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. 

Thermomix Watermelon bread

I've been a little obsessed with bread making lately. There's no better reward than seeing your loved ones enjoy the food you make everyday. 

My boys (and I) love fruit. The sweeter and juicier, the better. After making the Panda bread, I saw a watermelon bread online and wanted to make that too. 

This bread is easier and less fiddly to make than the Panda bread. My boys were also really impressed with it too and enjoyed it immensely :)!

I used my own bread recipe which I also use for the Panda bread. This is easier to make than the panda bread and just as impressive!

Ingredients

1 egg yolk and milk to total 200g

30g sugar

2 tsp yeast

340g bakers flour

1 tsp bread improver (optional)

1 tsp salt

15-20g unsalted butter

60g (3/4 cup) raisins/sultanas or choc chips (add more or less to your liking)

Beetroot juice or pink/red colouring

Pandan juice/essence or green colouring

Method

1. Add milk and egg yolk in TM and mix for 1 min/sp2/37deg

2. Add sugar, yeast, bakers flour, bread improver (if using) and salt (In that order) and mix sp7/7 sec

3. Knead for 4-5 minutes

4. Add butter in 1-2 minutes before kneading is finished

5. Turn dough onto thermomat. Divide dough into 3 parts:

Half the dough for the Pink/red colouring

Divide the other half into 2 for the green and white (plain) dough 

6. Cover the remaining dough while you mix the colours - in case it dries out.

Don't forget to Add the raisins/choc chip to the pink/red dough and knead gently to combine evenly

7. Let dough rest and rise in a warm area for approx 20mins. Keep covered so the dough doesn't dry out. 

8. Roll pink/red dough out into a cylinder  shape. Use your bread tin as a guideline as to how big you roll it. Set aside 

9. Roll out the white dough flat and wrap it around the pink/red dough like you would a sushi. Use water or milk if necessary

10. Roll out the green dough flat and wrap it around as the outside layer like you would a sushi. Use water or milk if necessary

11. Place it in a greased bread tin (ugly side down) and let it rise in a warm area (I just place it in a cold oven with a bowl of boiled water to create a sauna for the dough :p)

12. Remove the tray from the oven and preheat your oven to 180deg. 

13. Place your loaf into preheated oven and bake for 20-25mins

14. Turn out immediately on a wire rack to cool before you slice 

Thermomix Panda bread

This is the cutest bread ever! 

Being a mum these days almost means you need to present Masterchef style meals for your kids to eat. Luckily for me, my boys aren't really fussy eaters. They are however, pretty picky at breakfast time. From morning tea onwards, they're fine. So here's me trying to make breakfast 'fun'! One thing I love about this bread, is that it's colourful and cute with natural flavours and colouring. Green tea also happens to be one of my favourite flavours ever... I hope you enjoy this as much as we do :)!

Ingredients

1 egg yolk and milk to total 200g

30g sugar

2 tsp yeast

330-350g bakers flour

1 tsp bread improver (optional)

1 tsp salt

15-20g unsalted butter

8g green tea/matcha powder

8g cocoa powder 

*tip: if you aren't used to the slight bitterness of cocoa and green tea powder, you can add more sugar OR substitute cocoa with milo and green tea with pandan essence

Method

1. Add milk and egg yolk in TM and mix for 1 min/sp2/37deg

2. Add sugar, yeast, bakers flour, bread improver (if using) and salt (In that order) and mix sp7/7 sec

3. Knead for 4-5 minutes

4. Add butter in 1-2 minutes before kneading is finished

5. Turn dough out onto thermomat. Dough should weigh roughly 620g. Divide into 3 parts:

Brown - 85g

Plain - 220g

Green - 300g

6. Cover the remaining dough while you mix the colours in case it dries out. Also work separately doing green first in case you transfer colours. Tip: I use a VERY very tiny bit of boiled water to dissolve the green tea and cocoa powder. It makes it easier to work with. Remember to cut the brown dough in quarters

7. Let it rest and rise in a warm area for approx 20mins. Keep covered so the dough doesn't dry out. 

8. Roll the green dough out flat (keep unused dough covered). Use your bread tin to approximate how big to roll it. Cut a portion off the bottom strip and put aside

9. Roll 2 brown dough into 2 long strips (ears) and place onto the green dough. Then using the remaining green dough (which was set aside earlier), roll it into a strip and place in between the ears

10. Repeat the above step using the plain white dough (this doesn't need to be as big as the green dough) and remaining 2 quartered brown dough (eyes)

11. Wrap and seal the White dough using water or milk if necessary

12.  Wrap and seal green dough using water or milk if necessary 

13. Place in a greased bread tin (ugly side down of course) and let it prove in a warm area (I just place it in a cold oven with a bowl of boiled water to create a sauna for the dough :p)

14. Once the dough has risen, remove from oven and preheat your oven to 180 degrees. 

15. Place bread in the preheated oven and bake for 20-25mins. 

16. Turn onto cooling rack and let it cool before you slice

Tang Zhong bread in the Thermomix

Bread is a staple in our household. We usually try to make most of the bread we eat, however, we sometimes succumb to buying supermarket bread. 
Recently, I stumbled across this thread regarding bread improver. It was disturbing to read how many additives and preservatives go into such a simple everyday product. I was especially disgusted when I realised that most bread improver contained pancreatic acid of a pig and/or horse/human hair... gross!

So I went about trying to find natural alternatives to bread improver and came across the Tang Zhong method. I first read about it on Christine's Recipes (she has awesome stuff on her blog) and couldn't wait to try this simple method in making softer, fluffier bread which will still remain soft (and without that yeasty smell) after 3 days.

The Tang Zhong starter can be used to replace bread improver in your normal breadmaking recipes. This is one I use for our everyday staple.

TangZhong breads are quite sticky to work with. I wouldn't attempt it myself if not for a Thermomix or bread machine. Let me know if you've successfully hand kneaded TZ breads...

Tang Zhong Starter
250ml water (or milk, or a mix of both)
50g bakers flour

Place ingredients in the TM bowl and cook for 5min30sec/60deg/sp4.
Pour the starter into a bowl and cover it with clingwrap so it doesn't dry out. Allow it cool to room temperature (if you make this the day before, refrigerate and allow it to return to room temperature before using)

Bread Dough
500g bakers flour
160g tang zhong starter
200g water
1 tsp salt
30g sugar
2 tsp yeast
45g olive oil
(optional: 90g mixed seeds/grains)

1. Place all the Bread dough ingredients in the TM bowl and knead for 10-15minutes (don't leave the TM unattended).
2. You can leave it in the TM to prove until dough doubles in size
3. Knead again in the TM for 2 minutes 
4. Roll out and shape dough into bread tin for second proving (it is ready to bake after passing the poke test)
5. Bake at 220deg for 25minutes. Remove from tin and bake for a further 5-10 minutes (depending on your oven). Cool on a rack thoroughly before slicing (if you can wait).

Your everyday jumbo loaf/bread

Variations: make scrolls, buns, pizza and rolls!

My boys and I eat bread. Everyday. And nothing beats freshly baked homemade bread. This is a simple and quick one that can be whipped up with the Thermomix in a few minutes. It's a popular recipe I came across on the TM recipe community and it doesn't fail to please. Definitely try this if you're never wanting to buy store bough bread ever again. I make this bread often along with my Tang Zhong breads. We like to mix things up at home :). What breads do you like?

Ingredients 

370g lukewarm water

1.5tsp sugar

2tsp yeast

640g bakers flour

2 tsp salt

2 tsp bread improver

20g oil

Method

1. Add all the ingredients in the TM and mix on sp7/7sec

2. Knead for 6min

3. Rest for 15-20mins (either in the TM or the thermomat)

4. Punch down and shape into a jumbo sized (900g) bread tin (or rolls)

5. Prove the dough until it doubles in size. It is ready for baking when you poke the dough firmly and the finger mark pops back out. If the fingerprint remains, you need to prove for longer. Don't overprove the dough or you can end up with a dense loaf. 

6. Bake in preheated 180deg oven for 25mins (less for rolls) or until the outside is golden brown. Tip onto a cooling rack immediately 

Variation tips:

-Add grains or seeds to your loaf

-Make scrolls (pizza, cheesymite, anything)!

- Make buns or rolls

-Can use these as pizza bases too

Note: I know I mentioned in previous post how anti-bread improver I was. That is, until I discovered this: