We had guests on Saturday and there was a communication breakdown as to when they were arriving, so I was behind schedule with the preparation. Thank goodness for the Thermomix sitting there waiting patiently on the bench. You can see from the photo below that it was splashed into the dish in a hurry. Lucky to obtain evidence of its existence.
This is a dip that has been made a few times with variations, but basically the same as the Asian pesto/dip. Really, the variations are limited by your imagination. Use walnuts, peanuts or almonds intead of cashews. Add some chili. Cook the garlic first for a milder taste. Use other oils such as grapeseed for a milder taste or splurge on some walnut oil.
Rocket and Cashew Pesto
Ingredients:
80 g parmesan or grana padano
1 clove garlic
100 g rocket, washed and shaken dry
150 g roasted, unsalted cashews
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
Method:
Place parmesan into TM bowl and grate for 10 seconds on speed 7. You don’t want it too fine – some little bits are OK. Remove and set aside.
Place garlic in TM bowl and chop for 10 seconds on speed 7. Scrape down sides of bowl and add rocket and cashews. Chop for 30 seconds on speed 6. It should still have some decent sized pieces of nuts, not mush. Blend longer if you think it needs it.
Add olive oil, lemon juice and parmesan and blend for 30 seconds on reverse + speed 4.
Add some extra olive oil or water through the hole in the lid if the mixture appears too thick and blend a little longer.
You should not need pepper or salt. The garlic and rocket will give it enough heat, while the parmesan should give enough salt. But taste it and check.
I have been a bit neglectful, so this has been published originally at "A Little Bit of Thermomix Magic" to keep our joint Thermomix blog alive and active.
This recipe came about as a result of having Thai basil and coriander in the crisper after making a couple of dishes at the weekend. Often these herbs just find their way into a variety of creations to add some fresh flavours, but while looking for a particular recipe I found a couple of similar Asian pesto recipes and decided that these herbs should be used thus.
Two of the books that had Asian pestos were “Asian Greens” by Anita Loh-Yien Lau and “Travels with a Hot Wok” by Ken Hom. I am sure there are plenty of variations on the theme, so please don’t feel limited by the recipe.
Thermomix Asian Pesto :
Ingredients:
2 cloves garlic
2 cm piece fresh ginger
1 fresh red chilli, seeded
3 tablespoons Thai basil
2 tablespoons fresh coriander
2 tablespoons rau ram (Vietnamese Mint)
1 tablespoon fresh mint
250 g roasted, unsalted peanuts (optional)
1 tablespoon palm sugar
2 teaspoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Method:
Place garlic, ginger and chilli in TM bowl and chop for 10 seconds on speed 7.
Scrape down sides of bowl and add basil, coriander and mints and chop for another 15 seconds on speed 7.
Add peanuts, if using, and palm sugar to TM bowl and chop for 20 seconds on speed 5.
Add remaining ingredients and blend for 30 seconds on speed 5. Add some boiling water through the hole in the lid if the mixture appears too thick when using the peanuts.
Over the last few weeks I have been doing some sorting out and found a little treasure trove of recipes that I had cut from papers, magazines etc to make “one day”. There was certainly no intention to ever publish any of my produce and so very few of the recipes have dates or publications. I am sure that this came from “The Age” here in Melbourne, but more than that I am sorry, can’t help.
If anybody does know the author then I would like to acknowledge them. Thanks to whoever came up with the idea.
The original had too much in the way of walnuts for my taste and so I halved the amount of nuts. Other than that there is really only adaption for the Thermomix.
Eggplant & Walnut Dip.
Ingredients:
1 large eggplant;
1/2 cup walnut pieces;
2 tsp fresh ginger
1 clove garlic,
1 chilli,
zest of one lemon;
juice of two lemons,
2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil;
1/4 tsp ground allspice;
salt and black pepper;
chilli sauce, to taste
Method:
Cook the eggplant in the microwave, uncovered on a plate, on high for about 10 minutes until it deflates, and exchanges that brilliant black sheen for a greenish hue. Alternately cook in the oven at 180°C for 30 minutes or until soft.
While the eggplant is baking, place the walnuts in TM bowl and grind for 15 seconds on speed 7, remove and set aside.
Place the ginger, garlic, chilli and lemon zest in TM bowl and chop for 20 seconds on speed 7.
Remove the eggplant from the oven, slash to let steam escape (take care), drain off any liquid and scrape the pulp into the TM bowl with garlic/chilli mix. Add the lemon juice and olive oil and blend for 30 seconds on speed 5 or until smooth.
Add the ground walnuts and process the lot until smooth on speed 9. Probably about 30 seconds.
Flavour with the allspice, salt and black pepper to taste and mix for 10 seconds on speed 5.
If you need more heat you can add a chilli sauce.
Serve at room temperature.
The first time that I recall having celeraic remoulade was at a cooking class at Howquadale with Damien Pignolet. I love vinegary dishes and we prepared pickled herrings and celeriac remoulade, among many other wonderful dishes.
I have since made celeriac remoulade on numerous occasions in my faithful old Magimix with the grating attachment. On Saturday I saw some celeriac and thought, "Time to try it out in the THermomix!!"
The reecipe below is adapted from the French book "à table avec Thermomix". I used slightly higher speed for chopping the celeriac, it may be that mine was not as tender as the French equivalent. So, please start low with the speed for chopping - the French vb
The good thing that I discovered with the celeriac, was that, unlike many other vegetables, it is forgiving of longer blending in the TMX. The result was a dish with texture reminiscent of my old recipe. Sorry Magimix, but there is a new love in my life.
Celeriac Remoulade
Ingredients:
500 g of celeriac, peeled and cut into pieces about 3cm x 1 cm
1 egg
1 teaspoons mustard
2 teaspoons wine vinegar
1 cup oil
Salt and pepper
Method:
Insert the Butterfly over the blades in the TM bowl.
Put the whole egg, mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper into TM bowl and mix for about 1 minute on speed 3.
With blades rotating on speed 4 and the MC in place, slowly add oil, drizzling it onto the lid. Stop when you you have the consistency of mayonnaise. Remove Butterfly and pour most of the mayonnaise into a container. Do not worry about cleaning out the TM bowl.
Place the celeriac pieces into the TM bowl. Chop celeriac for about 40 seconds on speed 5, stopping to scrape down the edges with spatula every 10 seconds. Once a fine texture has been achieved add back mayonnaise and mix for 5 seconds on reverse speed 5. It may not be necessary to add back all of the mayonnaise and you don’t want it to be sloppy.
Tzatziki is a great dish that, along with its Indian cousin, raita, makes a great simple dip. They are also useful accompaniments for spicy dishes as the casein in yoghurt helps neutralize the capsaicinoids and remove them from the receptors in the mouth. Better still for that purpose is a "plum juice" available in some Chinese stores made from yang mei, and sometimes labelled arbutus juice. But I digress.
Lobstersquad made a yoghurt dip recently and reported that she doesn't use her Thermomix for producing tzatziki, or chopping any vegetables, as it tends to make slush out of the vegies. I must agree that it certainly has the tendency to want to puree anything that it can. Be with a bit of cajoling it is possible to make a delicious tzatziki in the Thermomix.
The secret is to chop/blend for short bursts, scrape down the vegies/fruit/whatever and repeat until the desired consistency is reached. The Australian Thermomix cookbook book has a number of recipes that appear to have longer blending times than needed and so be careful.
Just what the world needs - another tzatziki recipe. Sorry, but hope you will try the technique behind it, including draining the yoghurt to get a thicker, creamier texture.
Thermomix Tzatziki
Ingredients:
250g yoghurt
1 telegraph ( or Lebanese) cucumber, peeled, seeds removed, cut in pieces2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp fresh mint
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground cumin
Salt and Pepper
Paprika
Method:
Place yoghurt in sieve lined with paper towel or clean tea towel and leave in fridge to drain for 4 hours or overnight.
Place cucumber pieces into Thermomix bowl and pulse Turbo button once. Scrape cucumber down from sides of bowl and pulse Turbo button again. Sprinkle with salt and place in a fine plastic sieve or colander lined with paper towel, leave for 15 minutes to drain off excess juice.
Place the garlic and mint in Thermomix bowl and chop for 5 seconds on speed 7. Scrape down sides and repeat twice. Add the yoghurt, oil, lemon juice, coriander and cumin and mix for 10 seconds on speed 4.
Rinse the cucumber mixture under cold water, squeeze out any excess moisture and add to the yoghurt mixture. Blend for 10 seconds on reverse speed 2.
Season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Sprinkle paprika over top and serve.
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