Slow cooked Chunky Beef Chilli in the Thermomix

I have been asked a lot of detailed flavour questions regarding Crio Brü over the last little while, so whilst you can get a lot of info from the website itself, I thought I would make it clear and simple for you right here, based on flavour. If health benefits are what you are interested in, then head on over HERE. But for flavour tips as to what may suit your palate the best, stick around.

There are lots of other bloggers out there writing amazing recipes using this healthy brewed chocolate, but if you have been under a rock or are completely new to my website, you will not know that the best weight loss, appetite suppressant, yummy drink of choice is a brewed pure chocolate, which I also use as a frequent ingredient, both as a brewed liquid or straight from the pack, in my recipes and cookbooks.

The short but concise version for flavour choices are as follows;

Cavalla; Cavalla is the flagship Crio Brü flavour. The country of origin is the Ivory Coast.  It has notes of coconut and cinnamon which are other crops grown in the region. Delish with a dash of both ground cinnamon and coconut cream, maple syrup, honey or other natural sweetener of choice. Quite mild, and very fragrant. A great starting place for the newbie to Crio Brü.

Cavalla Dark Roast; Dark Roast is the Cavalla beans, just roasted a little longer until there are some lovely dark smoky overtones. Great for coffee lovers who are trying to reduce their coffee intake. Not coffee flavoured, but not as ‘chocolatey’ as the other flavours. Excellent as a Crio Latte, brewed in milk and then frothed….yum.

Coca River; The beans for Coca River are from Ecuador. The notes that are prominent are green banana, blueberries and jasmine. I would place the flavour profile of Coca River as the most chocolatey of the Crio Brü family of flavours. It is amazing on it’s own, but so much more traditionally chocolate with a little cream, and with or without sweetener of choice. I don’t want to cause a stampede to the website, but this one seems to have the best weight loss properties.

Vega Real; They say that true chocoholics love dark chocolate. So I think my passion for Vega Real must make me a true chocoholic. It originates from Dominican Republic. It has subtle notes of strawberries and citrus. I would place this into the true dark chocolate family, so if you love 60% chocolate or darker, this is the flavour for you. It is also excellent in recipes as the chocolate flavour is more apparent when it is added to other ingredients than say, Cavalla…which is mild enough not to make a statement of its own in a recipe.

Maracaibo; Venezuela is known amongst chocolatiers world wide for producing the most delicious chocolate beans on the planet, so it is no surprise to learn that this flavour has found quick popularity amongst the Crio Crazed fans out there. I am no exception and love its subtle mildness, yet depth of flavour on the palate. With notes of cherry and finishing with a nutty caramel flavour, I would only use this for drinking as it is so subtle that would be a shame to lose that by putting it into a recipe where possibly other flavours would overpower its natural yumminess!

Choc Mint; Probably only available for the winter months, this Crio Brü has premium organic peppermint tea blended with the chocolate so that when you brew it you have a lovely minty after taste. Wonderful for an after dinner treat, but certainly invigorating for first thing in the morning and a great way to start your day.

All cacao beans used in Crio Brü are grown using organic farming practices and all plantation owners are paid above fair trade prices, for those of you who need to know! There are many more varieties on their way, plus some Raw Crio Brü, which doesn’t taste like chocolate at all, rather more fruity and sweet. And don’t start me on the Crio Beans! (Cacao beans that are roasted, then dipped in a wonderful dairy free Belgian chocolate…the best healthy snack around!)

SO…to the Top Ten recipes I have on here using Crio Brü. These are based on my analytic statistics…and coming in at Number One is…

Crio Power Balls

POWER BALLS This recipe is so popular that I have actually included in my New Book, soon to be named, edited and printed…

Number Two

CRIO BRU CHOC POTS A little sneaky one, that will totally have you reaching for another one…so make them small…for your own safety!

Number Three

Mexican Chocolate with Roasted Almonds and Pink salt

MEXICAN CHOCOLATE TABLET Very rustic and very more-ish, I have it on good authority that there those amongst you who cannot resist making and re-making this little treat. If it is any comfort, there are lots of good nutrients that are not destroyed in the process of making these. (So go ahead, have another piece!)

Number Four

SLOW COOKED BEEF CHILLI Whoa! Beef and chocolate??? Don’t knock it till you try it. I get more congratulatory emails regarding this recipe than most and it is a great way to use up your already brewed and used Crio grounds, so don’t go throwing those grounds away….freeze them, and use in this savoury recipe and others…

Number Five

Crio Bru and Avocado Dip or Spread

CRIO BRU AVO SPREAD Speaking of left over grounds, try this on for size. It is very delicious, a dairy free guacamole if you like and totally more-ish.

Number Six

CRIO BRU TRUFFLES WELL….Crio Brü is pure, true chocolate! And what more fitting thing to do with chocolate than a truffle?? And wait for it…these are required…yes, required, for the next recipe. (Oh what an excuse!)

Number Seven

Oozing Choc Molten Puddingsssss

MOLTEN CHOCOLATE PUDDINGS These are totally delicious…not going to lie. If I wasn’t always testing other recipes for you…I would probably be onto these every weekend. If you have ever failed at a chocolate fondant, fail no more. This is the simple easy version….enjoy. (And don’t say I never give you anything!)

Number Eight

CRIO BRU GANACHE BANANA TART I love a good ganache, and this one is quite interesting in that instead of melting chocolate in cream, you can melt chocolate in brewed Crio and get a silky smooth ganache that is dairy free. It does take longer to set than traditional ganache, but is completely worth the wait. FYI most premium chocolate over 70% is most often dairy free…(or should be!)

Number Nine

CRIO BRU CHOCOLATE CRACKLE SLICE Remember the good ole days with Chocolate Crackles at the school canteen?? (Or at the school fete?) Well in a fit of nostalgia for my long gone school days and after seeing a recipe on Natural New Age mums website, I did this version in an effort to get my beloved Crio Brü into yet another recipe. AND it worked a treat. A real healthy treat!

Number Ten (Oh there are so many more than ten…if you hit the Crio Brü tag in the cloud you will see for yourselves!)

CRIO BRU CHERRY FRUIT ‘TOAST’ I love raisin toast, and this is my oh so much yummier take on raisin toast, with a little chocolate in the form of Crio thrown in for good measure. You will not stop with just one piece of this yeasty homely breakfast, morning tea, after school, before bedtime…and serve it with, what else? A nice warm cuppa Crio of choice.

Thus ends my little list. I am pretty sure there could have been a Top Twenty List, but maybe I’ll save that for another post…in the far distant future. In the meantime, let me know what your favourite Crio Brü flavour is. And if you haven’t already joined them on Facebook, go do it so you can keep up with the new flavours and discount offers as they happen.

Happy Brewing, and Happy mixing, and baking, and stewing, and eating…don’t forget the eating.

Moussake Stuffed Eggplant

It nearly made it into the NEW book, (as opposed to the OLD book) I just didn’t get to it in time…so lucky you. It is on here and Spin-A-Dinner app bound…hoping you are all over it! The pic is just my little Instagram account working overtime. With the light failing fast as we slip into a warm Autumn, the best shot is with my trusty iPhone and the fun filters from Instagram. If you haven’t got on board with that yet…then make sure you come follow me first. My Instagram feed is literally that. My culinary feed to all that we are eating in our house, or that I am working on in picture format. SO…now we have the social media stuff sorted, (did I mention Pinterest and of course my new email newsletter subscription?) then lets get on with the recipe. Shall we?

NEED:

2 eggplants

Salt as needed

EVOO as needed

100g Parmesan, cubed

100g mozarella, cubed

1 brown onion, halved

3 cloves garlic

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cumin

Few sprigs oregano or 2 tsp dried

2 tomatoes, quartered

400g lamb or beef mince

Bechemel Sauce;

100g butter

50g corn flour

3 eggs

2 yolks

Generous pinch pink salt flakes

400g milk

Freshly grated nutmeg to taste

DO:

Preheat oven to 200ºC and line a baking tray with paper.

Cut eggplants in half, and remove flesh from centre, forming a hollowed out ‘boat’ with about a 2 cm perimeter. Salt the eggplants well, as well as the eggplant removed from the centre and allow to drain in a colander for about 10-20 minutes.

Rinse and pat dry with a paper towel and place onto prepared tray. Drizzle ‘boats’ with EVOO and roast about 10 minutes. Roughly cube the eggplant from the centre.

Meanwhile make the filling.

Place cheeses into Thermo bowl and mill 10 sec/speed 10. Remove from bowl and set aside.

Place onion, garlic, cinnamon, cumin, oregano, and a little EVOO into Thermo bowl and chop 3 sec/speed 6. Saute 5 min/Varoma/speed 1.

Add tomatoes, meat and cubed eggplant. Cook 10 min/100ºC/Reverse/speed 2.

Remove from bowl.

To make bechemel, place all ingredients into Thermo bowl and cook 8 min/80ºC/speed 4.

Add half the cheese and stir 20 sec/speed 4.

Fill eggplants with meat mixture. Top with bechemel and finish with the grated cheese, divided equally between each. Return to oven for 20 minutes until well cooked and cheese sauce is browned and bubbling.

Serve with salad.

If you wanted to extend this recipe to feed more, just add a half eggplant per person. The meat will stretch with the eggplant, so no need to add more.

Apple and Pear Pie

In little ole Perth we have just had the hottest April on record or something, so Autumn and comfort foods do seem a long way away…but I was craving an apple pie and although I have been blogging for a really long time…(long time!!) I have never created an apple pie recipe. So although not strictly apple, this is my version. A little relief in the chocolate landscape that is my usual dessert fare. It was light and delicious, and frankly, we wished that I had made two! (Let that be a warning to you!)

Perhaps trot this one out for Mothers Day? Hoping you all have ordered your For Food’s Sake in good time for delivery to yourself, your mum, your aunty or your sis before the big day. Hope you have a lovely one. (And that this pie makes itself!)

NEED:

800g combo of apples, pears, peeled and thickly sliced

100g raw sugar

1 tsp Heilala vanilla bean paste

1 tsp freshly ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp cardamom seeds

1 pack commercial phyllo pastry, thawed

Salted butter as needed, melted (at least 150g)

A few walnuts or pecans, shelled

1-3 tbsp raw or rapadura sugar

DO:

Place apples, pears, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and cardamom into Thermo bowl and cook 20 min/100ºC/Reverse/speed spoon.

Allow cooked mixture to cool completely before proceeding with recipe.

Preheat oven to 200ºc.

Butter a large pie dish of choice.

Prepare phyllo pastry by unrolling on a slightly moist tea towel, keeping pastry covered as you work with it.

Quickly brush first sheet with some melted butter and lay it across the pie dish. Repeat at least 10 times, turning the pastry as you lay it on top so that the edges of the pie dish are getting covered bit by bit. You need enough pastry on the bottom of the pie to support the filling.

Tip the cooled filling into the pastry and fold the layers of pastry over the filling to form a parcel. If you need to patch any holes with additional pastry, do so, using plenty of butter. Brush the whole thing with butter and sprinkle with a few nuts of choice, and the sugar.

Bake 20-25 minutes until pastry is golden and puffed.

Serve hot with cream, mascarpone or ice cream.

Fitting News

NAOMI FOGLIANI IS THE WINNER OF THE NEW BOOK AS DESCRIBED IN THIS POST (APRIL 29th 2013)

Hey there peeps…

You may or may not have joined me on Facebook, and just quietly, although there are over 17,000 ‘likes’ on my page, it is meaningless to me unless I am getting you across to here, where the action is. Recipes, classes, new products, books, ideas, laughs…all for the asking, right here on my blog. So, in an effort to no longer rely on Facebook, which changes its rules of engagement continually, we are trying to get you as blog subscribers and followers of mine on other media, to get all jiggy with our new newsy newsletter subscription.

In fact we are so excited about it, that I am offering a copy of my as yet unpublished new book to a randomly drawn winner from amongst all subscribers up until Sunday night April 28th 2013. The prize of course will not be awarded until stock of the book arrives, so a bit of a wait…but you have waited patiently so far, so hang in there!

In return for your subscription I take the following pledge;

You will not get any unsolicited newsletters from me that…

A) Claim that I am the child of a deceased African Leader who has millions locked away in some remote secret bank account and that you alone can be the beneficiary of this fortune if you will help me by providing your bank details urgently within the next 24 hours. (I will always use correct grammer and spelling if I come into any money that I need help with getting at!)

B) You that you are the winner of a Worldwide International Lottery unless you really are, and unless you are prepared to share it with me.

C) Try and sell you (and here I apologise to those of you who wish I would) any kind of enlargement of any glands, body parts or brain cells that you may so desire.

D) Offer you employment in the form of sitting at home on the computer whilst you earn at least $500 per hour like thousands of other mums around the world apparently do!

SO I think I have that covered…My Newsy Newsletter will be just that. News, about what is happening in my little world. Not that exciting on most occasions, but always some great recipes and of course pre announcement of stuff that is important to the Thermo Mixing Community, like classes, and book launches etc. Are you in?? Not yet? Get on over to THIS LINK now and join us immediately. I will announce the winner on Facebook, Twitter and at the top of this post…you gotta be in it to win it!

 

Huevos Rancheros

This has absolutely no Thermomix involved…but I put this instagram pic up on Facebook and was subsequently inundated with requests for the recipe…so here it is. Totally delicious and totally easy, especially if you have the Kleenmaid Induction cooktop.

SO…picture this. Monday night, new book shoot is completely over and I have put the fridge and my food budget on a diet. No new food until it is all gone and used up and cleaned out…but hungry myself, with hungry teenage man/child hovering, hoping for something delicious. What to do?

I always have eggs. That’s a given. I manage to find chorizo sausage, yellow capsicum, orange capsicum, spring onions, red onion, I have left over confit garlic (new book recipe) and heaps of tomatoes…and a jar of the most amazing sweet chilli sauce ever from Hogans. If you are not sure about that brand of chilli sauces, then it is time you had a look. Completely amazing and the very best and Perth based…so possibly hard to ‘sauce’ outside of Western Australia. (Hope you are not gagging on that gag!) And naturally I always have a constant supply of Crio Bru.

And I also have some buffalo mozarella…yum.

Make sure you have a good non stick fry pan handy…Ready Steady Cook.

NEED:
2 red onions, sliced and diced

3-4 cloves garlic, crushed (confit if you have it handy!!)

2-3 chorizo sausages, sliced

2 capsicums, any colour, diced

500g roma tomatoes, diced

Some sweet chilli sauce

1-2 eggs per person

2-3 tbsp Crio Bru granules(optional)

1 buffalo mozzarella, torn or

2-3 bocconcini, torn

2 spring onions, sliced

Fresh coriander (optional)

Lime wedges

DO:

Place your frypan on a medium heat (Induction 6) to heat up for about 10 minutes while you dice and slice. If you would like to use your very efficient thermo at this point, please do so, but the chunkiness of hand cut is very iconically part of this dish.

Place onion, garlic and chorizo into the pan and fry, with lid on for about 10 minutes without increasing the heat. This will help render the oil from the sausage.

Add capsicums and tomatoes and a little of the chilli sauce. Cook, covered for about 15 minutes until well reduced and vegetables are quite soft.

Crack an egg per person into the bubbling pan and cover. Cook until the egg whites are starting to turn white.

Sprinkle the Crio Bru granules across the top at this point.

Just before serving, (when eggs are well cooked) garnish with the cheese, additional hot chilli sauce,  spring onions and coriander. Serve in bowls, with thick slices of toast for mopping up all the juices and plenty of lime wedges….there you have it. Simple breakfast, or weeknight supper. No mess, no fuss, no Thermomix. (I do cook with fire occasionally as well!)

.

Blue Cheese Salad Dressing

I have been completely off the radar with the production of my new book which I am told, should be out and about as soon as Father’s Day 2013…YAY. I am really excited about the pics, you are going to LOVE them…and hopefully the recipes as well of course! Lucky you…this is a recipe that was going to appear in the book, but then, we just had too much material. SO….here it is! In the meantime, if you just cannot wait for the #newbook go check out some of the old books at http://tenina.com/store. You won’t be disappointed. Promise.

Again, the good ole days beckon when I taste this; Known as Roquefort dressing in the USA (normally) as a reference to the cheese used, you could hardly call this Gorgonzola dressing…unless you really wanted to! So Blue Cheese dressing it is. Give me a wedge of Cos lettuce and a dollop of dressing…and you could say I am happy as a clam, though how happy clams are, I am still unsure.

NEED:

2-3 spring onions,

Zest 1 lemon, finely grated

Generous pinch Murray River pink salt flakes

Generous pinch cracked black pepper

50g sour cream

50g Greek yoghurt

40g lemon juice, fresh

20g red wine vinegar

150g Gorgonzola, or Stilton or Blue Castello, in pieces

DO:

Place spring onions, lemon zest, salt and pepper into Thermo bowl and chop 2 sec/speed 7.

Add sour cream, yoghurt, lemon juice and vinegar and blend 6 sec/speed 6.

Add cheese of choice and blend 4 sec/speed 4 for a chunky consistency.

To make a smooth dressing blend 10 sec/speed 8.

Serve as needed on salad or wedges of lettuce with a few chives snipped over as a garnish.

Little egg garden…hop a long bunny!

I have been frantic, AND I have cut my finger, so suddenly my typing is all out of whack…Seriously…who knew such a little thing could create so many problems??

I have been meaning to do my own version of hot cross buns for ages…I mean basically there aren’t a lot of variants that can make a huge difference…so hot cross bunnies it is!

(Of course Crio Bru is bound to make a showing as well.)

Hope you all have a safe and wonderful Easter…I am about to go underground with the book shoot for best seller number two! Watch this space. If you don’t have For Food’s Sake yet, (firstly; why not?) we have new stock in store…go check it out. You won’t be disappointed.  I am also about to participate in a HUGE giveaway through my Facebook page. Please go and join me there for the fun and the prizes. See you on the other side of a whole new book!

Hoppy Easter!

NEED:

30g fresh yeast or 2 sachets dried

250g milk

50g sugar

70g butter

Zest each 1 orange, lime and lemon, finely grated

30g Crio Bru granules, flavour of choice

1 tsp each ground cinnamon, nutmeg,  ginger

Pinch ground cloves

1 egg

500g bakers flour

Pinch Murray River pink salt flakes

100g dried cherries or craisins

200g chocolate chips

Heilala vanilla bean syrup or pure maple syrup to glaze

Cross:

Use icing or melted white chocolate

Use a small marshmallow for the tail

DO:

Place yeast, milk, sugar and butter into Thermo bowl and warm 2 min/37ºC/speed 1. Allow to sit in bowl for 10 minutes or until frothing.

Add zests, Crio Bru, spices, egg, flour and salt and blend 15 sec/speed 6. Knead 3 min/Interval. Leave in Thermo bowl for around 10 minutes.

Knead 2 min/Interval. Add cherries and chocolate and blend 15 sec/speed 6. Scrape out of bowl onto floured Silpat mat and push together using your spatula into a nice round. Allow to double in size.

Preheat oven to 190ºC and line a baking tray with paper.

Roll out your bunnies…they need to be uniform oval shaped with no choc chips or cherries around the face part…(this was learnt through error, no trial, just error!)

Cut ears with scissors, laying the scissors back across the dough as you snip. Re roll and re cut until you are happy you have something similar to the picture you can find here! (Bunny buns) This is harder than it looks and as you can see from my pic, I didn’t get it too well.

Bake 10 minutes. Brush with either vanilla or maple syrup while still hot. Stick your bunny tail on with the syrup or just mark the tail with an x when the bunnies are cold…Place in a little garden of Persian fairy floss and eggs and you have a great edible centre piece…

OR cut them half after Good Friday, place bottom halves in an ovenproof dish, fill with raspberries, place other halves on top. Mix up a custard of 4 eggs, 500g milk, 2 tsp Heilala vanilla bean paste and pour over. Throw a few raspberries on top of that. Bake in a slow oven (160ºC) until custard is just wobbly. Serve with lashings of cream or ice cream…or both. Perfect Easter Sunday dessert.

Crio Bru and Heilala Vanilla Milk Shake

I love getting little foodie pressies in the mail and recently Heilala Vanilla sent me a huge bottle of their wonderful Vanilla Bean Syrup to try out. AMAZING! Such a ‘whack it in your face’ hit of vanilla sweetness that I found myself overdosing the first few times I used it. I have it down to a fine art now, all good. I am totally LOVING it in my normal everyday morning CrioBru as a sweetener. Just a drop mind…As it happens we have a Milkshake maker to give away as well…so what is the best combo for milkshakes that I could come up with?

Well, it had to be a Crio Bru/Heilala marriage made in heaven…so get organised and get shaking! (For details on the competition to win both a bottle of Heilala Vanilla Bean Syrup and the Breville Milkshake Maker, head on over to Facebook and get clicking!)

OH, AND, Hoppy Easter…hopping to get another recipe up here, but not eggsactly got lots of time…so don’t hold your breath…just eat chocolate.

Crio Bru Concentrate

NEED:

75g Crio Bru granules, flavour of choice, (but can I recommend Maracaibo, the exotic and most beautiful premium new flavour from Venezuela?? My absolute new favorite.)

400g water

1 tsp Heilala vanilla bean paste

Pinch Murray River pink salt flakes

DO:

Place all ingredients into Thermo bowl and brew 10 min/90ºC/speed 2. Cool in Thermo bowl and then strain to remove solids. (Reserve solids for another use, put onto your garden; veggies love it, or use as a body scrub, use in brownies, as an ice cream addition, or freeze into ice cube trays for later use in smoothies, ragus, chillies etc).

Cool concentrate completely before making shake.

To make shake, drizzle a little vanilla syrup around a glass and place a scoop of ice cream in glass as well.

Place milk, and Crio Bru concentrate into milkshake maker and/or Thermo and froth until well blended. Pour over ice cream and vanilla syrup.

Top with a little drizzle of the Crio Bru Concentrate just to tone down the sweetness. THE most gourmet milkshake around…What was your fave milkshake flavour as a kid?? (Mine was actually spearmint…the bright green kind!!)

Chili and Pumpkin Seed Pesto on Caprese Salad

I am on the fly…(nothing new there right?) Sunday night, the kids have come, eaten and gone. The dishwasher is going, the kitchen is clean, another big week is looming and I haven’t written up a recipe for the blog in 2 weeks. It doesn’t seem to get any less busy around here, despite less chickdees under my roof…sigh…

This recipe is a keeper, totally delish and easy. Feel free to try the pesto on anything else, or as a dip or sandwich filling, salad dressing etc. Totes delish. I am in full tilt testing mode as we shoot the new book pics starting April 8th, a deadline that is hurtling towards me like a meteor. So fingers crossed, this recipe will tide you over, though I do have a bunch of great giveaways coming up, one amazing prize that you will all want…so make sure you connect on Facebook and then stay tuned…

In the meantime, give this a go!

Pesto

NEED:

60g each pepitas and pine nuts

100g Parmesan, cubed

2 cloves garlic

1/2 red chili, seeds optional

Generous pinch Murray River pink salt flakes

Handful basil leaves

Handful rocket leaves

1 tsp cayenne pepper

Juice 1 lemon

100g EVOO

DO:

Toast seeds and pine nuts in a dry fry pan on Induction 10, tossing frequently, until fragrant and golden. Set aside to cool.

Place Parmesan, garlic, chili and salt into Thermo bowl and mill 10 sec/speed 10.

Add remaining ingredients, including nuts and blend 10 sec/speed 8. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. (More salt or lemon juice)

Serve over sliced tomatoes, baby bocconccini and basil leaves. DIVINE.

Dutch Cumin and Gruyere Coleslaw

It is top secret…the name of my new book that is. But this recipe fits the profile of the books direction perfectly. Talk about fast…talk about yummy…talk about want to make it again…Leave it at that shall we? Not sure if this will make the cut or not. Still fine tuning the recipe list and just as with For Foods Sake, far more content than required, which means you guys win. The left overs will end up on here!

NEED:

1 tbsp cumin seeds

20g rice wine or white wine vinegar

60g Cobram Estate EVOO

2 tsp Dijon mustard

Generous pinch Murray River pink salt flakes

Pinch freshly cracked black pepper

400g green cabbage in chunks

50-60g shaved Gruyere cheese

1 spring onion, sliced on the angle

DO:

Place cumin seeds into dry pan and toast until fragrant on high heat. Set aside.

Place vinegar, EVOO, mustard, salt and pepper into Thermo bowl and blend 5 sec/speed 10.

Place cabbage and toasted cumin into Thermo bowl and chop 4 sec/speed 4. Place into serving bowl. Top with cheese and spring onion and just toss gently.

Pretty Simple right? Serve.