Steamed lemon chicken, rice & veges using the varoma (Failsafe recipe adaptation)

This was my first attempt at using the varoma and it was not entirely successful. My TM consultant told me you can cook a chicken and veg and rice all at the same time in the varoma and TM. I couldn't work out how so I did the chicken first and then the rice and veg.

I did some research first and drew on the following recipes for ideas regarding sauce and cooking methods:

http://thermomix-er.blogspot.com/2009/04/drunken-chicken-version-1-in-varoma.html

http://thermomix-er.blogspot.com/2009/04/soy-chicken-in-varoma.html

(1) Lemon Chicken

Ingredients
1.4kg free range chicken that needed to be eaten same day
1/2 cup pear juice
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 t citric acid
2 cups water
1 clove garlic (chopped in TM first)

Method
Combine all sauce ingredients in TM bowl and cook for 10 minutes at 100°C on reverse + speed 2.

Wash the chicken

Add chicken and sauce to a Glad roasting bag

Put chicken (in bag) in side Varoma

Put 1200ml of water in TM bowl and steam the chicken for 30 minutes at Varoma temperature on speed 2.

It did not look cooked so I cooked it for another 5 minutes. Took the chicken out of the varoma and left it to sit inside the sauce in the bag.

I then went and cooked the rice and veges. While these were cooking I cut the chicken open (after it had sat for about 20 minutes in bag. It was very pink and not cooked.

So, I chopped the chicken into pieces and after the rice was cooked I took the basket with rice out of the TM bowl and put the chicken pieces into the bowl, poured all the lemon sauce in and extra water)

I then put the TM on to Varoma Temp, speed 2 reverse for 20 minutes. I had the veges steaming some more in the varoma at the same time.

(2) Rice & Veg
I followed the TM instructions for rice and it came out perfectly. The vegs were on for the same time - 16 minutes - in the varoma and were still very hard. Next time I would cut them all a lot smaller so they cook faster. They ended up needing about 35 minutes.

Verdict

The meal was lovely, if late due to it taking longer than I had counted on. Veges were beautiful, chicken was lovely and moist.

Next time I will add an extra 1/2 t of citric acid to make it more lemony

I need to learn how to use the Varoma - I wonder if there is a chart around showing how long certain items need to be cooked for?