The Kitchen Playground

Delicious little morsels, perfect for finger food or piling into lunch boxes. Very bento friendly.

Just in case you were wondering, the recent lack of photos is a gesture of disgust at the hideous lighting in my hideous house. Photography will resume when the house has been demolished. Which will happen soon should the universe care for my sanity.

Sticky Rice Lunch Bites
2 teaspoons tamarind concentrate
1 cup glutinous rice
2 teaspoons tumeric
1 teaspoon grated ginger
3/4 cup cocnut milk
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon grated lime zest
1 red chilli, seeded and chopped finley
200g dried Chinese pork, finely sliced
hoisin sauce to serve

1. Place rice in a bowl with tamarind and turmeric and cover with cold water. Soak overnight. Or do it in the morning for cooking in the evening. Or something like that. Soak it for 8 hours or more.
2. Drain rice and spread over varoma tray (or whatever you steam in)
3. Put 1 litre of water into thermomix. Steam for 40 minutes on varoma temperature at speed 4.
4. Place rice in a bowl and stir in all remaining ingredients (except hoisin sauce)
5. Line a 20cm square or similarly sized rectangle baking pan with baking paper. Spread rice over evenly and refrigerate until set.  About 2 hours should do the trick. Cut into squares and serve with hoisin sauce for dipping. Or dab a little on the top of each square to make it pretty if serving as finger food.

Tags: bento, finger food, Lunch, sticky rice, thermomix, Varoma

This is pure gold. Everyone at Chez KP scoffed this down in a matter of moments. Even after I told them what it was and where it comes from. They’re not offal eaters as a rule. I served it with a green salad on the side. Allow plenty of time for simmering (I did this step the day before).

So without further ado…

Crispy Salt & Vinegar Tripe
1 tripe
bay leaf
salt
pepper
1 cup flour
cracked black pepper
sea salt
oil for deep frying
vinegar

1. Place tripe and bay leaf in gently simmering water. Simmer for around 2 hours until very tender.
2. Pat dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper
3. Heat oil in wok until it reaches about 3 cm deep
4. Generously salt and pepper the flour and mix well to combine
5. Coat the trip in flour and deep fry in batches until golden brown.
6. Drain and serve with vinegar of choice as a dipping sauce.

Tags: budget meals, offal, tripe

This is a nice, easy, budget friendly change from sandwiches. I just can’t speak kindly of sandwiches, I need to move past that.

Pumpkin & Feta Fritters with Avocado
350g peeled and diced pumpkin
30g water
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
200g feta, crumbled
oil and butter to cook
avocado slices to top

1. Place pumpkin in TM and grate on speed 7 for 3 - 5 seconds. Add water and cook for 3 minutes at 100 degrees on speed 1.
2. Add eggs, flour, garlic and combine for 20 seconds on speed 7
3. Add cheese and season with salt and pepper. Combine on reverse speed 3 for 10 seconds
4. Heat a little oil and a little butter in a fry pan. Fry large spoonfuls of the batter into fritters on each side until golden.
5. Top fritters with sliced avocado to serve.

Tags: budget meals, fritters, light lunch, thermomix

This would easily serve 6 - 8. The accompaniments are essential, the rice and lentils alone would be far too bland. Besides, lots of little dishes on the table to help yourself from is always fun. Whilst there are lots of ingredients, it’s quite quick and easy to throw together. Adapted from a Charmaine Solomon recipe.

Rice with lentils
3 tablespoons rice bran oil (or ghee)
5 bruised cardamon pods
4 cloves
1 piece cinnamon bark
4 large onions, sliced
2cm piece ginger, grated
1 fresh red or green chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 cup brown lentils
1/2 cup red lentils
1/2 cup yellow split peas
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
500g basmati rice
500g peas (I used frozen)
5 cups hot water
coriander to garnish
Accompaniments
2 tomatoes, diced and sprinkled with salt
1 cucumber, deseeded and diced
plain yoghurt
lime pickles
mango chutney
chilli sauce

1. In a fry pan, heat 2 tablespoons of the  oil or ghee. Add onions, cardamon pods and cinnamon. Cook over medium heat until onions are brown. Remove from heat and place in a bowl to serve as an accompaniment.
2. In a large dutch oven or saucepan, heat the remaining oil. Add ginger, chilli and cumin seeds, fry until fragrant. add lentils, turmeric and cumin. Fry for another minute.
3. Add rice, peas and water. Stir to combine. Cover tightly and cook over low heat for half an hour.
4. Top with chopped coriander to serve

Tags: Budget, lentils, rice, Vegetarian

The weekday standard breakfast at the Kitchen Playground is a simple little concoction. I throw everything together in the evening, pop it in the fridge overnight and then just dish it out in the morning. If I’m being fancy schmancy, I put the fresh fruit on in the morning so it looks prettier and I might even drizzle a little honey or maple syrup on top. But that would never happen on a work or school day.

Bircher Muesli
3 cups rolled oats, NOT instant
1/2 cup craisins
1/4 cup chopped nuts (walnuts, slivered almonds, cashews or macadamias are our regulars)
1 apple or 1 pear grated (this gets left out if I’ve run out of fruit or time)
1 cup apple and blackcurrant juice
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup yoghurt (sometimes Greek, sometimes flavoured)
1 cup chopped strawberries or mixed berries or halved red seedless grapes to serve
Puku Kapai to serve

1. In a large bowl, combine oats, craisins, nuts, apple or pear, juice, milk and yoghurt. Stir through.
2. Throw serving fruit on top
3. Put in fridge
4. Serve into individual bowls and sprinkle puku kapai on top

Tags: Bircher Muesli, Breakfast

These are an old favourite at the Kitchen Playground and frankly I’m surprised I haven’t blogged them before. They work equally well with chicken, pork or turkey mince.

Steamed Curry Cakes
500g chicken, pork or turkey mince
250ml coconut cream
1/3 cup red, green or yellow curry paste*
1 egg
1/4 cup fish sauce
2 teaspoons caster sugar
1 tablespoon roughly chopped peanuts
1 bunch Thai basil
1/2 teaspoon cornflour
Sliced fresh chillies or sliced pickled chillies to garnish
Fresh coriander to garnish
*whichever you prefer/have on hand, they all work out well
300g rice to serve

1. Combine mince, 200ml of the coconut cream, curry paste, egg, fish sauce, sugar and peanuts. Mix well.
2. Lightly grease 4 1-cup capacity bowls. Divide Thai basil leaves between the bowls. Divide the mince mixture and place it on top of the basil.
3. Put 1.5 litres of water in the thermomix bowl and rice in steamer basket. Arrange bowls in varoma and steam for 25 minutes on varoma temperature. After 16 minutes, you can rice and place in an insulated bowl.
4. Meanwhile, combine remaining coconut cream with cornflour in a small saucepan over low heat until it thickens slightly.
5. To serve, drizzle coconut cream mixture over curry cakes and garnish with chillies and coriander. Serve with the steamed rice.

Tags: chicken mince, Curry, pork mince, steaming, thermomix, turkey mince, Varoma

The Kitchen Playground method of surviving the school term with a working mother is to use school holidays to do some bulk cooking. The idea is that I will end up wit lots of baked goods for lunches and enough precooked meals to get me through the nights that we get home late. These school holidays, it didn’t happen. I don’t know why, I don’t know what I was thinking but I suspect I will be paying the price for my break from routine for the next 10 weeks.

In a somewhat belated attempt to rectify matters, I threw enough random ingredients into the slow cooker before work yesterday to feed us last night and on another night. Lamb chops, passata, onion, dried white corn, frozen grated zucchini, an onion, a few cloves of garlic, a few sticks of chopped celery, a tin of chickpeas, some lentils, some split peas and some oat bran. Fortunately it was quite tasty and very filling. After we filled up on that, I started filling up the slow cooker again in readiness for tonight, which is also a late home night. Once again, we had success! We also had enough leftover for another freezer meal.

Cheese and Two Potato Soup
4 rashers bacon, sliced*
2 onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into small cubes
4 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
2 sticks celery, sliced
2 litres vegetable stock
2 cups grated tasty cheese
2/3 cup milk
1/2 cup plain flour
*obviously this is optional if you want a vegetarian meal

1. Place everything except the cheese and flour in the slow cooker.
2. Turn on to low and go to work.
3. Return home just over 10 hours later.
4. Whisk milk and flour together and add to cheese.
5. Turn to high, stir in cheese and flour.
6. Set the table, empty school bags, holler at the kids. By this time the soup should have thickened slightly. Stir and serve.

Tags: budget meal, crock pot, potato soup, slow cooker, Soup, Vegetarian

This afternoon, I discovered a glut of pears needing to be used in the fruit bowl. I also needed an after school, pre-swimming snack for tomorrow. That is how this pear slice was born. It would be easy enough to make without the thermomix, just soften the butter first for easy reaming with the sugar and then do the rest of the mixing my hand.

Pear Slice
1 cup muscovado
200g butter
2½ cups self-raising flour
½ cup oats
¼ cup oat bran
2 eggs
3-4 pears
1/3 cup yoghurt

1. Preheat oven to 180°
2. Place butter and sugar in thermomix and cream for 10 - 15 seconds turning speed up to speed 7.
3. Add flour, oats, oat bran and eggs. Mix for 20 seconds on speed 5, using spatula to help incorporate ingredients.
4. Spoon half the mixture into a square silicon pan (or greased slice tin), smoothing the top and pressing into the corners. It may be a little crumbly, this is fine.
5. Quarter the pears, cut out the core and roughly chop over the pan. Scatter pieces evenly.
6. Add yoghurt to the remaining mixture and mix for 10 - 15 seconds on speed 8. Spread over the top of the pears.
7. Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown

Tags: Baking, pear, pear slice, thermomix

A batch of biscuits that can be mixed in five minutes and baked in the time it takes to shower and dress for an impromptu trip to the park is a blessing. The following mixes fit into that category and have been the perfect addition to many a gathering of Ankle Biters. I make them in the thermomix but they would be just as quick in a food processor and practically as quick by hand, as long as the butter is properly softened.

coconut & cranberry biscuits

Coconut & Cranberry Biscuits
225g butter, softened
140g caster sugar, softened
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
280g plain flour
20g shredded coconut
80g dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
2. Mix butter and sugar together (thermomix, 10 seconds, speed 4).
3. Add yolk, vanilla and flour and combine (thermomix, 15 - 20 seconds, speed 3)
4. Add coconut and cranberries and stir through (thermomix, 10 - 15 seconds, reverse speed 2)
5. Place tablespoons of mixture on baking sheet (greased or lined) and bake for 10 - 15 minutes until golden brown. Cool on tray.

Banana & Raisin Biscuits
225g butter, softened
140g caster sugar, softened
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon orange juice
280g plain flour
80g dried bananas
40g raisins

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
2. Mix butter and sugar together (thermomix, 10 seconds, speed 4).
3. Add yolk, orange juice and flour and combine (thermomix, 15 - 20 seconds, speed 3)
4. Add bananas and raisins and stir through (thermomix, 10 - 15 seconds, reverse speed 2)
5. Place tablespoons of mixture on baking sheet (greased or lined) and bake for 10 - 15 minutes until golden brown. Cool on tray.

Pear & Pistachio Biscuits
225g butter, softened
140g caster sugar, softened
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
280g plain flour
50g pistachios, chopped
60g dried pears, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees
2. Mix butter and sugar together (thermomix, 10 seconds, speed 4).
3. Add yolk, vanilla and flour and combine (thermomix, 15 - 20 seconds, speed 3)
4. Add pistachios and pears and stir through (thermomix, 10 - 15 seconds, reverse speed 2)
5. Place tablespoons of mixture on baking sheet (greased or lined) and bake for 5 - 10 minutes until golden brown. Cool on tray.

Pear & Mint Biscuits
225g butter, softened
140g caster sugar, softened
1 egg yolk
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
280g plain flour
100g dried pears, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees
2. Mix butter and sugar together (thermomix, 10 seconds, speed 4).
3. Add yolk, peppermint and flour and combine (thermomix, 15 - 20 seconds, speed 3)
4. Add pears and stir through (thermomix, 10 - 15 seconds, reverse speed 2)
5. Place tablespoons of mixture on baking sheet (greased or lined) and bake for 5 - 10 minutes until golden brown. Cool on tray.

Rose Flower Biscuits
225g butter, softened
140g caster sugar, softened
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon rose water
280g plain flour

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees
2. Mix butter and sugar together (thermomix, 10 seconds, speed 4).
3. Add yolk, rose water and flour and combine (thermomix, 15 - 20 seconds, speed 3)
4. Place tablespoons of mixture on baking sheet (greased or lined) and bake for 5 - 10 minutes until golden brown. Cool on tray.

Coconut & Cranberry Biscuits
225g butter, softened
140g caster sugar, softened
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
280g plain flour
20g shredded coconut
80g dried cranberries

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees
2. Mix butter and sugar together (thermomix, 10 seconds, speed 4).
3. Add yolk, vanilla and flour and combine (thermomix, 15 - 20 seconds, speed 3)
4. Add coconut and cranberries and stir through (thermomix, 10 - 15 seconds, reverse speed 2)
5. Place tablespoons of mixture on baking sheet (greased or lined) and bake for 5 - 10 minutes until golden brown. Cool on tray.

Chocolate Mint Biscuits
225g butter, softened
140g caster sugar, softened
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
280g plain flour
100g mint chocolate sticks, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees
2. Mix butter and sugar together (thermomix, 10 seconds, speed 4).
3. Add yolk, vanilla and flour and combine (thermomix, 15 - 20 seconds, speed 3)
4. Add chocolate mint sticks and stir through (thermomix, 10 - 15 seconds, reverse speed 2)
5. Place tablespoons of mixture on baking sheet (greased or lined) and bake for 5 - 10 minutes until golden brown. Cool on tray.

Treacle  & Spice Biscuits
200g butter, softened
140g caster sugar, softened
2 tablespoons treacle (or golden syrup)
1 egg yolk
280g plain flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
2 tablespoons walnuts, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees
2. Mix butter, sugar and treacle together (thermomix, 10 seconds, speed 4).
3. Add yolk, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg and combine (thermomix, 15 - 20 seconds, speed 3)
4. Add walnuts and stir through (thermomix, 10 - 15 seconds, reverse speed 2)
5. Place tablespoons of mixture on baking sheet (greased or lined) and bake for 5 - 10 minutes until golden brown. Cool on tray.

Tags: Baking, biscuits, cookies, Quick and easy, themomix

It’s true. According to the Ankle Biters, Korean pancakes are as much fun as tacos. I can see their point. Lots of little bowls of ingredients all waiting to be stuffed inside a pancake, food made to be eaten with the fingers and best of all, a bowl of sauce specially for dipping. Feastalicious!

You can use whatever you have floating around for the fillings for these which makes it a very budget friendly meal The fillings I have listed are based entirely on what happened to be in the house. I got a little manic making this, make sure all your ingredients are well prepped and the dipping sauce made before the cooking phase begins and have slaves the Ankle Biters on hand to take completed dishes out to the table.

Korean Savoury Pancakes
For the Pancakes
1 1/2 cups plain flour
pinch salt
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup milk
For the Fillings
2/3 cup dried shitake slices
soy sauce
sesame oil
4 eggs, separated,
200g piece beef, finely sliced (easier when mostly frozen)
1 carrot, julienned
3 spring onions, cut into 6 cm lengths
1 cup shredded wombok
1 Chinese sausage, julienned
broccoli stem, julienned
For the Dipping Sauce
1/2 cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
3 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted & crushed
2 tablespoons finely sliced spring onions
1 tablespoon sugar

1. Soak shitake mushrooms in hot water for 30 minutes. Drain and cook in a dash of soy sauce for 5 minutes, until tender. Place in a small bowl for serving
2. Combine all ingredients for the dipping sauce and serve in individual dishes
3. Combine all ingredients for the pancakes until batter is smooth
4. In a lightly oiled pan, cook a thin omelette from the egg white, remove and slice thinly, place in a bowl for serving
5. Repeat with egg yolk to make a thinly sliced yellow omelette
6. Have a lightly oiled pan ready to make the pancakes and a small pan ready to cook the vegetables. I used a spray oil for minimum fat. You will be making your pancake stack and cooking the vegetables at the same time. This is where it can get manic.
7. Each pancake should be slightly smaller than a bread and butter plate and thin. When cooked, stack on a plate.
8. Meanwhile, briefly cook (stir fry) remaining ingredients (carrot, beef, wombok, sausage, broccoli stem), one at a time and place in small bowls for serving.
9. Eating time! Everyone can fill their own pancakes and dip in their own sauce until replete!

Tags: budget meals, Korean, savoury pancakes