Beef Hamburger

Don't know what to eat for dinner? Craving one of those burgers? Well, crave no more. This recipe is so easy and so simple to make, you won't want to buy one of those burgers anymore, well maybe once in a while, you can buy some. LOL. But if you make your very own burgers, at least you know what you're putting there. This is how I make this simple recipe. This recipe is not concrete, you can add more ingredients or you can even omit some. It's up to you. This is just a guideline. Enjoy.







Ingredients:

1 kilo minced beef
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 tsp of garlic powder or dried minced garlic or freshly minced garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
3 eggs
Cooking oil for frying


Directions:

1. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly, except the cooking oil.
2. Shape them into hamburger patties as big or as small as you like.
3. Fry them or bbq them as you desire. I fried them first, then put them under the grill.
4. Serve them the way you like it. In a bun with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, mushroom with mustard, mayonaise and tomato sauce, on a plate or even eat them with rice. Sky is the limit.

Chicken and Mushroom Curry

This dish is one of our favourites. It's a very simple yet very tasty dish. Whenever I cooked this one, guaranteeed, there won't be any left over. I always like a glass of wine with this one, my favourite accompaniment for this dish is crimson cabernet. I love my wine sweet.

Ingredients

½ kilo of chicken thigh fillets, sliced
3 tbsp of cooking oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp of minced ginger (I used the one from the jar)
2 medium carrots, sliced
½ red capsicum, sliced
1 tsp curry powder or to taste
Dash of thai seasoning (optional)
1-2 tsp of fish sauce or to taste
Chillies (optional)
Button Mushrooms, as much or as little as you like, sliced
1 can of coconut milk. If using coconut cream, use only ½ a can. If you like it creamy, use the whole can

Directions

1. Heat oil in a saucepan.
2. Add and brown the garlic. Add the onions and ginger.
3. Add the curry powder and thai seasoning, if using. Stir thoroughly.
4. Add the chicken pieces, stir then season with fish sauce. Cover and cook the chicken for about 2 or 3 minutes.
5. Add the carrots and capsicum. Stir and cook for another minute.
6. Add the mushroom and mix it thoroughly.
7. Add the coconut milk and the chillies. Add the chillies whole, if others don't like it spicy
8. Let it boil. As soon as the mushroom is tender, it’s ready.
9. Serve it with plain rice.

Minced Beef with baby Silver Beet

I cooked spaghetti tonight, and since I am not very fond of pasta, I put aside a bit of minced beef and cooked something separately for me. I was craving for something spicy but easy to cook and this was my dinner tonight. I still have heaps of silver beet in the garden, so I made use of the abundance of it. I only picked the baby ones so they're very very tender. That's the beauty of growing your very own vegetables, you can eat it when you want it and it's freshly picked.








Ingredients


1/2 kilo minced beef or pork
2 tbsp of cooking oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp of oyster sauce
A handful of baby silver beet from the garden or a bunch of bok choy/pechay
Chillies, chopped finely (optional)





Directions

1. Sauté the garlic in the oil.
2. Add the onions and cook until translucent
3. Add the chillies, if you are using some
4. Add the minced beef, cook until it changes in colour.
5. Season with oyster sauce.
6. Add the silver beet, stir until it’s wilted.
7. Serve it with rice.

Spinach Pie/Silver Beet Pie

I have lots of silver beet in the garden and I gave some to a neighbour. He said that they really enjoyed it because it's not as strong as the silver beet one buys in the supermarket.







I asked how they cooked it, he said they made a pie with ricotta cheese. It so happened that I chatted with my sister and she said that her silver beets are really growing well. (I gave her the seeds.) She's also thinking of harvesting some and doing something with it. I said make a pie, and I proceeded to tell her about my neighbour and that I have given him a bag of silver beet again today, etc. etc. etc. Search for a recipe and I will search some too, I said to her. The wonders of the internet, in a few seconds, I found a recipe and pasted the link in our chat. She said, you bake it first and if it is nice, then I will bake it too. Sisters! So, here's the result of that pie. I tweaked it a bit, and I doubled the recipe because I have lots of silver beet, remember.

• Ingredients:
  
  ½ - 1 cup of cooked rice
  2 sheets frozen, ready-rolled puff pastry, thawed
  1 bunch English spinach or silver beet, washed and shredded (chopped finely)
  2 -3 tbsp of olive oil
  1 small onion, finely chopped
  1 cup grated cheese
  1 – 2 rashers of bacon, chopped
  2 – 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  1 tbsp of milk
  
  Directions:
  
  Preheat oven to 220 C (200 C fan forced). Line a 23 cm pie dish with 1 sheet of pastry. I used a big rectangle pyrex dish and used 1 and ½ sheet to line the bottom. And the same amount of sheet to cover the top. I am not very good with pastry, so you can see where I put one on top of the other. lol
  

1. Heat oil in a pan.
2. Add the onions. Stir until translucent, then add the bacon.
3. When the bacon is cooked (to your liking) add the spinach/silver beet to wilt it a bit.
4. Keep stirring, then remove it from the heat.
5. Cool it down a bit, or if you are like me, impatient that is, mix the cheese, rice and beaten eggs right away. Season it with salt and pepper. Watch your salt; remember the bacon and cheese have salt already.
6. Spoon the mixture to you lined dish. Brush edges of pastry lightly with water.
   Top with remaining pastry. Press edges of pastry together.
7. Brush pastry top with milk.
8. Bake for 20 minutes or until pastry is golden and crisp.
9. Serve hot or cold. In our case, it was served hot and there was no left over to know what it tastes like cold.

Chili con Carne

This dish is another favourite in our household. Whenever I serve this at home, my husband's every second mouthful, he will say, "this is our favourite". I guess it's to rationalise his every big bite. He really loves this one. I don't make it very spicy, because they don't like it spicy. Just a hint of chili there. We still know it's chili, not that spicy. And yes, this is how I cook it, and there's only 4 of us eating it. Did I mention that it's a favourite in our household?

Ingredients:

1 kilo minced beef
3 cans of red kidney beans
2 cans of peeled tomatoes (squash them or blend them)
1 cup of dry red wine (or thereabouts)
2 tablespoon of cooking oil
2-3 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 onion, chopped finely
1 red capsicum, diced finely
1-2 teaspoon of cumin powder
½ - 1 teaspoon of chilli powder
1-2 teaspoon of paprika
Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Sauté garlic in cooking oil
2. When the garlic is slightly brown and aromatic, add the onions. Cook until translucent.
3. Add the beef and stir until it changes colour.
4. Add the wine. Let the wine evaporate.
5. Add the capsicum, the spices and salt. Stir well.
6. Add the kidney beans and tomatoes.
7. Let simmer for 20 – 30 minutes. It should have a bit of sauce.
8. Serve it with rice or corn chips. We usually have it with rice.
   
   
   

Kalamay/Kalame Nasi/Reiskuchen

Kalamay or Kalame nasi in my dialect or as we call it in our house, Reiskuchen, is a favourite dish. The way I cook it is not very sweet, so it does not taste rich that you feel you had enough after just having a bite. It's even nicer the next day. When I was still in the Phillipines, we only cook this when there's fiesta or during Christmas or New Year. But now, I cook it whenever I have craving for it or when I have heaps of pinoy friends over. Although it's doubly popular with Aussie friends as well. But then again, all our aussie friends go GAGA about anything pinoy dish. I think, what makes this dish is the topping. It almost tastes like leche flan.

Remember, this is only a guideline. Cook it the way you want it. If you want it sweet, add more sugar. If you think it's very sweet, lessen the sugar.

Ingredients:

1 kilo glutinous rice
1 cup brown sugar
1 400 ml can coconut cream
1 can water

Directions:

1. Wash the rice thoroughly.
2. Put in a pot. Pour coconut cream plus water
3. Mix well. Cook in a low heat, stir while cooking
4. When the rice is almost cooked, stir in the sugar. Mix well.
5. Transfer into a baking dish. I used a big pyrex dish. I usually spray the baking dish first before transferring the rice. The rice is not totally cooked yet, it should still be slightly liquidy.
6. Level the rice then pour the topping.

Topping:

¾ can to 1 can of coconut cream/milk
½ - 1 cup brown sugar (depending how sweet you like it)
½ cup condensed milk
2 – 3 eggs

Mix all the ingredients.

Bake in a moderate oven, 180 C for 45 minutes or until the topping is brown or burnt (however you like it -- I like mine slightly burnt on the edges. Yummy!)

Chocolate Cake

Anything with chocolate is yummy. The peaches make this cake refreshing as well. You can also serve it with more cream if you like.

Ingredients:

75 g unsalted butter, softened or margarine (I used margarine)
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 ½ cups self-raising flour, sifted
1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 cup reduced-fat milk
Peaches to serve (from a can)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180 C or 160 C fan-forced. Grease a 22 cm fluted ring pan

1. Using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, eggs, flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and milk on low speed for 1 minute or until just combined. Increase speed to high. Beat for 2 minutes or until thick and creamy.
2. Spoon mixture into pan. Smooth top. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
3. Remove from oven. Stand cake in pan for 5 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
4. Place cake on a plate. Ice.
   

Icing:

1 ½ cups icing sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 -3 tablespoon of milk, warmed

Sift icing sugar and cocoa. Add milk. Mix until smooth. Pour icing over cooked cake. Decorate with peaches or berries.