Tandoori Chicken..yes please!

Tandoori Chicken has always had a very special place in my heart. I remember the first time I went and had Tandoori chicken was when I was 10 years old. I was living in Tokyo and I had the mumps. My dad LOVES Indian and the first Indian restaurant opened up about a 15 minute walk from our house. It was located next to the Japanese equivalent of Origin head office.  I remember only being able to eat rice and a few pieces of Tandoori Chicken and it HURT but it was so good....

Tandoor Chicken Salad recipe again comes from my favourite Thermomistress... #Tenina Holder the author of Keeping it Simple - Recipes for a #Thermomix... She has an incredible website and she is also on Facebook. One day I hope that she will make it to Central Queensland so I can see  her weave her magic..

Need

Ingredient of Marinade
2 cloves of garlic
15g piece ginger
2 bay leaves, spine removed
1 red chilli, seeds optional
1 tbsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp turmeric
1/2 tsp each of ground coriander, cumin and cinnamon
A few peppercorns
2 tbsp EVOO
200g Greek yoghurt

Ingredients for Salad
2 chicken breasts
Oil for frying
170g red lentils (I did not include)
Water for Steaming
Salad greens of choice
1 cucumber, thinly sliced
1/2 red onion
40g pistachios, shelled (I did not include)
40g dried apricots, diced (I did not include)
Handful of mint leaves

Ingredients for Dressing
1 clove garlic
60g Greek yoghurt
60g EVOO
Juice of 1 lemon 
Generous pinch of pink salt flakes

Do
1. Make the marinade - place all marinade ingredients into TM bowl and blend 10 sec/speed 8. Pour into a large Ziploc bag

2. Butterfly chicken breast fillets and add to bag. Spread marinade around the chicken and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days

 3. Place lentils into simmering basket and fill TM bowl to just below the base of the basket with water. Cook 16 min/100 degree C/speed 4. Set aside until ready to serve. (I don't like lentils so I didn't cook any)

4. When ready to eat, heat oil in a grill pan, cook chicken fillets both sides until charred on the outside and cooked in the centre. Slice on the diagonal.

5. Arrange all the salad ingredients, including the cooked lentils onto a large platter finishing with the chicken and mint

6. Make dressing by placing all ingredients into the TM bowl and blend 10 sec/speed 8. Pour over salad and chicken and serve immediately!

Healthy, fresh and yummy! We both loved eating it and there was enough for lunch the next day for the both of us! It might be made again..very soon!

Umami - The fifth taste

I have been quite delinquent when it comes to my blog. It isn't that I haven't been cooking, or even taking pictures, I have just been busy moving house and also didn't have internet until late last week. I decided to kick off my blog with Tenina's Umami Paste made in the #thermomix. This paste reminds me of my childhood in Japan. The food there was always tasted meaty, full of body and had a depth that I have found very difficult to find in in Western food. This paste adds a punch to just about anything savoury... You can also add it to butter and then freeze the butter in little circles and have it on fish.  My godson likes to have it on toast... He puts it up there with Vegemite. Thank you #Tenina, I can now experience this taste every day! 

The #thermomix is such an amazing product and I love using it. It has made my life so much easier and has made me a more creative cook as well. My husband was so anti me buying one but now he gets it which is nice.

Anyway, the ingredients are below! Enjoy!

Ingredients:
300g Roma tomatoes (cubed)
90g Parmesan, cubed (I grate mine in advance an put it into a ziplock bag in the freezer)
80g Walnuts (toasted)
5g Dulse Sea Vegetable Flakes
5g Balsamic Vinegar
2-3 anchovy fillets (or use mushrooms if want a vegetarian option)

Do:
Place tomatoes into TM bowl and cook 10 - 14 min/100 degree C/Reverse + 1

2. Press cooled pulp through a fine sieve and separate solids from liquids. Reserve liquids to use in Umami Paste. 

Notes: I used a rubber spatula to press the solids through the sieve

If you want, dehydrate the tomato solids in a warm oven on a piece of baking paper until it becomes brittle. Mill and save the flakes to use in chicken stock powder.

3. Place parmesan and walnuts (I pan toasted my walnuts) into clean, dry TM bowl and mill 8sec/speed 9

4. Add remaining ingredients and blend for 30 sec/speed 4, scraping down as necessary

5. Place into sterilised jar and place in the refrigerator. It should last at least 4 weeks... Enjoy!

#Cooking With Tenina also has this posted on YouTube. See the link below:
YouTube - Tenina Test Kitchen - Umami Paste

Banana coconut bread...Yummmmm!

The weather is slowly improving up here in Central Queensland and so is my mood. It has been confirmed that we are moving into our permanent accommodation on the 13th of Feb now so that means I can cook my husband an amazing Valentines meal. We don't normally celebrate it and I am on the Changing Habits Program so what I can eat is limited but I am still making my husband fabulous meals.

Anyway, my beautiful man loves to have something sweet in the afternoon while at work. We are working together to stop eating lollies and chocolate so I am making him things with glucose powder. It comes out looking the same but you just don't have the sugar taste.

Anyway, this is from Quick Fix in the Thermomix by Alyce Alexandra, I found it on the internet. I have 2 of her cookbooks but they are currently in storage. I get them on the 13th of Feb! Yahooo!!!

Banana and coconut bread
(dairy free and vegetarian)

Ingredients

400g coconut milk
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste)
300g wholemeal spelt flour 
1tbsp baking powder
300g caster sugar (I used 200g glucose powder)
140g shredded coconut
3 very ripe banana's, thinly sliced

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 160 degree's (fan forced). Grease and line a 10cm x 30cm bread tin (or a rectangular cake tin) with baking paper

2. Place coconut milk, eggs and vanilla in TM bowl, mix for 10 seconds, speed 3

3. Add spelt flour, baking powder, caster sugar and shredded coconut, mix for 30 seconds, reverse speed 4.

4. Add bananas, mix for 45 seconds, reverse speed 3

5. Pour mixture into bread tin, bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until cooked. Cover with foil for the first 30 minutes. Allow to cook slightly before removing from tin... Serve bread fresh with lots of butter or lightly toasted.

Enjoy with a cup of tea! I froze half of it so he can pull a piece out of the freezer and eat it when he gets to work.

Have a fabulous day!

My Love Affair with Central Queensland is over...

I have been in Central Queensland for over 3 weeks and we are over our temporary accommodation and just want to be in our permanent accommodation. We are missing our bed, our knives, our clothes, just about everything. But at least I still have Voldie, AKA Thermomix! Due to the Cyclone (it wound up being a fizzer thank goodness), there has been nothing a but wind and rain since Thursday, and I am hoping that some of the water has made it to the drought area's of Central Queensland. I have been cooking up a storm using Tenina Holder's - Keeping It Simple Recipes for a Thermomix. I know I don't publish them all, and a lot of the time I even forget that I should be taking pictures...but oh well, this is a blog that is just for fun.

So, the latest recipe I have made is coconut rough... It came out a bit crumbly but after I contacted Tenina on FB (Cooking with Tenina) she replied so next time, I know what to do! It was super simple, only 5 ingredients... 6 if you can't get the consistency right...

The ingredients - shredded coconut, cocoa powder, vanilla bean paste,
raw sugar and pink salt

Add all the ingredients into the bowl

Blend

Keep blending and stop occasionally to scrape down.
If too crumbly, add coconut oil

Place into lined baking tin and place in fridge

Ok, so the recipe is as follows:

400g shredded coconut

20g premium cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

50g raw sugar (we used glucose powder)

Pinch of pink salt flakes

Do

1. Place all ingredients into TM bowl and blend for 4-8 min/speed 8

2. Stop and scrape down sides of bowls and lid as necessary. Note be careful as the bowl will become quite warm... 

3. If too crumbly after 8 minutes (like mine was) then add coconut oil. I would suggest one tbsp at a time...

4. Place into lined baking tin and tap on bench to settle and refrigerate

5. Cut into squares with a hot knife once set.

My husband loved them and they will be made again. The pieces that fell apart were thrown in with ice cream... Yummmmm