TherMe: Pasta with Home-made Tomato Sauce

Adapted from the Tomato Sauce recipe in 'Thermomix The Basic Cook Book'

I've cooked the original tomato sauce as a base for pizzas numerous times & its delish! Was making another batch so decided to prep extra for our pasta dinner.

Ingredients (serves 1 toddler + 2 adults):

150g onions, peeled & halved

1 clove of garlic

60g of organic extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

1kg of fresh cherry tomatoes

1 1/4 tsp of dried basil 

1 1/4 tsp of organic raw sugar

1/2 tsp of pink Himalayan salt

250g of minced pork

150g (pre-cooked) of desired pasta, cooked to al-dente then rinse lightly with room temp water

50g of frozen organic peas

Directions:

1. Add in onions, garlic & EVOO into Thermomix mixing bowl then chop 5s / Speed 5 followed by sauté 7mins / 120°C / Speed 1.

2. Add tomatoes, basil, sugar & salt then chop 15s / Speed 5.

3. Cook 30mins / 100°C / Speed 2. Keep half for future usage (base for pizzas, vegs etc).

4. Pour in minced pork, cooked pasta & peas then cook 3mins / 100°C / Reverse / Speed 1.

For non-Thermomix readers, you can still tweak the prepaprtions by either chopping the ingredients manually or using a normal blender. Follow the steps but simmer over low heat in a wok or pot on the stove. Stir occasionally & when sauce has thickened, stir more frequently to prevent it from getting burnt.

It's been awhile since I cooked tomato-based pasta for BB so he kinda finished his portion in record time..lolz! A keeper for sure <3 

Before having my TherMe, I used to prep the pasta sauce in my Avent Steamer & Blender. Due to size constraints, I'm unable to do larger quantities. Furthermore, this definitely tastes more fragrant due to the sautéing of ingredients as compared to just plain steaming.

One Pan Whole Wheat Spaghetti in Homemade Creamy Carbonara Sauce

What would you do when you've got a craving for creamy sauce pasta but yet there's no cream at home? The answer is "Do-It-Yourself!" & that's exactly what I did >.~ 

Ingredients (serves 1 toddler & 1 adult):

150g of organic sliced beef

5 mini portobello mushrooms, sliced

4 small red onions, sliced

1 garlic, sliced

1 big Japanese cucumber, diced

150g of Alce Nero organic whole wheat spaghetti

300ml of fresh milk

300ml of water

2 tbsps of organic extra virgin coconut oil (EVCO)

1/8 teaspoon of dried basil

1/8 teaspoon of dried oregano

1/8 teaspoon of freshly grounded black pepper

2 kampong eggs

4 tbsps of frozen self grated organic cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Heat up a pan & add VCO followed by beef slices to stir fry till they brown then scoop them out.

2. Add in the garlic. Once it starts to brown, add in the onions & stir fry with medium fire till they soften slightly.

3. Next, pour in mushrooms, basil, oregano & pepper. Stir-fry till the mushrooms are shrivelled & 'sweat', then pour in the milk & water.

4. Put in the pasta once the mixture start to boil & top with cucumbers.

5. Simmer for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally till pasta is almost cooked.

6. Break the eggs, top with cheese then switch off the fire immediately. The remaining heat will cook the eggs. 

7. Plate the pasta, top with beef slices & some more cheese. Serve warm.

The end product? Even though the recipe uses milk instead of cream, it tastes almost exactly like the usual cream sauce pasta which I usually cook, but yet healthier. Cucumber seems like an odd ingredient in pasta but it happens to be one of the few vegetables that BB likes. He actually asked me to cut some for him to munch on when he saw me take it out from the fridge..lolz! You'll be pleasantly surprised to find that it complements a cream based sauce as its light flavour helps to combat against the richness of the sauce. 

Mummies or Daddies who've been following my blog, did you also notice something different in this recipe? Yes, you're right! To save time, I'm actually cooking the pasta in the sauce itself instead of cooking it separately. Just have to add extra water to your usual sauce (tomato, mushroom etc) so that by the time your pasta is cooked, the sauce would have reduced to a nice, thick sauce.

Beneficial Combination:

Garlic + Onion = Detoxification & anti-cancer effects

Egg + Milk =  Enhance the brain's memory function

Organic Penne in Creamy Pork with Portobello Mushrooms Sauce

After we came home from our second trip to the library today, I needed to whip up a quick luncheon & I knew just what to cook as I've been having this craving since the bottle of Bulla cream has been siitting in my fridge...hee! I had wanted to prepare this dish much earlier, however, due to unforseen circumstances (almost an entire pack of shiitake mushrooms turned mouldy), I wasn't able to cook it last week :(

Ingredients (serve 1 toddler & 1 adult):

100g of Alce Nero Organic Penne Rigate

100g of Australia corn fed minced pork

6 medium-sized portobello mushrooms, sliced

1 medium-sized purple onion, diced

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

150ml of Bulla Thickened Cream (red label as shown in picture below)

100ml of pasta water

1 big handful of frozen peas

3 tbsps (sauce) + 1 tbsp (topping) of shredded organic cheddar cheese

Some freshly ground black pepper

Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

Directions:

1. Bring water to boil for pasta & cook in simmering water till it's almost cooked.

2. Simultaneously, heat up some EVOO in a pan then add garlic. When it starts to brown, add in the onion followed by mushrooms & black pepper then sauté till the mushrooms start to shrivel & 'sweat'. 

3. Add in the pork to stirfry then pour the cream & pasta water into the pan & mix well.

4. As soon as pasta is ready, add the pasta, peas & cheese to the pan. Toss around to evenly coat the pasta with the sauce & let it simmer a while for the pasta to absorb the goodness.

5. Top with more cheese & serve immediately.

Burp! Absolutely satisfying meal but super fattening. Well, I'm sure it's alright since we don't eat cream everyday, not even once a month in fact. &, I know most people would tell me that I can afford to put on some extra kilos..lolz! This is so good that I think I'm going to tweak the recipe slightly to make a creamy mushroom soup one of these days. Thus, do stay tuned & happie grubbing!

Beneficial Combinations:

Garlic + Onion = Detoxification & anti-cancer effects

Garlic + Pork = Eliminate fatigue, improve attention & help enhance immunity

Peas + Pork = Diuretic (promotes the production of urine), stop diarrhoea & aid digestion

Pepper + Pork = Favorable for digestion & absorption of nutrients

Salmon with Pasta in Creamy Broccoli & Organic Potato Sauce

An interesting article which was shared by another mummy revealed that the leaves & stalk of broccoli are actually more nutritious than the florets. Thus, I decided to include them in my dish this time round.

Ingredients (serve 1 toddler & 1 adult):

100g of Alce Nero Organic Spaghettini

100g of salmon

100g of broccoli including leaves & stalk

1 glove of garlic, halved

1 purple onion, quartered 

4 small organic potatoes, quartered

1 sprig of rosemary, stalk removed (can replace with 1/8 tsp of dried rosemary)

4 tbsps (sauce) + 2 tbsps (topping) of organic cheddar cheese

1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

Some pasta water

Directions:

1. Cook pasta in a pot of simmering water till al dente. Drain & leave aside, leaving one cup of pasta water.

2. Steam the remaining ingredients, except broccoli & cheese, for 10 minutes (I'm using my Avent Combined Steamer & Blender).

3. Add in the broccoli & steam for another 5 minutes. Remove salmon & some broccoli florets, add in 4 tbsps of cheddar cheese then blend. Stir in 1 tbsp of pasta water at a time till you get the desired consistency. Pour over cooked pasta, top with remaining cheese & EVOO & serve warm.

Simple, nutritious & yummy too!

Beneficial Combinations:

Garlic + Onion = Detoxification & anti-cancer effects

Pork & Creamy Tomato Spaghettini

Woohooooo! I finally got down to cooking a creamy tomato sauce-based pasta. This idea struck me just before CNY but I wasn't able to try it then as I ran out of plain pasta & was left with only the vegetable pasta of which some actually contained spinach. With the knowledge that consuming spinach with cheese would affect both the digestion & absorption of calcium, I had no choice but to wait until I re-stocked my pantry. 

Ingredients (serve 1 toddler & 1 adult):

100g of Alce Nero Organic Spaghettini

100g of Australian corn fed minced pork

1 glove of garlic, halved

2 purple onions, quartered 

9 big organic cherry tomatoes, halved

5 stalks of organic French beans, quartered

1 bay leaf

5 fresh basil leaves (can replace with 1/8 tsp of dried basil)

1 sprig of rosemary, stalk removed (can replace with 1/8 tsp of dried rosemary)

1/8 tsp of dried oregano

4 tbsps (sauce) + 2 tbsps (topping) of organic cheddar cheese

1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

Directions:

1. Cook pasta in a pot of simmering water till al dente. Drain & leave aside.

2. Steam the remaining ingredients, except cheese, French beans & tomatoes, for 10 minutes (I'm using my Avent Combined Steamer & Blender).

3. Add in the tomatoes as well as French beans & steam for another 5 minutes. Remove bay leaf, add in 4 tbsps of cheddar cheese then blend to desired consistency. Pour over cooked pasta, top with remaining cheese & EVOO & serve warm.

Omzg!!! It was goooooooood (^.~)b With the addition of herbs, it tastes like bolognese but creamier & cheesier too. It was our first take on spaghettini & both of us enjoyed it tremendously. Much faster to cook than spaghetti but yet not too thin like angel's hair.

Beneficial Combinations:

French Beans + Garlic = Sterilise & detoxify as well as improve the taste

Garlic + Onion = Detoxification & anti-cancer effects

Garlic + Pork = Eliminate fatigue, improve attention & help enhance immunity

Pork + Tomato = For healthier stomach & digestion as well as invigorate spleen & replenish qi

My Sister's Signature Lasagne!

Can you imagine how much we've been craving for this signature dish of my sister's since we last had it more than 1.5 years ago? She last did it while I was having my confinement so I didn't manage to savour it then T.T She finally relented & promised to cook it for us after CNY. Upon witnessing the entire process, I finally realised why she has been putting it off for so long. It is indeed a long & tedious one. From the preparation of the meat & cream sauces, to the 'construction' & finally the baking, it takes almost 3 hours. Here's the recipe if u're up for the challenge ^.*

Ingredients for meat sauce:

100g of minced pork collar

1 tsp of minced garlic

3 medium tomatoes, mashed (I only used one but it turned out a tad too dry as no tomato purée was used for BB's portion)

1 tbsp of diced capsicum

2 tbsps of diced celery

2 tbsps of diced yellow onion

4 tbsps of shredded carrot

10 to 12 basil leaves

1 sprig of rosemary

1 piece of bay leaf

1/8 tsp of McCormick Italian seasoning (optional or you can add a dash in if you've any of the following dried herbs: marjoram, thyme, rosemary, savoury, sage, oregano & basil)

2 tbsps of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

100ml of water (can substitute with 1 can of tomato purée if it's for adults as shown in the bottom picture below)

Directions:

1. Stir fry garlic, onion & celery in EVOO for 5 minutes. Add in remaining ingredients & simmer for another 15 to 20 minutes (1 hour for adults' version) till all are softened.

Ingredients for white cream sauce:

3/4 cup of milk

1 small piece of bay leaf

3/4 cinnamon stick

1 clove

3 black peppers

15g unsalted butter

2 tbsps of plain flour

1/4 cup of cheddar cheese

A dash of freshly grounded pepper

Directions:

1. Bring milk to boil then remove from fire. Put bay leaf, cinnamon stick, clove & black pepper in a coffee bag then add into the milk to infuse (optional if you're cooking just a single BB portion).

2. Melt butter over a small fire then sieve in the flour & whisk well.

3. Next, remove the pan from fire. Add in 1/4 cup of milk each time & whisk till smooth. 

4. Put pan over fire again & bring to boil.

5. Lastly, turn off the fire, add in the cheddar cheese & pepper then mix well.

Additional ingredients for construction:

5 lasagne sheets

1 tsp of EVOO

1 tbsp of Parmesan cheese

2 tbsps of cheddar

2 tbsps of mozzarella

2 tbsps of thickened cream

Directions:

1. Oil the bottom & sides of the aluminium tray then line it with half the lasagne sheets, ensuring some space between them as they'll expand during baking.

2. Top with half the meat sauce & some dollops of white cream sauce sparingly.

3. Add another layer of lasagne sheets & meat sauce.

4. Drizzle evenly with thickened cream followed by topping generously with cheddar, mozzarella & Parmesan cheeses.

5. Cover tightly with a piece of aluminium foil then bake for about 35 minutes.

6. Remove the aluminium foil to check that the lasagne sheets have softened & are cooked. Put it back into the oven for another 5 minutes or till the cheese has browned nicely.

This is heavenly <3 I'll definitely do it again but it's especially worth the effort if you are serving up a bigger portion. For a portion that would serve 2 adults & 1 toddler, please multiply all the ingredients by four. Bon appetit!

Beneficial Combinations:

Celery + Tomato = Strengthen stomach & helps digestion as well as lower blood pressure & lipids

Garlic + Onion = Detoxification & anti-cancer effects

Garlic + Pork = Eliminate fatigue, improve attention & help enhance immunity

Pepper + Pork = Favourable for digestion & absorption of nutrients

Pork + Tomato = For healthier stomach & digestion as well as invigorate spleen & replenish qi

Harmful Combinations:

Carrot + Onion = Easily lead to goiter (enlargement of thyroid)

Highlight of Yesterday's Luncheon: Steamed Tofu with Minced Pork &Wolfberries

Corn onion soup with xiao bai cai: Cut 1 organic corn into thirds & halve 1 yellow onion. Add them to 750ml of water & bring to boil. Then, simmer in low fire for 2 hours. 5 minutes before time is up, add in the organic xiao bai cai.

The following were cooked simultaneously in my Techno 3-Tiers Electric Steamer.

Organic brown rice: 4 tbsps of organic short grain brown rice + 1 tbsp of organic brown rice soaked overnight in water to remove the phytic acid. Pour away the soaked water & rinse a couple of times before adding 80ml of water.Steam for 35 minutes.

Steamed pomfret with organic extra virgin coconut oil: Top 1 pomfret with some ginger strips then pour 1 tbsp of EVCO over it. Steam for 15 minutes.

Steamed organic tofu with Australian corn fed minced pork & wolfberries (yields 3 portions of what is shown in the picture below): 100g of pork marinated with 1 tbsp of Bob's Red Mill All Natural Cornstarch & 2 tbsps of EVCO for at least 30 minutes. Mince 1 pack of tofu & mix well with the pork. Divide equally into 3 small bowls (alternatively, can use just 1 big bowl) & top with 1 tsp of wolfberries (or 3 tsps) for each. Steam for 20 minutes.

The tofu dish turned out to be pleasantly light & we both love it! Although this is a very simple dish, one can actually distinctly taste the individual flavours from all the different ingredients. The light sweetness from the pork, the clean tofu taste, aroma from the EVCO & not forgetting the natural sweetness from the wolfberries. I could barely believe it when BB, an avid soup lover, actually chose the tofu over the soup. As usual, he finished his normal portion of rice, 1/2 the fish, 2/3 of a corn, 1 1/3 bowl of tofu then down a bowl of soup ~.^

Beneficial Combinations:

Corn + Onion = Promote the production of body fluid & saliva to relieve thirst as well as lower lipids (fats in blood)

Tofu + Xiao Bai Cai = Promote the production of body fluid & saliva as well as moistening & remove heat from the lung to relieve cough

Double-Boiled One Pot Beef Quinoa

My initial plan was to cook quinoa to be served with dishes. However, my boy is going through a phase whereby he is becoming more 'demanding'. For eg, he'll pull me to my armchair & ask me to "Sit, sit!" & then bring me a book to read to him. Thus, I'm always torn between spending more time in the kitchen or spending more quality time with him. Well, I guess I just have to try to be even more efficient in the kitchen & cook more "single pot" kinda meals moving forward. This actually only took me about 30 minutes to transform the raw ingredients into a cooked meal.

Ingredients (serve 1 toddler + 1 adult):

5 tbsps of organic quinoa

100ml of water

100g of organic minced beef (may substitute with chicken or pork)

4 organic baby corns, diced

1 purple onion, diced

1/2 of an organic zucchini, diced

1/4 of an organic red capsicum, diced

1 tbsp of organic extra virgin coconut oil (EVCO)

Directions:

1. Soak the quinoa in water within a ceramic pot overnight to remove the phytic acid. Pour away the soaked water & rinse a couple of times before adding 100ml of water.

2. Place the ceramic pot into a metal pot with a pot stainer (or on top of a steamer stand) & fill it with water to match the height of half the ceramic pot.

3. Bring water to boil, then let it simmer for 30 minutes (please check occasionally to ensure that there is water left in the metal pot, especially for the first few times that you are attempting this method until you're certain on the required amount of water that would be needed without steaming away completely during the cooking process).

4. While waiting for water to boil, I started dicing the ingredients & adding them to the ceramic pot when each individual ingredient is prepared. Corns, followed by onion & zucchini, with the capsicum last.

5. After 15 minutes, add the beef & capsicum into the ceramic pot & give it a good stir together with the rest of the ingredients.

6. Once the time is up (my induction cooker has a timer), pour the EVCO into the ceramic pot & mix well. Serve warm.

Omg! This was a real satisfying bowl of piping hot quinoa! Yes, I like mine piping hot..shiok ttm! Lots of sweetness from the beef & various vegetables as well as a light fragrant from the EVCO..definitely worth a thumbs up (^.~)b My boy finished his portion & even topped up 3 tbsps more. 

Beneficial Combinations:

Chicken + Onion = Moisturise body, warm stomach & strengthen waist

Corn + Onion = Promote the production of body fluid & saliva to relieve thirst as well as lower lipids (fats in blood)

Pork + Zuchhini = Improve the immune system