Two cheese risotto

I used to make risotto regularly during winter when I had a couple of hours spare to stir the rice. It took 25 mins from starting the recipe to dinner being ready. I used the mushroom risotto recipe in the Everyday cookbook. As there was no mushrooms in the house (minor detail) so just had Parmesan, mozzarella and parsley. Simply delicious. Leftovers are frozen and may be made into arancici balls for another meal.

Butter... Oops! Should have been whipped cream

Today we felt like scones, jam and cream for lunch. We followed the recipe we used earlier. The scones are delicious - light and fluffy. However, the cream was over whipped... Think we just missed saving it by seconds. So I turned the page in the Everyday cookbook and made it into butter! So simple, so delicious! Tastes like old fashioned butter. No more store bought stuff for us.

Satay sauce

Tonight's romantic Valentine's dinner consisted of vege burgers on the lounge in front of the TV. This is a rare event - just the two of us. I couldn't find organic satay sauce so decided to make my own. Googled satay sauce and made my own. This recipe uses cashews. Yummo! I threw all the ingredients into thermy Speed 4/20 seconds.

Source: http://eatingcoventgarden.com/?p=2294 (accessed 14.2.14)

Served on fresh hamburger buns with the vege patties I made the other night, crisp salad, and dill mayonnaise. Delicious.

Fried rice with BBQ pork

Mum had this delicious chinese pork and vegetable recipe, served with steamed rice it was delicious. I can't find it, but found a 'fried' rice recipe to try in the thermomix. This was a Very special fried rice. I only had pork backstrap so used that. The rice cooked in the coconut milk was yum - tho I used coconut evaporated milk as that's all I had. Would I make it again - probably not on a weeknight. It was nice, but not spectacular. It took over an hour by the time I cut everything, cooked everything in the thermomix and on the stove top.

Source: https://thermomg.squarespace.com/thermomg-recipes/2013/9/28/very-special-fried-rice (accessed 13.2.14)

Vegan burger

Tonight we steamed sweet potato in the Thermomix varoma for the first time. Needless to say it wasn't a success. It refused to soften. So it continued to cook while we ate our roast lamb with other steamed vegetables. It still refused to cook properly so I decided to chop it in the mixing bowl and make Vegan falafel's to freeze for future meals as Vege burgers.

This Vegan falafel recipe is delicious. I used to live near Byron Bay and there was a beach cafe that did the most delicious vege burgers with satay sauce. This is the closest replica I can find. I don't use any flour and rarely have caraway seeds. Served with lots of shredded salad vegetables, tomato, and crispy lettuce with a fresh bun with mayonnaise one half of the bun and satay sauce on the other. Yummo! And a wonderful flashback to my uni undergraduate days. A good vege burger is hard to find, but delicious when you do.

http://thetolerantvegan.com/2011/08/baked-eggplant-burgers/ (accessed 9.2.14)

Pear and vanilla jam

This week I ordered a standard fruit and vegetable box from the online organic store we use. Usually I just choose what we like to eat and buy that. But there was a special on standard boxes so being the bargain hunter I bought that. Surprisingly, the only thing supplied that we don't eat is pears. 

So I decided to make Pear and vanilla jam. Husband and I are no strangers to jam making. We have a mini orchard in our suburban backyard - dwarf cumquat, lemon, lime, orange, mandarin, lychee, peach, nectarine, mango and avocado trees. The trees line one of our fences, provide a great outlook from the kitchen, and supply us with a load of fruit every year. The cumquats are made into jam every year. Our Dad's love it so we keep making it for them.

I used this Pear and Vanilla jam recipe as the basis for making the jam. We use lemon from our trees as the source of pectin in our jam making (why buy when we have it in our backyard). This was delicious and would make a lovely gift.

Pear and vanilla jam 

Adapted from realfailsafemeals.blogspot.com.au

1kg pears

1 lemon

Seeds of 1 vanilla pod

500g sugar

1. Peel and core pears, roughly chop
2. Remove skin from lemon (leaving the white stuff on), roughly chop
3. Place pears and lemon in thermomix, chop Speed 7/30 seconds (less if you want a 'chunky' jam)
4. Add vanilla seeds and sugar
5. Mix Speed 4/20 seconds
6. Cook 100C/Speed 2/45 minutes
7. Test by putting a teaspoon of mixture on a plate and into the freezer. If it forms a skin after a minute or so it is ready.  
8. If you need it to set more cook it on Varoma/4 minutes with the MC out and steaming basket on top (WARNING - be careful of hot liquid)
9. Blitz on Speed 8/20 seconds if you would like a smoother jam
10. Place jam in hot sterilised jars (washed in hot soapy water and heated in 200C oven for 10 minutes - WARNING - be careful of hot glass)

Source: http://adelineandlumiere.com/2012/03/29/pear-vanilla-jam/ (accessed 9.2.14)