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In Episode 14 of The 4 Blades podcast, Bec had a ‘Long Ladies Lunch’ and we kicked off the pantry series!
Firstly, Bec took us through her lunch menu. Some of her guests had some specific dietary needs which she took on as a challenge.
To kick things off, Bec made some pumpkin dip (pretty basic: just steamed pumkin, paprika, roasted capsicum, pine nuts, salt and garlic wizzed around in the mix). This was served with these awesome almond crackers from Tenina’s website.
Notes: don’t try using leftover almond pulp from making milk… the end product is very different! Super Kitchen Machine gave the great idea of using a cooling rack to score the crackers.
The main meal was the Vegetable Lasagne which we spoke about in Episode 12… made with bolognese sauce, a cauliflower / leek Bechemel Sauce and roast veggies as ‘pasta’.
To go with this, was a side of baked creamed spinach which we didn’t use the Thermie for. However, the recipe called for a stiff egg white which is so easy to do in the Thermomix. For a single egg white just whack it in at 50 degrees, Speed 4 (with the butterfly) and wait until the sound changes (a couple of minutes). Bec also served up some ‘Gluten Free / Dairy Free / Yeast Free / Sugar Free / Dairy Free’ dinner rolls, thanks to Lesley at Me and My Thermie. See below for pictures / links.
For dessert, Bec served her Dairy-Free Choc Nut Ice-Cream, Quirky Jo’s Coconut Caramel Custard and her Almost Raw Chocolate with slivered almonds.
This episode was also the first installment of our ‘pantry series’. This series will be a series of episodes where we go into some depth about certain pantry products and their uses. We have found that we are now well-equipped to make a wide range of recipes rather than having to go out and buy specific items, and we would love for our listeners to be able to do the same.
So to start off here is a quick list of our absolute basics:
| Seeds | Nuts | Grains | Legumes | Flours | Other |
| Chia | Almonds | Rice | Chickpeas | Plain Flour | Baking Powder |
| Sunflowers | Cashews | Millet | Baker’s Flour | Cacao | |
| Pepitas | Pine Nuts | Tapioca Starch | Xanthan Gum | ||
| Sesame | Coconut | Potato Starch | Yeast | ||
| Linseeds | Sultanas / Dates | ||||
| Xylitol |
And in this episode we covered linseeds.
Linseeds (or flaxseed) are a great thing to have as a staple. We keep our whole linseeds in the freezer as they can go rancid if you leave them in the cupboard. Linseeds are a good source of fibre and omega-3 fatty acids. However, if you want to get to those omega-3’s you need to grind them. To get the most out of your linseeds, grind them as you need them. Speed 9-10 for 10-20 seconds. These are awesome in shakes and can be used as a gelling agent.
One recipe that uses a bunch of our pantry staples (including linseeds) is ‘Homemade Milo’.
Homemade ‘Milo’
We used this recipe, but used xylitol instead of rapadura. We added it in Step 2 (rather than at the end) as the crystals need to be broken down a little further. Also, we used macademia nuts instead of pecans, as that’s what we had in the cupboard. It made HEAPS – recommend keeping it in the fridge!
Thanks to Faith for spotting this recipe and recommending we try it! The original forum post can be found here, and it’s also available on the Changing Habits website.
Another great find this week was ‘Gluten Free / Yeast Free / Dairy Free / Sugar Free / Egg Free Rolls‘, from ‘My Thermie and Me’. It utilised the ground linseeds instead of egg.
These rolls ended up being quite light and fluffy – amazing for gluten free bread! The texture was probably the best we’ve come across! Well done to Lesley for her creation! Next time we will add a little more salt, as we do like quite a salty taste to our bread (and, as Lesley states on her website, she tends to err on the side of low-salt). Also, she made 4 big rolls using muffin tins, while we made 12 little rolls using a mini-muffin tin. We cooked them for 20 minutes at 200 degrees, with a bowl of water underneath for steaming.
From this…
To this…
Lesley also has a great Facebook feed – we recommend following her!
Don’t forget to enter the competition for your chance to win Bee’s excellent book ‘Scents and Centsability’!