Bacon & Cheese Burger

Mmmm…time for a naughty dinner. I watched a show on tv the previous evening where someone was making a turkish meal and used some inspiring spices, which led me to think that they would work great as added ingredients to a hamburger patty. So I tried it…it worked…and here goes!

Ingredients

Beef patty
300g minced beef
50 ml crumbed crackers
2 tbsp grated red onion
1 tbsp chopped chilli
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground parika
1 egg
good pinch of salt and black pepper

Potato chips
5 medium sized potatoes peeled and cut into small chips
salt
olive oil

Lemon Mayo
zest of 1 lemon
juice of 1 lemon
200ml mayo

Other
4 hamburger buns
12 streaky bacon strips (3 per burger)
baby herb leaves
cheese to top patties

Method

Mix all the patty ingredients together with your hands and shape into patties. Prepare approximately 1 hour before cooking and put the patties in the freezer for 30 minutes before cooking. This will help keep the shape of the patties while cooking. Place the potato chips in a oven tray with olive oil and salt and bake at 180 degrees celcius for 30 – 40 minutes or until golden and crispy. Zest the lemon and squeeze out all the juice, add the mayo and mix well. Fry the bacon in a pan and remove. Use the bacon fat as oil for frying the patties. Once cooked, turn off the heat and add the cheese ontop of the pattie allowing it to melt. Serve on a hamburger bun with the lettuce, fried bacon, potato fries and lemon mayo and enjoy!

Pork Sausages with Mashed Potato

An old time favourite for the cook as well as the consumer. Pork sausages and mash.

Ingredients

10 pork sausages
2 red onions
1 tsp italian spice
2 tbsp olive oil

For the mash

7 medium sized potatoes
1/4 cup chopped spring onion
30g butter, cubed
1 tsp garlic salt
40 ml milk
salt & black pepper

Dijon mustard to serve.

Method

Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. I used some lean pork sausages for this recipe, but you can use any sausages you like, even chicken if you prefer. Place the sausages in an oven tray (I sliced them diagonally to give it a bit of texture, but feel free to leave them whole). Thickly slice the onion and add to the sausages. Now sprinkle over the italian spice and drizzle over the olive oil. Oven roast for 40 minutes, or until the sausages are cooked and crispy on the outside.

Boil the potatoes for about 40 minutes or until soft. Once cooked, it is time to mash them potatoes. Add your butter, milk, garlic salt, chopped spring onion and salt & pepper and mash together until soft. Add more milk if necessary. Serve with the oven roasted sausages and onion and some Dijon mustard. Yum!

Ginger Beef with Egg Noodles

I was in the mood for some egg noodles, and decided to combine it with some fried beef. Very quick and easy to make, and tastes delicious.

Ingredients

1 tbsp chopped fresh root ginger
1 tbsp chopped fresh garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp soya sauce
2 tsp sesame seeds
salt and black pepper
400g stir fry beef
30 ml chopped spring onion
1 red chili, sliced
1 packet of egg noodles
1/2 cube of vegetable stock

Method

In a big pot, add the noodles, vegetable stock and boiling water and cook for 5 – 10 minutes. Strain and set aside. In a wok add the olive oil, sesame oil, soya sauce, chopped ginger, chopped garlic and some salt and pepper and fry for 2 minutes. Add the beef and allow to fry until the beef is cooked. Add the chopped spring onion and sesame seeds and fry for another 2 minutes. Serve with the sliced red chili and egg noodles.

Enjoy!
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Scones

I was in the mood for something different to the normal lunch and decided to make some scones. It is a lovely light lunch and is very quick and easy to prepare.

Ingredients

2 large eggs
100 ml milk
2.5 cups self raising flower
2 tsp baking powder
150 g butter
pinch of salt

Method

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius. In a large bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and add the butter. Do not melt the butter. Use your hands to work the butter into the flour mixture until it forms crumbs. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and add the milk. Mix together and add to the flour mixture. Again using your hangs, mix all the ingredients together until a dough is formed. Roll out the dough and cut out 1.5 cm thick round pieces by using either a cookie cutter, or alternatively use the open side of a glass. Using a brush, brush some milk or beaten egg on the top of the scones to make them nice and brown. Place the scones on top of some baking paper in a oven tray and in to the preheated oven. Allow to bake for 15 – 20 minutes, or until the scones are brown at the top. Allow to cool for 3 – 5 minutes before serving.

Serve with cheese, jam, whipped cream or just plain butter…what ever you prefer.

Beef Salad with Fried Mozzarella

Salads, salads, salads…so many ingredients to choose from. What, O! what shall we combine next?

Ingredients

300g eye round steak
1 tbsp chopped rosemary
3 tbsp olive oil
100g mozzarella cheese, cubed
1/2 cup plain flour
1 egg, beaten
1 cup bread crumbs
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
mixed baby herb leaves for salad

Method

Marinate the steak in 2 tbsp of oil and the rosemary for 30 minutes. While the meat is marinating, start to crumb the mozzarella. Dip into the flour, then the egg, and then finally the bread crumbs. Heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in a pan and fry the mozzarella on all sides. If it starts to leak out, don’t worry. It will still taste divine and will add some texture to your salad. After the meat has marinated, fry on a griddle pan until cooked to your preference, and thinly slice the steak. Place the mixed baby herb leaves and onion on a plate and top off with the beef and mozzarella. Serve with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Beef Lasagna

Lasagna is great in many ways. There are always leftovers which means no cooking the next day, and the heated up leftovers tastes even better than the previous night. There are many different ingredients that can be added to lasagna. I also like to make a vegetarian lasagna, and will upload a recipe for that at a later stage. Herewith my recipe for beef lasagna.

Ingredients

300 g minced beef
2 medium onions, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 can of stewed tomatoes
1 can of tomato sauce
1/2 can of tomato puree

For the white sauce

3 tbsp flour
3 tbsp butter
200 ml water
200 ml cream/milk
1 cup of mozzarella cheese cubed
salt and black pepper to taste

Also some lasagna pasta sheets. I used a glass dish, 30 x 20 cm and used around 12 sheets of pasta.

Method

To make the white sauce melt the butter in a small pot, add the flour and stir well. Add the water and cream, salt and pepper and then add the cheese in batches and make sure to stir continuously to avoid the sauce sticking to the bottom of the pot. Once the cheese has melted, turn off the heat and set aside.

For the tomato and mince mixture. Fry the onion, celery, garlic and mince in a pan over medium heat. Once the mince has started to brown, turn the heat lower and add the tomato puree, stewed tomatoes and tomato sauce and allow to cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and set aside.

Now it is time to start the layering process. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Start with a layer of pasta sheets. Next comes a layer of the tomato and mince mixture, topped with a layer of the white sauce. Repeat the process starting with the pasta, then the tomato sauce and then the white sauce, keeping enough white sauce for another layer. Next add one more layer of pasta and cover that with the remaining white sauce. Grate some cheddar cheese over the top. Place the dish in the oven and bake for 60-70 minutes, or until the pasta is cooked. Once your pasta is cooked, turn the oven to grill and let the lasagna grill for 5 minutes or until the top is nice and crispy.

Serve with some boiled veggies or a simple salad.

Citrus and Bacon Salad

After a three week holiday in South Africa, I am glad to be back in sunny Singapore. As it is always hot here, I have been making a lot of salads for lunch as well as dinner, and the more salad you eat, the more you try and experiment with new and different flavours. I love grapefruit and decided to try and incorporate that into a salad. The outcome was divine.

Ingredients

200g streaky bacon,
1 slice of white bread
1 grapefruit
2 handfuls of baby spinach leaves
feta of your choice
juice of 1 lemon
10 ml oil
pinch of dried oregano
1 pinch of salt

Method

Cut the bacon into approximately 3 x 1 cm pieces and add to a pan and fry until crispy. It is not necessary to add oil to the pan as bacon generates a lot of oil from the fat. Remove the crust from the slice of bread and cut the inner part into cubes. In a bowl, add 5 ml of olive oil and a pinch of dried oregano and allow the bread to soak for 5 minutes. Fry the bread in a pan until brown on both sides to make some crunchy croutons. Peel and slice the grapefruit, but make sure to remove all the skin so that you are left with only the pulp. Carefully remove the skin in order to keep the pulp in a wedge shape. For the dressing, add the lemon juice, salt and 5 ml of olive oil into a bowl, and whisk until the mixture becomes a bit thicker. Add the baby spinach leaves, bacon, croutons and grape fruit to a plate and top with crumbled feta. Serve with the lemon dressing on the side.

Burritos

My husband and I love Mexican food, thus I decided to try and make some burritos. This recipe can be made with either chicken or beef, or scrap the meat to make a vegetarian version.

Ingredients

300 g minced beef/boneless chicken cubed
1 bottle of mild salsa (I used Tostitos)
1 can of red kidney beans
1 white onion, sliced
1 red chili, sliced
1 cup of lettuce, roughly sliced
1/2 cup grated cheddar/mozarella cheese
pinch of salt
1 cup cooked rice
1 avo, sliced
sour cream to serve
4 tortilla wraps

Method

Fry the onion and red chili until the onion starts to brown. In a seperate pot, heat the salsa and kidney beans together. Once the onion starts to brown, add it to the salsa and cook while stirring for 5 – 10 minutes. While that is cooking, fry the mince and salt together in a little oil and add to the slasa mixture. Once the salsa is ready, serve the burrito’s by adding all the ingredients above. If it is just my husband and I, I like to serve up for both of us and I start with the rice, then the salsa, then the cheese, topped off with the lettuce. If we have guests, I prefer to place all the cooked ingredients in seperate bowls on the table to allow guests to help themselves. Leave the sour cream and avo on the side as some poeple might prefer to add their own. If you are expecting both meat eaters and vegetarians, serve the mince seperate from the salsa.

Beef Skewers with Roasted Potato and Rocket Salad

I knew that I wanted to add another recipe to my blog, but had no idea what to cook. I have made many, many meals, but could not decide on a recipe. My husband was busy paging through a magazine next to me, and a picture caught my eye and inspired me to make this meal. It turned out very, very yummy. I served this meal with a red onion sauce which is not in the picture, but I have added the recipe to this post. The red onion sauce really compliments the meal.

Beef Skewers

300 g rump steak, cut into squares
60 ml red wine
1 tsp dried oregano
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
metal or wooden skewers

Combine all the ingredients and marinate the steak for 1 hour. Once marinated, cook on a griddle pan until cooked to your preference. Skewer the meat onto your metal or wooden skewers.

Roasted Potato Salad

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius

10 small potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
2 hand fulls of rocket leaves
1 red chili, chopped

Toss the cubed potato together with the oil to cover evenly. Mix the salt and lemon juice together and add to the potatoes. Toss the potatoes and salt together until all the pieces are evenly covered. Place on a oven tray and cook for 30 minutes, or until to potatoes starts to brown at the top. Once the potatoes are done, mix together with the rocket leaves and chili, and serve with the beef skewers.

Red Onion Sauce

4 red onions, peeled and sliced
3 tbsp butter
2 tsp sugar
a pinch of dried cumin
a pinch of salt
60 ml red wine
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp tomato sauce
35 ml boiling water

Melt the butter in a pan and add the onion, and fry for 2 minutes. Add the sugar and fry for another 10 minutes, making sure that the onion does not burn. Add the red wine, flour, cumin, salt and tomato sauce and mix well. Add the boiling water and allow to cook for another 5 minutes. Serve on the side or on top of the meat.

Enjoy!

Chicken and Chili Mayo Pita with crispy Potato Chips

Pitas, Pitas, Pitas! Everybody loves pitas. I love doing chicken pita’s for lunch on a weekend. I have made a couple of different sauces before, and decided to go with the red chili mayo for this recipe.

Chicken and chili mayo pita

Ingredients

300g chicken, cubed
1 tbsp garlic butter
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup chopped cucumber
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped tomato
200g plain yoghurt
3/4 cup mayo
1 big red chili, sliced
1 tbsp milk

Method

Fry the chicken in garlic butter for 5 minutes, then add the boiling water and cook until the water has evaporated. Mix together the cucumber, onion, tomato and cooked chicken. Blend the milk, mayo, yoghurt and red chili in a blender until smooth and add to the chicken mixture. Mix well and fill your pita’s!

Crispy potato chips

Ingredients

3 medium sized potatoes
1 tsp paprika
1 tbsp olive oil

Method

Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Peel and thinly slice the potatoes. Mix together the paprika and olive oil and toss together with the sliced potatoes to cover evenly. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes or until crispy.