Zesty Lime Chicken with Bean Salad, Brazilian Cheese Bread and Pikelets!

Challenge # 2 Cookbook Challenge - Citrus

I am starting to fall into "normal usage" now with the Thermomix.  The burning question that I had after  seeing the demonstration was "how much am I really going to use it?  I mean I had all these appliances already - the food processor, the mix master, then blender - the TM did all this (and more) - but was I really going to use it more??  I would often baulk at using the appliances as it seemed too hard to get them out, then have to clean them afterwards.

When it first arrived, although a little scared, I went into a little bit of a TM frenzy.  Which I see after trawling through many TM blogs, is very, very normal.  I was making things left, right and centre - what was I going to do with all this food??

Well, as I have said, I have settled down to normalcy now (well sort of).

I will tell you though that I am using it at least 3-4 times per day.

In the past I would have used a chopping board and knife to chop herbs, or garlic, I would have used a whisk to make pikelets etc. etc - but I am now finding that because the TM is on the bench (and it is so easy to use and clean) that I use it for everything!  I must admit along with the frenzied use I was a little anal about cleaning it - but that too has calmed down - I now know that all it really needs to clean it is a whizz around with a little hot water and some detergent (I am glad because the number of times I was pulling it apart to clean it - I thought - this thing is not going to last at this rate!!!)

Enough of all that - so what did I actually make yesterday.

I started off the day making a marinade for the chicken we were having that night.

Zesty Lime Chicken
adapted from a recipe found in Good Taste Magazine - January edition

Serves 4-6

10 chicken thighs
4tbs brown sugar
4 tsp Nandos Brand Hot Peri-Peri Sauce
4 cloves crushed garlic
zest of 1 lime
2tbs olive oil

To Serve:
Pesto Dip (such as Cashew and Spinach)

I used my home made basil pesto dip, to which I added a small amount of olive oil to thin it a little)
You could use any commercially prepared pesto type dip.


Into the bowl of the TM place the unpeeled garlic cloves (you just need to remove the hard ends).  Process  for 4 - 6 seconds on reverse speed.  Remove the skins.  Into the TM bowl place the thinly peeled pieces of lime skin (make sure you don't get too much pith!).

Process for 4 seconds on speed 7.  Scrape down the bowl, and repeat until the rind is finely grated.

Remove the rind and garlic, place in a large ziploc bag along with the peri peri sauce, brown sugar and oil.  Mix well, then add the chicken pieces.

Allow to marinate for at least 1 hour, preferably longer.



For afternoon tea I made "The Darlings" some pikelets.

Pikelets
Adapted from Everyday Cooking for Every Family

Makes approx 16

20g butter
140g self raising flour
pinch salt
1/4 tsp bi carb soda
1 1/2 MC (measuring cups) buttermilk - approx 1/2 cup
1 egg

Place butter into TM bowl and melt for 40 seconds at 50C on speed 4.

Add remainder of ingredients into bowl.  Mix for 30 seconds on speed 5 until smooth.

Heat a lightly greased frypan over medium heat.  Place dessertspoon full amounts into the hot frypan.  Cook until bubbled, and then turn over to cook other side.

Serve with butter and jam.

As dinnertime approached it was time to prepare the bean salad that I was serving alongside the chicken.

Bean Salad
adapted from a recipe found in Good Taste Magazine - January edition

2 x 440g cans five bean mix, drained and rinsed
2 green shallots, cut into 5 cm pieces
10g (1/2 bunch) coriander
juice of 1 lime
15g (1tbs) olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
200g cherry tomatoes (or variety of tomatoes from Tomato medley pack)
Salad greens for serving

Into the bowl of the TM place the shallots and coriander.

Process for 3 seconds on speed 7.

Add the lime (the one you removed the skin from before), cut into quarters.

Process for 3 seconds on speed 7.

Add the olive oil and salt and pepper, blend for 2 seconds on speed 4 to combine.

Toss this mixture through the bean mix.

When ready to serve add halved cherry tomatoes, and mix through.



Recently Tammi from Insatiable Munchies made a recipe for Brazilian Cheese Bread.  It looked really interesting, but not being one for making a recipe similar to choux pastry, I went in search of other recipes that didn't require cooking.  I found a recipe that looked really easy at Rasa Malaysia.

I looked for tapioca flour at the local supermarket, and came to the conclusion that I could make it just as easily from scratch using tapioca seeds and milling them myself.  This turned out to be a much cheaper option too.  If you have a coffee grinder you can achieve the same results!.

Brazilian Cheese Bread (Pao de-Queijo)
Adapted from recipe found at Rasa Malaysia
Makes approx 36

1 egg, at room temperature
70g (1/3 cup) olive oil
160g (2/3 cup) milk *
320g (1 1/2 cups) tapioca flour **
70g (1/2) cup cheese (combination of parmesan and mozzarella)
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 200C.

Grease mini muffin pans very well with olive oil.

Into the bowl of the TM place the seed tapioca.  Process for 30 seconds on speed 9.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and repeat.

Place all remaining ingredients in the bowl process for 30 seconds on speed 5, scrape down the bowl and repeat.  *At this point I found the mixture a little too thick, so with the motor still running I added more milk until the consistency was a little thinner - I added probably up to another 2/3 cup of milk - the consistency was still quite thick - but I could semi pour it into the moulds.

Place the mixture into the prepared tins, and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.  You may need to rotate the tins half way during baking to ensure even baking of all the bread.

Remove from tins and serve warm.

** Note a 375g bag of tapioca seeds will yield approximately 2 cups of tapioca flour.


















While the bread is baking in the oven, it is time to cook the chicken.

Preheat BBQ to medium high heat.  Cook the chicken pieces for 4-5 minutes each side, or until cooked thorough.  Be careful - because of the high fat and sugar content of the chicken it will flare up quite a lot.

To serve the chicken place a small amount of salad green on a serving plate.  Top with the bean salad, then 1-2 pieces of chicken.  To top the chicken a dollop of pesto dip.

This was a lovely light, sweet, zesty dish.

So there you have a day in my kitchen and how I used my Thermomix!!