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Steaming

Main Meal/ Steaming/ Thermomix

Taiwanese Rice Balls

This is my mum’s recipe for Taiwanese Rice Balls! These are soooo much easier than it looks and look AMAZE-BALLS!!!

These are great to eat with baby cos lettuce leaves as a healthy main meal, can also be served as an impressive entree, a cocktail style party food, and can also make for a very impressive lunchbox meal! 

Water chestnuts can be bought from Coles/Woolies – usually in a 230 gram tin. I have put 100 grams in the list of ingredients which is approximately half of the tin (and freeze the other half for the next time you make these).

Fish paste can be bought from your local Chinese grocery shop – scroll down to the bottom of this page for a photo of the fish paste used. You can also make your own with certain types of fish – here is a good Thermomix recipe to make your own fish paste (Steps 1 to 3 and use 330 grams for this recipe).

These rice balls taste like very moist Chinese meat balls usually served with noodle soup, with a little bit of crunch from the water chestnuts, and added texture from the rice coating. They are delicious served warm but also taste fantastic at room temp or cold from the fridge. They are great served with a dipping sauce i.e sweet chilli sauce.

 
 
Soak rice in water for a minimum 1 hour
 
Strain rice and lightly pat dry with a paper towel
 
 
 Add water chestnuts and garlic in bowl
 
Blitz 3 seconds/Speed 5
 
 Add pork mince, fish paste and soy sauce
Mix 50 seconds/Speed 9
 
Roll mince mixture into teaspoon sized balls…
 
…and roll these balls in the rice. 
 
 
Place rice balls in the two levels of the Varoma steaming tray. 
 
 
Wash bowl and fill with 1200 grams water
 
Place Varoma steaming tray into position and
Steam – 20 minutes/Varoma/Speed 4
  
 
 
 
 
Serving suggestion with cos lettuce
 
Fish Paste

Taiwanese Rice Balls

Print Recipe

Ingredients

  • 100 grams long grain rice (i.e basmati, jasmine)
  • 100 grams water chestnuts
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 500 grams pork mince
  • 330 grams fish paste (1 packet)
  • 50 grams soy sauce

Instructions

1

Soak rice in water for a minimum 1 hour. Strain rice and lightly pat dry with a paper towel.

2

Add water chestnuts and garlic in bowl - blitz 3 seconds/Speed 5.

3

Add pork mince, fish paste and soy sauce - mix 50 seconds/Speed 9.

4

Roll mince mixture into teaspoon sized balls, and roll these balls in the rice. Place rice balls in the two levels of the Varoma steaming tray.

5

Wash bowl and fill with 1200 grams water. Place Varoma steaming tray into position - steam 20 minutes/Varoma/Speed 4.

June 5, 2016 By
0
Cake/ Steaming/ Thermomix

Steamed Sponge Cake (Chinese Ma Lai Goa)

With my Chinese Malaysian heritage, I grew up with this steamed sponge cake! It’s my dad’s all time favourite, and a lot of Yum Cha places serve this as a dessert too! With 10 seconds to mix, and 25 minutes to steam – this is just soooo easy to make at home!

I’ve always wanted to steam a cake with the Thermomix so thought I would try off with this! It has a light sweet caramel flavour and is nice and moist from being steamed. It is light and ‘bouncy’ and it isn’t as crumbly as baked sponge cakes.

A lot of the recipes I’ve seen are with have ingredients which are not very common in Australia, and have evaporated milk (with an amount that would use up only a portion of a tin – and I haaaate having half a tin of stuff leftover!). Another uncommon ingredient is double action baking powder, which I haven’t been able to find in shops in Sydney, and I have only been able to find online so I have just used normal baking powder (McKenzie’s brand).

I have adapted and converted a Steamed Sponge Cake recipe from The Honk Kong Cookery with ingredients that I have at home, and so it is easily made in the Thermomix!

The cooking time is based on 8 x silicon Dariole moulds from Alyce Alexandra. You could also use ramekins or silicon cupcake moulds instead.

This is great eaten fresh, kept in the fridge and eaten cold (or warmed up in the microwave), and also can be frozen and defrosted nicely.

 

 
Add all ingredients into bowl
 
 Mix 10 seconds/Speed 5
 
Pour mixture into 8 x silicon moulds, top with sultanas, and place into Varoma steaming tray.
 
 
Wash out bowl, and add 1 Litre of water.
 
Place the Varoma steaming tray in position – steam 25 minutes/Varoma/Speed 3.
 
Take the lid off to cool for a few minutes, then take the cakes out of the mould to cool further…
 
 
..or to eat!
 

Steamed Sponge Cake (Chinese Ma Lai Goa)

Print Recipe

Ingredients

  • 160 grams plain flour
  • 100 grams brown sugar
  • 90 grams milk
  • 20 grams custard powder
  • 40 grams oil (light tasting, I use Rice Bran oil)
  • 2 eggs
  • 20 grams baking powder
  • Handful of sultanas to top

Instructions

1

Add all ingredients into bowl - mix 10 seconds/Speed 5.

2

Pour mixture into 8 x silicon moulds, top with sultanas, and place into Varoma steaming tray.

3

Wash out bowl, and add 1 Litre of water.

4

Place the Varoma steaming tray in position - steam 25 minutes/Varoma/Speed 3.

5

Take the lid off to cool for a few minutes, then take the cakes out of the mould to cool further (...or to eat!).

May 15, 2016 By
1
Healthy/ Steaming/ Thermomix

The Body Building All-In-One Meal (aka. The ‘Zac Efron’ Diet)

So…my husband has decided that his body goal now is to look like Zac Efron in his latest Baywatch photos!!! 🙂 🙂 …yep…don’t see me complaining there!! 🙂 🙂 My husband is generally very fit, but after the boys were born didn’t get much time to work out. Now that they are a little older, he’s hitting the gym again and he asked me to prepare a high protein diet with lots and lots of vegetables to get his body building body back!

 
Zac Efron … yes please! 
(picture from Google images)

On Twitter, Zac Efron wrote that his diet consisted of:

“9 days of absolutely zero carbs & sugar. Only organic grass fed/free range protein and organic leafy greens.”

I wanted to make up easy to heat up containers to keep in the freezer so my husband can just take it out and quickly heat up (as he tells me that body builders are supposed to eat many meals a day to keep their metabolism up!). So, the leafy greens are out as that would need to be prepared freshly each meal (and I’m not always around to be his personal chef!), plus I wanted to use up all the vegetables I had in the fridge (cauliflower, brussel sprouts, corn and carrots). Also, I would have liked to use all chicken breast (I’ll use them in my next lot!), but I wanted to use up the chicken I had in the freezer, so used some drumsticks and chicken thigh fillets. I added flavour to the chicken and vegetables by steaming them along with soy sauce and garlic.

The Body Building All-In-One Meal (aka. The ‘Zac Efron’ Diet)
 
Add water, soy sauce and garlic
 
Place chicken pieces in the 2 levels in the Varoma steaming trays
Cook 15 minutes/Varoma/Speed 4

Place mixed vegetables in the steaming basket and among the chicken pieces
Cook 20 minutes/Varoma/Speed 4

 

 
Distribute between 8 plastic containers
 
Cover the containers with lids and place in fridge/freezer

The Body Building All-In-One Meal (aka. The 'Zac Efron' Diet)

Print Recipe
Serves: 8

Ingredients

  • 1200 grams Water
  • 20 grams Soy Sauce
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 300 grams Chicken Breast (or any other pieces of chicken you have...the breast is the leanest part though)
  • Mixed Vegetables (i.e. Corn, Carrot, Brussel Sprouts, Beans, Brocolli - cut into smaller bite sized pieces)

Instructions

1

Add the water, soy sauce and garlic in the bowl.

2

Place the chicken pieces in the 2 levels of the Varoma steaming tray.

3

Cook 15 minutes/Varoma/Speed 4.

4

Add the mixed vegetables in the steaming basket, and among the chicken in the Varoma steaming trays.

5

Cook a further 20 minutes/Varoma/Speed 4.

6

Distribute evenly between 8 plastic containers, and let it cool down.

7

Cover the containers with lids and place in the fridge/freezer.



March 14, 2016 By
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