Paw Paw Chutney

I'm one of those people who work best under pressure. If there's no deadline looming, you can be guaranteed I haven't started it yet. It seems that this is not only an area of talent in my professional life, but the skill also transfers into the kitchen as well! Some of my best recipes have been thrown together at the last minute, and this is no exception... It was created in 10 minutes on Monday afternoon at about 4:30, when I needed to have it ready to go by 6:30 the same day. I'd also been in Toowoomba all day. No pressure.. Luckily, we have a fabulous green grocer around the corner and I picked up a couple of 1/2 ripe papayas and a bottle of malt vinegar in a flying rush when I picked up N from Kindy. A quick practice run and I was in business. I flew out the door at 6:29 with my Thermomix bowl still warm from the practice batch. This is great to make when mangos are out of season, it has a similar taste & texture and is still just as delicious. It seemed to be a hit with my fellow Thermomix posse and I've had lots of them gently reminding me to hurry up and post the recipe all week!!! So... here goes. Just like the green mango chutney, this keeps well in the fridge or preserved in jars in the pantry. It's delicious with cold meats, dolloped on the side of a bbq plate, perfect with some sharp cheese on a cracker. It's excellent on sandwiches, it can be blended and mixed with a little oil to be used as a glaze for meats or roasted vegetables and is great with curries .

TM Instructions

Ingredients

450gms Green or 1/2 ripe Paw Paw or Papaya (approx 1/2 medium paw paw)
1 medium green apple - peeled and cored and cut into 4
1/2 medium red onion
10 gms peeled ginger
4-5 cloves garlic
1 birds eye chilli - if you want it spicy you can add more. If you're not keen on chilli remove the seeds
100gms pitted dates
100gms sultanas
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp allspice
1 tsp salt
300gms malt vinegar
100gms water
300gms brown sugar

Method

1. Cut the skin off the paw paw and remove the seeds, cut into 3-4cm cubes 

2.) Add Paw Paw, Green apple, red onion and garlic to TM bowl and chop 2 secs | speed 5, set aside. 

3.) Add ginger and red chilli to bowl and chop 5 secs | Speed 6| scrape down side

4.) Add paw paw and apple/onion/garlic mix to TM bowl, add 100gms dates and 100gms sultanas, 1 tsp curry powder, 1/2 tsp allspice, 1 tsp salt, 300gms malt vinegar, 100gms water and cook 10 mins | varoma |sp 1 | reverse with MC cap on

5.) Add 300gms brown sugar and cook 50 mins | 100 deg | Sp soft | reverse with the varoma bottom on top - this lets the steam out but catches the spitting.

6.) Cook for a further 20 mins | varoma | Sp 2 | reverse with varoma bottom on top You should be able to tell if the chutney is ready, as it will be thick and sticky, and it will 'gel' when tested on a cold plate. 

Bottle in hot sterile jars.

This recipe makes approximately 1 litre of chutney.

Stovetop Method 

Ingredients:

3-4 medium to large paw paws

5 green apples

1 cup water

1.5 litres brown vinegar

1.5 kgs brown sugar

2 handful dates

2 handful sultanas or raisins

1 large knob of green ginger (peeled)

1 large knob of garlic  (all cloves peeled)

6 birds eye chillies (if you don't like spice you can leave these out or reduce down the amount)

1 teaspoon allspice

1 tablespoon curry powder

1 tablespoon salt

2 large red onions

1. Prepare paw paw as per TM method (peel, remove seeds)

2. Either use a food processor top chop paw paw/apple/onion/garlic/ginger OR dice up paw paw, apples, onion and garlic with a knife and grate ginger. Chop chillies finely. 

3. Add paw paw and apple to a large pot with 1 cup of water and bring to the boil stirring regularly

4. Add all ingredients EXCEPT sugar to a large pot, bring to the boil and then gently simmer for 1/2 an hour, stirring regularly

5. Add sugar and simmer on a low heat for 2.5 to 3.5 hours stirring regularly. 

This recipe makes about 3.5 kgs of chutney. If you don't have a pot large enough to put everything in, you can split it between 2 pots. Just halve the recipe if you don't want to make as much, the cooking time is similar though. 
Bottle in hot sterile jars.

Mushroom and walnut rice paper rolls with spaghetti squash 'noodles'

I was so excited to find spaghetti squash last week. It was a real random find. I quickly ducked into a shop I never go into & found them completely by accident. I love trying out new produce and ingredients so it was a big find for me AND in true EV fashion I've been banging on about it ever since!! So today I finally had some time on my hands to spend experimenting. I only had half a squash to work with as I gave half away to a friend to try.

Luckily my squash came with instructions.... so I had a rough idea on how to prepare it without having to do any research.

I bought two cut halves so I decided instead of boiling (as per above instructions), to steam it. I gave it 25 mins in my Thermomix Varoma, but you could get the same result in a traditional steamer.

After steaming, I used a fork to rake out the strands. It really was amazing the way they separated instantly like noodles!

 The first thing that came to mind, was how much they looked like vermicelli noodles. 

They also had a similar texture, so I decided to make some ricepaper rolls. My fridge is looking a little bare at the moment, so I didn't have many ingredients to work with! This only made the challenge more interesting. The ingredients came about because thats what I found in the bottom of the fridge.

You wouldn't have know that it was spaghetti squash and not vermacilli noodles! We really enjoyed them -  I hope you do too!!

If you can't source spaghetti squash,you can easily replace with vermicelli noodles. For a vegan option swap out oyster sauce for hoisin sauce.

Mushroom and walnut rice paper rolls 

Makes 16 - 20 rolls

Ingredients

Mushroom & walnut paste

70 gms walnuts

2cms of leek (white part) OR

half an onion if you don't have any leeks (white onion would be best)

3 large garlic cloves

small knob of peeled ginger (about a teaspoon)

400gms mushroom (mine were field mushrooms, but other varieties or a mixture would work fine)

10gms sesame oil

15gms soy sauce

2 tablespoons oyster sauce - replace with hoisin sauce for a vegetarian/vegan option

freshly chopped chilli or a dash of sweet chilli sauce - optional 

Rice paper roll filling

Steamed spaghetti squash strands - approximately 200gms***

1 large carrot

1 stick of celery

3 shallots sliced finely

1/2 large red capsicum cut into strips

a handful of fresh herbs - coriander, mint, thai basil are my favorities
a pinch of sesame seeds

Dipping sauce

1 clove garlic
1/4 cup of fish sauce 

1/4 cup of fresh lime juice

2 tbsps palm sugar/rapadura sugar/brown sugar

1 fresh chilli sliced

diced coriander leaves

*** My half squash produced approximately 550gms of strands - you you could make a double batch, but may need to adjust cooking time for the mushroom paste - I would continue in 5 min lots until you get the desired paste consistency. 

Thermomix method:

Mushroom walnut paste.
-Add 70gms of walnuts to dry Thermomix bowl. Chop 1 sec | Turbo. Set aside
-Add 2cm of leek, or 1/2 white onion, small knob of ginger and 3 large garlic cloves to bowl and chop 4 secs | Spd 7.
-Add 400gms mushrooms, chop 2 secs | Spd 5
-Add remaining ingredients and cook 8-10 mins | Varoma | Spd 2 with the MC off  the mixture should have a paste like consistency. Remove from the bowl and mix with walnuts. Don't bother cleaning the TM bowl, any residual mushroom paste will dress the carrot and celery and add flavour.
-Peel carrot and roughly chop carrot and celery. Add to TM bowl and chop 4 secs | Spd 5

Dipping sauce
-add 1 clove garlic to TM bowl chop 1 sec | spd 7 scrape down side with spatula
-add remaining ingredients except chilli and mix 5 secs | Spd 4
-remove from bowl and stir in chilli with a teaspoon

Conventional method:

-roughly chop walnuts and set aside
Food processor:
-If you have a food processor, add the following to your food processor bowl - 2cm of leek, or 1/2 white onion, small knob of ginger and 3 large garlic cloves and process until fine. Set aside
-Add 40gms mushrooms to food processor bowl and chop until fine.
By hand:
 If you don't have a food processor, chop onion finely, grate ginger and crush garlic with a garlic crusher. Finely dice 400gms mushrooms.
-heat sesame oil in a wok, add onion/garlic/ginger mix and stir fry until cooked. Add mushrooms and stir fry well, add oyster or hoisin sauce and soy sauce and continue to stirfry until cooked. Depending on how smooth you managed to chop your mushrooms, you might want to add the whole mix back into a food processor or blender to get it into a paste consistency.
-once finished, mix with walnuts
-peel and grate carrot and finely dice celery

Dipping sauce
-crush garlic clove into a bowl
-add sugar, then fish sauce then lime, mix well with a whisk or a fork
-add coriander and chilli

How to wrap your rice paper roll:
- fill a plate with warm water and submerge your rice paper wrap in there until it softens. You need to be careful you don't soften it too much though or it will be too wet to wrap.
-place your wrap down on a board and spread a teaspoon of mushroom mix, and layer on your spaghetti squash (or vermicelli noodles if you can't fine spaghetti squash) followed by carrot and celery mix, slice of capsicum and shallots and fresh herbs.
-wrap as per the photos below - the packet of rice paper wraps will also have instructions.

Don't overfill them is my biggest tip! Or you'll have a big hot mess.

Serve with dipping sauce, fresh lime wedges and green paw paw pickles.... if you're lucky enough to have a jar!

Enjoy!