a varoma adventure!

dinner tonight was a combined effort and was very delicious as well as quick and easy! as some of you know i have been a bit varoma phobic since some early disasters...

anyway, we wanted a fairly light dinner tonight and decided to give karenleigh's steamed dim sim recipe a go. then we decided we should try cooking the rice in the tmx basket too, and might as well steam some vegies to go with it at the same time! remembering karen's tip to add the vegies for less time this is how it went:

make dim sims as per karen's recipe (except we will leave the salt out next time, use extra soy sauce instead ;))

place them on the tray/flat part of the varoma, on a sheet of baking paper

weigh the rice in the basket as per the book (400g rice) and remove the basket (we'll add it later) and add the water (700g water) and put the lid on. place the varoma over the tmx

cook them for 5 minutes on varoma speed 3

open and place rice in bowl of tmx. place the lid and varoma back on

steam for 15 minutes on varoma speed 4

take the lid and dimsims in the varoma off carefully (very hot!) and add your chopped vegies (chop quick cooking vegies into larger pieces and slower cooking veg into smaller pieces) into the base of the varoma. place the dimsims and lid back on

cook for a further 3 1/2 minutes on varoma speed 4

check everything and cook for a further few minutes if needed

serve with soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, oyster sauce or whatever takes your fancy :)

note: we used 400g pork fillet and we have enough left to make more dimsims, though not as many as this time - we probably needed about 500g to make enough for the family for 2 dinners. i froze the leftovers in portions in ice cube trays so they'll be super quick for next time!

two courses from karenleigh...

Fast Leftover Roast Chicken & 3 Veg Meal

Leftover roast chicken, skin and bones removed Whatever veg you like but I used:
2 peeled potatoes, cut into 1cm thick chips
2 carrots cut into 1cm thick rings
2 big handfuls of green beans

Place potatoes into basket in TM31. Add 600gm boiling water.
Cook 3mins, Varoma @ speed 4.
Place carrots on bottom level of Varoma. Place chicken (I broke it up a bit) and beans into top layer.
When timer goes off, add Varoma and cook for 8 mins, Varoma @ speed 4.
Remove potatoes and mash your favourite way (I prefer to mash them manually with my trusty potato masher).
Voila - meat & 3 vege in under 15 minutes.

Strawberry Sorbet - I know it's pretty straightforward but I had trouble getting the fruit/sugar/ice ratio right.
I still can't bring myself to put raw egg into sorbets.

270gm strawberries (freezing 1/3 of fruit results in better texture if not using egg white) 85gm white sugar 350gm ice Process in the usual way.
Enjoy!