AIP honey-orange chicken (PC, GF, AIP)

A recipe suitable for the Autoimmune Protocol and your pressure cooker.

2 tb coconut oil
2kg chicken drumsticks (or thighs etc)
Juice of 2 large oranges
2 tb honey
2 tspns AIP allowed stock concentrate
1 tspn turmeric
1 tspn coriander (dried)
1/2 tspn mustard seeds (omit for AIP)
Around 200ml coconut cream
1/2 - 1 bunch fresh coriander,  chopped roughly

Melt oil and fry chicken until mostly browned.
Add all other ingredients and bring to the boil
Put pressure cooker lid on, seal and lock. Use setting 2
When button goes up cook for 15 minutes.
I let the pressure release naturally.

I had mine with sweet potato and Brussels sprouts and my kids had with rice and peas.

Graeme's Chiang Mai Pork Balls (GF, TMX)

my boss's partner shared this recipe with me and I finally got around to making them. a much milder flavour than i expected but definitely very yum and surprisingly quick and easy to make (especially when you don't need to run out half way through to buy whatever mangy coriander woollies has in stock after 2 public holidays...). anyway here's the recipe with a few minor changes from me

1 tspn coconut oil
1 tspn ground coriander
1 tspn ground cumin
1/2 tspn ground turmeric
1 stick lemon grass
2 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger
2 green shallots / spring onions
roots and stalks of 1/2 bunch coriander (washed well!)
chilli to taste
2 kaffir lime leaves, or one piece of lime peel
around 500g pork and veal mince
2 tspns coconut oil
satay sauce of your choice - Graeme recommended masterfoods
1 tin (400ml) coconut milk / cream
snowpeas or other vegies of your choice
chopped coriander leaves to serve

 melt coconut oil & heat bowl - 2 minutes, varoma speed soft
add spices and cook 3-4 minutes varoma speed soft
add in lemon grass, garlic, ginger, shallots, coriander roots / stalks, kaffir lime and chilli and chop on speed 6 until it stops hitting the sides. scrape down and repeat.
add mince and mix by turning knob to closed lid and pressing turbo several times until well mixed
melt 2 tspns coconut oil in fry pan then shape mince into large balls and add to pan. cook over med-med high until browned all over
add coconut cream and several large dollops of satay sauce to taste (you don't want a strong satay taste, just mild). turn heat down and simmer gently for about 5-10 mins
add vegies and cook just long enough for vegies to be slightly soft.

serve sprinkled with chopped coriander. serve over rice, or if carb free i think you could either eat it on its own, or eat over shredded wombuk (chinese cabbage)

photo soon!

Mango, Lime and Coconut Muffins (GF)

I used the recipe base and used coconut flour, coconut milk, lime zest and 2 chopped mangoes.

delish!

shredded coconut would have been great too if you're a fan,

Indian style grilled chicken & veg (GF)

you could easily do this in the thermomix but mine is in hospital at the moment... *sob*

this was based on a few of Jamie Oliver's recipes and is very quick and easy

2 chicken breasts, cut into 1cm slices
2 tab tandoori paste
4-6 tabs plain full fat yoghurt
1 tin coconut cream
1 red capsicum, cut into 2" pieces
3-400g pumpkin, peeled and thinly sliced
olive oil
salt to taste
basmati rice
frozen peas (around 1 cup)
vegies of your choice - we had cauliflower and snow peas
coriander, chopped to serve

mix tandoori paste and yoghurt and mix chicken through well. leave to marinade for up to 8 hours - i only did 5 minutes and that was fine though longer would be better!

cook chicken on BBQ grill. toss capsicum and pumpkin in a splash of olive oil and grill

add remaining marinade to coconut cream in small saucepan. add salt to taste and stir well. bring to the boil and reduce ot simmer. cook until all other ingredients are done  and sauce has thickened

cook rice by absorption method, adding peas

steam vegies (i did mine over the rice, adding the cauli half way through and the snow peas when the rice was done and sitting)

serve with the sauce drizzled over and sprinkled with coriander

Almond Coconut Balls (GF, TMX)

These balls were actually a little too coconutty for me. but i think i'll try them again with some lemon and lime zest in them, or with some cacao nibs and cinnamon, or with hazelnut butter and cacao - yum!

270g almonds (i use the organic ones from costco)

you'll need to scrape down every so often as you make the almond butter

Grind on speed 8 until you can hear the change in sound - around 5 seconds

continue to grind on speed 6 until you can hear the sound of the engine change - around 5-10 minutes. as they grind the temperature will rise, that's normal :)

reduce the speed to speed 4 and keep going for another 5-10 minutes until it becomes almost runny and looks like peanut butter.

turn speed up to 8 for a few seconds and you're done.


add in:
80g coconut flour
35g shredded coconut
50g coconut milk
80g coconut oil
9 drops stevia

mix on speed 4 for a few seconds, roll into balls and refrigerate until firm.

homemade almond butter

Beef Rendang & Vegetables (GF, TMX)

well, this was the best meal i've cooked in months!!!!!

had a craving for a beef curry - was thinking thai red beef curry but then decided to go for a rendang. Used the recipe in the old EDC to cook it, but made changes based on the feedback in this thread and the recipes i had in books here and online...

served with coconut rice (just basmati with the leftover coconut cream & water to required amount of liquid) and a simple vegie dish it was utterly divine - geoff kept telling me it was restaurant standard!!

Simple Sidedish of Vegetables with Roasted Peanuts
1/4 cup whole raw peanuts
3 medium potatoes, chopped into 2" x 1" pieces, and steamed until just soft (I steamed mine over the rice)
1 tab oil
1 handful green beans, topped and tailed (drying them is a good idea)
1 red onion, cut into wedges
2 garlic cloves, peeled & roughly chopped
1 bunch asparagus, woody ends removed, but into 2" pieces
1/4 red capsicum, cut into matchstick pieces
1 tab brown sugar or other brown sweetener (agave, palm sugar etc) *
gluten free soy sauce to taste*
a little water

into a medium size saucepan or frypan place the peanuts and heat to medium. when they start to brown you will need to stir regularly. when brown all over and smelling yummy get a strong potato masher and squash them a bit so you have some smaller pieces. pour into a bowl and when they've cooled for 5 minutes remove any loose bits of skin.

heat oil. when hot add beans, fry, stirring for about 4-5 minutes. add onion and garlic and fry, stirring, for about 3-4 minutes. add the other vegetables and cook, stirring for 5 minutes.

add sugar and soy sauce and enough water to make a bit of sauce in the bottom. leave to cook for around 5 minutes, stirring once or twice.

stir peanuts through and serve top with coriander if you have any!

* if you don't need GF use ketjap manis / sweet soy sauce


Beef Rendang
Paste:
1 large red chilli, cut end off
2.5cm fresh ginger, peeled
3 cloves garlic
1 small red onion, peeled
1 tspn turmeric
20g oil
1 tspn fish sauce

Other:
4 bay leaves
1/2 tspn ground cinnamon
3 star anise
5 cardamom pods, squashed with the flat of a knife
ground pepper, to taste
25g brown sugar (or palm sugar etc)
150g coconut cream
30g dessicated coconut, browned (i did it in the same saucepan i cooked the vegies, before starting them)
500g diced beef (i used scotch fillet which worked really well, as i had no chuck etc)

place the paste ingredients EXCEPT fish sauce & oil in the thermomix (don't touch the cut edge of the chilli with your fingers - or if you do wash well and don't put your fingers near your face or eyes!) and chop for 10-15 seconds on speed 6

add oil and saute for 3 minutes at 100'c speed 3

add all the remaining ingredients to the bowl EXCEPT the meat and cook for 5 minutes at 100'c speed soft

add meat and cook for 90 - 120 minutes (you'll need to set it twice or add time as you go) at 100'c reverse speed soft

serve with coconut rice & vegetables. try not to drool too much or make too much of a pig of yourself LOL

Green Curry Fried Rice

in order to use up half a chinese cabbage in my fridge i decided to make noodles and bought chicken mince and baby corn to do so :) then had no noodles lol
my plan for making this changed multiple times before and during making it, due to no garlic and some inspiration on the way :D

it's very quick and simple and easy to substitute whatever you have in your cupboard, to use things up.

ingredients:
cooking spray or oil
4 eggs, lightly beaten
500g chicken mince (or any kind of mince or cooked shredded meat)
1 large onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1-2 tabs green curry paste (or any kind of curry paste)
assorted vegetables (i used 2 packets baby corn, blanched & chopped, 1/2 green capsicum & small piece of red capsicum, half a chinese cabbage shredded, small piece pumpkin diced, frozen beans and frozen peas)
1 tin light coconut cream
soy sauce (or fish sauce or stock concentrate) USE GF if needed
cooked rice (jasmine or basmati)

gently fry eggs without stirring too much, remove and let cool then dice or shred
respreay wok and heat on high til slightly smoking, add chicken, onion, carrot and curry paste and fry til chicken is at least 2/3 cooked.
add the longer cooking vegies such as pumpkin etc and coo, stirring
add other vegies and coconut cream, turn heat down to medium / medium low (you don't want the coconut cream to boil)
add all other ingredient and mix well. our vegies weren't quite done so we put a lid on and left it on low for around 5 minutes.

serve with sweet chilli sauce and / or fresh coriander if desired :)

Chicken Korma (GF, TMX) rough guide only

i was craving butter chicken last night but had no fennel seeds so decided to do chicken korma instead. I"m finding now that homemade just beats takeaway hands down, the bought ones are just too greasy and oily to eat and enjoy.

anyway, this is the second time i've made this in the thermomix and i had to start from scratch again because i hadn't written down the instructions last time. i'm sure there'd be a chicken korma in the new indian cookbook but i wouldn't know as i didn't get one before they went out of stock :(

WARNING: this is a very very rough "recipe", please don't make this and think that it's a failure if it doesn't work perfectly - it still needs tweaking! (feedback welcome)

2 tabs cashews
boiling water to cover
1/4 tspn saffron threads (or 1/4 tspn turmeric)
boiling water to cover
1 tab ghee or oil
pinch nutmeg or blade mace
good pinch ground cloves or 5 cloves
10-12 cardmom pods, lightly crushed
1 cinnamon stick
1 medium onion, peeled & quartered
1" ginger, peeled and halved
3-6 garlic cloved, peeled
around 600g chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1-1.5" pieces
1/2 tspn chili flakes
1 tspn ground coriander
1/2 tspn garam masala
approx 1/3 cup coconut milk
approx 1/3 cup plain yoghurt
fresh coriander to serve

put cashews in a small bowl and add boiling water to just cover, sit for half an hour
put saffron in a small bowl and add boiling water to just cover

heat ghee or oil 1 minute 100' speed soft
add nutmeg or mace, cloves, cardmom pods, and cinnamon stick. saute for 2 minutes 100' speed soft
remove cardamom pods and cinnamon stick and add onion. scrape down sides and chop speed 5 for 5 seconds or until chopped. saute 3 minutes 100' speed soft
add cashews (reserve water) and chop speed 6 for 5-10 seconds until cashews are finely chopped
fry for 3 minutes 100' speed soft
add chicken along with all the spices (chilli, ground coriander, garam masala, cardamom pods and cinnamon stick and fry for 5 minutes on varoma reverse speed soft
add the cashew water and cook for 10 minutes 100' reverse speed soft (add more water if it starts to stick)
add coconut milk and yoghurt and cook for another 8 minutes 100' reverse speed soft

sprinkle with chopped coriander and serve

note: i felt the chicken wasn't quite done enough, i will probably try cooking it longer next time (but i also had bigger pieces)

based on recipe from Curry

Pastry to the rescue!!!

it has been my experience that a few pieces of pastry can save just about anything! even the most bland, boring, or not nice leftovers can be delicious baked into some flaky golden pastry!

this is not a recipe for pastry - i can't make pastry to save myself! i have tried (and i haven't given up yet) but so far i am just not good at pastry lol

leftovers i have used in pastry for a yummy pie include:
beef in red wine
nachos or taco mix
leftover curry of any kind
any leftover casserole or even a stir fry
bolognese sauce

sometimes you might need to add more liquid or thicken up the sauce, but often it will be fine to plonk straight into the pastry and cook. if you dont' have enough leftovers for a meal now you dont' need to stuff yourself with it or chuck it, just make it into a pie! put in the freezer utnil you're ready to make a batch of pies, or make a batch and freeze reading for lunches etc (if you've already frozen the filling once dont' refreeze though.)

i was inspired by this recipe in my mum's New Idea magazine...

Indian Chicken Pies

olive oil
1 onion, thinkly sliced
1/4 cup balti curry paste (mild)
500g chicken thigh fillets, chopped
2 desiree potatoes, peeled, cut into 2cm pieces
1/2 cup coconut cream
1/2 250g packet frozen spinach, thawed
cooking oil spray
4 frozen shortcrust pastry sheets, thawed
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed, halved
cooked peas and plain yoghurt to serve
coriander sprigs, to garnish

1. heat oil in large saucepan, add onion. cook until soft. add curry paste, cook one minute. add chicken and potatoes. cook for 2 mins until chicken changes colour. add coconut cream and bring to bil. simmer 5 mins or until chicken cooked. squeeze excess moisture from spinach, add to chicken mix. mix well, cover, refridgerate until cool.
2. spray 4 pie tins with cooking spray
3. cut out oval shape from each sheet of shortcrust patry, big enough to line tin. place in tins, brush edges with egg. divide filling among tins. place puff pastry over filling. press along rim of tins, trim edges, use fork to seal. brush tops with egg. make two slits in top of each pie
4. cook in a hot oven (200c) for about 30 mins or until pastry is golden & puffed
5. serve with peas, top with yoghurt & coriander.

there's also a great weekday chicken, leek and corn pie
1 large bbq chicken - remove meat & chop
melt butter, cook onion & leeks
add flour & cook 1 min
stir in stock, then add chicken, creamed corn and some cream
simmer for 5 minutes, stir in chives
cool, place in pastry and bake :)

this would be an easy peasy one for the thermomix to make ;)

what else have you put in your pies?

2:4:1 slow cooker Laksa & stuffed capsicums

believe it or not i made a delicious laksa in the SC ( i really didn't think it would be as nice as it was!)

i put chicken sliced and onion sliced in the bottom, topped with laksa paste and boiling water. cooked on high for an hour or two. a few hours later i added most of my vegies, then an hour or so before it was done i added coconut cream and at the last minute some coriander and bean sprouts. it probably cooked for about 6 hours, maybe less.

today i made a really good winter comfort meal - stuffed capsicums.
buy as many capsicums as you can fit in your slow cooker - i recommend buying tall thin ones! cut the stems out and remove the seeds and membranes.
mix together 500g mince*, one chopped onion, 3/4 cup of uncooked rice, some herbs and spices. stuff this firmly into the capsicums.
spray the cooker with garlic flavoured cooking spray
place capsicums into the cooker
mix together a bottle of sugo / passata (or 2 tins chopped or pureed tomatoes) with some garlic and a little sugar if desired. pour over the capsicums.
cook on low for 6-7 hours.
in the last hour start to spoon the sauce over the tops (i used a turkey baster). then about 20 minutes before serving top with some grated cheese.

* if you're serving with a side salad or vegies this amount of meat is fine, but if you're having it as a one pot dinner i'd suggest using 250-350g meat and topping up with vegies such as semi dried tomatoes, zucchini, mushrooms, etc

Slow Cooker Vegie Dhal

vegie dhal
1 onion, diced
2 medium potatoes, diced
1/2 sweet potato, diced
maybe 2 cups of red lentils
2-3 teaspoons each of minced garlic and ginger
around 1 tablespoon of fennel seeds
1 tablespoon or more of curry powder
chicken stock / coconut milk / hot water - i had the CM powder and chicken stock powder too, so i used about 2/3 cup coconut milk powder, maybe 2-3 teaspoons of chicken stock and probably most of a litre of hot water.

cook all this on high for 3 hours then add in some green vegies (i used leftover spinach and rocket salad mix) and chopped coriander. serve with yoghurt and mango chutney.

** use any vegies you have in this eg: capsicum, pumpkin, carrot, cauliflower, peas, beans etc etc

Spiced Carrot Soup

based on a recipe that was in the sunday paper a few weeks ago - i made this one in the slow cooker and it was great!! and even if you're not that keen on carrots you'll like this one

1 kg carrots, peeled if you want, chopped into 1" pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 tspn each of black / brown mustard seeds, ground cumin and coriander
2-3 tspns of crushed garlic
olive oil
1/2 - 3/4 cup red lentils
2 chicken stock cubes
water as needed (at least 3 cups)
1/2 - 1 tin coconut cream
coriander to serve (optional)

heat oil and gently fry onion and spices on medium heat.
add carrots (or place carrots in bottom of slow cooker then top with onion spice mix)
add lentil then chicken stock cubes and water as required.
when carrots & lentils are nearly cooked add the coconut cream.
blend into soup consistency (or mash well) and add any more hot water required for soupiness!
serve with chopped coriander if desired.

I served mine with fresh wholemeal bread made in the bread maker, but it would be nice with a loaf of herb and garlic bread or naans or anything like that.