to photograph in any half decent way!
Aubergine And Anchovy Tapenade
Recipe Type: Tapenade, Dip, Filling
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 350g
Remember the anchovies are pretty salty, so be careful when adding more salt!
Ingredients
300g aubergines
5 garlic cloves
1 tsp sugar
20g olive oil
6–10 anchovy fillets
30g single cream
Salt and black pepper
Instructions
Preheat oven to 190C
Halve the aubergine/egg plant and drizzle olive oil over the top. Place in the oven for 35-40 minutes till it’s soft.
Cool slightly then scoop out the aubergine, discarding the skin.
In the Thermomix
Add garlic, sugar, olive oil and anchovy fillets into the bowl. Add the aubergine.
Mix speed 4 for 10 seconds. It shouldn’t be puréed, just mixed together. It’s better if you can keep some of the texture.
Add the cream, salt and pepper and mix for 5 seconds on speed 3, making sure it’s all mixed together.
Scoop into a serving dish and serve with crackers or vegetable croutons.
In a blender
Add garlic, sugar, olive oil and anchovy fillets into the bowl.
Depending on your blender start slowly till you have a roughly chopped texture. Add the aubergine and cream, salt and pepper and blend till it’s all combined.
Scoop into a serving dish and serve with crackers or vegetable croutons.
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Hope you enjoy this delicious, naturally salty dip!
I’ve tried to make pull apart breads on, well, more than one occasion, but I’ve never found them to be perfect. They’ve just never been ‘right’ – till today. Today I made a most beautiful garlic & herb pull apart bread. It was light, fluffy, airy and delicious. My kids loved it. I loved it. Now I’m writing it all down step by step so hopefully next time I make it, it’ll be as good! I have a hankering to try this with bacon too. Just saying.
You can make this with or without the cheese, and you can vary the herbs to your preference. The main thing is to make sure you add some of the garlic butter to the bottom of the baking dish so that it seeps through to make these beautiful, fluffy and delicious breadrolls for a tear & share bread.
Garlic & Herb Pull Apart Bread Recipe
Recipe Type: Side Dish, Bread
Cuisine: BBQ, Bread
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 8 – 10
You can make this bread with any recipe you prefer, really, but this one is adapted from the Bestest Breadrolls recipe on the Thermomix community.
Ingredients
For the bread
10g dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
510 g bakers flour
30 g garlic flavoured olive oil
310 g warm water
For the garlic butter
4 garlic cloves
15g flat leaf parsley
60g parmesan or other cheese
60g butter
Instructions
Add all the ingredients to a clean Thermomix bowl.
Mix at speed 5 for 10 seconds, then knead for 90 seconds using the dough setting.
Oil a glass bowl and place the dough inside. Cover the dough and set aside to rise to double it’s size.
For the butter
Add the garlic, parsley and cheese to the bowl and mix on speed 5 for 8 – 10 seconds.
Add the butter and melt at 50C/Speed 1/2 mins.
Pour a third of the melted butter mix into an oven safe dish..
Take the dough and split it into 8 – 10 balls. Put them on top of the butter mix in the dish, making sure they touch lightly. Drizzle over the remaining butter mix.
Turn the oven on to 180C and put the breadrolls into the oven (while it’s still cold).
Bake bread for 20-30 minutes depending on your oven. It should be golden brown.
Remove from oven dish so the base doesn’t get soggy.
We aren’t vegan as you can tell by the creamy and beautiful buttercream or chocolate that decorate this cake, but the cake itself is vegan, and beyond being a really tasty treat, it’s also a useful recipe to have to hand when you don’t have eggs, which often happens in my life.
So, this cake is vegan, the chocolates aren’t and the buttercream isn’t. But there’s a lovely topping that you can use if you’re particularly after a vegan cake too – I’ll include that in the recipe.
As for the Bambi shapes, they are moulds from the Disney Cakes and Sweets range from Eaglemoss. We subscribed to this a couple of years back and now have 79 issues filling up my shelves, and a ton of baking goodies too. Ameli’s birthday party last year was a Princess Party, where we used some of the supplies from the Disney Cakes & Sweets magazines, and obviously this Bambi, owl, rabbit and little birds are from that too. It’s a really fantastic magazine to subscribe to, and along with fantastic quality bakeware and silicone moulds there are step by step instructions and recipes for every Disney character you could imagine. It’s something else. You can find out more about what’s available in the Disney Cakes & Sweets Magazine subscription by clicking here.
Now, on to the cake. These characters use 3 standard slabs of chocolate. You could get away with two and just make them a bit thinner. I used two dark and one milk, melted together (I use a Thermomix, 90C, 3 mins, speed 2, but you can use a double boiler).
For this particular cake I also bought the flowers, and my 3 year old called it a ‘forest cake’. When a grown-up friend at our party said ‘Oh, they’re even resting on the grass’ I was very pleased that my marbled green fondant icing, with the bits of ‘soil’ towards the bottom actually translated as such!
Last year I made a similar cake for a spring party, and I added toadstools, flowers and other Disney Cakes & Sweets foresty themed buttons and it looked really pretty. (If you ignore the actual cake baking skills!)
Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake
Recipe Type: Cakes,
Cuisine: Dessert, Cakes, Vegan
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1 cake
The vinegar and baking powder cause a reaction so you need get the cake into the hot oven as soon as these two ingredients are mixed, so start with the dry ingredients. In the images above, I have made three batches of the recipe below.
1 tsp [url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0069KOLY6/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B0069KOLY6&linkCode=as2&tag=diaofafirchi-21&linkId=IT2MPEJH5DJ5AXSK” target=”_blank”]vanilla extract[/url] (I recommend this one)
60g (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
1 tsp distilled white or apple cider vinegar
1 tsp baking soda/bicarbonate of soda
Instructions
Regular Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Oil or prepare your baking tin.
In a bowl, mix all the ingredients, adding the baking powder and vinegar last.
Pour into an ovenproof dish, and put in the centre of a hot oven.
Bake at 180C for about 30 mins.
Cool completely before icing.
Thermomix Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Oil or prepare your baking tin.
Add all but the last two ingredients listed to the bowl, and mix speed 4, 5 seconds.
Add the vinegar and baking powder and mix speed 1, 5 seconds.
Pour into an ovenproof dish, and put in the centre of a hot oven.
Bake at 180C for about 30 mins.
Cool completely before icing.
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For my cake I made a buttercream icing, and topped with fondant. My mother used to make the best buttercream in the world. Here’s her recipe, adapted to the Thermomix, but you can use any electric beater for the job – just focus more on the appearance than the timing.
I like to use a beautiful rich yellow salted butter for this, as it cuts the sweetness a little.
It’s an ice-cream time of the year, and my kids seem to want some every single day at the moment – one of those side effects of living in a sea side town too: whenever we go to the beach, they think they’re in for a treat. It’s hard to say no too, when all around us holiday-makers are enjoying one of the rich and creamy Isle of Wight ice creams.
I decided it was time to break out the ice lollies again, and get some yoghurt made up. My girls are perfectly happy with frozen yoghurt as ‘ice cream’ so it works out well for all of us – they could even have them for breakfast.
I have these NUK ice lollies that I use for the kids because they take about two tablespoons of yoghurt, which makes a perfectly sized ice lolly. After one, they’re satisfied, making it an all round healthier treat than anything from a box or even a normally bigger than they they can eat soft serve.
The flavours are forgiving – you can pretty much do anything you like, but here are some of our favourites.
Mint & Chocolate Chip is always a good flavour combination, you can add cacao or cocoa to make it a chocolate flavoured frozen yoghurt, but even without that, it’s tasty, and by the time the fro-yo has frozen, the mint permeates through. Delicious. A few hits of choc-chips throughout and there’s nothing not to love.
See how good these look? But they’re only two tablespoons worth of yoghurt and yet sufficient to end a craving.
I thought the mint and chocolate might settle at the bottom, but was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t.
5g of mint leaves is a lot – on a TM31 it doesn’t even register – hence the ingredients say up to 5g. It’s a pretty forgiving recipe, so if you need to add a bit more or less of any ingredient, it won’t cause any problems.
Add the chocolate chips and the yoghurt and mix well.
Transfer into icepop moulds or into a shallow dish, wait till it’s frozen, then serve.
Thermomix Instructions
Add up to 5g mint leaves to the Thermomix bowl and mix speed 5/10seconds.
Add the butterfly, the chocolate chips and the yoghurt and mix 30 seconds, speed 3, scraping down the sides if necessary.
Transfer into icepop moulds or into a shallow dish, wait till it’s frozen, then serve.
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These flat peaches were incredibly juicy. The flavour from them was exceptional, but the problem with that is that they have a higher water content, which makes them freeze a little more ‘icy’ rather than ‘creamy’ which is what you’d get from a higher fat content in the yoghurt. In a ice pop it (like in the moulds above) it doesn’t really make much of a difference, but if you were hoping for a cone-style scoop it needs a longer thaw time.
The recipe for a hard fruit – apples, hard nectarines, and anything else that you would normally have to bake first – is the same as for a soft fruit, with the difference that you’d have to sauté the hard fruit first.
While honey makes the frozen yoghurt sweeter, especially if you’ve opted for natural yoghurt, it also helps emulsify it a little.
Hard Fruit Frozen Yoghurt Recipes
Recipe Type: Dessert, Yoghurt, Frozen Yoghurt
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 400g
My nectarines were still hard even though the skin was going wrinkly. I decided to saute them for a few minutes in some honey, which made all the difference. This works for all hard fruits, like apples.
Ingredients
3 Hard Nectarines (or other fruit)
1tbs (15g) Honey
300g Natural Yoghurt
Instructions
Regular Instructions
Chop the nectarines roughly, making sure to remove the pip.
Place in a pot on the stove with the honey and saute for 5 – 10 mins until it’s soft.
If you want the fruit chunky, leave it as is, but if you want it smoother, mash or purée the fruit.
Add the yoghurt and stir to combine.
Transfer into icepop moulds or into a shallow dish, wait till it’s frozen.
You’ll need to leave the fro-yo for a few minutes to soften up before serving.
Thermomix Instructions
Add the nectarines to the Thermomix, making sure to remove the pip.
Add the honey and sauté for 3 mins/ Speed 2/ Varoma until it’s soft.
If you want the fruit chunky, leave it as is, but if you want it smoother, mix Speed 5/30 seconds.
Add the yoghurt and the butterfly and stir to combine (speed 3/20 seconds)
Transfer into icepop moulds or into a shallow dish, wait till it’s frozen.
You’ll need to leave the fro-yo for a few minutes to soften up before serving.
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We serve these in one of three ways:
Either in an ice lolly like in the first picture
Or in a flat container you can scoop from. We live the chocolate covered waffles for serving too.
Or mix two flavours together by pouring the first ‘batch’ into a container and putting it in the freezer for 10 minutes while preparing the second batch, then pouring it over or creating a swirl. It’s a really tasty way to enjoy two flavours together.
Soft Fruit Frozen Yoghurt Recipes
Recipe Type: Dessert, Ice Cream, Frozen Yoghurt
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 400g
It’s hard to give exact figures here, since the recipe is very forgiving, and since the point of it is to use up extra fruit and avoid wastage. Cook time is freezing time, but obviously depends on the size of your container.
Ingredients
3 Soft Fruits (the amount of fruit doesn’t ‘really’ matter. Add what you have.)
1tbs (15g) Honey
300g Natural Yoghurt
Instructions
Regular Instructions
Chop the nectarines roughly, making sure to remove the pip.
Place in a pot on the stove with the honey and saute for 5 – 10 mins until it’s soft.
If you want the fruit chunky, leave it as is, but if you want it smoother, mash or purée the fruit.
Add the yoghurt and stir to combine.
Transfer into icepop moulds or into a shallow dish, wait till it’s frozen.
You’ll need to leave the fro-yo for a few minutes to soften up before serving.
Thermomix Instructions
Add the fruit to the Thermomix, making sure to remove any pips. Chop speed 4/10 seconds.
If it’s very juicy, reduce some of the juice.
If you want the fruit chunky, leave it as is, but if you want it smoother, mix Speed 5/30 seconds.
Add the yoghurt and the butterfly and stir to combine (speed 3/20 seconds)
Transfer into icepop moulds or into a shallow dish, wait till it’s frozen.
You’ll need to leave the fro-yo for a few minutes to soften up before serving if you want it scoop-able.
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Play around with the flavours and see what your favourite combinations are!
Granita, despite my children calling it ice cream, is actually a semi-frozen dessert made from sugar, water and various flavourings. It is related to sorbet and Italian ice; but in Sicily it has a coarser, more crystalline texture – a bit like this recipe below.
Watermelon is a childhood memory for me. It reminds me of hot days, living in a hot, hot place, and my mother deciding to to make dinner, because who wants to cook when it’s 42C outside?! It reminds me of sweet sticky nectar running down my arms, of getting hosed down in the garden. It’s a good memory, and while we now live on – quite literally – the opposite side of the world, and the watermelons are round and have softer skins, but I love that I’m able to pass this same memory on to my own little girls now too.
When there’s left over watermelon – and sometimes there is – I like to make a watermelon and rose water granita. It keeps the watermelon going for a few days more and it is just so refreshing.
I hope you’ll love it as much as I do!
Watermelon & Rosewater Granita
Recipe Type: Summer, Ice Cream, Dessert
Cuisine: Italian
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 800g
Granita is light, easy and refreshing!
Ingredients
80g caster sugar
125 ml water
600g watermelon
1 teaspoon rose water
Instructions
Regular Instructions
Add 80g caster sugar to a saucepan with 125ml water and bring it to boil. Allow it to boil for 3 minutes, then put aside to cool down completely.
Liquidise the watermelon – a couple of minutes in a food processor should do it – and add the rose water. Place in the fridge.
Once the sugar syrup is cool, mix the two together and place in the freezer. I use a metal bowl.
Remove from the freezer every 30 mins to stir, making sure to break up all the lumps. After 90 minutes and three stirs, the granita should be ready to eat.
Decorate with washed rose petals if you have any, and enjoy.
Thermomix Instructions
Add 80g sugar to the Thermomix and pulse 3 or 4 times.
Add water and boil Varoma/Speed 2/3 mins.
Put aside to cool down completely.
Add the watermelon to the Thermomix and add the rose water, then speed 5/2 mins.
Once the sugar syrup is cool, mix the two together and place in the freezer. I use the ThermoServer.
Remove from the freezer every 30 mins to stir, making sure to break up all the lumps. After 90 minutes and three stirs, the granita should be ready to eat.
Decorate with washed rose petals if you have any, and enjoy.
We often eat couscous as an alternative to pasta. While I know I do better on a grain free diet, life circumstances dictate that grains make up a big part of our diet – they just cost less than the better-f0r-me stuff! Sad but true. So, we eat a lot of grains. One of the fantastic things about couscous is that you can make completely different meals by adapting the sauce, seasoning and add-ons in your couscous salad.
Sometimes we also end up with a left over couscous – not enough for another meal, but too much to bin in good conscience. So I tried frying it arancini-style. Because the leftover couscous was already so flavourful, I wasn’t all that fussed with additions, but we could have put mozzarella balls or even flavoured cream cheese in the centre. I didn’t miss it though.
Obviously these aren’t perfectly round as sticky rice arancini would be, but it really makes no difference to the flavour. They make great little patties too.
The couscous on the outside forms a crispy layer outside the softer insides, so it provides a great variety of texture from the standard couscous salad too.
This recipe is just a starting point. You can adapt it to pretty much anything. Be careful with wet ingredients that it doesn’t get too wet and fall apart – start with less and add more as needed. Also, you don’t need to use egg, but it’s more fragile without the egg.
Another delicious flavour combination is couscous with shredded chicken in tomato and basil sauce. Add feta to the centre of the balls, and follow the instructions for cooking!
Tip: Plan to make a few more than you need as some will break and fall apart. They still taste great, and can be eaten anyway, but not ideal if you’re looking for presentation brownie-points.
Fried Couscous Balls Or Patties
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 10 balls
I use a basic formula when I make couscous salad, and no two are ever the same. It’s quite simple: 1 part meat, equal amounts vegetables, and herbs & spices to taste. For the leftovers, I simply mix in an egg. Done. It couldn’t really be simpler! It’s hard to give an exact recipe though, as that kind of negates the point of using the leftovers – just play around with it. It’s worth it!
Ingredients
For the couscous
300g dry couscous
200g pancetta or diced bacon, cooked
2 spring onion
1 clove garlic
10g (2 tsp) [url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00NGU3DIW/?tag=diaofafirchi-21″ target=”_blank”]Ras el hanout[/url] or other favourite spice mix. (Chinese 5 spices, BBQ etc)
For the balls/patties
300g prepared couscous (roughly)
1 egg, whisked
Instructions
If making couscous especially for this recipe
Bring 500g water (2 cups in a kettle) or stock to the boil.
Switch off the heat and stir in 300g couscous and spices.
Add a tablespoon of butter if you used a water based stock. If you used a meat stock you are unlikely to need the extra fat.
Chop cooked bacon, spring onions, garlic finely. (10 seconds, speed 4 in Thermomix) and add to couscous.
Leave to cool.
If using leftover couscous
Once cool, whisk an egg and add to the mixture to help it stick together. You don’t have to use an egg, but they are a lot more fragile without it.
Form either balls or patties in the palm of your hand.
Meanwhile heat a frying pan to medium heat with a small amount of oil. Add the balls to the frying pan and leave for 2 – 3 minutes until they become golden and crispy. Turn over, remembering that they are more fragile than e.g. meatballs. The browner and crisper the outer layer, the better they will hold together. Everything in the patties that needs to be cooked, like the pancetta or bacon, is already cooked so you’re just trying to crisp it up.
Once golden on all sides, remove to a serving dish and serve immediately as a snack or as a side dish to meat, salad or similar.
I enjoy my sourdough. I like sourdough bread. I feed my sourdough every day, like a good parent. But sometimes, I just don’t fancy a straight up sourdough bread.
One thing I really love is cinnamon. I have about 8 supermarket spice jars and a 1kg bag in the store cupboard! That’s some good stuff, cinnamon.
I decided to sweeten the bread with cinnamon sugar left over from making pancakes, and threw in a cup full of raisins, and see what happens. It was so good! My daughters love it, and it’s a favourite here now.
This is quite a dense bread, unless you leave it to rise for ages – it’s one of those sourdoughs that does better for a 12 hour rise.
It also makes a huge batch – two regular sized loaves. The Thermomix TM31 copes with it, but just. The T5 should be better with the bigger capacity bowl. You can split the ingredients in two and just do the Thermomix bit in two batches.
I hope you like this bread. We love it!
Cinnamon Raisin Sourdough Bread
Recipe Type: Bread, Baking
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2 loaves
Ingredients
750g strong white bread flour
400g lukewarm water
40g olive oil
2 tsp salt
200g sourdough starter
100g sugar
10g cinnamon
150g raisins
Instructions
Add all the ingredients to the Thermomix bowl
Mix on speed 6 for 10 seconds to combine everything
Then knead for 3 minutes on the dough setting (wheat sheaf)
Meanwhile, oil or butter your loaf tin.
Note: This makes a HUGE loaf, so if you’re using a standard loaf tin, you’ll need to separate the dough into two.
Remove from Thermomix and place on a tray. Halve the dough now if you’re going to.
You need to ‘fold’ it into a ball. Essentially treat it like a sheet you’re tucking in to a mattress – take one side and fold it under, then the other, and fold it under, then the final two, till it’s a ‘ball’.
Place in the bread tin, then cut deep slits along the top – this is to prevent the sides of the bread splitting apparently.
Now here things get tricky. There are as many instructions for making sourdough bread as there are recipes, so here’s what I did.
Leave the dough to rest for six hours, in a warm, but not hot place.
Heat the oven to 200C and cook for 30 – 40 minutes. Test to see if it’s ready by knocking on the crust. If it sounds hollow it’s ready.
I love this dish. It just looks summery and fresh and inviting. Serve it with rice, or if you’re sharing, add a hearty meaty dish with it.
This recipe is originally from The Essential Asian Cookbook*, but adapted for serving two children and using a Thermomix – but you can use a knife as most of the cooking is done in a wok. I do think all of this could be done in the Thermomix to some extent. You could saute the cashews and coconut in the bowl, steam the chicken in the Varoma, and then combine all the ingredients at about 90C in the bowl before serving, but if I don’t have to and do have access to the wok, I’d do it that way.
Vietnamese Cashew Pineapple Chicken
Recipe Type: Main
Cuisine: Vietnamese,Asian,
Author: Adapted by Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
A good stand alone, or perfect as part of a shared meal.
Ingredients
30g (2tbs) shredded coconut
80g (1/2 cup) raw cashews
30g (2tbs) oil
1 large onion
4 cloves garlic
2 chopped red chillies (optional – I do it without)
350g chicken thigh fillets, diced
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 tbs fish sauce (nam plah)
1 teaspoon sugar
320g (2 cups) chopped pineapple (fresh is good, but tinned and drained is fine)
3 spring onions
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 150C (300F) and spread the coconut evenly onto a tray. Toast the coconut for 10 minutes until golden. Remove from the tray immediately to prevent burning and set aside.
Increase the heat to 180C (350F) and roast the cashews for 15 minutes until deep golden.
In a wok, pour the oil to heat up.
Drop the onion and garlic (and chillies if using) onto a running Thermomix at speed 4, about 5 seconds.
Stir fry for 2 minutes, then remove from the pan.
Meanwhile, put the peppers into the Thermomix and chop speed 4 about 10 seconds or until it’s the size you want.
Add the chicken and the peppers to the wok, and cook until the chicken is light brown. Add the onion back in to the wok, then add the fish sauce, sugar and pineapple and heat through for about 2 minutes.
Blitz the spring onion on Turbo to chop.
Toss the cashews through the food in the wok, then serve and scatter the toasted coconut and spring onion over the top.
Serve with rice or Asian vegetables.
Regular Instructions
Preheat the oven to 150C (300F) and spread the coconut evenly onto a tray. Toast the coconut for 10 minutes until golden. Remove from the tray immediately to prevent burning and set aside.
Increase the heat to 180C (350F) and roast the cashews for 15 minutes until deep golden.
In a wok, pour the oil to heat up.
Chop the onions, garlic and chillies. While you’re at it, chop the peppers roughly and spring onions finely. Make sure the chicken is evenly diced.
Add the onion, garlic and chillies if using to the wok.
Stir fry for 2 minutes, then remove from the pan.
Add the chicken and the peppers to the wok, and cook until the chicken is light brown. Add the onion back in to the wok, then add the fish sauce, sugar and pineapple and heat through for about 2 minutes.
Toss the cashews through the food in the wok, then serve and scatter the toasted coconut and spring onion over the top.
Serve with rice or Asian vegetables.
Calories: 2082
Notes
serves 4[br]521 calories per serve (doesn’t include rice)
I’m not a fan of spicy food, and put a stack of take away fliers down in front of me and I’ll never go for the Indian or similarly spiced option. That said, whenever I’ve made anything vaguely curry-ish in nature, I’ve really enjoyed it. Strange, isn’t it.
This recipe is fantastic. Honestly, the richness of flavours is out of this world. Specially since it’s not a spice combination I’m accustomed to. And I don’t even like strong tomato flavours. But this, I enjoy! “Devilled” is the generally given adjective for when something is highly spiced – which I’ve come to realise doesn’t have to mean hot. Traditionally this recipe would have some chilies added to it. If you like chilies, go wild. I don’t like hot food, and I’m feeding a five and a three year old too, so we don’t add chilies.
I find food like this so hard to photograph. I look at this picture and see a symphony of flavour, but without having eaten it, it probably looks a bit weird. Sorry about that. It’s fantastically flavorsome though. Take my word for it!
A forgiving recipe that lets you adjust the seasoning and flavours to your preference. Sri Lankan curry is a blend of coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, cassia bark, fenugreek seeds, cloves, cardamon, mustard seeds, black peppercorns, kashmiri chilli & turmeric – buy one ready made or mix your own before starting this recipe.
Place marinade ingredients in the Thermomix bowl, and mix, speed 5/10 seconds. Add chopped meat and mix speed 1/15 seconds
Set aside to marinate for at least 45 minutes
(Don’t worry about cleaning the bowl)
In the Thermomix, drop the onion over running blades (speed 4).
Heat a pan to medium heat. and add the marinated pork with the marinade. Cook until the juices have reduced to a thick gravy. Add the tomatoes, onion and garlic. Also add salt & Sri Lankan Curry Powder to taste.
Stir to prevent burning, till all the liquid is gone.
In the meantime, fill the Thermomix with water, and cook rice per the usual method. You can add your choice of Asian vegetables to the Varoma at this point too.
Sprinkle with grated lemon rind
Serve the rice with soy sauce and Sri Lankan Devilled Pork.
Regular Instructions
Cut Pork into 1′ chunks
Place marinade ingredients in a bowl, and mix together.. Add chopped meat and stir till it’s all covered.
Set aside to marinate for at least 45 minutes
Slice the onion finely.
Heat a pan to medium heat, and add the marinated pork with the marinade. Cook until the juices have reduced to a thick gravy. Add the tomatoes, onion and garlic. Also add salt & Sri Lankan Curry Powder to taste.
Stir to prevent burning, till all the liquid is gone.
In the meantime cook rice per your usual method.
Sprinkle with grated lemon rind
Serve the rice with soy sauce and Sri Lankan Devilled Pork.
I was given a selection of mixed pices recently, and I’ll be honest and confess that I’d never heard of most of them. The first one I wanted to try and cook with was Baharat. If you Google Baharat you’ll find a number of versions based on area, but this one was from a company called Spice Kitchen and according to their website it’s a blend of cloves, black pepper, cumin seeds, nutmeg, paprika, cardamon & cinnamon.
I spent a whole afternoon perusing Pinterest and the rest of the web trying to learn the best use of this spice, and when I finally sat down to meatballs in a yoghurt and garlic butter sauce at dinner time, I was thrilled with the result. I didn’t find this a spicy dish at all, and the dressing was perfect with plain, fluffy white rice. We also had another dish at the table which was a lot more spicy, and this sauce provided beautiful relief for the tongue.
As someone who didn’t grow up with a lot of spices, and who can’t really handle much more heat that black pepper – or a light wasabi – and who’d never choose to eat at an Indian restaurant, for example, I’d never have considered experimenting with these spice until a few years ago, and sitting eating this meal, I savoured every mouthful
I think my favourite thing about this dish is that it’s not just one flavour all the way through. Each mouthful is different, with hints of mint, crunchy pine nuts yoghurt and the Baharat meatballs coming through in different bites. Hmm… sitting here writing this, I’m salivating – I’m going to have to buy some more lamb mince!
Baharat Meatballs With Yoghurt & Garlic Butter Sauce
Recipe Type: Varoma, Main, Sharing
Cuisine: Arabian
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
This is a delicious recipe that can be used as a single main, or one of many sharing dishes. The yoghurty dish also offsets other spicy dishes on the table, while this isn’t spicy of itself.
Ingredients
For the meatballs
400g ground lamb
salt and pepper for seasoning
1 small onion, halved
15g Baharat Spice (adjust seasoning to taste)
For the dressing
100g (100ml) plain yoghurt ([url href=”https://www.keeperofthekitchen.com/2014/01/20/thick-yoghurt-recipe/” target=”_blank”]try this recipe[/url])
25g butter
1 clove garlic, crushed
For the topping
1 tsp Mint (fresh or dried)
50g pine nuts
Oil for frying
Rice to Serve
Instructions
In the Thermomix
Switch the Thermomix on Speed 4 and drop the onion halves on athe blades for a few seconds.
Open the lid and add the minced lamb, salt and pepper and Baharat Spices. Mix Speed 4/10 seconds.
Oil the Varoma
Form small egg-yolk sized meatballs and place them in the Varoma. (You can also do these the ‘normal’ way on the stove if you prefer them being browned)
Fill the bowl to the 1 litre mark and put the Varoma in place. Cook on Varoma temp, speed 4 for 20 – 25 minutes.
(If you’re having rice with this dish, add it after about 10 minutes. Add the rice in the internal steamer for the remaining 15 minutes.)
Meanwhile, on the stove, heat the pine nuts till they start releasing their aroma. Toast them lightly but watch that they don’t burn – mine in the pictures are a little burned!
Next melt the butter and add the garlic, and finally warm the yoghurt. DO NOT let it boil or split, just warm it.
Move the meatballs into a serving dish.
Pour the yoghurt over them, then drizzle the garlic butter, top with pine nuts and mint.
Serve with rice.
Traditional Cooking
Chop the onions finely, and add the spices, salt and pepper and mince with the onions in a bowl. Mix well till all combined.
Form small egg-yolk sized meatballs and place them in a hot pan. Cook for about 15 minutes, turning ocassionally to get it browned on all sides and cooked through.
In the meantime, cook your rice according to manufacturer instructions.
On a baking tray, or on another plate on the stove, toast the pine nuts but watch that they don’t burn.
Next melt the butter and add the garlic, and finally warm the yoghurt. DO NOT let it boil or split, just warm it.
Move the meatballs into a serving dish.
Pour the yoghurt over them, then drizzle the garlic butter, top with pine nuts and mint.
Serve with rice.
3.2.2925
The inspiration for this recipe came from this original
See how good these look? But they’re only two tablespoons worth of yoghurt and yet sufficient to end a craving.
This recipe is originally from 
