Delicious - July 2015 - Dulce de Leche Banana Bread

Congratulations to delicious magazine on the achievement of reaching 150 issues and just look at the amazing cake on the front cover. I definitely want to make that. It may make an appearance for our next Toastmasters meeting. Even if it does take 12 eggs to make it! I mean that is a lot of eggs. However, I really do want to make it...

I am surprised by the amount of recipes in this issue that I actually want to make given how meh I have been so far this year. Although I am starting to think that has had a lot more to do with my lack of cooking mojo. Thinking back over the past 6 months and, for the most part, I have been making some pretty banal food. Nothing wrong with it, easy to do and involves little thinking but nothing to be blogging about. I am sure you don't want to read about me cooking lamb cutlets & veg or steak & veg. Plus you really can only blog lasagne once. I've already blogged the curried sausages. Hmm, there may have been a couple of interesting things in there but I can't think of anything off the top of my head. Oh, there was one really excellent roast pork belly but I have a rather dreadful out of focus picture. I guess I'll just have to make it again.

I have actually already made something else from this issue and will write about that in another post. I would also like to make Matt Wilkinson's Garlic, Ginger & Sesame brown rice, add some chicken & greens and I think it would make a fabulous dinner. His Pumpkin B'Stilla with beetroot & yoghurt sauce sounds really interesting too. I have all but the filo pastry to make it. I hate filo pastry. I can never get it to work for me. I would just use some puff pastry & roll it a little thinner. I might add that to my menu plan for some time this week...Wednesday maybe. (Hahahaha, I said "menu plan"... like that happens)

After mentioning about the endurance of dulce de leche in the fridge and how I had finally used the last of it in my snickers cupcakes I discovered that I needed some again. So I threw all the ingredients in the thermomix and off it went. I actually overcooked it a little so it is a bit more "set" than I would like it to be but all I have to do is toss some in the microwave for a minute on soften/melt function. Plus, it doesn't make any difference when sitting eating it with a spoon. lol. I really liked this banana bread recipe. The addition of the dulce de leche added an amazing moistness to it. Surprisingly it wasn't that sweet. It was welcomed with open arms at my Toastmasters meeting. I would make a few changes to the recipe though. The first is that I would leave out the chocolate chips. Only 50 g in the entire mix and it just seemed kind of pointless. I maintain that walnuts aren't all that nice of a nut so I used pecans for the nuts. I didn't have a loaf pan large enough so I put it in my 20 cm square pan. I think the 22 cm would have been better, it took a long time to cook and I had to foil the top as it was starting to darken too much. I also didn't use the coffee icing on it as we have a member who loathes coffee. I think that there was plenty of favour in it without the coffee icing. My final change would be to put the batter in the cake pan and then dollop and swirl the dulce de leche in as is really dispersed putting it in before putting in the pan.

 Dulce de Leche Banana Bread

adapted from delicious magazine July 2015 pg 88

1 1/4 c (300 g) sour cream

100 ml thickened cream

1 tsp bicarb soda

125 g unsalted butter, melted, cooled

250g caster sugar

2 eggs lightly beaten

1 tsp ground cinnamon (I used 2) 

2 cups (300g) plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

2 large ripe bananas, mashed

1 cup pecans, chopped (I didn't bother toasting) 

1/3 cup dulce de leche

Pre-heat oven to 160 C (fan-forced)

Grease 22 cm square pan

Combine sour cream, cream & soda in a both, set aside for 10 minutes. 

Mix in butter, sugar & eggs. 

Mix in dry ingredients and then bananas and pecans. 

Spread batter in pan and dollop dulce de leche on and use a knife to swirl through the batter. 

Bake 1 hour, checking at 50 min if using the larger 22 cm pan. If using 20 cm cook about 1 hr 15 min. 

 

Banana Cake with Orange & Maple Sauce

I had my grandparents come for lunch on Easter Sunday. I roasted a chicken on the weber, which was less than successful. I timed it as suggested in the book but it was not cooked. So we jointed the chicken and put the pieces back in the weber. However since it had already cooked for quite some time I really should have replaced the foil as after a while it caught fire! I did get the chicken out and put the fire out but it was a bit exciting and gave a rather smoky flavour to the chicken. It wasn't a bad flavour but it wasn't exactly what I was going for.

For dessert I made this Banana Cake with Orange & Maple Sauce. It was very good.  I poured the sauce over the cake in the tin and let it soak in. I made custard in my thermomix for the first time to go with it. My grandmother was impressed, it was the first time she had seem the thermomix in action. It was awesome custard too. 

Custard 

70 g sugar

50 g flour

2 eggs

500 g milk 

1 tsp vanilla 

Sugar & flour - 20 sec/sp 9

Add remaining ingredients 7 min/90 C/sp 4

 

Silverbeet & cauliflower pasta bake

I mentioned in my last post about Jamie Oliver's cauliflower risotto with chilli pangratto. I have wanted to make it since I bought the March issue of delicious. magazine. I had cauliflower in the fridge but when I went to the cupboard there was no arborio rice. I have no idea how I let that situation occur and will rectify it as soon as possible! However, I wanted to use up some of the cauliflower. I also have masses of silverbeet growing in the garden so I thought that I could incorporate some of that too. I decided that instead of a risotto I would try a pasta bake. It really was very good. I think you could use a combination of broccoli and cauliflower for something a bit extra. Plus, like JO's risotto I think that the chilli pangratto, sort of a chilli breadcrumbs mixture may add some zing to it. Actually just a combination of parmesan, lemon and breadcrumbs would be nice too. Over all though I loved it. 

Silverbeet & cauliflower pasta bake

50 g butter

50 g flour 

1 tsp salt 

2 - 3 grinds of pepper grinder 

500 g milk

chunk cheddar, diced (perhaps 100 g)

1/3 c shredded parmesan

250 g macaroni, cooked 

1/2 head cauliflower, cut into small florets and steamed

1 bunch silverbeet, chopped, steamed and drained

50 g feta 

Preheat oven to 180 C

Add butter, flour, salt, pepper and milk in thermomix jug. Cook for 9 minutes at 90 C on speed 4. Add cheddar and parmesan and cook for 1 minute at 90 C on speed 2. I prefer that some chunks of cheddar remain. Taste and adjust seasoning to taste.

Combine macaroni and cheese sauce. 

Spread half the macaroni mixture in the bottom of a baking dish top with cauliflower, then silverbeet and finally spread over the remaining macaroni mix. Crumble feta over the top. 

Bake for 20 minutes and then put under the grill for 10 minutes or until golden. 

Pesto roasted tomato tart

So, I have a new subscription. This time to Australian Good Taste. I decided that, like delicious. magazine, I have to use it. There is no point getting the magazine if I don't use it. The best way for me to use it is to post on here that I will be cooking from it every month. See, now I am obligated, it is on the internet, it must be true. ;) 

I didn't get past the cover recipe for something I wanted to make make. Actually that isn't exactly true even if it is on the cover and is the first recipe inside. There are all sorts of things that I want to make but went with the cover recipe to start with. 

As for other things to make, I am not sure I will get them in this month. Although there is still plenty of time. However I also purchased a copy of New Zealand's Dish magazine with some amazing looking recipes. Also this month's delicious. magazine is excellent. I have done so much cooking this month but have been very lazy in regard to blogging about them. Oops, I shouldn't have admitted that, now it is out there I will have to write them won't I. 

Back to the March edition of Australian Good Taste magazine. The glazed pear & goat's cheese salad sounds really good, although it would be feta for me. I have tried hard to like goat's cheese but it is just not for me. I am happy to add feta to salads instead. I am definitely going to make the chorizo, corn & chilli streusel muffins. I can see them being the perfect accompaniment for soup, so it might be a recipe that will have to wait. Although I am sure they would be excellent brunch item too. Tobie Puttock's pesce al cartoccio looks fantastic. It is a fish dish that looks really good to me with a combination of fennel, olives and capers. As far as I am concerned anything with olives and capers is terrific. Plus with most fish dishes it is easy to reduce recipes to one serve. 

The pesto roasted tomato tart was good, although it certainly needed some seasoning. For me it was definitely missing pepper in the mix. I think that I would add more garlic and more pesto next time too. I really liked the parmesan & oregano pastry. It was wonderfully short and crumbly. I got it a bit too thick on the corners. I should probably have been rolled thinner. In fact I think that there could have been a bit less pastry. Perhaps there was a lot of pastry trimmed when they made the tart for the magazine. Overall, it was good but I think it would be great with a few tweaks. It was good cold as well as hot too. Oh, and it gave me a chance to try making pastry in my thermomix. It was so easy and an easier clean up than making it in my food processor. 

Pesto roasted tomato tart

2 tsp olive oil 

1 leek, thinly sliced 

1 garlic clove, thinly slice 

150 g fresh ricotta

50 g goat's cheese (I used feta)

1 tbsp basil pesto

10 mixed baby tomatoes 

2 truss tomatoes, thickly sliced

6 pitted kalamata olives, halved

Fresh oregano leaves, to serve 

Parmesan & oregano pastry

225 g plain flour

150 g butter, chilled & chopped 

20 g (1/4 c) shredded parmesan

3 tsp chopped fresh oregano (I probably used about a tbsp)

1 egg yolk

2 tbsp chilled water

For pastry: 

Add flour, butter, parmesan and oregano to tmx bowl and hit turbo until mix resembles breadcrumbs. 

Add egg yolk and water and mix for 5 - 10 seconds at speed 6 or until mix comes together in a ball. Turn out, shape into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and chill in fridge. 

Cook leek & garlic in oil over a medium heat until soft. Cool. 

Combine ricotta, goat's cheese and pesto. 

Pre-heat oven to 200 C. 

Roll pastry out to a 25 x 35 cm rectangle. (mine was a bit thick so would go on thickness rather than size). 

Spread with ricotta, then leeks and finally tomatoes and olives. 

Fold in the edges of the pastry and bake for 30 min or until golden and tomato soft. 

Harissa & honey salmon

This was the first full Thermomix meal that I made. 

I have made the harissa & honey salmon before but grilled it. I should have thinned the harissa & honey mix a bit as it was more of a paste and when steaming it just wasn't right. The other thing I did was I steamed it for too long and it ended up overcooked. Overcooked salmon isn't nice, it was dry, although it might have gotten a pass if harissa & honey had been saucy.

I cooked Rice Plus in the basket in the bowl of the tmx. It is a mix of brown long grain rice, white basmati rice, pearl barley, quinoa, red basmati, black rice, black sesame seeds. I have since had it with something saucy and it was very good but it was a bit bland and dry with the salmon though. 

In the bottom of the varoma with the salmon on top I had zucchini & carrot that cooked perfectly, although I was a bit too liberal with the salt, oops. 

I won't bother with recipes since it wasn't what I wanted, expected nor came out in a good way anyway.

Sweet Chilli Sauce

This is another Thermomix recipe. Again I made it some time ago and just haven't posted until now. I wanted to try as many sauces and pastes as I could with the Thermomix. It was so easy to make but was rather expensive. If you had your own chillies it would be fine but I had to buy chillies to make it. The long red chillies are $15/kg. I did get 3 bottles and a jar about it so I suppose that when you compare the prices when what you pay in stores then it probably isn't that expensive. It has a wonderful taste to it. A nice bit of heat but not too much. If you wanted more you could leave the seeds in more of the chillies or you could add a few birdseye chillies. It has just the right amount of sweetness as well. So far I have used it on hamburgers and included in a glaze for some pork. I will definitely make it again. I have given some away and all think it is wonderful too. 

Sweet Chilli Sauce

100 grams whole long red chillies stems trimmed
3 cloves garlic peeled
750 grams white vinegar
645 grams castor sugar
400 grams de-seeded long red chillies 

Blend chillies, garlic, sugar and 250 g vinegar on speed 8 for 20 seconds. Scrap down the sides if necessary and add remaining 500 g vinegar.

Cook 15 minutes on varoma on speed 2.

Scrape sides and then cook 40 - 45 minutes or until it has reached the consistency that you want at 100 degrees on speed 3.

Pour into hot, sterilised bottles and/or jars. 

Mushroom & smoked chicken risotto

I decided that the next thing I would try in my Thermomix was the risotto in the cook book that came with the machine. Risotto is one of my favourites and I thought that it would be a good test of it for me. I would have liked to have tested it with one of my favourites, either the pumpkin or beetroot risottos, but I decided that I would stick with the one in the book this time. 

I used leek in it instead of onion and I sliced that myself however it did get caught around the butterfly blade. I would probably just use onion next time. I also added extra garlic, thyme and some chopped smoked chicken breast at the end. I didn't think that it was quite as creamy as I seem to get it on the stove. However, I haven't made risotto in a while so the rice has been sitting in the cupboard for a while. I am not sure if that would make a difference though. It was still very good and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I will try some a pumpkin one next.

Mushroom & smoked chicken risotto

50 g Parmesan cheese, cubed 

1 leek, finely sliced 

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tbsp thyme leaves (I would put more in next time) 

50 g olive oil 

350 g arborio rice

100 g white wine 

2 tsp chicken stock powder (I haven't made the tm stock concentrate yet) 

200 g sliced mushrooms

1100 g water 

1 smoked chicken breast, cubed

20 g butter 

Pulverise parmesan for 10 seconds on speed 9 and set aside. 

Add leek, garlic, thyme and oil and sauté for 2 minutes at 100 C on speed 1 with MC off. 

Insert butterfly. Add rice and wine to bowl and sauté for 2 minutes at 100 C on Reverse + soft. 

Add stock, mushrooms and water and cook for 15 minutes at 100 C on Reverse + soft. 

Add chicken and cook for 2 minutes at 100 C on Reverse + soft. 

Season to taste and add parmesan and butter.

Sun-dried tomato tapenade

More playing around with my Thermomix. I made this on the weekend along with most of the other things I am posting at the moment. I am having such a wonderful time playing around with it. I can see that it will rapidly become the most use appliance in my kitchen. 

I have, previously, used sun-dried tomato pesto as a pasta sauce. I also use it in a chicken dish that I make. I thought it might be nice to give it a try making some of my own. I googled for a recipe and came up with this one for Sun-dried tomato tapenade which fit the bill perfectly. I didn't put the pesto in it and I used cashews instead of pine nuts. I also used 4 cloves of garlic and 3 largish anchovy fillets. I did use quite a bit of the oil to get it to the consistency I wanted. Such a magnificent flavour. I used some as a pasta sauce that night, cooking the orecchiette in the thermomix. I also took some into work for my boss to try with his morning tea of crackers and cheese and it was very well received. Definitely one to keep in my make again file. 

Just posting this here as the link no longer leads to the recipe.

Ingredients

1 x 400 g jar of sundried tomatoes in oil, drained (but save the oil and add at the end if desired) 4 or 5 pieces of roasted red pepper, skins removed 2 cloves garlic, peeled 1 Tbsp capers, rinsed 1 Tbsp anchovy essence or 2 or 3 anchovy fillets 1 Tbsp pesto 2 Tbsp pine nuts black pepper freshly ground

Method

Blend all the ingredients a few seconds at Speed 6 to make a rough paste. Taste for salt before adding any. Add a little more oil if necessary

Harissa Paste

Well, my thermomix arrived yesterday. Actually it arrived on Thursday but I was working and didn't get home until after the post office had closed so I had to wait until Friday, during my lunch hour, to go collect it. I brought the package home, ripped it all open and stood there admiring it for a few minutes and then I had to go back to work. When I finally got home I got a call from my consultant, who is actually about 3 - 4 hours away from me. We did a demo over the phone. I got a little confused with some things but went over it all again once I got off the phone and was more confident. I didn't end up making anything in it last night as I was mulling over my options. 

I bought some harissa paste quite some time ago from ideli.com.au. I really liked it. It had a terrific flavour to it rather than just heat. When I finished it I was at a place where they had a different type so I bought that instead of buying more from ideli as I didn't want anything else and postage was a bit expensive for one thing. The other one that I bought was just more heat than flavour. I purchased another type and it was the same. There probably was flavour it was just overpowered by the heat. I recently decided that I would try making some of my own. I found several different recipes. In the end though I decided to wait until my thermomix arrived to try it out. So when it did this was the first thing I made. 

I wasn't sure about the Neil Perry recipe that I had found since I had never made anything in the thermomix before I wasn't too sure about converting a recipe straight up. So I searched around for a tmx recipe. I found this one and decided to give it a whirl. However, I did play around with things a bit. Unfortunately I didn't write down exactly what I was doing so I don't remember exactly what I did but I will give what I can remember. One thing I would definitely do next time is to scrape down the spices and grind again. The pieces of cumin in the end results were a bit larger than I would like. 

I used banana peppers instead of regular capsicum for roasting. I still only used two and they were really large. After I blended the whole thing up it wasn't exactly what I wanted. I cooked it for a little while and then blended again. I added some olive oil and blended further. It ended up about what I wanted. I put it in a sterile bottle in the fridge. I am sure it will be put to good use. Plus now that I have done it successfully I will make some for a friend who likes harissa too.

I should have taken a better photo but this is the only one I took.