Easy awesome burgers!!



500 g ground beef (i used halal beef)
1 egg
0.5 teaspoon of smoked sweet paprika
Salt and black peper to taste
1 onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbs of mayo
1 tbs vinegar (i use rice vinegar)
1 tbs ketchup
1 tbs mustard  and mustard additionaly tu put on toasted bread
1 small shallot
1 large tomato
1 or 2 pickles
bunch of choice salad
buns for burgers (brioche with sesames seeds)
cheddar cheese


1 or 2 sweet potatoes depending on the size
1 tsp of smoke sweet paprika
1 tsp of cumin
Salt to taste
1 tsp of thyme
1 clove of garlic
3 tbs of olive oil


This recipe is for 4 burgers!
Sweet potato fries:
Scrub your sweet potato(s) and cut them in 2x2 cm thickness peaces. Put them in a large bowl with  paprika, squeezed out garlic, cumin, thyme and olive oil and mix with your hands very well to coat all cut out fries. Line baking tray with cooking paper and put all fries in there, leaving some space between each fry. Preheat the oven to 220 Celsius and pop the tray in for 30 min turning the fries every 10 min. Check carefully for burning signs. Once fries are all mushy inside and start to brown off and crisp up on the sides its your window to take them out. While fries are still hot sprinkle them with salt.

Lets handle meat:
take the mince and mix it with salt, pepper, smoked paprika and egg. Mix it well and put aside while u cut and prepare everything else.
for the dressing:
 Cut the onion in very small peaces, chop garlic and put it in a bowl, add mayo, ketchup, mustard and vinegar and mix well. Set aside in a fridge for an hour or how much time you have.
So lets go back to assembling:
separate meat into 4 balls and flatten them to about 3 cm thickness, making a small press in circle with your fingers in the middle (it will help meat stay flat during frying). Put the meat on hot grill and fry 3 - 4 min on each side, turning it once. Once there are 2 min left till meat is done, pop the slice of cheese on top. On a other pan toast bread (cut it in half before).
Put mustard on all bun sides and spread it with knife. On first half of the bread put chosen salad, pop cooked meat on top, then goes a big spoonful of dressing, then goes slice of tomato. For toppings i sliced some pickle and shallot you cn choose whatever toppings you like, and for the final touch second half of the bun.

And voila the result is awesome!!

Thai style chicken curry with coconut rice

so i thoughts its about time to test out different flavors as in new country you can find new spices and different products. Netherlands so far did not disappoint me with variety of ingredients.

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts
2 cups of jasmine rice
1 big onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 stalk of lemongrass
1 lime
6 cm of ginger
1 chili
1 tsp white pepper
2 tsp coriander seeds
1 can of coconut milk
1 small can of coconut cream
2 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
1 tbsp coconut oil

I hope i didn't forget anything :) Lets start the experiment, never tried anything similar to this, but i guess as all curries we need first to build out curry base.
Chop up onion, garlic, lemongrass and chilly very finely, grate in ginger and lime zest and start frying them up in coconut oil in deeper pan, next to i in small dry pan throw in white pepper, coriander and turmeric and roast it until it starts smelling like roasted spices (1 - 2 min on high heat), be careful as turmeric powder can start burning, once spices are roasted grind them with pestle and add to the bigger pan with slowly softening onion and garlic. Once everything is together, mix well, add salt and fry for another couple of minutes, then add chicken breast cut in bite size cubes, mix well and add coconut cream to the pan, also squeeze in lime juice, for acidity, if the lime is very small add a bit of lemon juice. After adding coconut cream cook for another 5 to 10 min depending on thickens of sliced chicken. Voila curry is done.!
Lets move on to coconut rice, it was also first try, but i think i will start making it more often, so sweet and tasty it was.
For 2 cups of rice i added about 1/4 cup of water, 1 tsp of salt, a bit of turmeric for color and 1 can of coconut milk. Mixed it well on high heat until it started boiling, than reduced the heat to the minimum and covered the pan, left it simmer for 15 min. After 15 min check if all liquid is gone,if yes, carefully fluff the rice and try if its done, don\t be scared bottom part might be a bit roasted ( in my case it was golden brown and it added nice texture). For serving you can roast up some shallots with chili flakes, 1 tsp of brown sugar and salt to taste to make tasty crumble on top of the dish.


It was awesomely tasty and i think ill keep experimenting with these tastes. I hope you will enjoy.

Thai spiced salmon soup

Ingredients:
 400 g Salmon file, skinless
2 big squids without legs
1 chili
2 big cloves of garlic
1 small shallot
small bunch of fresh coriander
a pack of shiitake mushrooms
1/3 of udon noodle pack
2 limes (a stalk of lemongrass if you managed to find it)
tbl spoon of fish sauce
3cm of ginger root
salt to taste
1 l  of chicken broth
a can of coconut milk

Prep work:
roughly chop garlic put aside, finely chop shallot, put aside and grate or finely chop ginger, then chop half of chili pepper (if chili is not too spicy you can use more than one, depends on your heat tolerance) the other half nicely slice and leave for soup dressing at the end. Divide coriander in half - separate leaves from stalks, nicely chop coriander stalks and put aside leaves for soup dressing.
Zest 2 limes and then mix the zest with squeezed out juice. Wash the fish and squid very well and put aside (i did not cut the fish it flakes nicely in the soup), then take squid heads and cut their sides to flatten them, then cut in half and slice in shape of noodles, quite thinly, put aside. I had dried shiitake mushrooms, so i had to soak them before preparation, it took 30 min maybe less in cold water and they were ready to go, cut the heads in pieces around the stem, stems are quite harsh so i didn't use them.

And now lets get into real cooking:

heat the pan with a bit of oil - i used peanut oil, add garlic and fry until it will soften a bit, add ginger and shallots, fry until golden and nice, at the end chuck in  chopped up chili and fry until it will soften a bit, then pour in coconut milk. Cook it for 5 - 10 min then poor in hot chicken broth and fish sauce and let it simmer for 15 min, taste it on the way if you like the density of spices if it is too watery let it simmer down, once it reaches its eclipse put in the fish and cook for 10 min ( + - 5 min depending on thickness of salmon peace). Once Salmon is cooked throw in squid pieces and after 3 min drop in udon noodles. Noodles usually take around 5 min, you need to check it it shouldn't bee too soft, once noodles are almost done switch of the heat and leave it until it will stop boiling.


Ready to serve:

put a bowlful of goodness, drop in few slices of chili and add few leaves of coriander and voila!
Enjoy!

Roast ribs with pumpkin and garlic puree

Pork ribs i bought one peace with skin on
Half of pumpkin
1 head of garlic
Salt
Pepper
Rosemary
Few leaves of spring onion or chives

Prepare ribs by scorching the skin nicely , drying it out with paper towels and salting quite well.

leave it aside to salt in for half an hour.


















De-seed your half of the pumpkin, salt well, add a bunch of  rosemary (i used dried one from the garden, mashed it with hands and equally sprinkled inside of the pumpkin).

Put the pumpkin in preheated oven at 160 C, for couple of hours, constantly removing excess of pumpkin juice gathered inside. Once pumpkin is nice and soft (easily removable from skin with spoon), scoop it out into oven suited cooking pan.















Meanwhile after half an hour of salting in, add ribs on a grate on top of pumpkin, allowing juice to drip into pumpkin,

it took me 1,5 h to cook them through and get a nice crunch on the skin.

















Around half an hour before pumpkin is done, throw in the oven unpeeled garlic cloves (full head - around 5 -7 cloves of garlic), once it is softened push it out of the skin straight to the cooking pan with pumpkin puree, mix it in and put it back to the oven.

Now the easy part, put ribs on top of pumpkin puree with garlic, crank the temperature to 220 C and keep it for 10 - 15 min, constantly watching the crackling as it is easy to burn it, i would advice from time to time add a bit of salt as it is helping to form very crisp crackling on top and who doesn't love crunchy crackling? :)


Now chop up spring onion  or chives real nicely and once serving sprinkle it on top of pumping puree.

try it out and please comment!

Pumpkin soup

Half of medium sized pumpkin, seeded an cut in cubes

1 small onion

2 cloves of garlic

4 slices hot smoked ham

1 tsp of cumin

4 big potatoes

Preparation:

Boil pumpkin cubes until soft, remove most of liquid and blend it. Put blended pumpkin puree back to the pot ad 0,5 l of water, salt and pepper to taste and cook on medium heat.

Peel potatoes wash them and cut in medium size cubes. Put them to the pan with oil on high heat and crisp them from all sides

Chop onion in small pieces and put to the pan wit cumin and pinch of salt, cook till is golden. When its soft, crush garlic with flat side of the night and add it to the pan with onion, once it softens add ham sliced in small cubes and cook it for couple of minutes always tossing. 

Once its done pop it to the pot.

Once ham is in, drop crispy potatoes to the pot and boil for another 10 min.

For serving you can add some sour cream and croutons

* i added also roasted seeds, would not advice to do that for ppl who avoid eating them with shells 

Enjoy warm autumn goodness

Mushroom soup with miso

Mushroom soup with miso

1 0.5 l jar of pickled or salted mushrooms
small can of coconut milk
1 onion
2 packs of miso soup
2 cubes of broth
assortment of sausages (optional)
4 big potatoes


Method:
wash mushrooms with cold water, to wash away all acidity and saltiness, put in a pot with 3 l of water. Cut potatoes and add them to the boiling water. Cut assortment of sausages in big pieces and put them in pan to brown a bit and release all fats, then add finely diced onions. After Onions will turn golden and soft, put them and browned sausages into the pot. After 30 minutes add miso and broth to the pot. When potatoes are almost done add coconut milk and boil for another 30 min.
Unfortunately this time there are no photos, but I hope that this recipe is quite clear :)
Enjoy!

Time for mexican flavor!! Chicken avocado enchiladas

So who missed some spicy lime'y taste with light cream to put out the heat? I hope you did :)
Ingredients:
1 chicken Brest and 2 chicken legs, de-boned
I went this time easy way and took 1 pack of enchilada spice mix
Bunch of spring onions with heads
1 table spoon of pickled jalapenos
2 big tomatoes
1 box of tomatoes pure or canned tomatoes
Bunch of coriander leaves
Sour cream for side
1 or 2 avocados
1/2 lime for juice
Cheddar cheese for sprinkling

So it starts like this:

Cut your chicken in pretty small  cubes,  bite size

and mix it with full pack of enchilada spices

leave it aside while you chop your other ingredients.
After 10 - 15 min, place chicken into deep pan and cook on medium-high temperature until it will brown a bit,

don't cook it trough, you don't want to overcook chicken, it will become dry.
When chicken is slightly browned add tomato paste to the pan and start bubbling it for around 10 min on low heat, to reduce the sauce. Add cubes of raw tomatoes and jalapenos,
I like lime taste so i squeezed in half of lime for smell and taste. Now you throw in chopped sun dried tomatoes and cook it for 10 min more.
When the sauce is reduced and raw ingredients are softened switch off the heat and prepare working place for rolling them up.
Cut avocado in small cubes and put next to chopped spring onions.

Lace cooking pan (also deep one), with a bit of oil. In flower tortilla put a spoon of chicken (try to leave some sauce in the pan for later), on top put few cubes of avocado and sprinkle some spring onion.

Roll it up and place it in cooking pan.
Repeat it till all chicken is gone,

 then put left over of the sauces on top of enchiladas.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees and put enchiladas in for 10-15 min, until lightly browned.

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For serving:

Grate some cheese on hot enchiladas, sprinkle some more spring onion, chopped coriander and if left, some avocado, add some sour cream on a side and voila!

Enjoy!