Quick Dinner - Lazy Burger

If ever you find yourself too lazy to cook dinner (which is pretty often for me !)..you might want to give this a try. I call it the Lazy Burger. To make this you need to have the following :

1. Frozen Beef Burgers - 5 pieces
2. Bread (any kind will do)
3. Chilli Sauce
4. Onion (chopped)
5. Cucumber (as salad)

Here's what you do :

Part 1
* Shallow fry the beef burgers.
* Dice the cooked burgers
Set aside

Part 2
* Lightly fry the onions
* Add the diced burgers to the fried onion
* Drizzle with chilli sauce.
* Add salt and pepper to taste

Part 3
* If you're using pre-baked dinner rolls like I did, bake the dinner rolls whilst your frying the burgers.
* If you're using normal bread, once you've done Part 2, toast your bread of choice.

Optional
* Sunny side-up egg

Putting together your superquick dinner
* Spread the dinner roll or toasted bread with mayonaise and mustard.
* Generously top the dinner roll/toast with the diced beef burgers
* Serve with sunny side-up egg and cucumber.

* Easy and Delicious *

If you love bread - Bruschetta with Sauteed Breakfast Beef Bits

I love bread..in fact my entire family loves bread ! So, as part of the Father's Day makan-makan we had at home last weekend, I made Bruschetta with Roast Beef Bits. This is really an easy-peasy starter to make. Here's what you need :

Bread

Focacia

Garlic Bread

or any plain/wholemeal baguett will do.

* I bought both at the bakery at Sunway Giza's Village Grocer. Even got them to slice it up for me.

Tomato Salsa

1 yellow capsicum - diced

1 red capsicum - diced

4 medium tomatoes - diced

4 shallots - sliced

Coriander - chopped (abt a handful)

Lemon juice from 1 lemon

1 teaspoon white vinegar

Olive oil - abt 1-2 tablespoon

Salt - to taste

Sugar - to taste

Honey mustard - 1-2 teaspoon (optional)

* Put sliced shallot into a deep bowl, add lemon juice season with salt and sugar - taste.

* Then slowly drizzle olive oil - mix well - taste again - add more salt and/or sugar if required.

* Put in the diced vegies - taste again. Add lemon juice/vinegar/salt/sugar if so required

* Lastly, add the chopped coriander. Set aside for the flavours to develope.

The salsa must have a sweet, sour tangy taste to it.

Sauteed Breakfast Beef Bits

200 gm of breakfast beef 

2 tbsp olive oil

* Chop the breakfast beef into small bits.

* Fry in the olive oil until crispy

Cheese

Choose between grated Cheddar or Mozzarella or you can use both ! :)

To assemble the Bruschetta :

* Pre-heat your oven to 160c

* Arrange the sliced breads onto a baking tray.

* Drizzle olive oil over the bread

* Pile small mounts of crispy breakfast beef on the bread followed by the salsa.

* Top with the grated cheese.

* Bake/Grill until cheese becomes gooey and brown around the top and edges.

Serve immediately. Then again, it tastes just as yummy at room temperature.

Note : I forgot to take a picture of the bruschetta I made..so I've borrowed from Mr.Google..:)

Monday Night Dinner - Beef Pot Roast

For this week's Monday night dinner I made a super easy, leave-it in the oven beef pot roast. Here's what you need :-

Ingredients :

A.
1.5-1.8 kg ribeye/sirloin rolled beef
Mustard powder (2-3 tbsp)
Paprika (2-3 tbsp)
Salt (to taste)
Pepper (to taste)

B.
Carrots (2/large/cut into chunks)
Celery (2/large/cut into chunks)
Onions (4/large/cut into chunks)
Garlic (1/large/halved)
Olive Oil (2-3 tbsp)
Salt

C.
625 ml beef stock
Onions (1/large/chopped)
Garlic (2-3/cloves/minced)
Stewed Tomatoes (1 can)

Steps :

* Drizzle Carrots, Celery, Onions and Garlic in B with olive oil and season with salt then roast for 15 mins @ 170c oven.
* Marinate A. (Do this the night before)
* Heat about 3-4 tbsp of oil in shallow pan, brown the meat on all sides. This will take no more than 10 mins. This step is just to seal in the juices and not to cook the meat.
* Once the meat is browned. Set aside. Using the same oil, sautee the onions and garlic in C, then add the stewed tomatoes and lastly, add the beef stock.
* Arrange the roasted vegies in a large, deep roasting pan (must be large and deep enough to contain the liquid), place the beef on top, pour beef stock over.
* Cover with aluminium foil.
* Roast slowly for 2-21/2 hours at 165c. If you want the top of your pot-roasted beef to be crispy, remove foil 10 minutes before time, increase temperature to 180c and let brown for about 8-10 mins.

(picture courtesy of Google Images)

Once done, your Beef PotRoast should look like this. Let it rest for 10 minutes before carving.

To make nice brown gravy, strain the liquid in the roasting dish thru a strainer. Then take about 2-3 tbsp of butter, melt it and add 2-3 tbsp of plain flour to make a thick'ish paste. Add the strained liquid. Stir until a gravylike consistency is achieved.

Carve the roasted beef into nice thick slices.

Serve with the homemade brown gravy

and

Creamy Dijon Mustard and Sour Cream Potato Salad

and

Quick Sundried Tomatoes Aglio Olio Spaghetti

* A special extra..as appetiser...

Homemade quesadillas with tomato salsa, minced beef, cheese

served with sourcream and sweet relish

*Happy Cooking*

Slow Roasted Leg of Lamb + sides

Every Monday night I cook for my entire family of 9 adults and 3 rugrats. Which means I'd be planning the menu all through the weekend and seeing that I'm not one to slave over the stove for long hours, I tend to keep to dishes that spends most of its time in the oven bubbling away whilst I nicely plant myself in front of the telly until it is all ready to be served. Here's what I made for this week's Monday night dinner :

Main

* Slow-Roasted Leg of Lamb

Sides

* Mid-Eastern'ish Chicken with Tomato Rice

* Sun-Dried Tomatoes Focacia Bread

* Cold Cucumber Chickpeas Salad

* Cold Garlic-Yoghurt Dip

INGREDIENTS AND METHOD

Slow-Roasted Leg of Lamb

Part 1

1 leg of lamb (bone-in)

4-5 cloves of garlic

Rosemary leaves

2-3 tbsp of Briyani Powder

Salt and Pepper

Part 2

3 large onions (Quartered)

1 whole garlic (Halved)

2 large carrots (Quartered then halved)

2 tbsps briyani powder (Mix with some water/stock to make thick paste)

4 tbsps tomato sauce

1.5 cups of water or chicken stock

Salt to taste

Night before cooking day

Marinate the leg of lamb - Part 1

(Picture courtesy of Google Images)

Pat dry the leg of lamb. Make small slits all over it. Insert slivers of garlic and rosemary in the slits. Rub all over with briyani mix. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap with cling-film. Refrigerate overnight.

On Cooking Day

* Pre-heat oven to 150C.

* Place onions, garlic and carrots in a large roasting dish.
* Sit the leg of lamb on the onions, garlic and carrots.
* Pour the water/chicken stock around the leg of lamb.
* Cover roasting dish with foil.
* Roast for approximately 3 hours.

After 3 hours
* Remove roasting dish from oven.
* Let leg of lamb rest for abt 30 mins. Then remove the lamb from roasting dish. Wrap with foil. Set aside.
* Meanwhile, pour juices from the roasting dish into a pot. Add the briyani paste, tomato sauce. Add more water or stock if needed. Season with salt and pepper.
* Transfer the leg of lamb into the roasting dish again. Pour the gravy over. Bake uncovered for 20-30 mins (depending on how crispy the outside you want it to be).
* Carve the lamb just before serving.

Your Roasted Leg of Lamb will look kinda like this.

(picture courtesy of Google Images)

I served the lamb with a side dish of

Chicken & Vegetable Rice

Recipe and Picture from - http://arabic-food.blogspot.com/

and also

Cucumber and Chickpeas Fatoush

Recipe and Picture from - http://arabic-food.blogspot.com/

I also had some Garlic Sundried Tomatoes Focacia Bread prepared for those who wanted to soak up the gravy from the Roasted Leg of Lamb.

For dessert, I made Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Cake Pudding complete with Chocolate Sauce and Vanilla Whipped Cream. Recipe from Nigella's book entitled 'Nigella Express'

 

I apologise for not posting actual photos of the items I made last night..as usual..in the hustle and bustle of prep work, the actual cooking, the serving and the eating..I forgot to take pictures ! :)

Super Easy Roast Chicken !

(PICTURE TAKEN FROM BBC GOOD FOOD WEBSITE)

I tried this recipe last night and the outcome looks exactly like the picture above !

SLOW-ROAST CHICKEN

(Extracted from BBC Good Food)

Ingredients :

> 1.6-2 kg whole chicken

> 1 kg roasting potatoes, half or quartered (whatever that suits your family)

> 2 whole garlic heads - halved

> 3 whole onions - quartered

> 4 celeries - cut into 2" in length

> 2 large carrots - cut into 2" length then halved

> 300 ml chicken stock

> 2 stems of rosemary

> 6 bay leaves

> 1 lemon, cut into wedges (optional, omit if you do not like the sour'ish lemony taste)

> Butter for greasing

Method :

• Heat oven to 160c/fan.
• In a large roasting dish or roasting stock pot, place the potatoes, celeries, carrots, onions, garlic and 1-2 pieces of the lemons. Add also the herbs.
• Pat dry chicken with kitchen towel.
• Stuff chicken with balance of lemon pieces.
• Brush generously softened butter (this will give you a nice and golden colour) on chicken, sprinkle salt + pepper.
• Place chicken on the assorted veggies + onions etc.
• Add chicken stock

Roasting Instructions :

~ Pre-heat oven to *160C/Fan.

~ Loosely cover the roasting.

~ Cook for 1 hour.

~ After 1 hour, remove cover, brush a bit more butter on the chicken then bake uncovered for another 30-40 mins (depending on how crispy and golden you want your chicken to be).

~ Once the desired is obtained, remove chicken from oven, loosely cover with foil and let rest for 30 mins before carving.

* Note :

The heat differs from oven to oven, therefore check the doneness of the chicken by pricking the thickest part of the chicken..and if clear juice flows out..the chicken is done.