Recipe - Beef Burger Sandwiches with Sriracha Onions

This time I think the title of the recipe is fairly accurate. These burgers contains beef. Nothing more - nothing less.

They are actually inspired by a documentary about burgers I watched a couple of years ago. Yes, I watch documentaries about burgers - so sue me. ;)

Getting back to the documentary, it talked about how some of the first burger restaurants served their burgers on toasted white bread and how they just added some seasoning to the burgers as they fried.

These burgers were my attempt to try and recreate the work of these pioneers.

The real star of this particular show though - the Sriracha onions. The few hardy souls who have followed this blog for some time know that I simply adore Sriracha chili sauce. This was just another attempt to get some more Sriracha into my diet.

I should warn those of you that are afraid of heat and flavour in your food - stay well clear of these onions. Just walk away. Don't even think of it. Shooo - off you go.

Ok, that should leave the more hardened readers and adventurous eaters. Let's head over to the recipe.

Ingredients (made two Mikey-sized burgers)
1 Yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced
Sriracha sauce, to taste
Olive oil
2 slices of white bread
Mayonnaise (optional)
300g beef mince
Salt
Pepper
Cheese slices (optional)

Method
Mix the onion slices with some Sriracha sauce to taste in a bowl. Add a little bit of olive oil and give it a good stir. Cover and pop in the fridge to marinade - preferably over night.

When it's time to start cooking add the onion mixture to a frying pan on a low-medium heat and let it cook for at least 25 minutes. Stir frequently.

Toast or grill the bread. Put to the side.

Make two patties out of the mince. Be careful and don't work the mince too much.

Season the patties with salt and pepper. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan on medium heat and add the patties, seasoned side down.

Fry for a couple of minutes. Season and flip.

Fry for another couple of minutes until done to your liking.

If you want to, spread some mayonnaise on the bread. Flop on the burger patties and portion out the onions on top.

If you feel like it - add a slice of cheese or two and let them melt under the grill.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Creamy Fried Beef with Dijon and Shiitake Mushrooms

You'll have this on the table in no time at all and it is more or less fail proof.


As always it leans itself to freestyling. Just add and subtract as to what you have in the fridge and the cupboard and you can make this your own dish.

I used frying steak but you could just as well use pork for example. If you don't have access to shiitake you can use any other mushroom you like, or ditch the mushrooms all together - the choice is yours.

This time I served it with rice but you could just as well serve it with pasta, potatoes or why not some 'polenta fries'.

Time to look at the recipe.

Ingredients (serves 4)
400g frying steak, thinly sliced
Butter
1 leek, cut into 1 - 2 cm rounds
150g shiitake mushrooms, cut into chunks
3 tbsp Dijon mustard (or more or less to taste)
150 ml white wine
1 tbsp Knorr Touch of Taste concentrated beef stock
200 ml Creme Fraiche
1 tbsp Soy Sauce
Salt
Pepper


Method
Fry the beef in butter at a medium-high heat until well browned. Add the leek and mushroom and let fry for a minute or two.

Add mustard, wine and beef stock. Bring to a simmer and let it simmer away covered for a couple of minutes.

Stir in the creme fraiche and soy sauce and let it simmer for another couple of minutes or so. Season to taste.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Potato, Vegetable and Beef Burger Bake

Some days you just hit gold in the kitchen, even if I say so myself. This was something I threw together based on several ideas and recipes I had stumbled across recently.

To be honest, this is something I'll definitely be cooking more times. It might be better suited to winter time since it sure did help heat up my flat, but it was worth it.

As most times, this is something you can freestyle to your hearts content. Mix and match vegetables as you feel fit. Next time I'll probably add some garlic for example.

The burgers did cook just fine but might still be just on the limit for the 'burn my burger to charcoal'-brigade. If you're one of those, please accept my commiserations and then adjust the cooking time a bit. ;)

After winding up some readers, time to head on to the recipe.

Ingredients (serves 4)
100ml breadcrumbs
200ml water
500g beef mince
1tbsp concentrated beef stock
Salt
Pepper
3 large-ish potates (600g or so), peeled and thinly sliced
Olive oil
2 courgettes, quartered and sliced
1 red onion, halved then each half quartered
1 pepper (I used 1/2 yellow and 1/2 orange)
1 - 2 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
100g sundried tomatoes in olive oil, fairly finely chopped
200g feta cheese, crumbled


Method
Pre-heat the oven to 225c.

Mix the breadcrumbs and water in a bowl. Let this stand for a couple of minutes
to swell and combine. Mix in the mince and beef stock. Season well.

Pop the courgettes, onion and pepper into a bowl. Pour on some olive oil and mix well.

Lightly oil a large, and fairly deep, baking tray. Put the potatoes in a thin layer on the bottom of the baking tray. Season well. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Make 8 burgers out of the mince and place them on top of the warm potatoes. Brush some olive oil on top of the burgers. Spread the vegetable mix around the burgers. Scatter the rosemary all over. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes.

Scatter the tomatoes and feta cheese all over the baking tray. Bake for another 5 - 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Tsatziki Chicken with Lime Couscous

Here we go again - another recipe that's fairly quick to prepare, although it needs some time to marinade, and cook. Prepare it the day before, let it sit in the fridge over night and you're sorted very quickly the next day.

Cooking the couscous is really just a matter of pouring on some water, the lime juice and the lime zest so that's not really a chore either.

I'd say that this works just as well as a weekend dish as a normal weekday dinner. But that's just me so I better get on with the recipe...

One last thing first though, the only reason I called this tsatziki chicken is that the marinade remind me of tsatziki. Simple as that...

Ingredients (serves 4)
Marinade
200g Greek yoghurt
Mint leaves (10 - 20, according to taste), sliced and/or chopped
2 garlic cloves (or more or less to taste), pressed or finely diced
Salt
Pepper

Couscous
4 portions of couscous, as per the packet
Water, as per the instructions on the paper
Juice of 1 - 2 limes, to taste
Zest from 1 - 2 limes, to taste

4 skinless chicken breasts

Method
Mix all the ingredients for the marinade well in a large bowl.

One by one put the chicken breasts between sheets of cling film and bash them with a mallet or similar until about 5 mm thick.

Pop the chicken into the bowl with the marinade and make sure to stir well so they're all well covered. Cover the bowl with some cling film and put it into the fridge for a minimum of two hours or up to a day.

When you are getting ready to cook the chicken, remove it from the fridge to bring it to room temperature.

Prepare the couscous as per the packaging - adding the lime juice and zest.

In the meantime, heat the oven to 160c.

Put the chicken breasts on parchment paper on a oven tray.

Cook in the oven for about 15 minutes or until cooked. If you think the chicken looks a bit anaemic you can always finish it off under the grill for a bit.

Serve with the couscous and a green salad if you are in the mood.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Lemon and Oregano Ribeye Steak

This is the last recipe coming out of the Marco Pierre White masterclass all those weeks ago.

There isn't much to it, that's probably why it tasted quite excellent, even if I do say so myself. There's few things that beats a nice steak and the added flavour on this one really did the trick for me.

With the risk of sound like a evangelist - this Knorr stockcube paste malarkey is actually very versatile and does really add flavour to what you cook. I quite like the way I can freestyle it and mix and match flavours and spices the way I like.

Ok - as I said in the beginning - this is the last recipe to come out of the masterclass. However, I can't promise that it is the last recipe with a stockcube paste. ;)

Ingredients (serves 1)
1 ribeye steak
1 Knorr Chicken stockcube
Olive oil
The zest of one lemon
Fresh oregano, finely chopped

Method
Make a paste out of the stockcube and the olive oil. Add the lemon zest and oregano and stir well.

Spread the paste on one side of the steak and let sit for about 10 minutes.

Heat a griddle pan until you think it's far too hot, let it heat for another couple of minutes.

Pop the steak into the griddle pan with the paste side down. Spread paste onto the other side and cook for your normal time. Flip and finish to your liking.

Remove the steak and let it rest before serving.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Chicken, Chorizo and Sundried Tomato Bakes

These could probably look quite impressive, at least if you are a bit better at working with pastry than what I am. I'm sure some creative pastry-types could make some nice decorations to go on them - as well as making them look uniform and generally a bit nicer.

They are fairly easy to put together and yet again - freestyle them to your hearts content. For example, I could easily see myself putting some cheese and ham in the chicken instead of the chorizo and tomatoes.

Use your fantasy, what's the worst that can happen? Yeah, that's true - it could go horribly wrong. Let's rephrase that - use your fantasy combined with some common sense! ;-)

After that little thought experiment - let's look at the recipe.

Ingredients (serves 4)
4 chicken breasts
Thinly sliced chorizo
Sun dried tomatoes, chopped
Fresh basil, torn
Salt
Pepper
1 x 500g block of puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 220c.

Slice the chicken breasts horizontally along the length, making sure not to cut all the way through. Spread the chicken breast like a butterfly and press down with your hands to flatten it a bit.

Put chorizo slices, chopped tomatoes and basil on the chicken breasts and season to taste. Roll up the chicken breasts. and put to the side while you prepare the puff pastry.

Roll out the pastry to a rectangle of about 35 x 40 cm. Cut into 4 equal squares and pop a chicken breast onto each one.

Brush the edges of the pastry squares with a small-ish amount of beaten egg (don't use too much or it won't seal properly).

Fold the squares into small parcels and push firmly to seal.

Flip the parcels upside down and put them onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper or tin foil.

Cut some slits on the top of each parcel to allow steam to escape and brush with some more beaten egg.

Bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until nicely golden and risen.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Sausage, Tomato and Onion bake

This is another recipe that doesn't really take much time in the preparation stakes but gives quite a nice end result.

You can scale it up and down as you please when it comes to servings. You can also select to make one big bake instead of baking it in separate portions as I did.

I couldn't really be bothered with making anything to serve with it so I just went for a small baguette to soak up the juices with. If you got more time and feel like making more of an effort you could serve it with rice, boiled potatoes, mash or why not some polenta? Hey, if you're feeling ultra healthy - why not a salad on the side? The options are almost endless....

As always - freestyle it to your hearts content. Choose some spicy sausages, change the herbs, use mixed tomatoes and so on.

Without further ado - let's get the recipe on...

Ingredients (serves 2)
300g cherry tomatoes
1 - 2 red onions, peeled and quartered
1 - 2 sprigs of fresh lemon thyme, leafs finely chopped
1 - 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, leafs finely chopped
1 - 2 cloves of garlic, chopped but not too finely
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
6 good quality pork sausages

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 190c.

Pop the tomatoes, onions, garlic and herbs into a roasting tray or casserole dishes. Drizzle on some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. (If you should get too much liquid at the end you could either spoon some out or remove the tomatoes and sausage and reduce the liquid on the stove top - as long as your baking tray/casserole dish is suitable for that.)

Give everything a good stir and top it all with the sausages.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, give everything a stir again, rotate the sausages and hoik it back into the oven.

Bake for another 15 - 30 minutes or until the sausages are cooked to your liking.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Pork casserole with red onion, mushrooms and curry powder

I'm not all that sure that this really is a casserole but that's what I'm going to call it.

Yet again I just grabbed some stuff in the supermarket during lunch and made something out of it. As always I thought of and forgot lots of stuff that could have added some extra goodness to the dish.

I wouldn't be totally averse to adding things like sliced red peppers, apple or even banana to this one. Yes, you read that right - banana. B - a -n - a - n - a. ;) For some reason me and my (so called?) tastebuds are convinced that banana and curry powder goes really well together in savoury dishes. Each to their own and all that I guess.

Even if you don't like the idea of bananas in this - freestyle it to your hearts content. This is another one of those dishes where you can empty out all your odds and ends in the fridge etc. Why not stir in some fresh herbs just before serving?

I served this with rice but you could just as well serve it with pasta or potatoes for example.

Let's see what I put into this one...

Ingredients (serves 4 or so)
500g diced pork leg
1 -2 tbsp flour
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
4 - 5 closed button mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 red onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1 - 2 tbsp curry powder (or more or less to your taste)
300 ml creme fraiche
Juice from one lemon

Method
Put the flour, salt and pepper into a plastic bag. Tip in the diced pork and shake well.

Heat a frying pan on a medium heat. Once hot, add olive oil and the pork (make sure to shake of any excess flour) and fry the pork until browned on all sides. Remove the pork.

Adjust the heat to low. Add the mushroom and onion slices and let them cook gently until softened, stirring every now and then. Add the curry powder after a couple of minutes and give it all a good stir.

Once the mushroom and onion have softened to your liking, pop the pork back into the pan and stir in the creme fraiche and lemon juice.

Let this bubble up and reduce a bit. Taste it and adjust curry/seasoning to your taste.

Enjoy!

Video from the masterclass with Marco Pierre White

I'm not sure what to say here since I'm feeling a bit embarrassed - I really don't feel comfortable in front of the camera, much less so a video camera.

This video is from the masterclass with Marco Pierre White I have written so much about recently and I may or may not feature for a second or two.

Recipe - Tuna Nicoise (or Nicoise-ish?)

This is yet another recipe stolen from inspired by the Knorr Masterclass with Marco Pierre White I attended a little while ago.

It is a fairly quick and easy way of making a very tasty tuna dish.

One good tip is to make the 'nicoise topping' a bit ahead and let it sit and let all the flavours mingle together for some time. It's not a bad idea to let it get some sun so it heats up a little bit.

I haven't specified any proportions as to how much you need for the 'nicoise mix' - let your own taste dictate what you do and how you do it. Like black olives more than green ones - have more black olives. Can't stand capers - leave the little buggers out. Freestyle it - that's the way forward!

I served this with boiled Charlotte potatoes, something that went well with tuna steaks.

Enough waffling, let's get the recipe on...

Ingredients (serves 4)
Nicoise mix
Cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered
Black olives, thinly sliced
Green olives, thinly sliced
Capers
Lemon juice

Tuna steaks
4 tuna steaks, about 200g each
1 - 2 Knorr Fish Stock Cubes
Olive Oil

Garnish
Fresh herbs (basil, coriander etc)
Sea salt flakes

Method
Nicoise mix
Pop the tomatoes into a bowl, rinse (if you want to) the olives and capers then drain well and add to the tomatoes. Add olive oil and fresh lemon juice in quantities that suits your taste and stir well. Put to the side to let the flavours develop.

Tuna steaks
Make a paste out of Fish Stock Cubes and olive oil. Spread some of it on one side of each steak. Let sit and marinade for a bit, why not about 20 minutes or so?

Heat a griddle pan until you think it is far too hot. Then let it get a bit hotter.

Add the tuna steaks to the pan, paste side down. Spread more paste onto the 'un-pasted' side of each tuna steak. Let the steaks fry for about 2 - 3 minutes then flip them and give them about the same time on the other side. Or just adjust the time to suit you and your dinner guests. 

Put the steaks onto plates and spoon some of the nicoise mix onto each steak, making sure to drain as much liquid as possible first.

Garnish with some fresh herbs and sea salt flakes.

Enjoy!