Fried Rice... Thermofied

There are several recipes out there on the internet for thermo-fried rice. Any way you go, the absolutes are that there will be a lot of rice it will be a cheap meal or bulker. I went with the 4 Blades recipe, which is available in their Budget edition. I made some changes to the recipe and method. I have no intention of being an elitist (or breaking copyright) with this recipe... If you have done year 8 home-economics or googled "fried Rice recipes" you will have an idea of what to add. If you are time poor and prefer the rice to taste more "fried"... this could be the method for you.

As a uni student fried rice was something I liked but rarely had the time to make. Really... it involves cooking rice, making sure it is not over cooked and cooling it without it turning to mush. I would get distracted and the rice would be ruined. Mum had a handy hint for it the rice was too watery... drain and leave uncovered in fridge overnight. My house-mates Mum told me about "Lazy Fried Rice"... I was not convinced it could be "that easy" and never had all the ingredients in my pantry at the same time so by the time I tried it we had lost contact. If you ever read this, Mrs Mack thanks; you changed my life and I should have listened to you sooner.

Mrs Mack said that you save heaps of time by frying up the rice before you cook it. Heat oil in a pan, chuck in the rice let some grains turn brown then add sautéed onion and bacon, liquid, veggies then cover and simmer for 15 - 20 mins stirring occasionally and you are done. Sprinkle with soy sauce and enjoy. I have applied the essence of this to our method.

 

Essentials when finding a fried rice recipe to thermofy: 

• The amount of rice that you can do in your machine is important... No more than 2 cups of rice will fit in your rice basket
• Use about 1L of liquid... some recipes suggest straight water, others suggest coconut milk too, non-thermo recipes often go with chicken stock which is what I went for. 
• Rice a long grain white rice is usually the preferred... I have six types of rice in our house and that was not among them. We used basmatti as it's the most forgiving and if you are watching your GI its a great choice as is long grain brown rice (just cook for longer).
• If you are using frozen or par-frozen chicken stock add more time to your cooking time

 Thermofied Fried Rice MyCook method

1. Heat 20g olive oil in jar sauté, 120c 1 minute
2. Add a large quartered onion sauté, 120c 5 minutes
3. Chop carrot and bacon and to jar add as you go
4. Slice chicken (for a really cheap option, use filleted drumstick meat and turn bones into bone broth)
5. Add to jar cook Sp 1, 120c 3 minutes for breast (go a little longer to brown for leg meat)
6. Remove from jar and pop into rice basket in a bowl to drain then put into thermoserver
7. Heat 20g olive oil in jar sauté, 120c 1 minute
8. Add rice and juice from meat/onion Sp1, 120c 2 minutes
9. Place water and 2 cups chicken stock (about a litre of liquid altogether) into jar with a tbs Veggie stock paste sp 1, 120c 20 minutes (for white rice) If using brown rice, 35 mins and add egg and veggies at 15 mins
10. Wet and scrunch a square of baking paper, pop it in the steaming attachment pour in whisked eggs (seasoned with a pinch of salt and pepper) 
11. Move the paper so that steam can flow to the top tray by bringing the corners of paper together... if you are using more than 2 eggs cook them on the top tray and veggies on the bottom.
12. When each part is done add to theroserver and mix through. Finally adding soy sauce to taste.

     
 Thermofied Fried Rice GSM/TM type machine method

1. Chop onion sp 7 for a few seconds, remove from jug 
2. Heat 20g olive oil in jar steam, 1 minute, Sp 1/Soft
3. Add onion sauté, 120c 5 minutes
4. With a knife, chop carrot and bacon and to jug add as you go
5. Slice chicken (for a really cheap option, use filleted drumstick meat and turn bones into bone broth)
6. Add to jug cook Sp 1, 120c 3 minutes for breast (go a little longer to brown for leg meat)
7. Remove from jug and pop into rice basket in a kitchen bowl to drain then put into thermoserver
8. Heat 20g olive oil in jug sauté, 120c 1 minute
9. Add rice and juice from meat/onion Sp1, 120c 2 minutes
10. Place water and 2 cups chicken stock (about a litre of liquid altogether) into jug with a tbs Veggie stock paste sp 1, 120c 20 minutes (for white rice) If using brown rice, 35 mins and add egg and veggies at 15 mins
11. Wet and scrunch a square of baking paper, pop it in the steaming attachment pour in whisked eggs (seasoned with a pinch of salt and pepper) 
12. Move the paper so that steam can flow to the top tray by bringing the corners of paper together... if you are using more than 2 eggs cook them on the top tray and veggies on the bottom.
13. When each part is done add to theroserver and mix through. Finally adding soy sauce to taste.

Another Aussie Zote soap altermative

In this post; I mentioned an alternative to Zote soap available in Australia that I was excited about called Australian Botanical. Today I discovered another alternative called Velvet soap, found in the hygiene section of Woolworths supermarket. 

I am going to be honest; I love science... but in this case I am not sure of the why  behind what I am finding just the what. It seems to me that certain soaps when made into washing powder will more readily dissolve day to day stains than others without having to rely on pre-wash soaks or stain removers. TBH after it is dry is when I usually notice the stain. The soaps that tend to be great are Knights Castile soap and Australian Botanical. They tend to bubble a little more as you wet the soap and recently I found that Australian Botanical and Velvet soap will also foam when heated in the microwave the way that Zote soap does on the internet. When heated and mixed with water the solution does not separate the way that other soaps do.    

This soap is not suited to front loader machines, which require low suds powders.

I have tested it as the soap ingredient in Peta's recipe and a recipe uploaded to the Lawn to Lunch facebook group files (and now listed below). I will keep you posted over the next few weeks as to how I like them in my washing.  

Mycook Method

As for Peta's recommendations; however 15 seconds is plenty for grinding and mixing. If you go for longer it sticks in the bottom of the jar and is a bit more time-consuming to remove.  

No thermo-machine no worries

Method 1

1. Use 1 cup of Lux flakes instead of grating a bar of soap for each batch you make.
2. Add other ingredients in a large plastic container, pop the lid on and shake ingredients or stir with wooden spoon. 

Method 2

1. Chop Velvet soap or 125g Australian Botanical soap into dice sized squares. Pop on a clean plate and place in microwave for 90 seconds. You should have puffy little clouds on our plate. If not pop in for a little while longer. 
2. Allow to cool, place in a plastic bag and squeeze the soap clouds into crumbs
3. Add other ingredients in a large plastic container, pop the lid on and shake ingredients or stir with wooden spoon. 

Cara's Recipe
 

1 cup lux flakes
1/2 cup washing soda
2 litres of boiling water
Dissolve in saucepan on stove top.
Fill laundry tub with war water. Pour in solution and mix quickly to combine without lumps.

If you find it's still has too much soapy residue but you need that much to wash your clothes. I use vinegar as a fabric softener. If I hand wash anything I rinse it in vinegar water and all the soap is dispelled. Good luck.

**Cara recommends 1/2 cup of liquid in the wash and filling the dispenser with Vinegar

If you want to try this recipe but do not want to buy lux flakes (as you have heaps of bars of soap, or cannot find it at the shopping centre)... I recommend that you grind them in the machine then go about it the stove top way. Trying to thermo-fy this recipe just makes a huge mess.

Velvet Liquid washing detergent - A week or so on

The liquid separated into 2 parts, one big fluffy, slimy, white cloud on a watery base. When shaken the 2 liquids mix again well enough and seem to clean the clothes as well as any other home-made soap mix.  

Sunight type Liquid washing detergent  - A few weeks on

The liquid separated into 2 parts a very watery base and a yellow mat floating on top. Not nearly as exciting as the Velvet type but cleans laundry pretty much the same. I actually used woolies generic brand laundry soap in this recipe which made it somewhat cheaper.  

Homemade liquid Soap/Bathwash

I love liquid soap, especially when it is liquid Castile. It gets used it for everything at our house... body-wash, shampoo, hand-wash,  washing up, washing liquid, stain remover and more. My problem is well the price... yes it is totally possible to get it for cheaper if you can buy it in bulk from places like Melrose here or Aussie soap supplies here. 

For the moment that is not an option for us; but reducing the things I need it for certainly is. I absolutely love The Road To Loving My Thermomixer blog and recipe here. I love Peta's laundry powder, I love the food recipes I have tried of hers... but I must admit I had trepidations about trying the hand-soap/body-wash recipe. The reason: way back in my uni days. a fellow student told me she makes liquid soap by mixing regular soap in the stove with water. I decided to give it a go and my family refused to use it... it went gluggy and smelly. 

I love my up-cycled funnel

But I also thought; what have I got to loose? If it works what have I gained? This recipe did not use the whole bar of soap. I cubed it and weighed it before adding to the MyCook jar. I used the MyCook to mill the soap and mix it with water. In under 2 minutes the mixture had dried out (I may have used about a cups worth, in future I will increase it to 500mL to start with.

I made it in the evening and allowed it to sit overnight so the mixture got about 2 stirs. I woke up to this, but popping it back into the machine just as Peta said, caused it to flow freely again. 

I popped the residual into an empty vinegar bottle. This blog will be a *living* document. I fully intend to keep testing the liquid to see how long it stays good for. 

Zote Soap - Australian alternative


If you have been looking for home-made cleaning products, it won't take too long to come across Zote soap.

It is and ingredient in many American recipes such as this one; but is not available in Australia (has anyone else felt the disappointment?). This fascinating soap features the ability to grow into a foam like substance when placed into a microwave (don't try this with sunlight, it just goes into brown lumps and is quite disappointing). When the foam cools it easily turns to a fine powder in your hands and it then mixed with other ingredients to make wonderful laundry liquids and powders.

I used Australian Botanicals soap to make the liquid soap. As stated above, it is slightly larger than a regular bar of soap. If you have watched the youtube clip... I am sorry but it is not a dollar either, but you are helping a worthy cause... saving orang-utans by using sustainable palm oil and giving people options to earn money without damaging their forests.

Again I had a few small cubes left and wondered if this soap would work... I popped it in the microwave for one minute... fed the cat who thought that the soap looked like a good meal (he had dine)... returned to this. It was very hot to touch but once it cooled down went to powder in my hands.

2-3 weeks on

I found one more pump bottle and decided to fill it with the liquid soap and top up the other pump bottles while I was at it. The liquid in the storage bottle had hardened to "not readily pourable" so I popped it back into the machine (kogan today) water spilled out first then the rest of the liquid came out in a snake like fashion. SEP and ECE parents/teachers this would be very cool slime for your kids to play with... particularly if they like sensory things. 

I use the body wash and hand wash daily. It still squirts with no hassles however I have noticed that the liquid has also hardened a little. In the beginning I was shaking the bottle fairly regularly to keep the liquid flowing... that has not happened in a while.

Quality MyCook thermalcooker... for a bargain in February

Are you tossing up about buying a thermal-cooker? The decisions between the quality you prefer and what your wallet can survive are huge. For some lucky customers, quality has never been more affordable. 

This beautiful machine has quite a following in France and Spain. Designed in France; manufactured in Spain, this little beauty is the reason that other Thermo-machines did not enjoy quite the same success in Spain that they have in other countries.

You may be sick of hearing me say it but I love my MyCook. If you are planning to buy a quality thermal cooker, with a powerful motor, high quality stainless steel, one button knead function and more... now could be the time to buy. For the month of February, a MyCook Premium could be yours for under 1K if you go here to te OzCook website.

I am not denying that there are other quality thermal cookers out there, and sometimes it can feel like its a "my cooker is better than your cooker" type world. 

Having a thermo-mixer keeps my sane on my gluten-free lifestyle. It means that I can enjoy fantastic food without the gluten or reactions my body has to eating glutenous food.  It is that simple.

Pros

• No reverse... that does not sound like a pro I hear you say. I didn't think so myself, at first. However the softest speed actually goes so soft that I have not missed a reverse function (even making creamy risotto and corn relish). In fact mince sauce stays nice (not over-fine) without having to cook it in the rice basket (which is stainless steel, not plastic).
• When chopping herbs; the shape of the jug (jar) ensures that the herbs stay closer to the blades. Which is perfect for making dips
• It can mill 500g of rice in one go
• It goes up to 120c and a one-touch sauté button that chops the onions and garlic as it cooks them at the temperature you determine. 
• One touch knead button
• One touch turbo/pusle button
• Well designed lid that ensures that less splash-backs and spitting from food
• In-built safety features such as lid can only be removed and put on when jar is in unlocked position, warm/hot food can only be cooked at speed 5 or below, to purée, press the turbo button while on sp 5 - perfect
• Inbuilt scales
• No electronic parts on the jar, safer in the dishwasher
• Fantastic easy-to-use recipe book with lots of great recipes
• Stainless steel steamer (tray and lid are plastic) which grips the jar for safety
• Induction heating cooks food faster
• Helpful facebook community here called Mycook Groupies.

Cons

• There really are not that many; Scales go up in 10g increments, however I was surprised to note that this has not really made any difference to the outcome of my cooking. For times that really precise measures as with my TM, I always use a kitchen scale, otherwise volume measures are handy such as Metric Cups, Tablespoons and Teaspoons etc. 
• Temperature measures the heat of the element rather than the heat of the food, so for rare recipes (such as yoghurt) when food temp is required, a food thermometer is handy 
• Not suited to raw-food preparation, if that is how you eat, as the minimum temperature is 40c not 37c

Happy shopping, no matter which machine you drool after and which one ends up in your kitchen all are welcome and will continue to be welcome on this blog site and in my facebook group Thermo-Science and Mixin-Fun here.

Cheats Bread... Round 2

A few weeks back, I blogged my fantastic experience with Cheats bread by Me and My Thermie blogger, recipe here. I liked it so much I made it again... This time a double batch MyCook/Kogan cook off. I had plans for one to be another sandwich loaf and the other to be a cob... Hoping that my friend who I call the "cob-loaf" queen could fill it with delish cob filling and we could pretend we were not Gluten-Free for a few minutes. I aimed to get it round by cooking it in the 3L slow cooker. 

It was a shockingly hot day; the beginning for many for CQ and the bread rose very fast. In future I will use less yeast on days like today. The loaf dough melted all over the edges in the slow cooker. This possibly would have been ok if I had popped it in the oven as it would have cooked faster.

The second loaf looked like an extinct volcano. Very disappointing. Possibly the problem here was that I had lifted the lid too early to check how it was going. Not to worry, breadcrumbs I hoped... Then the ants found both loaves as they were cooling... at least the chooks were happy. So fresh bread loaves go pretty-much straight in the fridge. 

If I try for a cob shape again I will cook for the first hour without the kitchen towel between the ceramic bowl and lid, so that I can see how it is all going.  

Results

MyCook got the job done faster, the kneading was done in 1.5 minutes. Kogan took about 3 minutes. But the doughs were pretty-much identical by the time they were done.

Kogan had the option to heat to 30c or 40c I chose 40c as that is the one the MyCook recipes use for bread. I was not sure that 30c would be warm enough.