Sandra's No-Tomato Sauce

Sandra's No-Tomato Sauce

I have been using this all over the place...  and a bit like the Deli Chicken,  it has helped save Failsafe cooking all over again.  People on the facebook Failsafe pages are talking about it,  it has been translated into Thermomix-ese on the "Something From Nothing" page and here's mine.

Oh,  but first,  here's --->  Sandra's original.



Ingredients :

• 1 tin Red Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed
• 150g Pear, about 2 large halves
• 1 teaspoon Citric Acid
• 1/4 cup (50g) Brown Sugar
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• 2 medium Carrots*, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 stick Celery, roughly chopped
• 4 Spring onions roughly chopped
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 cup Water

Method:

• Add all ingredients, except water, to TMX and pulverise on Speed 8 for about 5-8 seconds
• Add water
• With MC in, cook for 25minutes,  Speed 3,  100ºC
• Purée by gradually increasing to Speed 9 for about 15 seconds

*Moderate Salicylates

Verdict:  When I first tasted this I thought....    >.<  ewwww!...  but then I remembered I'd just tasted a sauce! A condiment.  A flavour base.  Of course it's ewww!  But in food...  wow!  Wow wow wow!!!!!  I have used it in lots of things and every time it's great!  That's too many exclamation marks in one paragraph, isn't it.  But that's how excited I am.     !!!!!!!

Tweeks:  I am thinking of adding a bit of whiskey next time?  I promise I don't drink the stuff...  but it really does add another dimension of flavour to some otherwise dull dishes.  If you're using Sandra's original recipe at the link,  just use the same method as here and reduce the water to a half a cup.

Doubling:  I use this so frequently now that I have taken to always making twice as much.  This recipe still works very well just doubling all the ingredients and then cooking for 35 minutes.  

Where to use Sandra's No-Tomato Sauce:

• Stir a couple of spoons-full through Cannelini beans and warm in a saucepan to re-create commercial Baked Beans
• Into mince to help create a delicious Spaghetti Bolognese
• Spread onto a Pizza as a base sauce or as the only topping.  Add Tasty Cheese if you can tolerate it.
• Mix 100g Philadelphia  Cream Cheese with 40g of No-Tomato Sauce.  You have a new sandwich spread,  great for salad sandwiches or as a dip.
• Savoury Pinwheels
• I will add more as I come across them....

Chicken Balls and Noodles in Broth

Chicken Balls and Noodles in Broth

Dinner tonight needed to be something light,  for my visitors who had already been out for lunch.  But it also needed to fill the frillypantii tummies.  An idea for some sort of Asian style broth was forming...  (not that I know anything about Asian cooking)... where people could choose to go heavy on the broth or heavy on the fixings. Well, this absolutely worked a treat!  I am so pleased with this... the kids all had seconds.  I think most of the grown-ups did as well.  Tonight this served 8 people, along with some tasty bread.

Again I used the whiskey...  I am really enjoying this kick of flavour.  Now I'm going to have to go and re-write all the recipes here...  splash the whiskey around.  In the name of yummy recipes... of course.  If you add whiskey to a recipe and it works  please tell me okay??  (Like Red Dirt Girl on the Chicken and Chickpea Casserole.)  In fact,  anything you do that adds to a recipe...  please share.

Ingredients:

• 500g Chicken Mince (a little bit frozen works better in the TMX)
• 100g raw Cashews, lightly toasted in moderate oven for about 5 minutes
• 1 clove Garlic
• 1/2 tsp Citric Acid
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Parsley, chopped
• 1-2 Spring Onions, roughly sliced
• 2 litres of Water
• 2 Tabs Vegetable Stock Concentrate
• 1/4 cup Whiskey
• Green beans, chopped
• 2 Carrots*, finely diced
• 1/2 a Choko, peeled and cut into match-sticks 
• 1/4 Cabbage, finely chopped
• 1 cake of Chang's Longlife Noodles

Method:

• Fill large, heavy pot with water, add Whiskey, Vegie Stock and put onto stove to start heating.
• Into Thermomix (or food processor) add Cashews, Garlic,  Citric Acid, Salt, Parsley and Spring Onion and quickly process at Speed 6 for 5 seconds
• Add Minced Chicken and mix at Speed 4 for 10 seconds, until it is well combine.  
• Transfer to another bowl
• Using a teaspoon as a measure,  roll the chicken mixture into little balls and plop them straight into the heating stock.  
• As the chicken balls cook, finely chop and add all the vegetables
• Allow to simmer gently,  not furiously boil, until all vegies are cooked (About 10-15 minutes)
• Add cake of noodles and cover to allow them to soften,  stir with a fork to separate
• Serve in bowls with as much or as little broth as you'd like
• Use chop sticks if you'd like a slow meal 

* Moderate Salicylates

Verdict:  Failsafers and non-Failsafers alike all thought this was great!  Yay!!  So did I!!!!!

Tweeks:  Play with the vegetables, of course.  Add and stir through an egg if you'd like?  Next time,  I am thinking I might try some sort of Asian-style dumpling,  cooked on the Varoma while the soup cooks underneath.