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Moni February 9, 2015

Balsamic Pork Meatballs

Food 2 Replies

So my family and I have moved into our new rental house and we’re all settling at varying paces. The kids took to the new house very well and they don’t seem to miss the big back yard or Olympic-sized pool of our previous rental house. I am mostly OK with this new house: I do like that it’s smaller as cleaning only takes half the time but there are a few things that make me question what the builder was thinking upon planning this house. I’m entitled to say this since we’ve taken about three years planning our own :|

The downstairs toilet is semi-ensuited to the Master bedroom which in itself is a bit awkward but the main bone of contention is its size. It’s not much bigger than an aeroplane bathroom! As soon as you open the door inwards, the toilet is right there in front of you, pretty much necessitating you to sit on it in order to close the door. The laundry is also the size of a postage stamp so I’ve had to move the ironing board upstairs into the spare bedroom. Other than that though, I’ll cope for the year and a bit we need to be here.

My husband on the other hand largely dislikes this new house but he’s still seething about having to leave the other rental house as well as missing the opportunity to live along the river in a mansion-like home which was waaaay more than we needed to pay weekly in rent. I think he’ll eventually settle in but for the next month I expect to hear a few grumbles and expletives to remind me of his discontent. Most definitely first world problems so let’s move on!

I’ve started cooking a little more again now that I’ve sussed out my new kitchen. The oven is pretty good and I don’t miss using the 5-burner stove in the other house. I’ve got just enough space on the bench for my Thermomix so we’ll definitely get back into some TMX action soon. Now that my dining suite is on tiles again, I can see myself inviting friends over for dinner parties again! Yes, it may seem trite but I stopped having dinner parties because the dining room in the other house was carpeted. Who puts cream carpets in dining rooms??

The family was hankering for some meatballs the other night so I thought of putting a spin on my usual recipe with a dash of aged balsamic vinegar. Please note that I said ‘aged’. Call us balsamic snobs but if it hasn’t been in a barrel for at least 8 years in some delightful part of Italy (well, it kinda has to be Modena…) then my husband and I won’t touch it. A bottle of aged balsamic may be about three times the price of a 2-year old one but it’s well worth the extra expense. Especially if you want to do the EVOO + Balsamic thing to dip some crusty bread into.

I’m sure everyone has their own favourite meatball recipe but it’s good to tweak it here and there. I learnt recently to pre-cook the onion before adding the mince. as it’s just not possible to cook the diced onion within the meatballs sufficiently without rendering the entire thing dry and just plain nasty. And kids? They really, really don’t like uncooked onion. So this time I sauteed my onion in the Thermomix with a bit of crushed garlic and a tablespoon of aged Balsamic (if you only have the stuff Coles sells then add a teaspoon of honey). During the pan-frying stage, I added another splash of Balsamic for extra tang. Just a simply addition to make an old favourite a bit more interesting :)

What’s your meatball tip to mix things up?

Balsamic Pork Meatballs

1/3 cup of bread crumbs or piece of crusty bread blitzed up in TMX (set aside)
1 small carrot, finely diced or (or blitzed on Speed 3 for a few seconds in the TMX and set aside)

1/2 brown onion, diced (or blitzed on Speed 3 for a few seconds in the TMX)
small clove of garlic, diced or crushed well
1 Tbsp aged Balsamic vinegar (or un-aged stuff with a tsp of honey)
500g lean pork mince
1/3 ricotta cheese (optional, but does help to keep meatballs moist)
salt and pepper to taste
extra Tbsp of Balsamic to drizzle over meatballs while in pan

To make: Saute onion (100C, Speed 1 for 3 minutes) with diced garlic in a Tbsp of olive oil until translucent. Add Balsamic vinegar and carrots and saute for another 2 minutes. Allow to cool down to room temperature. Add pork mince, ricotta and bread crumbs, plus seasoning. Combine well (a few shots of Turbo then a careful mix with the TMX spatula. Roll into 3cm wide balls and set aside. Heat up frying pan with a Tbsp of olive oil. Fry meatballs on once side until brown then turn over. When other side is brown again, jiggle the pan to get the balls rolling until all meatballs are evenly browned. Drizzle extra Balsamic over meatballs and serve.

Moni January 4, 2015

Hello 2015!

Food, Ramblings 1 Reply

I feel I’ve left it a bit late to be wishing everyone a Happy New Year here at Gastromony but hey, I’m sure we’re only just getting used to writing ’15 on cheques and the like. It’s hard to believe another year has passed and to be honest, I was pretty happy to see the end of 2014. It wasn’t an annus horribilis by any means, and I’m grateful for many things that happened, but I’m certainly yearning for a less eventful year.

I’m not sure how less eventful 2015 can be though given our house building is finally under way and we’ll no doubt be spending any spare time ensuring that the build is sound and as planned. Unfortunately we’ve had to move out of our giant rental house and into a smaller one this week so January has already proven to be a bit hectic. Fortunately we’ve settled into our new place quite easily and I’m getting quite adept at finding homes for various objects as well as disposing of overflow rubbish.

I did *some* cooking for our Christmas Eve supper with friends…

Needless to say I haven’t had much time to cook, much less blog about it. It saddens me to go from a weekly blogger to seeing a giant 2-month gap between posts. Unfortunately the last few months of 2014 were a write off and January sure hasn’t been conducive to foodie fun given I had to pack up all my kitchen stuff. I only just placed my beloved Thermomix on my new kitchen bench today. It’ll take some time to get used to a new cooking environment but I do have some recipes in mind.

We treated ourselves to a special Christmas Day lunch at Nobu :)

As for my other interests, I’m still making and selling doll’s hats which has turned into a very fun hobby. Given the butt-load of cash I’ve spent over the years on craft supplies, this hobby probably won’t be profitable for quite some time yet but at least I’m using stuff up! I’m hoping to get over to the Gold Coast this year for Blythe Fest.

Karate will start up again shortly and I’m looking forward to getting back into training. I’m enjoying teaching karate too and we’ll see how far we get this year with competing. My son is pretty keen to compete too so I see us running around madly getting from one club to another to maximise training. Indeed, he’ll be kept very busy with his various other pursuits as well as what the last year of primary school brings!

New Year’s Day noodles – A Japanese tradition.

And what will I be doing this year at Gastromony? I’m hoping to get back into my regular routine of posting recipes soon but I’ll be focussing on food that is quick, easy and healthy. That’s not to say that I won’t be including some indulgences here too but how and what I eat has to complement my lifestyle at the moment as well as that of my family. Naturally, the Thermomix will feature quite a bit in 2015 (and no, I won’t be getting the new one lol).

Well it’s 9:30pm and my children are still awake watching some Pokemon DVD. We’ve all had a hell of a week with the house move so quite frankly, I don’t care! I hope everyone else has been enjoying their summer so far though and I wish you all a lovely New Year. Bye for now :)

Moni October 31, 2014

Coffee Scrolls with Streusel Filling

Baking, Thermomix 2 Replies

As you might have guessed through my baking posts, I have a significant fondness for Asian breads and buns. You can’t always access them readily here in Perth so making them myself became an early mission here on Gastromony. Indeed, the day I made my own Melon Buns (Meron Pan) was probably one of the happiest baking moments in my life. Truly!

Anyway, although I’ve tried various types of bread dough recipes, I finally found a great Asian bun dough recipe via Christine’s Recipes which calls for the use of the magical Tangzhong. The best way to describe Tangzhong is a bread improver. It’s a mixture of cooked flour and water (or milk, or both) that seems to assist the gluten of the dough at the baking stage so it produces an extra fluffy bread that stays fresh for longer.

I’m not sure about the science of Tangzhong but I have been pretty happy with the results so far. I decided to use it for some coffee flavoured scrolls I’d been meaning to bake for a while. These scrolls are also relatively healthy and heart-safe so a good baked treat for my husband who is watching what he eats a bit ore than before. Butter be gone!

For that subtle coffee flavour, it’s possible to use instant coffee granules but as I had been enjoying Griffiths Coffee’s Just Fair blend lately since they kindly sent me a tin to try, I decided to use the full bodied blend to flavour my scrolls. To do this, it’s a simple matter of boiling up some water, waiting until it cools down a little, then adding three tablespoons of the water to one tablespoon of ground coffee. I let the mixture steep until cool to the touch then strain.

I use about two tablespoons of the coffee in the dough and the rest goes into the nut streusel filling. I’m not after an intense coffee flavour but you can alway try steeping two tablespoons of coffee in 3 or 4 tablespoons of hot water to amp up the taste. I like a subtle hit of coffee in the scrolls to compliment the accompanying flat white for afternoon tea :)

I like hazelnuts for the streusel filling but walnuts are just as nice :) The recipe below doesn’t require tangzhong so I’ve modified the recipe to suit. I’ll explore more tangzhong recipes later, as well as how to make tangzhong with the Thermomix.

Coffee Scrolls with Streusel Filling

380g bread flour
55g caster sugar
1/2 tsp salt
one medium egg
125 ml milk
2 tablespoons of brewed coffee (see above, or use 2 teaspoons instant coffee)
1/2 tsp instant yeast
30g Nuttlex margarine or butter if preferred

Streusel Filling

1/2 cup hazelnut meal (or blitz up your own with roasted hazelnuts)
1/2 cup Demerara or raw sugar
1 tablespoon of brewed coffee or 1 tsp of instant coffee
2 tablesepoons of Nuttlex margarine or butter

To Make: Place bread flour, sugar, salt and yeast in Thermomix bowl and combine with a quick blitz on Speed 3. Add egg, milk and coffee to dry mixture and use the the Thermomix’s bread function for about 3 minutes. Check to see if dough has come together and comes away from the bowl. If not, you may need to adjust by adding a tablespoon of flour at a time and giving it 30 seconds on the dough setting. If dough seems dry, add a tablespoon of milk at a time instead. Add margarine or butter to TMX bowl and use the dough function again for a minute until fat has dispersed through the dough. Transfer dough to a bowl, wrap and allow to proof for an hour in a warm place.

Combine streusel ingredients into clean TMX bowl and blitz on Speed 4 until well combined. Set aside. When dough has risen, place on a floured surface and knead out gas for a minute. Divide dough into three, roll each portion out as flat as possible into a long oval shape. Spread streusel filling across the dough and carefully roll into a long log. Cut into four portions, placing each piece with rolled edge upwards in a baking tin. Allow enough space between buns for further rising. Repeat with remaining two dough portions. You should have twelve small scrolled buns (I think I ended up with ten in the example here but it’s OK!). Cover with damp cloth and allow to proof again for 30 minutes in a warm place. Pre-heat oven to 160C (180C regular oven) and when buns have risen, brush over with an egg wash then bake for 18 minutes, checking to see if the top is golden. If they sound hollow when tapped, they are ready. Allow to cool before pulling apart and serving.