Prosperity Hamburger

With the home made burger bun, here comes the Prosperity Hamburger. To turn it into a CNY dish, you can serve it with some arrow head chips, that is only available during the CNY season.

Prosperity Hamburger

For the burger bun, refer here for the recipe

The Hamburger (make 4 patties)

300gm minced pork

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1 egg

Seasonings:

1 1/2 tbsp of light soy sauce

dashes of pepper powder

1 tsp sesame oil

Garnishing:

1 tomato, sliced horizontally

some green coral leaves

1/4 onion, sliced

1/2 cucumber, sliced

Cheddar cheese (which I forgot to add)

Mayonnaise or tomato sauce 

arrow head chips

Steps:
1. Marinate the minced meat for 30 minutes.
2. Divide the minced meat with marinade into 4 portions. Shape each portion into patty. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
3. Take out the meat patties from fridge and re-shape it.
4. Heat enough oil in a pan or wok. Shallow-fry the meat patties until golden brown at both side. Serve the meat patties with bun and veggies as burgers.

Burger Buns

I made these burger buns with reference to Alex Goh's "The World Of Bread". Finally I dug out this book of my book cabinet, which is been sitting there for ages. It has a series of fabulous bread recipes. For this burger bun, I followed his ingredients, and I used bread maker to do me the dough. :) How's the texture? Hmm...it's soft and fluffy. I'm loving it! 

Burger Bun

Makes 4 burger buns and a bread loaf

Ingredients:

400gm bread flour

20gm sugar

6g salt

1 tbsp milk powder

2 tsp yeast

250ml water

30gm vegetable oil (the original recipe calls for shortening)

sesame seeds

Steps:

1. Put all the ingredients into bread maker follow the sequence of liquid, semi liquid, and dry ingredients.

2. Select "dough" program.

3. When the dough is ready, divide it into 80gm portions. Mould into balls and put on a greased pan.

4. Let the dough prove for 15 minutes, then flatten slightly and continue to let them prove for 30 minutes.

5. Brush the top with water and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.

6. Bake at 190 deg C for 15-20 minutes.

7. Slices the burger bun horizontally to serve with burger and salad. 

Pork Jerky

Chinese New Year is around the corner. Everyone is busy with baking cookies. I want to join the crowd, but I just don't have enough time to do so. So instead of baking cookies, I bake a batch of pork jerky. Since it is one of the popular snack to have during Chinese New Year.

My eldest sister is the one who started to make pork jerky in our family. Her method is to marinate the minced pork, flatten it on a tray, get it dried under the sun, cut it into pieces, keep it in the fridge and get it baked just before eating. I don't have time to follow all the steps. So, I cut short the steps to expedite the process. Bear in mind, pork jerky is high calories food. 100gm of pork jerky is about 500 Cal. So, don't over-eat. :)

Pork Jerky

Ingredients:

300gm minced pork with some fat

2tbsp light soy sauce (the brand I use is less salty)

1tsp dark soy sauce

1tsp fish sauce

1/3 cup of sugar (This can be reduced as I found my pork jerky a bit sweet)

1tsp sunflower oil

1tbsp cooking wine

You'll also need non-stick baking paper, and a clean plastic bag that has been cut open into a plastic sheet.

Steps:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Leave it for 1/2 hour.

2. Preheat oven at 170 deg C.

3. Put a thin layer of marinated minced pork on a piece of baking paper. Cover it with plastic sheet. Flatten it with your palms. 

* I like my pork jerky thin, so I flatten the minced pork to about 1mm thickness.

4. Transfer the minced pork on baking paper into a baking tray. Bake for 15 minutes under 170 deg C.

* You will need to adjust the baking time based on the thickness of the pork jerky.

5. Leave it cool and cut into desired size. Keep in air tight container.

Beetroot Bread

Who said beetroot bread is supposed to be red? My beetroot bread turned out as brown color :P. It looks just like wholemeal bread. Utilizing the breadmaker machine again, I made another loaf of bread with beetroot juice. Oh ya, the measuring spoon at the back was a gift from Anncoo Journal, Thanks Anncoo!

Beetroot Bread  (Use Basic Programme of Tesco Bread Maker BM07)

Ingredients

300gm bread flour

200gm super fine flour

2tbsp of milk powder

2tbsp of sugar

1tsp of salt

2tsp of dried yeast

40gm of butter at room temp

200ml water at room temp

100ml of beetroot juice

some raisins

Steps:

1. Add water and beetroot juice follow by butter.
2. Add bread flour, super fine flour, salt and sugar.
3. Tap the pan lightly to settle the flour. Add sugar and milk powder and salt.
4. Add the yeast in small heap in the center of the pan. Note: Prevent the yeast from salt.
5. Lock the pan in the bread maker. Set the program to "Basic" follow by loaf size and select the crust color.
6. Add raisins in between the proving process. The bread maker will complete the task in 3 hours.

Sesame Oil Chicken & Beancurd Stick

This is the dish that my eldest sister used to cook for dinner when I stayed with her years back. Among all her home cooked dishes, this is one that I can still remember its taste until today. It doesn't look outstanding at all. But, it has very homey taste. If you like chicken, beancurd stick and sesame oil, you'll like this dish.

Sesame Oil Chicken & Beancurd Stick
Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 chicken leg, skinned, deboned and cut into strips
80 gm of beancurd stick
200 ml water
cooking oil
1 tbsp of corn starch diluted in 5 tbsp of water

Marinades:
2 tbsp of sesame oil
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
dashes of pepper powder

Seasoning:
light soy sauce to taste

Steps:

1. Marinate the chicken with marinades and leave for half an hour.
2. Dehydrate the beancurd stick and cut into 2" length.
3. Heat up oil in a wok. Stir-fry the marinated chicken.
4. Add water and bring to a boil.
5. Toss in the beancurd stick. Cover the lid and let it simmers for 5 minutes.
6. Add light soy sauce to taste.Pour in the corn starch mixture for sauce thickening.
7. Dish out and serve hot with rice.

Vegetarian Mutton Curry

Vegetarian mutton curry is one of my favorite pick when I dine in at any vegetarian shop. The "vegetarian mutton" is made of mushroom stem, flour, and soy. I don't take it that frequent, as this frozen product sure contains seasonings and preservatives. In any vegetarian shop, this dish is pretty expensive. To accomplish my so called "cost saving" project at home, I attempted to cook it on last Sunday. I'm glad that it turned out to be so yummy! Thanks to the good quality fresh curry paste that hubby bought from a reliable fresh spice stall.

Vegetarian Mutton Curry
Serves 3 to 4


Ingredients:
250gm vegetarian mutton
fresh mutton curry paste ( I bought it at MYR1.20 from a reliable stall in wet market)
3 springs of fresh curry leaves
50ml evaporated milk
100ml water
4 tbsp cooking oil
light soy sauce to taste

Steps:
1. Heat oil in the wok. Sauté curry paste curry leaves till fragrant and oil separated.
2. Add vegetarian mutton and stir fry. Pour in water and bring to a boil.
3. Add evaporated milk and light soy sauce to taste.
4. Dish out and serve hot with rice.

Peri-Peri Prawn Skewers

New year new resolutions. That's what I mentioned in the white bread loaf post. The new year also reflect a change in my career. I'm reassigned to handle new projects in new plant. My current company expanded and took up another 2 manufacturing plants that's connected to each other in different industrial area. I've started working in that 2 connected buildings since 4th of Jan. I know it's going to be a challenging year for the whole team. It's challenging to me in terms of new responsibilities, new environment, new boss, new subordinates, new counterparts,....etc. I wish it's a good start. Ok, let's back to the food.

Here's another simple recipe by using Nando's Hot Peri-Peri sauce. It's a recipe that suits my current hectic working life. It requires short preparation time, and the cooking is done by oven. Many of you will like it, I bet. You can play around with the marinades to suit your own taste buds. Have fun!

Peri-Peri Prawn Skewers

Ingredients:
14 jumbo prawns, shelled with head and tail intact and vein removed

Marinades:
juice of 1 calamansi
2 tbsp of Nando's Hot Peri-Peri sauce
1 stalk of spring onion, chopped
1 pinch of salt

Steps:
1. Marinate the prawns for 5 minutes.
2. Preheat oven at 180 deg C.
3. Put each prawn on a skewer. Arrange the skewer on baking pan.
4. Oven-bake the prawns for 15 minutes under 180 deg C.

Spring Onion Omelette

The first batch of home grown spring onion was harvested. It was used to make spring onion omelette which was prepared just like the mint leaves omelette. Here comes a dish that is high in dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals. Most importantly, the spring onion is pesticide-free home grown vegetable. Though, this is just a simple dish, but it makes me so proud of it. It's kind of encouragement for me to grow more vegetables at home.

Spring Onion Omelette
Serves 2

Ingredients:
2 Omega-3 eggs
2 stalk of spring onion, chopped
1 tbsp of cooking oil

Seasoning:
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
dashes of white pepper powder

Steps:
1. Crack the eggs into a bowl. Add seasoning and get the egg beaten.

2. Heat oil in a wok. Pour the egg mixture to fry. When it's almost cook at the bottom, toss the spring onion on top of egg. Turn the egg to fry the other side for about 30 seconds. Fold the omelet into half and dish out.

Home Made White Bread

New year, new resolutions. The first thing I learnt in 2011 is bread making. With the newly bought Tesco bread maker BM07, I can now have fresh home made bread for breakfast. So here, I'm sharing with you the first bread loaf that I made this afternoon. It was a successful trial with the recipe provided in the user's guide. I'm so impress with its soft, fluffy and little bit of springy texture. It's quite similar to the "Bengali" bread that I used to have when I was a kid.

Wishing all my fellow friends a very Happy New Year! I hope 2011 is a good start for everyone here! 

White Bread (Use Basic Programme of Tesco Bread Maker BM07)

makes a 700gm loaf

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups of room temp water

1 tbsp of sunflower oil

1 tsp of salt

2 tbsp of sugar

3 1/3 cups of bread flour/high Protein flour/high gluten flour

2 tsp dried yeast

Steps:

1. Add water follow by oil.

2. Add flour, salt and sugar.

3. Tap the pan lightly to settle the flour.

4. Add the yeast in small heap in the center of the pan.

5. Lock the pan in the bread maker. Set the program to "Basic" follow by loaf size and select the crust color.

6. The bread maker will complete the task in 3 hours.