Archive for the 'Fusion Food' Category

Nov 17 2008

Homemade herbed hamburgers, two ways to eat it

Published by Foong under Fusion Food, Recipes, Western Food |

I’ve been meaning to learn to make our own hamburgers so that we do not need to eat those store-bought frozen hamburgers which are oily and full of MSG. Considering hamburgers merely consist of ground meat, how hard can it be right?

Besides, The Food Critic is really crazy about hamburgers. Every time we go to the grocery store, he simply must stop at the frozen food and pick out a packet of hamburgers. A few times when we do eat out, he’d insist on choosing an American restaurant like TGIF serving good burgers (nope, it is definitely not the same as those fast-food burgers!). So, in response to his special request for homemade hamburgers, I gave it a try.

I didn’t really go around searching for a hamburger recipe. In fact, I borrowed some tips from Jessie’s (The Hungry Mouse) meatball recipe and changed it a bit. After all, meat patties or hamburgers are simply the flatter, bigger version of meatballs. I think. Heheh.

Anyway, this is the end result…

Homemade herbed hamburger

Homemade herbed hamburger

Of course The Food Critic was ecstatic. He finally gets to eat homemade hamburgers without needing to spend a fortune at some overpriced restaurant. I made quite a lot, so he actually ate it for lunch and dinner!

So, here’s the recipe for:

Homemade Herbed Hamburgers

Homemade herbed hamburgers

Ingredients

For hamburger

600gm minced port & chicken

2 tbsp garlic powder

1/2 tbsp black pepper

2 tbsp mixed fresh herbs, finely chopped

2 tbsp light soy sauce

3 - 4 tbsp instant oats (or you could use breadcrumbs if you want)

For special sauce

3 tbsp peas

3 tbsp diced carrots

2 large onions, diced

2 tbsp garlic, diced

5 no. fresh shiitake mushrooms, sliced

1 tbsp oyster sauce (or mushroom sauce)

1 tbsp light soy sauce

4 tbsp soya milk (sugarless)

1 tbsp chicken stock

a dash of pepper

2 tbsp corn flour

5 -6 tbsp water

Instructions

Prepare your minced meat and mix it together

1. Prepare your mince meat and mixed it together

Add the garlic powder

2. Add the garlic powder and mixed it around

Add in the mixed herbs and black pepper

3. Add in the mixed herbs and black pepper and remember to stir it and mix it in evenly

Add in the sauce

4. Add in the light soy sauce

Stir in the oats

5. Stir in the oats and mix well

6. Heat up some oil in a pan. Form meat patties with a ladle and slide it into the hot oil.

Fry it, both sides, until it turns brownish like this and remove from heat.

7. Fry the meat patties, on both sides, until it turns brownish like this and remove from heat.

I know you must be wondering why there’s also a ’special sauce’ ingredients. Well, instead of just serving up the hamburgers as well, burgers, I thought I might as well use the leftover oil in the pan to create a special sauce as toppings for the meat patties to be served as a main dish, like this:

Hamburgers as a meat patty main dish with special sauce

So, now that you’ve fried all of your burgers and there is some oil left. Don’t throw it out! Use it to make the special sauce as it would have all the added flavours of the meat. Right from the start, I used olive oil and I didn’t use much oil so ended up, I have about 3 tbsp of oil left in the wok which is just perfect for the sauce.

Now, on to the sauce:

Get your ingredients all ready

1. Get all your ingredients ready

Mix the sauces together in a bowl

2. Mix the sauces together in a bowl

Add in the soya milk and then the corn flour

3. Add in the soya milk and then the corn flour

4. Stir and mix the sauces well. The corn flour is to thicken it so that it won’t be so watery.

Sautee the garlic and onions

5. Sautee the garlic and onions in the same pan used to fry the burgers. If you look, you'd notice that there's still some bits of meat from the burgers I fried earlier.

Add in the rest of the ingredients

6. Add in the rest of the ingredients

7. Then add in the sauces and stir.

Let the mixture simmer over medium to low heat for several minutes

8.Let the mixture simmer over medium to low heat for several minutes

9. Then it is done, ready to be served with the meat patties / hamburgers.

You just pour it over the hamburgers and serve

You just pour it over the hamburgers and serve

But if you prefer something you can eat on the go, then you don’t need to prepare the sauce. Just serve the meat patties as the filling for a hamburger sandwich.

A hamburger sandwich

So, there you have it. One herbed hamburger, two different ways to serve it!

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Nov 11 2008

Spicy Southern Fried Chicken

Published by Foong under Fusion Food, Recipes |

Beware: This post contains pictures of fried chicken that are definitely NOT healthy nor oil-free nor low-fat so be prepared for some artery-clogging but worth-every-bite sorta recipe!

I love fried chicken. There’s no two ways about it. If you follow this blog, I am sure you’ve probably read my ravings of Uncle Bob’s Fried Chicken. Heck, I even posted my own version of crunchy fried chicken quite a while back.

And now, I’ve found another fried chicken recipe and promptly gave it a try - a la Foong style. Yep, instead of following the full recipe to a T, I did some modifications. I can’t help it, it’s a genetic fault within me somewhere. And anyway, it’s not easy to get most of the ingredients from the original recipe so what am I gonna do? I improvise, of course!

Foong-style Spicy Fried Chicken

Foong-style Spicy Fried Chicken

Heheh…I know, it started out as Spicy Southern Fried Chicken but hey, this is cooking we are talking about. It is all about creativity (and what we have in our kitchen to concoct these masterpieces) so I believe I am allowed some creative license to change it about.

Alright, alright. I’m getting to the recipe already. Do note that I, once again, failed to record and measure the exact amount of ingredients so the amounts listed here are mostly ‘guesstimated’.Do tweak it to suit your portion of chicken.

Here is my:

Spicy Fried Chicken Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 chicken, chopped

2 cups vegetable shortening (or more)

For marinade:

1 1/2 cups milk

1 lemon

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp paprika chili flakes

To coat the chicken:

2 cups flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 cup oat bran (yes, I know…I am obsessed with using oat bran to cook chicken!)

A dash of pepper

A dash of salt

Instructions

1. Clean and dry the chicken. Remove the skin if you are health conscious (although it doesn’t really matter either way since this is deep fried and not exactly a health food).

Rub chilli flakes all over the chicken pieces

2.Rub chilli flakes all over the chicken pieces

3. Place the chicken in a plastic bag.

Pour in the marinade and shake the chicken around to make sure it is well mixed

3. Pour in the marinade and shake the chicken around to make sure it is well mixed

Note: For the marinade, it was supposed to be buttermilk but sadly, we don’t have that easily available here. So, I improvised. I read somewhere that to make buttermilk, we just need to add lemon and milk together so that’s what I did! I pour in the milk and then squeeze in the lemon juice.

4. Let it marinade for several hours or it is even better to leave it in the fridge overnight, which is what I did.

The next day, get your marinated chicken out of the fridge

5. The next day, get your marinated chicken out of the fridge

In a separate plate, mix the dry ingredients to coat the chicken

6. In a separate plate, mix up the dry ingredients that will be used to coat the chicken

Coat the chicken pieces with the dry flour mix

7. Coat the chicken pieces with the dry flour mix

8. Heat up your pan and pour in the vegetable shortening. Wait for it to melt and thoroughly heat up.

Gently slide your chicken pieces into the hot vegetable shortening

9. Gently slide your coated chicken pieces into the hot vegetable shortening

Fry the chicken till it is golden brown

10.Fry the chicken till it is golden brown

Note: if you use a deep-fryer, it will be easier and you don’t have to turn the chicken all the time to make sure it is completely cooked. Since I don’t use a deep fryer and I don’t like putting a lot of oil / vegetable shortening to really deep fry the chicken,  I have to turn the chicken every now and then. I also kept the heat at medium to make sure it doesn’t burn the chicken.

Your chicken is cooked when it is really golden brown

11. The chicken is cooked when it is really golden brown, so remove from the oil and drain on a wire rack

Just look at the fabulously crunchy fragrant fried chicken!

A closer look at the fabulously crunchy fragrant fried chicken!

However, to test whether it is completely cooked, you could poke the flesh with a skewer and if it comes away easily showing white flesh, then it is cooked. Just like the picture below…

Spicy fried chicken ready to serve!

Spicy fried chicken ready to serve!

Now, if you prefer it to be more spicy, you could follow the original spicy southern fried chicken recipe or add a few tablespoons of paprika chili flakes.

I find that if you marinade the chicken overnight, it leaves the flesh extremely tender and juicy on the inside. The homemade buttermilk managed to soften it and at the same time give it a crunchiness that I simply love!

Hah, KFC, eat your heart out! I think my chicken is way better than the miserable tiny bite-size fried chicken that fastfood has been serving in recent times.

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