Sausage Rolls and Tomato Sauce

What to do with a kilo of minced beef that you forgot you defrosted? Make sausage rolls!
First, make the sausage mince.

SAUSAGE MINCE
Use 500g mince and add a handful of fresh herbs or a good sprinkling of dried. For the first batch I used sage, parsley and thyme. The second batch I made with dried Italian herbs.

Tear up around 4 slices stale bread or use about 1/2 cup dried breadcrumbs and add to the bowl. To season, use a generous amount of salt and pepper or try my All Purpose Seasoning. Add one egg and 1/2 MC of water. Add garlic and onion if desired. Mix together on speed 3 - 4 until it looks like sausage mince. I actually taste it at this stage. Just touch it to my tongue to check the seasoning.

When putting together sausage rolls, take a wad of the sausage mince and roll out on the bench like a sausage to the length of the puff pastry sheets. I find this makes the sausage rolls more even in size.
Score the rolls of filled puff pastry with a knife. I generally make four from one roll. These can be frozen at this stage.

Place on an oven tray and brush with egg. Bake in a pre heated (220C) oven for about 10 minutes. Reduce to 200 and continue cooking for a further 10 minutes or until golden brown and puffed. Cool on a rack. Once cooled, these can be frozen.
To make these gluten free, use rice crumbs or rice flakes instead of bread.

This is such an easy recipe there's no excuse not to make your own tomato sauce. So much nicer than the bought stuff!
I found this recipe at Mumdeep. She calls it Aussie Style Thermomix Tomato Sauce. I had more than 500g of tomatoes, so I doubled the recipe. When doubling recipes in the Thermomix, I find it's best to add half the time again, rather than doubling the cooking time.

Here's the recipe with my tweaks

TOMATO SAUCE
1kg very ripe tomatoes
2 large cooking apples
180g Apple Cider Vinegar
180g rapadura sugar (or brown sugar)
2 - 4 Tbsp tomato paste
4 tsp salt (can use less)
2 tsp pepper
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Cut tomatoes and apples (don't peel) into quarters and place into Thermomix bowl. Add vinegar. Cook for 45 minutes/100/speed 2. This helps keep the colour of the sauce lovely and red.
Let cool for 1/2 an hour or so and then blend on speed 8 to 9 until smooth.
Add sugar, tomato paste and spices and cook a further 45 minutes/100/speed 2. Place basket on top to prevent it spitting out all over your bench and walls!
Adjust seasoning to your liking.
Place into warmed bottles and cap. Tip upside down for ten minutes. Turn up the right way and you'll find the bottles will seal.
If I have any left over bought tomato sauce, I add that to the bowl rather than waste it. In fact, if you're introducing a fussy family member to home made tomato sauce, this is a good way to do it. Just reduce the amount of bought sauce you use each time you make it.

Enjoy!

Megan

Reinventing Leftovers

I always make large amounts of bolognaise sauce, beef stews and casseroles. I normally like to freeze the leftovers. This time, I did as my mother did before me and created a new dish from old leftovers. Not that old, only a few days!

My bolognaise sauce was made with Mediterranean vegetables of eggplant, zucchini & mushrooms. By the time I added everything, I had an enormous pot of sauce! The basic passata is made with a reduction of sautéed celery, garlic, onion and carrot in the Thermomix. Add to this canned tomatoes, tomato paste, herbs and seasonings. This is then added to the sautéed mince and chopped vegetables and cooked slowly for a couple of hours on the stove top. The day I made this, we ran out of gas, so it was cooked in the oven in a large Bessemer pan with a lid.

After eating it for a couple of days, there was still a fair bit left, so tonight I made it into a casserole.

Bolognaise Casserole
Leftover bolognaise sauce
Cooked pasta - I used macaroni
1 egg

Cheese Sauce (Thermomix)
500g milk
50g plain flour
100g cheese - mix of parmesan and tasty
2 eggs
salt and pepper
pinch nutmeg

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C.

Place bolognaise sauce into a casserole dish and mix in cooked pasta and beaten egg.
To make cheese sauce, grate cheeses in Thermomix first on speed 7 - 8 for a few seconds and set 50g aside.
Add remaining ingredients to the other 50g of cheese in the TM bowl and cook on 90 degrees for 8 minutes on speed 4.

Add about 1/4 cup of the cheese sauce to the bolognaise in the dish and mix. Pour the remaining sauce over the top and sprinkle with remaining 50g grated cheeses. Bake for about 40 minutes or so.

Beef Stroganoff

Today is a rare day when my husband is home. The weather is so lovely today inviting a late BBQ breakfast on the patio this morning.

At around 1pm, I was starting to feel hungry again and had a hankering for Stroganoff.

I've made the Beef Stroganoff from the Every Day Cookbook a couple of times, but have replaced the beef with chicken, and I really like it.
However, I thought I'd try another recipe developed by a fellow blogger, Chelsea, published on her Full Little Tummies Blog
This recipe came about as forum members reviewed the original EDC recipe and tweaked it to their tastes.
The changes I made was to cook it for 5 more minutes as I had used more mushrooms and my steak was still a little frozen. I added ground black pepper instead of cayenne pepper. I also cut my steak in the traditional stroganoff way, thinly sliced strips.

N.B. It appears that Chelsea has removed the recipe from her blog. Since I've made quite a few changes, I think I can add the recipe here. I like to acknowledge Chelsea's original idea as it's brilliant. My version is below.

I used 500g of Scotch Fillet. This may sound an extravagant use for good quality steak, but this small amount of meat makes enough to feed 6 people with pasta and vegetables. For tender steak, whether using rump, blade or scotch, cut semi frozen steak into strips 4cm x 2cm. Turn the strips on to their side and slice thinly. You get about three slices per strip. This means that the meat has been cut against the grain and it will be so tender it will melt in the mouth!

It's amazing how much the Thermomix can cope with. Here's the bowl after placing  in all ingredients:

The finished Stroganoff went into the Thermoserver while the pasta was cooked in the rinsed out bowl.

So incredibly easy and so delicious!

1 onion, peeled and halved

2 garlic cloves, peeled

100g bacon rashers, cut into strips

30g butter

500g rump or scotch fillet, (blade steak may take a little longer)

250g Swiss Brown mushrooms, sliced

2 Tbsp tomato paste

100g red wine

50g water

1 Tbsp Thermomix Vegetable Stock Concentrate (recipe found in the Everyday Cookbook that comes with the Thermomix)

3 Tbsp cornflour

1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

2 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

150g sour cream

1 Tbsp paprika

¼ tsp ground black pepper

pinch dried thyme or tsp fresh 

1 tsp dulse flakes or Himalayan Salt

fresh chopped parsley to garnish

Drop garlic on to blades running at speed 7. 

Add onion and chop at speed 5 for a couple of seconds. Scrape down and chop again if necessary.

Scrape down and add butter and bacon. Cook on 100/3 minutes/speed 1/Reverse.

Add remaining ingredients and cook on 100/25 minutes/soft speed/Reverse.

Place in Thermoserver whilst preparing pasta or cooking mashed potato in the Thermomix. I like to serve with a green vegetable or salad as well.

Megan

Make Your Own Mince

Voila! Minced Steak

Today I wanted to make pasties so that Steve and his dad can take them for lunches during seeding rather than boring sandwiches.

Unfortunately, I had no mince in the freezer. But, I did have some chuck steak which I could easily turn into mince in the Thermomix!

To mince any meat, including chicken, lamb and pork, it's best to be semi frozen and cut into 2cm cubes. Do small amounts at one time - I prefer to do about 100g each time. Place cubes into the bowl and mince on speed 7 for around 8 - 10 seconds.
It does make a racket, so be prepared!

So, no need to buy mince again!

Home Made Korma Sauce

Why buy pre made Curry Sauces and Pastes when you can easily make your own in the Thermomix?

Today I'm making a Beef Vindaloo and a Korma sauce for tomorrow night's tea. Curries are best eaten the day after they're made as the flavours intensify overnight. The Korma Sauce will be used for a Vegetable Korma to go with the Vindaloo. I'll be making my sister's Spiced Rice in the Thermomix while the curries are reheating in the Varoma. Delicious, cost effective and easy. What more could you ask?

Both recipes come from Fast and Easy Indian Cookery which is probably one of my most favourite Thermomix cookbooks.

Delicious Varoma Steak

Steamed Steak, you say? Yes, but there's more to it. Read on...

I've been reading about sous vide cooking, where food is vacuum packed, then cooked in a water bath at a controlled temperature. With the Thermomix cooking at specific temperatures, I imagined it would work well. Trouble is, it takes ages.

I love experimenting, so thought why not do the vacuum packing, but then steam the food? And that's exactly what I did with our scotch fillet last night for tea.

I have a Sunbeam Vacuum Sealing Machine that is fantastic. So, steak placed in bag - two to a bag and a marinade poured in. Seal in machine and then steam for about 8 minutes on Varoma temperature in the Thermomix. One pack in the Varoma Bowl and one in the tray.
Potatoes steaming underneath in basket.

The liquid remaining in the bag needs to be poured out before frying meat. I made a delicious sauce with this by adding a bit of cream, Worcestershire Sauce, water and then thickening with cornflour. The microwave was fine for this.

Marinade for Varoma Steak
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Tomato Sauce
1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder

Spread over steak while before sealing bag. Oil meat and place onto a hot grill to seal for 1 minute on each side for medium rare. I used a ScanPan grill tray , but a BBQ grill would be excellent too.

Medium Rare and Juicily Delicious!

The meat was tasty, tender and beautifully cooked. I highly recommend cooking steak in this manner.

Boeuf Bourguignon

Simply put, this is a beef stew with bacon, mushrooms and red wine. I just love the French name!

I like to use Gravy Beef for my stews. It has a lot of 'gristle' which, with long slow cooking, melts down and provides a delicious flavour. I cook this in my Le Creuset oval casserole as it browns the meat beautifully and is equally happy on either the stove top or in a slow oven.

Megan's Boeuf Bourguignon
2 Tbsp oil
1 kg Gravy Beef
200ml beef stock (2 tsp beef stock powder in water)
200ml red wine
2 Tbsp oil, extra
2 onions, diced
375g sliced baby mushrooms
3 slices Parma ham, pancetta or short cut bacon
1 x 440g can diced tomatoes
1 tsp black pepper
5 or 6 sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves only or 2 tsp dried thyme

To thicken:
3 Tbsp plain flour
2 Tbsp oil

Brown diced beef in batches in hot oil. Deglaze the pan with stock and wine. Reserve, and then clean pan.
Add extra oil and sauté onions, mushrooms and ham or bacon. Add the remaining ingredients and cook on low in the oven or on the stove for around 2 1/2 hours or until beef is tender.

Mix oil and flour and stir in around 1/2 cup of the liquid from the pan. Add this mixture back into the beef and stir in well. Allow to cook for another 10 minutes or so on top of stove, stirring regularly.

Serve with baby peas and whole boiled new potatoes with sour cream.

Left overs make a great pie filling.

Megan's Perfect Pasties

These are the best pasties you'll ever taste!
I am so thrilled to have made these. I adore bakery pasties and recently had a horrible experience of (not) eating a truly awful pastie from the local bakery in town. The pastry was lovely, but the filling was a hard lump  of something that tasted rather like cardboard.

For the pastry, make a batch of Rough Puff Pastry, using the method described here. Roll and turn about 6 times and then cut in half and refrigerate for half an hour or so.

If pushed for time, use ready rolled puff pastry. I prefer Pampas 25% Fat Reduced. It works a treat.


To make the filling:
250g lean beef mince
3 carrots
2 onions
1 turnip
½ to 1 parsnip
1 small potato
2 Tbsp rolled oats (soaks up liquid - thanks Judy!)
4 tsp beef stock powder
2 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
a few frozen peas
1 beaten egg for glazing.

I don't bother peeling the root vegetables. Just chop roughly.  Just make sure carrot is cut a little smaller than other vegies as it's harder.

Place mince, stock powder, peas and pepper into a large mixing bowl. Stir together.

To chop vegetables, place into food processor or Thermomix and chop on speed 5 for a couple of seconds at a time. Use the spatula to stir around and chop again if necessary. Add to mince with the remaining ingredients.

To make pasties:
Preheat oven to 200C. Line two trays with baking paper.
Roll out pastry and cut circles using a small side plate (I sometimes make smaller ones using my pie maker cutter).  Brush inside with beaten egg and place filling on one half, avoiding edges. Fold other half over and seal with finger crimping. Prick with a fork and place on baking tray.
Brush with beaten egg and bake for half an hour.
Remove from tray and place straight onto oven racks and bake for a further 10 minutes. If using bought puff pastry, there's no need to do this. I just bake until they're cooked and remove to a cake rack to cool.

 Filling the pastie

 Ready for the egg glaze and baking

 I used 3/4 of the pastry and made 10 pasties. The remaining pastry was made into 2 pastie sized apple turnovers, a croissant and some spirals with sugar on top.

Hints and Tips:
I now make snack sized pasties using the larger ring cutter from the electric pie maker - 12 cm diameter. I make 2 lots of pastry and cut into circles, laying each circle on a plate with baking paper in between (keep the baking paper in a plastic bag for next time).

If you make the filling a day or so before, place it in a colander over a bowl in the fridge. Just put a plate on top to stop it drying out. This will allow liquid to drain. Because there's salt in the mixture, it draws liquid from the meat and the vegetables.

My puff pastry making is now perfected and puffs up so much more than previously. Here's a photo of a recent batch.

The Challenge - Tuesday Week 2

Breakfast this morning was tinned spaghetti on toast made with home made bread and bacon.

For lunch, I made a Zucchini Slice with my home grown yellow zucchini and some frozen peas using Elisabeth's Crustless Quiche Recipe. She is known as 'achookwoman' on the Thermomix Forum.
This is a little different from regular Zucchini Slice as it uses milk and cream. It was delicious! Served with left over salads from last night.

Tea was a yummy Meatloaf:
500g Low Fat Mince
1/2 cup breadcrumbs from left over home made bread dried in oven and blitzed in the Thermomix
1/2 kumara, chopped for about 4 seconds on speed 5
1 onion, chopped in Thermomix for around 4 seconds on speed 5
1 Tbsp Mild English Mustard
2 Tbsp Tomato Sauce
1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
Pepper


Wrap in greased foil and place in a bread tin. Bake at 175 C for around 45 minutes. Open foil at top and glaze with Tomato Relish. Increase heat to 225 C and bake for another 25 minutes, or use the grill function of your oven to brown the top of the loaf.
Served with mixed vegies from freezer and mashed potato. Gravy made with Knorr Gravy mix with 3 Tbsp Tomato Relish added to it.

No purchases today.

Total Spend still stands at $75.09

Boeuf avec l'orange

It may have something to do with the fact that I recently watched Julie/Julia and have just read the book as well that the desire for some Frenchiness has slipped into my cooking.
My mum, the queen of home cooking, in my eyes, had a French background and I've always loved the language as well as the food.

Normally, I'm not one to use a recipe when I make a stew, but today I wanted a particular flavour, orange and red wine in my beef casserole. Deciding to cook it very slowly in the oven, it definitely called for serious contemplation. None of the recipes I looked at were quite what I wanted, so I did my own thing, and here it is:

Boeuf avec l'orange

1 - 1.5 kg beef, large dice (mine was already diced, supermarket stuff, and a bit too small)
1/2 cup or so of olive oil (yes, it's a lot, but there's no fat left on the meat, and you need it to keep the meat moist)
salt and pepper
Coat beef in the oil and add salt and pepper. Be generous with the seasoning as there is no other seasoning in the dish.
Heat a large non stick frying pan until very hot. Put small amounts of meat into pan and let brown on one side. Toss around for a minute or so and place oven-proof casserole. (I use a Scanpan Dutch Oven). Repeat with remaining meat in small batches until all meat is browned.

1.5 cups red wine
1 cup water
Juice and rind of one orange
Take the pan off the heat and deglaze with  red wine. Add water, rind and juice and cook down until reduced by half. Pour over the meat.

2 onions, sliced
2 bay leaves
2 sage leaves

Put onions over the top of the meat with the herbs.

2 heaped Tbsp Tomato Paste
2 heaped Tbsp plain flour
Mix together and smoosh over the onions, then stir in (so no lumps form).
Cook in a slow oven, 150 degrees C for two and a half hours. Check for tenderness of meat. Some meat may need another half hour or so.

I would much rather use gravy beef for this, but stewing steak was all I had in the freezer. Pan frying the meat prior to cooking slowly really adds colour and delicious flavour to any meat. It's definitely worth the mess and the smoke! I just open all the doors and windows.

I didn't take a photo of my dinner plate, but the stew was a wonderful rich colour and the taste was superb. I'll make pies with the remaining stew.

Don't you just love the French language? Beef Stew with Orange doesn't sound nearly as enticing as Bouef avec l'orange.

When I announced what we were having for tea tonight, Steve said, "A toasted sandwich will do me, I'm not hungry".