Thermomix vegetarian Pho

Winter is coming... Woohoo! Soup season :)!

This is my first time making vegetarian Pho in the Thermomix. And it was JUST as good - if not better :p

Like most of my foods, I never really make the same thing twice. I tend to just use seasonal veggies - or whatever is in my fridge. 

Ingredients 

1.1L water (I usually use the water reserves from cooking corn)

90g vegetarian fish sauce 

1 heaped tbs TM vegetable stock concentrate

1 small rock sugar (optional)

Soaked shiitake mushrooms (reserve water)

1-2 Thumb sized ginger, roughly sliced

10 star anise 

2-3 cinnamon sticks

5 tsaoko (cardamon)

1tsp Szechuan pepper

2 garlic cloves and 1 onion, sliced (optional)

Sliced Veggies (I normally go with radish daikon, carrot, lotus root, cabbage)

If you have time (and this is really worth the extra step), dry roast/fry the ginger, star anise, Tsao ko, cinnamon, Szechuan peppers (and onion garlic if using). Then proceed with the below. 

  

Method 

1. Pour water, reserved soaked mushroom water, sugar, veg fish sauce, vege stock concentrate, into the bowl

2. Put remaining ingredients in the TM basket and place it in the TM bowl 

3. Cook for 20min/100deg/sp3

Non-TM method: just throw #2 in the mesh flavour ball things and everything in the pot. Cook - the longer the better. 

Whilst cooking the soup, prepare your desired toppings and cook your rice noodles as per packet instructions. As I make the soup to suit my whole family (including my toddlers), the soup is made with fragrant and light flavours. So we normally go wild with the added extras! I normally have:

Vietnamese herbs (basil, mints, and other stuff I don't know the names of)

Shredded lettuce and/or cabbage

Bean sprout

Chilli

Lime

Fried tofu, sliced 

Stirfried vege meat products (some of them marinated beforehand)

Pho sauce 

Lay the cooked noodles in a large bowl and top with your desired toppings. Once the soup in the TM is cooked, you can pour it straight over and serve immediately :)

BUT... I am still a little traditional when it comes to making a good Asian broth. SO... I usually pour the soup from the TM into a large pot (reserving some soup) and then transfer the veggies from the TM rice basket into the TM bowl. The mushrooms can go straight into the large pot with the stock too. Nothing is wasted in this household, so I blitz the veggies up in the Thermomix and poured straight into the large pot and straight back onto the stove. 

I also like to add extra daikon, fresh assorted mushrooms or veggies (just for bite and more flavour), I'd chop them up and throw them in the large pot to cook in the stove top. If you want deeper flavours, you can transfer the remaining spices into those silver balls (that sit in your soup without having the inedible bits floating everywhere) and into the large pot too. 

If you can't be bothered doing all that, the soup straight from the Thermomix bowl tastes delicious. My boys normally have this since they have dinner 2 hours before daddy gets home. The second part I normally do (transfer into large pot and reheat) just before hubby gets home so he gets a more flavoursome meal. I would usually add some more flavour to the stock too. Just because the hubby likes it that way. Overall, this is a very simple, quick and delicious meal. Winter or no. One that I know I'd be making more often :). 

Tip:

When making Corn snacks for the little ones, I also reserve the soup an replace it with the water called for in the recipe. 

A lot of restaurants use cane sugar in their soups too for that yummy sweet taste. 

Chinese Crispy pancake (蔥油餅)

Not surprisingly, another recipe which is a hubby's favourite for snack/breakfast. 

This recipe is very very easy and although I use a Thermomix to knead my dough, you can do this by hand too. 

蔥油餅 (Spring onion/shallot pancake) is traditionally filled with salt, oil and spring onions/shallots. As I don't eat shallots, I replace mine with coriander or toon (香椿). Cheese and basil is also so delicious!!! You can even make this plain and eat it with some fried eggs if you like too. A very versatile recipe so knock yourselves out. 

This recipe can easily be frozen (beats buying the frozen ones from supermarkets). However, I prefer eating them as we make them. They just taste better and it's not hard to make. 

I normally make the dough at night and let it rest overnight (it seems to produce a crispier and more layered pancake) and make it in the morning for breakfast. You don't need to do this, but let the dough rest for as long as possible :)

Dough recipe

600g plain flour

300g boiling water

100g water

1/2 tsp salt

Add Flour, salt, and boiled water in TM and mix 20sec/sp3

Add 100g water and mix for further 10sec/sp3

Knead 2-3 minutes

Non-TM Method for dough

Place the flour in a large mixing bowl and combine with the boiled hot water and salt. Mix quickly using chopsticks. Add the cold water and mix well and form into a dough. Use oil if needed.  Gently knead then wrap the dough and let it rest covered while you prepare the filling. Make sure you don't let it dry out

Filling ingredients:

Salt

Oil

Chopped shallots/spring onions OR

Coriander and/OR

Toon 香椿

Putting it together:

1. Flour your working bench and keep some flour aside for working with. Divide dough into 6 portions then Set aside. 

2. Roll out 1 portion flat. Sprinkle some salt and spread it across the dough with your hands. Add oil to the centre of your dough and using each corner of the dough, bring it to the centre to spread the oil evenly (no need to get your hands oily :). Sprinkle with shallots or choice of filling evenly across the dough. 

3. Roll the dough up as you would a sushi 

4. Roll the dough into a spiral shape and tuck in the end. Gentle pat a little flat to shape. Set aside to rest (use more flour to cover both sides) while you work with the other ones. 

5. Before you fry, gently roll out the spiral dough (or hand flatten if you prefer) to a circle shape. Fry with oil over medium heat

6. To serve, Cut them with scissors (or not :p). Eat while hot for that crispy layered factor :)!

If I know I'm running late the next morning, I preroll them and layer them with baking paper to separate them. I then glad wrap it and put it in the fridge overnight.