Homemade chicken burger

Making homemade hamburgers is ridiculously easy, you just have to make a bigger effort once and then you'll have something to grab from the freezer when you feel like eating something good. This time I didn't make homemade hamburger buns but I'm sure I will try them sooner or later because they must be better than the ones you can buy in the store.

Ingredients: 

• 1 kg of chicken breast
• 1.5 kgs of upper chicken thigh fillets
• 15-20 dkgs of smoked bacon
• garlic granules according to taste
• salt or roast chicken seasoning according to taste
• onions (not neccessary) 

Mince the chicken along with the bacon and the seasoning twice, and mix it very thoroughly, let it rest for a while before making the first one. You have to cook it until both sides get a nice golden colour, but don't let it dry out. I think it's best if you taste it when it's almost cold, and if something is missing you can make corrections in the raw mixture. You can put the steak shaped burgers on a tray into the freezer and later when frozen, just put them into a plastic bag or a box. They will maintain taste and quality for a couple of months.

Pangasius and potatoes roasted in beer

We have this old recipe for pangasius fish cooked in beer with bacon, so now I upgraded it a little into a one course dish. In this new version the fish fillet is cut into little pieces and the bacon is also minced. I have to admit the result was quite delicious :)

Ingredients for 4

• 1 kg of potatoes
• 2 big pieces of pangasius fillet
• 10 leaves of rosemary
• 2 onions 
• 10 dkgs of sliced bacon
• 2,5 dl of lager
• salt and pepper

Cut the potatoes in quarters and put them into a pan. Add some salt and pepper. Get the onions and the bacon into a frood processor and grind them. Stir the mixture in the pan with the potatoes. Chop the rosemary fine and sprinkle it onto the potatoes. Cover the pan with tin foil and cook it in the oven at 200 deg Celsius until the potato is done. Then put the cut up fish fillet on top and pour the beer too. Cover it again and put it back in the oven for another 15 minutes. After that remove the cover and let the fluids disappear and the top of the potatoes become golden. 

Tuna casserole with peas

I'm having minor kitchen accidents these days so I got a two piece casserole dish set as a consolation gift. In the bigger one you can cook for two people and the smaller one is enough for one. I tried the bigger dish out the next day with this tuna casserole :) 

Ingredients

• half a packet of penne 
• 1 can of peeled tomatoes
• 3 drops of liquid sweetener
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 can of tuna (in brine)
• peas according to taste
• grated cheese
• salt, pepper

First you have to cook the penne in boiling salted water. Then chop the onion and the garlic fine and start cooking it in a saucer pan. Chop the canned tomatos up and pour it into the pan. Add some salt, pepper, a bit of water and the 2 drops of sweetener. Pour in the peas and cover it with a lid. Cook it until the peas are fine, then remove the lid and let it boil for a while so that it gets thicker. Then lay one third of the penne on the bottom of the casserole dish, then one third of the tuna and one third of the tomato sauce. Repeat this twice and sprinkle the cheese on top of it in the end. You need to cook it in the oven at 200 deg Celsius until the cheese becomes golden. 

Tartlets for onion lovers

These tartlets contain three types of onions: red ones, normal ones and leeks. This time I followed the thin layer of crust with lots of filling in the inside principle again. The crust is the same as the one of the apple pie posted below, in a salty version of course. The best thing about these tartlets is that they are filled with tons of onions, and that is, for a true onion lover, is heaven itself. And I'm proud to be one of them. 

Ingredients for roughly 10 tartlets

The crust:

• 10 dkg of full wheat flour
• 10 dkg of flour
• 2 teaspoons of salt
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder 
• 5-10 dkg of butter
• oregano according to taste
• cold water

The filling:

• 3 red onions
• 2 onions
• half a leek
• salt, pepper
• 4 tablespoons of sour cream
• 2 eggs
• grated smoked cheese 

Measure the flour for the crust, add the baking soda and the oregano, add the bits of butter and make a crumble with the butter and the flour. When its done, add the water and kneed the dough. Let it rest in the fridge until you make the filling. 

Peel the onions, cut them in half, slice them and cook them on a mixture of oil and butter for 20 minutes with the lid on.Add salt and freshly ground pepper. When it's done let it cool for a bit. Add the sour cream and the 2 beaten eggs and mix it carefully. 

Roll the crust very thin, and with the help of some round object cut perfect circles out of it. Stick the edges together so that it has the shape of a little basket. Of course my tartlets lost their shape while they were in the oven, so you might want to use tartlet dishes. Fill the baskets with the sour cream and onion mixture, sprinkle them with the smoked cheese and put them into the oven at 200 deg Celsius for 15-20 minutes until golden. They are absolutely fantastic hot and cold as well.

Roasted beets with cold chicken salad

If I had to choose a favourite vegetable based only on colour, beet would be the absolute choice with its amazing purpleness. Besides its extremely healthy and there's a huge variety of dished you can make of it.

Serves 2

The beets

• 4-5 pieces of beet roots, middle sized
• salt and pepper
• a handful of thyme
• red balsamic vinegar
• water

Peel the beets (better to do it wearing rubber gloves), cut them in equally sized pieces, put them into a dish, add salt and pepper and the thyme leaves. Pour some water under them and cover the dish. Put it in the oven for an hour at least at 200 deg Celsius. When it's done, remove the tin foil used for covering and let the water disappear. Then sprinkle the balsamic vinegar on the beets and mix them. Put it back in the oven for another 15-20 minutes until it gets sticky, but don't forget to mix it again 2 or 3 times. It's done when there is no water under it and its dark and sticky from the vinegar.

The chicken salad

• half a chicken breast fillet
• 1 red onion
• 1 packet of mini mozzarellas
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons of sour cream
• 1 big tomato
• 2 branches of thyme
• salt, pepper

Peel the onion, cut it half and slice it. Start cooking it in a pan, add salt and pepper and the rest of the thyme leaves. While it's getting done, dice the chicken breast. Put the onions into another dish, and let it cool (I usually put the ingredients I want to cool into the window, nothing has fallen out to the roof yet luckily). Pour a bit of oil into the pan and start cooking the chicken. Add salt and pepper again and cover it for 10 minutes, then remove the cover and let it roast a bit. Chop the garlic fine and add it to the chicken. Now you can let the chicken cool too. Meanwhile add the mozzarella, the diced tomatoes to the onions, and then the chicken. Add salt and pepper to the 2 tablespoons of sour cream, and mix it with the rest of the salad. Let it rest until the beets get done.

Pumpkin roasted with chorizo and thyme

 

This recipe is one of my favourite pumpkin dishes. It combines sweet, sour and spicy flavours. The typical throw everything together into the oven kind of food. You can change the amount of the ingredients according to taste. The pumpkin can be replaced with normal or sweet potatoes.

Ingredients:

• pumpkin
• onions
• sausage
• tomatoes
• garlic
• thyme
• salt, pepper

Add the diced pumpkin, the sliced sausage, the chopped onions and tomatoes along with the garlic into a bundle made of tin foil. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on it, add the thyme and some olive oil and mix the whole thing. Close the bundle and steam it for half an hour at 200 degrees Celsius.

Mushroom caps stuffed with eggplant cream

Ingredients for 2 large servings

The mushrooms:

• 8-10 pieces of mushroom
• 1 eggplant
• 1 clove of garlic
• a little bit of lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons of cream
• cheese on the top of the mushrooms according to taste

The garnish:

• 2 dl of rice
• 4 dl of water
• the stalks of the mushrooms
• 1 packet of sliced bacon or any similar kind of meat
• 2 pieces of spring onion

Start roasting the eggplant in a dry pan, with the peel on, like when you roast it on the grill. Let it become black, it doesnt matter if the peel gets burnt, because you will have to take it off anyways when its done. When its done, put it into a dish and cover it so that the steam softens the peel, and you can take it off easily. Then take the inside of the eggplant, cut it up a bit, and add the garlic, the lemon juice, the cream and salt to it in a pan. Take the stalks of the mushrooms out and put it away for now. Sprinkle salt on the mushroom caps, and fill them with the eggplant cream. You can also sprinkle a bit of cheese onto the top, according to taste. It gets ready at 180 degrees in about 20 minutes.

The stalks can be used for the garnish. Chop it, and fry it in a pan along with the spring onion and the bacon and then add the whole mixture to the rice. Its a realitvely light but a filling lunch.

Chicken braised in white wine wine with leek

Ingredients:

• 6 upper thighs
• 1 leek
• 1 packet of mozzarella cheese
• 1 dl of white wine
• oil, salt, pepper

Take the skin off the chicken, and sprinkle salt and pepper on them. In a heatproof dish pre-fry them for a couple of minutes, so that they get a nice colour, and then add the wine, cover it and put it in the oven at 200 deg celsius. Meanwhile chop the leek and steam it in a pan under cover. Add salt an pepper according to taste. When the chicken is done, pile the onions on the top of them, and cover them with the sliced mozzarella. Put it back in the oven until the cheese fries.

Mustard and rosemary drumsticks

Ingredients for 4:

• 8 drumsticks
• 2 onions
• garlic
• salt, pepper
• mustard
• rosmary
• thyme
• garlic and onion pasta

Smash the garlic and put it under the skin on the chicken. Salt both sides. Try to push the rosmary into the meat by the bone. Sprinkle the thyme leaves onto the chicken. Put some garlic and onion pasta, and some mustard on it. You can add some round peppers, and the 2 onions chopped into bigger pieces, and maybe tomatoes. It needs at least one hour at 200 deg, covered with aluminium foil. When its all soft, remove the foil and let it get a nice reddish colour. If you put all of the pastas on the chicken the day before, it will taste much better.

Hungarian style chinese, which we call 'szukijaki'

Meat can be left out, or chicken can be replaced by turkey breast. I will only mark the amounts where important, other than that it only depends on your taste, you can add more or less of each one of the ingredients according to the wishes of the family.

Ingredients for 4 (or just 3 and you have some leftovers for the next day ;)

• 1 half of a bigger chicken breast
• peas (frozen is perfect)
• 1 bigger carrot
• 2 packets of mung beans seed
• leek or red onions
• 3-4 eggs, beaten
• sliced bacon
• 0.5 kg of champignons
• rice-flour paste or rice
• lots and lots of garlic
• a bigger piece of ginger root
• soy sauce
• a little bit of sugar
• oil, salt, pepper

Preparations:

Its a quite a meticulous job to do, but the result speaks for itself. It's better to chop all the ingredients first, then you'll only have to do the frying and stuff - much quicker this way! We usually pare the carrots, to the size of a match stick, cut the onion in half and then into circles, slice the chicken in streaks and the mushrooms (the size of the bits mustn't be too small). You can also slice the bacon across - the smaller the better. Then pitch the eggs and beat them like you do when making scrambled eggs, you can also add a bit of soy sauce. Chop the garlic and the ginger fine, you'll need them twice. Don't do anything with the bean seed, the peas are fine as well just frozen.

The fun part :

Take a frying pan, the best would be a deeper one and put it onto the largest place of the stove. You will need another dish, from which you can serve the food, you will put the continually prepared ingredients in this one. First fry the bacon, it doesnt need any additional oil, it will give its grease out. When its done, get the pieces of bacon out, and leave the grease in the pan, and put the onions in it. Sounds strange but add a littlebit of sugar to the onions, it wont make it sweet but will give it a really nice taste and colour (you can add salt to it a bit later). Dont need to steam it over, just until it becomes soft. Add the onions to the bacon too. Put a little bit of oil into the pan and add the carrots, and a bit of sugar again. It needs a couple of minutes to soften a little bit, its perfect when its still a little crispy. Then come the peas, they're done when you can smash them on the wooden spoon, it takes a couple of minutes in case of tender peas. The next one is the champignons, add salt and freshly grounded pepper to it. Dont need to wait until all the water disappears from the bottom. Next comes the chicken, add salt and soy sauce, and the half of the garlic and ginger. Let it cook until the meat gets white in the middle too. The bean seeds only need a short time, just until its gets a glassy colour, then its ready. Finally comes the egg, pour it into the pan, and basically make scrambled eggs, the only difference is that you need to cut it into little bits. When all of this is done, in a little bit of oil fry the rest of the garlic and ginger, but pay attention to it, if it burns, it will become bitter. The final step is to cook the paste, it only takes 2 minutes. When everythings ready, you just have to mix the whole thing carefully. You can add soy or chili sauce before you start eating, it will give it a good taste. If you use a non stick frying pan, you can skimp the oil.