Showing posts with label chicken. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chicken. Show all posts

Friday, 15 February 2013

Chicken & vegetable sausage rolls with spelt pastry

I adore this recipe, so much so I am even a little hesitant to let you all know about it :)  But it's a bit late now to be precious about my recipes!!  It does make my day when somebody leaves me a little comment down below, so please don't be shy if you are enjoying something here on my blog. . . . .

I pull out either this recipe, or my pork and beef sausage rolls for birthday parties, and they are always a hit :) I always have sausage rolls on hand in my freezer and regularly serve them up for a quick, easy and nutritious evening meal for my girls who devour them with veggie sticks or their favourite steamed veg on the side :) 

I have made several adjustments to this recipe over the years, my most recent is to add TM made stock paste, which adds a deliciously rich flavour to all of my dishes, plus I love to make my own rough puff pastry rather than use the commercial variety. It is very easy to make in the Thermomix if you haven't tried before, and it just adds something very special to a homemade sausage roll. Please let me know what you think :)





ingredients

Pastry: 
185g white spelt flour
190g wholemeal spelt flour
300g unsalted butter - I buy unsalted to avoid commercial salt then add Himalayan
1.5 tsp Himalayan (or sea salt)
150g filtered water, chilled
3 tsp lemon juice 

Filling:
1 sml sweet potato, peeled & thickly sliced (about 250g)
80g fresh wholegrain homemade bread, broken into pieces 
30g tasty cheese, cut into chunks (optional)
1 large clove garlic
1 sml handful your choice mixed fresh herbs, e.g. parsley, thyme, rosemary, oregano
1 sml or half a large onion, quartered
1 medium carrot, cut into chunks
1 sml zucchini, cut into chunks
600g thigh or breast chicken, skinless, cut into 1-2cm cubes
1/4 tsp each of dried sage, cloves and nutmeg - I like to freshly grind my nutmeg & cloves
good grind black pepper
2 tbsp TM tomato sauce (ketchup)
1 tbsp TM chicken or vegetable stock paste
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

To finish:
1 large egg + a little water
poppy seeds, to sprinkle

method
1. First follow the EDC rough puff pastry method to make 1.5 x qty batch of spelt rough puff pastry using the proportions of ingredients listed above. Make this ahead, wrap well in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator until you are ready to use. 

2. Peel and slice sweet potato into 2cm thick rounds and place in the Varoma dish. Add 400g of water to the TM bowl and set the Varoma dish into position. Steam for 15 minutes at Varoma temperature on speed 1. Set aside the sweet potato and rinse and dry the TM bowl.

3. Add fresh bread, tasty cheese (optional), garlic and fresh herbs to the TM bowl and chop on speed 7 for 5 seconds. Decant into a bowl. 

4. Add onion, carrot and zucchini to the TM bowl and chop on speed 5 for 5-10 seconds or until evenly  chopped.

5. Return the breadcrumb cheese and herbs mixture and add the cubed chicken, sweet potato and all remaining ingredients to the TM bowl and chop on speed 6-8 until finely minced and well combined. You will need to use the spatula to assist. Stop mixing to scrape down the bowl once or twice. 

6. Remove the slab of puff pastry from the fridge and slice in half, then in half again so that you have four equal sized pieces. Keep aside one quarter and return the remaining pastry to the fridge to keep cold. Roll out the pastry piece on a floured surface or your TM mat, to a rectangular shape of about 15 x 45cm, and 2mm thickness. 

7. Spoon a quarter of the mixture along the centre of the pastry. Turn one side over the filling and roll, seam side down, brush the edge with a little milk or water to seal. I like to then cut each roll in half and then lift each piece off the TM mat onto a chopping board, so that I can use a serrated knife to carefully cut each roll into 6 equal pieces. This creates a clean cut which doesn't flatten your sausage rolls as you cut which can happen if you use a blunt knife, (or use a butter knife on the mat so you don't slice it up!) 

8. Using a sharp knife, cut diagonal slashes into the tops of your little sausage rolls, glaze with a whisked egg and water wash, then sprinkle with poppy seeds. Repeat with the remaining pastry and filling, making 48 sausage rolls in total.

9. When you're ready to cook the sausage rolls, pre-heat oven to 220°C and bake on prepared oven trays for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown. Serve with Thermomix tomato sauce (ketchup). If freezing to reheat later, cook until the pastry is just cooked through or lightly golden, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. I like to freeze the sausage rolls in a single layer and when frozen solid, later transfer them to ziplock bags for easy storage. 

You can reheat your chicken & vegetable sausage rolls straight from the freezer. Just preheat your oven to 180°C and cook for 15 minutes or until piping hot. 

variation ideas
  • for a nutritional boost use chia seeds in place of about half of the fresh bread or add some to the puff pastry!
  • I usually mix up my fresh herbs according to what I have on hand. I'm really enjoying growing our own thyme, basil and rosemary quite successfully on our balcony these days . . . I love just thyme in a sausage roll and rosemary goes really well with it too!
  • If you have Quirky Cooking's chicken stock paste on hand, this is the better stock paste choice for any chicken dish in my opinion. Thanks Jo! :)

no thermomix?
Prior to owning a thermomix, I would make this recipe using my food processor. I would buy ready-made puff pastry but no more! All pastries I have made in my thermomix turn out amazing, so I will never look back :)

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Sunday, 30 December 2012

Thai style chicken & coconut salad

It's always lovely to be in my home country of Australia to celebrate Christmas with family, and I count myself very lucky to be part of a family that on both sides are very passionate about preparing good food whether it be at Christmas or anytime of the year :)  Christmas day, is of course an opportunity for everyone to come together to celebrate, and on my husband's side owing to the enormity of the get together . . . which is a tribute to a devoted family with many who travel from afar . .  everyone brings a plate or two of food rather than a gift, and the focus is on family, fun, conversation, and of course fabulous food (and wine).

As the guests arrive on the day, a large, long table is carefully adorned with the most delicious of creations. Some dishes are old family favourites that have a starring role each Christmas, and other dishes make their first appearance, but never disappoint due to the calibre of the cook that has prepared them! They meet the scrutiny of 60 plus people, and if we are lucky will return the following year. 

There is always an amazing spread of cold meats (turkey, ham, rare beef, chicken and even tongue for the more adventurous), with luxurious homemade condiments and simple, yet exquisite sides such as minted peas and glazed carrots among an assortment of gourmet salads from green salad, caprese, watermelon & mint, green bean & pine nuts and my favourites this year . . marinated citrus chicken, roast pumpkin rocket & fetta, pancetta & broad beans, Moroccan pearl couscous & chickpea, and coconut chicken salad . . . needless to say every plate was piled high and you were certainly the odd one out if you didn't come back for seconds or even thirds! 
 

We finished with two large glorious homemade steamed Christmas puds, one recipe handed down through generations . . served up with thick creamy vanilla custard and a lashing of hard sauce. 

The recipe below is my Thermomix version of the lovely Thai-style Coconut chicken salad or Yum Gai - which my gorgeous sister-in-law contributed to the festive feast. She was generous enough to share her recipe and I have made just a couple of tweaks. It is a perfect fresh flavoured Summer salad. I took it along to a friend's BBQ dinner and my girlfriend commented "this is a salad to impress". I hope you enjoy it as much as my family and friends do . . .

Thai-style coconut chicken salad


ingredients
2 chicken breast fillets, skin off, quartered
1 pink lady apple, cored
1 large pink shallot (or sml red onion)
2 handfuls of fresh mint leaves
1 large carrot
1 punnet cherry or baby roma tomatoes
100g baby spinach leaves
100g cashews (raw or roasted - optional)

dressing:
juice of 1-2 lemons (4 tbsp)
3 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sambal olek (hot chill paste) - or to taste
4 tbsp coconut milk
2 spring onions, cut into 5cm pieces
2-3 fresh kaffir lime leaves
1 handful fresh coriander leaves

method
1. Add 500g boiling water to the TM bowl and chicken pieces into the Varoma dish. Set the Varoma into position and steam the chicken for approximately 15 minutes on speed 1 or 2 or until cooked through. Remove the Varoma tray, set aside and allow the chicken to cool.  Rinse out the TM bowl ready to prepare the salad dressing. 

2. Add all dressing ingredients to the TM bowl and blend for 10 seconds on speed 7 with the MC lid in place - you could also add the shallot here if you prefer to blend it in with the dressing. Decant and set aside.

3. Add the cooked chicken pieces to the TM bowl and shred for about 3 seconds on reverse speed 4. Remove the shredded chicken into a large bowl. Isn't this just so impressive! 

4. Prepare your carrot with the apple etc. in step 5 below, or for a fussier look you could cut julienne-style or use a spiraliser, and then add to the large bowl with the chicken. 

5. Add the apple, shallot (or red onion) and mint leaves to the TM bowl and chop roughly on speed 4 for 5-6 seconds. Decant and add to the large bowl with the other ingredients. 

6. Shred the baby spinach with a knife or keep whole, add to the other ingredients and pour over the salad dressing. Use your spatula or salad servers to toss the salad to combine all ingredients and dish onto a large serving plate to serve. Sprinkle with cashews (optional) and garnish with a sprig of mint. Enjoy!

variation ideas
  • add red capsicum instead of cherry tomatoes
  • use fresh chilli in place of chilli paste
  • try chopping the baby spinach with the apple, onion and mint at step 5.

no thermomix?
  • Boil or steam chicken fillets on the stovetop & shred using two forks (oh no!)
  • Finely chop the spring onions and lime leaves and combine with the other dressing ingredients for a chunkier style dressing

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Sunday, 26 August 2012

laab gai

Fresh back from a recent family break in Phuket, Thailand ... a popular holiday destination for Hong Kongers with it being just a hop, skip and jump away . . I felt inspired to develop a Thai favourite of ours for the Thermomix. I just love Thailand. I have travelled through most of the country on various trips over the years. I love, it's natural beauty as well as the hustle and bustle of it's capital (and the shopping of course), it's people and culture .... but most of all it's food :)

So far I have discovered that the thermie is very well suited to make our favourite Thai curries and to blend Thai-style dressings for salads, but this has been the extent of my Thai cooking using the thermomix so far.  Indeed I plan to do a lot more!

I picked up some dried galangal (pronounced 'kah' in Thai) and dried chillies while in Phuket to make this dish. 
This dish calls for charring them in a pan, then grinding them into a powder, which really adds to this recipe's authenticity and depth of flavour . . . yum!

Laab Gai














ingredients
2 tbsp white rice
2 sml pieces dried galangal
a handful of dried Thai chillies (or chilli powder)
600g chicken breast or thigh fillet, skinless, chopped roughly
20g coconut oil
6 cloves garlic
1 stalk lemon grass, cut into 2cm lengths
1 shallot
2 spring onions, cut into 2cm lengths 
a good handful fresh mint leaves
3-4 tbsp fish sauce
juice 2-3 limes
1/2 -1 tsp raw caster sugar, to balance flavours

method
1. Dry roast the white rice at varoma temp on speed 1 for 12-15 minutes, or until the rice has a golden tinge to it. Remove TM bowl from it's base and allow to cool. Any white rice will do. I used basmati . . . for authenticity use Thai glutinous rice.  

2. While the rice is cooling, add the dried galangal pieces to a small pan (preferably cast iron) or a wok on medium heat until the pieces are darkened and slightly charred. Allow to cool, then add to the TM bowl with the roasted rice and grind into a fine powder on speed 9 for about 30 seconds. Decant and set aside.
Dried galangal & Thai chillies
3. Now roast a handful of Thai dried chillies in the same pan, turning frequently until they are darkened and slightly charred. Allow to cool, then add to the TM bowl and grind into a fine powder on speed 9 for about 30 seconds

4. Add the chicken to the TM bowl and pulse with the turbo button 3-4 times into mince. Add coconut oil and cook for 5-6 minutes at 100°C on reverse + speed soft, or until all of the chicken mince is cooked through. Remove the cooked chicken and set aside. 

5. Add the garlic cloves, lemon grass, shallot, spring onions and mint to the TM bowl and chop on speed 6 for 5 seconds, or until finely chopped. 

6. Return to chicken to the TM bowl and add the fish sauce, lime juice, ground roasted rice and galangal, plus 1/2 - 2 tsp of the ground dried Thai chilli powder (or to taste). Combine on reverse, speed 3 for 10 seconds

7. Taste and adjust flavours to desired sourness, hotness and saltiness. Add sugar only as needed to pull the flavours together. Serve at room temperature in a lettuce leaf cup on a plate with assorted vegetables such as lightly steamed green beans, cucumber sticks, a wedge of cabbage and fresh herbs such as Thai basil and mint.

no thermomix?
  • Roast the white rice in a hot dry pan (cast iron is best) or wok over low-medium heat until golden brown for about 12 minutes. Stirring constantly so that it doesn't burn.
  • Grind the rice, galangal and dried chilli using a coffee grinder. 
  • Use chicken mince and cook on the stovetop.

recipe adapted for the Thermomix from Temple of Thai


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