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South African Thermomix Vetkoek

I love Vetkoek, it reminds me of growing up, of my dad coming home on a Friday with a bag of ready made dough from the shop, chopping it up and making vetkoek, which he’d put into a big cream-coloured bowl and we’d all crowd round eating warm fresh vetkoek filled with cheese, mince, syrup or apricot jam. Sometimes we have it with a chicken mayonnaise filling, and sometimes I’d simply have it on it’s own.Vetkoek

 

While you can try to compare a vetkoek with a doughnut, it doesn’t taste like a doughnut, it’s more savoury, but still a little sweet. Actually, there’s nothing I can think of to compare the flavour to – it’s it’s own thing.

Your choice of fillings is endless – pretty much anything goes, but for us the favourites are cheese, mince, chicken, syrup, and apricot jam, as I said above.

South African Thermomix Vetkoek
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 10
Ingredients
  • 210g water (room temp)
  • 280g unbleached bread flour
  • 1 (5g) teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon (3g) sugar
  • 1.5 teaspoons (7g) fast-rising active dry yeast (I use this one)
  • oil, for deep-frying
Instructions
  1. Pour water into the Thermomix bowl.
  2. Add dry ingredients finishing with the yeast.
  3. Mix 10 seconds/ speed 6
  4. Then 3:30 minutes/ kneading setting
  5. Remove and set aside to rise
  6. When doubled in size (about 90 minutes) divide into 10 balls on lightly floured surface. Flatten slightly in the palm of your hand.
  7. Let rise for 1/2 hour. (Use this time to prepare your filling)
  8. Warm oil in deep pot– oil should be about 2 inches deep – on medium heat. Drop a thumbnail sized bit of dough into the pan. If it sizzles it’s hot enough, and once the tiny bit of dough has risen to the top, remove it and start cooking your vetkoek.
  9. Add the dough balls one at a time, depending on the size of your pot, about 5 or 6 at a time. They will swell up so don’t overfill the pot.
  10. Fry vetkoek for about 5 minutes a side, but keep an eye on it. If they blacken too quickly, they’ll still be raw inside, and your oil is too hot. If the oil is not hot enough, the vetkoek will absorb lots of oil and be gross.
  11. They should be the color of doughnuts when ready. Golden delicious.
  12. Drain on kitchen towels or in a colander.
  13. As soon as you can bear to touch them, slice open and fill.
  14. Enjoy.

 

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Chocolate Crispy Bars {Dairy Free Sugar Free Gluten Free}

It’s almost Easter again, and while we aren’t really a free-from anything family, when there’s so much focus on chocolate – between Valentine’s day, Mother’s Day, and Easter, I like to have alternatives available, so that even if I don’t manage to curb my sweet tooth, I’m at least not filling up myself or the children with cheap, often actually not very good – chocolate.Chocolate Crispies

This recipe is very easy. The children can help you make it, or you can whip it up quickly. It’s quite dark, we like dark chocolate. If you don’t like it as dark, adjust the cocoa down. You could add other things, like marshmallows, nuts, or cherries, but just remember to adjust the quantity of rice crispies down then. The main thing to remember is this isn’t held together by chocolate, which is strong, but by coconut oil, which needs to be kept cool, otherwise you’ll end up with what looks like a (very tasty) bowl of chocolate cereal.

I use a gluten free Rice Crispie from Nature’s Path, because we have it at the moment, but you can use any other if you prefer.

I also use this brownie pan because it’s super convenient.

Dairy Free Sugar Free Gluten Free Chocolate Crispy Bars
Recipe Type: Sweets, TM31
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 24 blocks
A lovely snack box recipe for the kids, and fabulous for hitting that sweet spot, while not being overly unhealthy.
Ingredients
  • 50g Coconut Oil (1/4 cup)
  • 70g honey (1/4 cup)
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 30 – 50g cocoa powder (1/3 cup) (Cacao for Paleo)
  • pinch of fine sea salt or Himalayan pink salt
  • 100g [url href=”http://www.amazon.co.uk/Natures-Path-Crispy-Organic-Breakfast/dp/B004990VLG/?tag=diaofafirchi-21″ target=”_blank”]rice crispies [/url] (1.5 cups)
Instructions
Thermomix Recipe
  1. Add the coconut oil and honey to the Thermomix bowl. If you’re using runny honey, 30 seconds/37 degrees/speed 2 should melt it all, but if the honey is crystalised or set, about 1 minute/50 degrees/speed 2. It must be mixed and melted before you go to step 2.
  2. Add the vanilla and cocoa powder, and a small pinch of sea salt. 15 seconds/speed 3
  3. Add the rice crispies and use the spatula to stir it in so that all the rice crispies are covered with the chocolate mix.
  4. Transfer to a brownie pan (this one is fantastic!) and squash it all in nicely. Put in the fridge for an hour or two to set, then cut into squares.
  5. Tip: Remember this is kept together with coconut oil, so keep it cool otherwise it might fall apart a bit.
Regular Instructions
  1. Create a double boiler by boiling a pot of water on the stove, and put coconut oil and honey in a glass bowl over it. Once they’re melted, mix together and add the vanilla extract (be careful – both the glass bowl and the mixture will be very hot).
  2. Add the cocoa powder and sea salt, and then add the rice crispies.
  3. Mix together till all the rice crispies are covered in the chocolate mixture and transfer into your brownie pan.
  4. Place in the fridge till it’s cooled and set, then cut into squares.

chocolate crispies

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Sourdough Bread In The Thermomix

Before we go any further, I need to come clean on something here: I’m not a professional at sourdough. I’m not even really good at it. This was my first attempt at sourdough, and I’m really happy with how it turned out, so I wrote it down. I expect that there’ll be plenty of editing and changing as I play and learn with it. But, sitting here eating a slice of bread with butter, I can tell you that this recipe as it is written here, works, and works well.

Sourdough BreadBack in November a friend gave me a master class on Sourdough as it’s something she makes a lot. I took away a dried starter with me, and then life happened. In the last week of February, I finally activated the starter, and have been feeding it for a week. Yesterday I felt we were good to go.

If you want to buy a ready to go starter, you can get them from eBay and Etsy, among others.

This makes a huge loaf. In future I’ll make it as two breads in a regular loaf tin. You can also use this proving basket for up to 1kg of bread, which would suit this recipe perfectly.

So, to the recipe…

Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2 standard loaves
Ingredients
  • 750g strong white bread flour
  • 400g lukewarm water
  • 40g olive oil
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 200g sourdough starter
Instructions
  1. Add all the ingredients to the Thermomix bowl
  2. Mix on speed 6 for 10 seconds to combine everything
  3. Then knead for 3 minutes on the dough setting (wheat sheaf)
  4. Meanwhile, oil or butter your loaf tin.
  5. Note: This makes a HUGE loaf, so if you’re using a standard loaf tin, you’ll need to separate the dough into two.
  6. Remove from Thermomix and place on a tray. Halve the dough now if you’re going to.
  7. 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’.
  8. Place in the bread tin, then cut deep slits along the top – this is to prevent the sides of the bread splitting apparently.
  9. Now here things get tricky. There are as many instructions for making sourdough bread as there are recipes, so here’s what I did.
  10. Leave the dough to rest for six hours, in a warm, but not hot place.
  11. 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.
  12. Leave the bread to cool slightly before cutting.

I hope it works for you. Please let me know, and if you have any hints and tips, leave them below! I think I could use them!

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Onion Soup Thermomix Recipe

This onion soup my mother used as a base for her Vranameer Chicken for many years. She, of course, didn’t use a Thermomix, so I’ve just adapted it for a simple, tasty, filling soup, perfect to eat as a soup, or as the basis for a casserole.

Onion Soup

French Onion Soup Thermomix Recipe
Recipe Type: Soup
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
My mother used this as a base for casserole dishes for many years. I’ve just adapted her recipe for the Thermomix. My husband and I have an ongoing argument about this soup. I think sweating the onion in the Thermomix is fine, but he thinks the first steps should be done on a frying pan. It’s a personal flavour preference.
Ingredients
  • 25g butter
  • 500g onion (about 3)
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 125ml white wine
  • 500g vegetable, chicken or beef stock & water mixed depending on the stock you use.
  • salt & pepper to season
Instructions
  1. Place the butter in the Thermomix bowl and add 500g onions, halved.
  2. Mix at speed 5 for 5 seconds till they’re chopped, and put on speed 2/100C to sweat the onions for 4 minutes. (If you’re doing this step on the stove, fry until the onions are translucent but watch that they don’t burn. Add the sugar and leave to caramalise, about 5 minutes, but keep an eye on it.)
  3. Add the sugar, and cook for 10 minutes, speed 2, 100C
  4. Add the garlic, wine and stock and cook for 15 minutes, speed 2, Varoma.
  5. Taste and season, and serve with fresh bread (although again here, my husband prefers it kept in the fridge for 24 hours, and then heated and served. I like it as is.)
Calories: 136,3 Fat: 5.4g Saturated fat: 3.3g Unsaturated fat: 1.4g Carbohydrates: 14.9 Sugar: 7.6h Sodium: 288.9mg Fiber: 1.5g Cholesterol: 13.6g
Notes
(calories based on a fatty beef stock, chicken or veg stock will be less calories)

 

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Spanish Inspired Chorizo, Calamari & Halloumi Salad Recipe

It’s a ‘balmy’ 39 degrees Celsius in Perth today (that’s 102.2 F) and just thinking about cooking is enough to make me cry. I won’t be switching the oven or stove on today! Yesterday, however, was a much more manageable 32C, and having spent some time in the sea, I felt inspired to make a Spanish dish we enjoyed in Barcelona some years back – but adapted a fair bit to stretch it, and use what we have in the house too.

Salad Chorizo

The original was a Chorizo and calamari in red wine tapas dish, but this summerified recipe includes Halloumi – you could probably use Feta too or leave out the Halloumi, but it adds saltiness, texture and flavour to the meal. And I’d include Halloumi in everything if my family allowed it!

SpanishThe amounts in this recipe are a guide, really, and there’s no wrong or right. You can add ingredients – tomatoes would be nice, capers would be lovely too – or remove elements. It all works together beautifully, but none of it is essential.

The Chorizo in our local butcher isn’t very fatty. If it was I would have added the butter for the dressing to it, but as it didn’t leave any drippings, I added olive oil.

Spanish Inspired Chorizo, Calmari & Halloumi Salad Recipe
Recipe Type: Salad, Lunch, Summer
Cuisine: Spanish-ish
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4 – 6
A versatile, adaptable, easy recipe that can stand the changes you might want to make to it. Feel free to personalise it. Amounts are an estimate and can be changed.
Ingredients
  • 1 red onion, sliced
  • 90g (1 bag) Rocket leaves
  • 15g parsley, roughly chopped
  • 250g chorizo, sliced
  • 250g Halloumi, cubed
  • 500g calamari, cleaned and cut into rings
  • 60ml Red wine vinegar (1/4 cup)
  • For the dressing
  • 50g butter
  • 1 clove garlic
Instructions
  1. Thinly slice one red onion, and pour over 30ml red wine vinegar. Set aside.
  2. Heat up a frying pan to medium to high heat and add a dash of oil, just to prevent the food from sticking to it.
  3. Empty salad leaves into a bowl, add the chopped parsley and set aside. Add any ‘extras’ you might want to use.
  4. When the frying pan is hot, add the Halloumi and keep an eye on it so that it doesn’t burn, but browns on both sides. When it’s ready, remove from the heat and tip out onto the salad leaves.
  5. Add the Chorizo, and the remaining red wine vinegar, and cook for about 3 – 4 minutes: just long enough to render the fat, but not so long as to make it hard and tough.
  6. Remove from the heat into the salad bowl.
  7. If the Chorizo left some fatty residue, use it, but if not, add some olive oil to the pan again. This time fry the calamari till it is soft and tender – about 3-5 minutes, depending on the quality and size of the calamari rings.
  8. While the calamari is cooking, add about 50g butter and 1 chopped clove of garlic to a small pan (I chop the garlic in the Thermomix, then add butter, and melt for 90 seconds 50C) to melt the butter.
  9. Add the calamari to the salad, and pour over the butter dressing. Toss the salad, serve & enjoy.

 

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Egg & Smoked Salmon Salad Recipe

Egg and Smoked Salmon

During my pregnancies I became very aware of what I called my Food DNA. It may have been mid-winter with snow falling around our home in the UK, but I was craving mangoes, litchis, kiwi fruit:  seasonally appropriate for my Southern Hemisphere DNA. I find myself here again – not pregnant, thankfully – but wrapped and bundled in scarves and gloves, but craving salads and light suppers. Egg and smoked salmonI came across this salmon & egg salad recipe, designed by Sunrise’s award winning chefs, among a bunch of others regularly served in their care homes and it really appealed to me, but I’ve made a few minor changes to adapt it for the Thermomix. You can find the original recipe here, and you certainly don’t need any fancy kitchen machinery to make it. Egg and smoked salmon 2 I’ll be in Australia for a while next month. I’m looking forward to a lot more salads and fresh, sun-kissed fruit – and will certainly be revisiting this one again.

Salmon & Egg Salad Recipe
Recipe Type: Lunch, Light Supper
Cuisine: Salad, Healthy
Author: Sunrise chefs
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
A delicious recipe adapted from the Sunrise Care website for the Thermomix
Ingredients
  • 4 eggs (hard boiled)
  • Small bunch of parsley
  • Pinch of salt
  • Pinch of ground black pepper
  • 4 table spoons olive oil
  • ¼ tsp French mustard
  • 2 table spoons white wine vinegar
  • 1 tomato – quartered
  • 1 red pepper – seeded and halved
  • ½ red onion – peeled and halved
  • ¼ cucumber – cut in four
  • 50g watercress
  • 160g smoked salmon pieces
  • ½ lemon
Instructions
  1. In the Thermomix bowl, add 1 litre warm water and add the whole eggs in the internat steamer. Boil for 14 minutes/speed 2/ Varoma temp.
  2. When it’s done, remove the basket and empty out the water.
  3. In the bowl, add parsley , salt, pepper, olive oil, mustard, vinegar and stir for 10 seconds on speed 5.
  4. Add the tomato, red pepper, onion and cucumber and mix speed 4 for 10 – 15 seconds. Keep an eye on it to see the size. You don’t want to end up with a smoothie.
  5. Peel the eggs and halve.
  6. Pour the salsa in a mixing bowl, a glass bowl is nice. Put the watercress on top, then add the strips of smoked salmon.
  7. Dot the eggs around the top, and drizzle the lemon juice over the top.
  8. When you’re ready to serve, mix the ingredients well, and make sure every plate gets a bit of everything.
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Thermomix Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto Recipe

This year I grew butternut squash in my garden for the first time. Between the slugs, the lack of sunlight and the fact that we’re moving soon, they’ve remained small, but perfectly butternut shaped. I’m quite pleased, actually!

Butternut Squash is perfect for this time of year – it’s light but filling, and can used in a variety of dishes.

Butternut Squash Risotto

Since we’re moving in a week, we’re trying to use up a lot of store cupboard supplies, and one of those is Risotto, so today I made this roasted butternut squash risotto for our lunch. It’s slightly different from my usual, in that I didn’t have wine or home made stock, but I was very pleased with how it worked out!

Thermomix Roasted Butternut Squash Risotto Recipe
Recipe Type: Main
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 50 g parmesan cheese cubed
  • 1 medium onion, halved
  • 1 tbs white wine vinegar
  • 1 tbs dried sage
  • 50 g olive oil
  • 400 g arborio rice
  • 1000g stock/water
  • 10g butter
  • 1 Butternut Squash, sliced
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • *handful of fresh sage, if you have.
Instructions
  1. Heat the oven to 190C.
  2. Layer sliced butternut squash on a tray, drizzle with oil and salt, and cook for 30 minutes.
  3. After 10 mins*, put the Parmesan into the thermomix bowl & pulverise for 10 seconds Speed 9 and set aside.
  4. Place the onion and oil in the bowl & chop for 5 sec on speed 4.
  5. Saute for 3 mins at 100C on reverse speed 1.
  6. Add rice and white wine vinegar and dried sage into bowl & saute for 2 mins at 100C on reverse speed spoon.
  7. Add stock and water and cook for 15 mins at 100C on reverse speed spoon.
  8. Add butter and cheese and stir. If you have two bowls, swap over, otherwise empty the bowl and put half of the butternut squash in the bowl. Put the MC in place and pulse on turbo four or five times till it’s pureed.
  9. Mix the squash into the risotto and season to taste.
  10. Sprinkle with fresh sage leaves, if you have.
  11. *Use those ten minutes to lightly fry sage leaves, if you have them. Set aside for topping.

 

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Raw Ferrero Bliss Balls Recipe

Ferrero Bliss Balls

I discovered these hazelnut and chocolate beauties quite by accident. I was trying to make hazelnut flour but left the nuts going in the food processor for too long and ended up with hazelnut butter. I added cocoa powder and coconut oil and came up with a beautiful chocolate spread alternative, which has lasted for over a month in the fridge without going off.

Ferrero Bliss BallsThese are so delicious, popped in a jar with a ribbon on, they’re easily made into gifts too.

You can find this and 20 more recipes in Bliss Balls For Beginners, available here for $3.50/£2.99.

Raw “Ferrero” Bliss Balls Recipe
Recipe Type: Raw, Sweets
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 20 bliss balls
Our version of Ferrero Rocher, but raw and healthy. These keep well in cool weather for up to a month, so make perfect special occasion gifts.
Ingredients
  • Ingredients
  • For the hazelnut chocolate “sauce”:
  • 75g hazelnuts
  • 5g cocoa(feel free to adjust this for a more or less chocolatey result)
  • 20g coconut oil
  • For the Bliss Balls:
  • 100g hazelnuts
  • 150g dates
  • 45g oats
Instructions
Thermomix Instructions
  1. Blend the first set of hazelnuts to a fine crumb speed 4, 5 seconds
  2. Add the cocoa and coconut oil and mix on speed 9, 90 seconds
  3. Add the remaining hazelnuts, dates, and oats.
  4. Mix well about speed 4/ 20 seconds.
  5. The mixture looks like loose crumbs when you’re done. Take a small handful, and press it together, then roll into a ball.
  6. You can eat it right away, but put it aside to allow the coconut oil to hold it all together, and it’ll be nicer cold too.

Buy-Now-button-300x293

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Cacao Nibs As A Crio Bru Substitute

I cant speak to its effectiveness in every recipe that calls for the much sought after Crio Bru, but I can say that when brewed as a coffee-style drink, cacao nibs are a perfectly suitable substitute for the hard-to-find and expensive Crio Bru variety.

Last weekend I was very lucky and thrilled to attend a workshop with Tenina Holder, who is quite possibly one of the people responsible for the rise in demand for this cacao by-product.

The thing is, its really hard to find in the UK. You can buy it on Amazon, but its pricey and import duties make it crazy expensive.

So whats a girl on a budget to do?

Experiment, of course.

I have bags and bags of organic cacao nibs at home, bought because of the health benefits, but not always used quite as often as I could.

DIY Crio BruI poured 25g of raw cacao nibs into the Thermomix and ground it on speed 10 for one minute. I could vaguely smell the chocolate. I then brewed the powder as I would any coffee, and tentatively took a sip. Well. It tasted of nothing. And not a very good nothing. I added sugar and milk and it tasted of nothing, with sugar and milk. Fail.

The next day I decided that to replace Crio Bru with cacao nibs, it would need to be roasted. So I lay 50g of cacao nibs on a baking tray and put it in a hot oven – 180C – for 6 minutes. I dont know why six, but six, determining that it would be best to be guided by the smell as I didn’t want burnt beans either.

Well, after about 4 mins the kitchen was filled with a beautiful chocolatey aroma and after two more minutes, the cacao nibs were a dark crunchy brown. In the Thermomix for 10 seconds at speed 10 and they were all powdered.

Two heaped teaspoons went into the Boden cafetiere, and the rest into a sealable jar. Like with any decent coffee I boiled the water, then gave it a few seconds to cool so it didn’t scald the powdered cacao nibs, poured in and left to brew for about two minutes before pouring.

Crio Bru2

The difference was amazing and immediately obvious.

I had a few sips as is, and it was fine, but then added milk and a small teaspoon of rapadura, and thoroughly enjoyed it! It does look a bit like a weak tea, but the flavour and smell are fantastic!

Crio Bru3

I know Tenina said that in time you can pick out just by taste which flavour of the Crio Bru you’re drinking, and perhaps if you’re used to drinking Crio Bru you wont like the home roasted cacao beans, but as someone without those specific beans to compare it to, I think its lovely! I’m also sure that you could subtly flavour it, perhaps with dried orange peel in the brew, or perhaps soaking the beans before roasting them (which would take longer to roast) but what I do know for sure is that raw organic cacao nibs are a perfect substitute when drinking Crio Bru.

*Tenina also recommends brewing it for 10 minutes in the Thermomix with your milk for the best flavour. I haven’t tried that yet.

(If you’re interested, these are the Cacao Nibs I use.)

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How To Cook A Whole Chicken In The Thermomix Varoma

There’s been a lot of chatter on the UK Thermomix Owners Facebook group about how to cook a whole chicken in a Varoma. As it happened, the day Maria of FeistyTapas set the challenge, I found a chicken reduced to £3 on it’s sell by date and decided it was a sufficiently cheap amount to ‘gamble’ with. Well, the gamble paid off, and the chicken was amazing! It was so moist and succulent, I couldn’t believe it, and I’m definitely a convert!How to cook a whole chicken in a Varoma

There are as many flavour combinations as chickens in the world, so you can change it up as you like, but what I did do that worked very well, was to add flavour to the steaming water as well as the chicken skin.

Obviously this is steamed chicken,  so you’re not going to get a nice crunchy chicken skin, but 10 minutes at 200C in a hot oven crisps the skin up just fine if you want a roast-like bird. If you’re going to be chopping it up for other things, there’s no need, really, for that final step.

How To Cook A Whole Chicken In The Thermomix Veroma
Recipe Type: Varoma, Main Meal
Cuisine: Steamed
Author: Luschka
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4 -6
Add any flavours you like, to suit your accompaniments. You could steam potatoes or other vegetables with the chicken, but be aware of air flow and circulation around the Veroma, Some people put chop sticks in to allow for air flow, but I don’t. I just lightly steam the veg with the same water while the chicken is crisping up or resting.
Ingredients
  • 1.3kg Whole chicken
  • Smoked paprika and salt for rubbing on chicken
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 450g chicken stock (already mixed with water as per instructions)
  • Few drops fish sauce (Nam Pla)
  • Teaspoon soy sauce
Instructions
  1. Clean out the inside of the chicken and if the feet are trussed, cut them loose.
  2. Sprinkle smoked paprika and salt (or other herbs and spices) on the chicken and place skin side up in the Varoma. If you’re worried about sticking, oil the Varoma first.
  3. In the bowl, chop the garlic 3 seconds/speed 6
  4. Add the chicken stock, the fish sauce and the soy sauce
  5. Place the Varoma on the Thermomix, and steam at Speed 2/Varoma/60 mins.
  6. Pierce the chicken to see if the juices are running clear. If so, it is cooked.
  7. If you want to crisp the skin, preheat the oven to 200C. Remove from the Varoma, and rub on some oil, and put in the oven for 10 mins or until it’s the desired crispiness.
  8. In the meantime, steam your vegetables in the Varoma using the same, already hot water.
  9. If you don’t wan to crisp the skin, set aside to cool down and use as desired.