Miss Thermie is entering an online cookery competition, which involves cooking up 5 different meals, photographing and uploading.  It’s a bit of fun and means I can hand over the reigns for a meal or five!  This is the first one  she chose to cook up:  Moroccan Meatballs – always a winner amongst us and so easy with the prep and Thermie one-bowl cooking process.  I just washed dishes, threw out some advice here and there and Miss Thermie went off to watch TV in between cooking, then worked her food styling magic!!

Here’s the recipe we used:

Tear and break up and pop into a bowl:

• 60g gluten free bread

Soak for 10 minutes in:

•  60g milk – dairy, nut, or whichever preferred.

Meanwhile, cut off the fat and sinew from:

• 500g diced lamb

Add to the Thermomix bowl and mince for 15 seconds / speed 9:

• the diced lamb
• a small bunch of parsley (we picked a bunch of nettles from our garden, soaked in boiling water, then rinsed with cold water a few times and roughly chopped
• a small handful of mint
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 large clove of garlic

Add, then mix 10 seconds / speed 3.5

• the soaked bread
• seasoning

With wet hands, form the mixture in meatballs and arrange on to the Varoma dish and tray, then set aside for the moment.

Now for the sauce …

Add to the Thermomix bowl and chop 5 seconds / speed 7, then scrape down the sides of the bowl, and sauté  2 minutes / 100degrees / speed 1:

•  2 cloves garlic
• 1 small red chilli
• 1 small green chilli (optional – was VERY spicy with this!)
• some basil leaves
• some more parsley (again, we used nettles)
• a little oil

Add to the bowl, then lock the lid, set the varoma on top and cook for 25 minutes / Varoma / speed 1:

• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp caraway seeds
• 1 tsp home-made date paste
• 2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbs home-made stock paste

Whilst this is cooking, weigh out 280g of brown/white rice into the steaming basket, (we used a mix of both), rinse with cold water to de-starch, then set the steaming basket of rice into another bowl of boiling water to soak.

Go away and do something else whilst the sauce and meatballs are cooking and the rice is soaking!

Once cooked, remove the Varoma from the top of the Thermomix bowl, add, then purée the sauce for 1 minute / speed 9, then re-heat to 100 degrees for a few minutes.

• 50g creme fraiche (optional, particularly if you’re dairy free – add a big handful of [soaked] cashew nuts instead – or even cashew cream, if you have some ready made)

Now pour the sauce into a Thermoserver or thermal serving bowl, pop the meatballs in the sauce and place the lid on top.

Without rinsing the Thermomix bowl, weigh in:

• 1200g water

Set the steaming basket with rice in place, lock the lid and place the varoma on top and sit the Thermal bowl with the meatballs and sauce inside. NB, the varoma lid doesn’t sit flush on top of a Thermoserver, but it does the trick and keeps the contents warm!

Cook for 25 minutes / Varoma / speed 4 (cook less if just using white rice)

Go away and do something else!

Once the rice has finished cooking/steaming:

• remove the varoma  containing the Thermoserver
• pull out the steaming basket full of rice
• serve, making a mould of rice and arranging some meatballs and sauce at the side. Garnish with some spinach and carrot and pepper slices.