A Thanksgiving (or Christmas) Dinner with Inghams Turkey

      Thanksgiving is not really something that we celebrate in Australia though some Christians do celebrate the occasion. The whole turkey Thanksgiving dinner is more of an American influence though us 'Aussies' tend to have our turkey for Christmas instead. The church that my parents attend did happen to have a Thanksgiving service last week with a feast to follow though I don't think there was anyTurkey or roast veggies in sight as it's a Vietnamese church and well, there was lots of Vietnamese food.

      The very first time I tried to cook a turkey it was a disaster. Our oven fan had broken a few days earlier and I was very reluctant to have our gas oven running over such a long period of time without a fan. Ryan and I tried cooking it on a kettle coal BBQ but it just didn't seem to want to cook at all. Mainly because I think both of us were a little clueless as to how to cook a turkey. We ended up slicing up the half cooked turkey and frying it off in a pan. I wouldn't call that one of my successful meals ever though the stuffing we made was pretty good. Luckily the turkey was only complimentary to a big BBQ spread my mum had put on for the family already.

      I didn't think I'd see another turkey again in my life until I received an email inviting me to sample some Turkey products from Ingham. I was definitely keen to give the turkey another go and was sent a Turkey Breast Buffe and a Whole Roast Turkey to try out.

     As it had been a long time since I last cooked a nice meal for my family, I decided that I'd cook a Thanksgiving dinner for my family with the Turkey Breast Buff. I wanted to keep the Whole Roast Turkey to use in a couple of weeks for a big Christmas dinner Ryan and I are hosting in a couple of weeks for some friends.

      Whenever I cook for my family it's usually been a meat and three veg kind of a meal. You might think it weird that such a staple western meal is considered special to us. Well, it is when you have a rotation of different Vietnamese noodle soups, braises, rice, and stews as your staple diet. I should be glad that my parents are willing to eat what I cook up, though I always have to put a bottle of soy sauce and chili sauce on the table for them. Generally my seasoning is ok but they always need their chilli kick from either some chilli paste or fresh chilli. It makes the food easier to digest for them as they are used to either rice or noodles for dinner.

      So about midweek I took the Turkey Buffe out of the freezer to defrost in the fridge. I decided that I was just going to make a nice stuffing and serve a simple gravy for the turkey. For my sides I was going to do my usual roast veggies - potatoes, pumpkin, beans etc.

      The Turkey Buffe comes pre marinated so all you have to do is pat it dry and pop it into the oven and cook according to the instructions on the packet. I did find though that my turkey required longer to cook, all up about 3 - 3.5 hours until it was a nice deep golden brown and the meat had reached the right temperature. I covered it in foil for the first hour and then took the foil off for the remaining cooking time. I also found that the water in the roasting pan evaporated so had to keep topping this up worried that my turkey would be too dry. While waiting for the turkey to cook I prepared all my veggies for roasting.

     An essential tool for roasting meats would be a thermometer, a digital one would give you the most accurate results. I googled temperatures to cook turkey and found that it should be about 77 degrees Celsius in the breast. The trick is to not constantly open the oven to check on the turkey, only often enough to replenish the water in the roasting pan. My turkey turned out perfect! I covered it in foil and let it rest while I popped all my prepared veggies into the oven to cook.

       For my stuffing, I tweaked this stuffing recipe from the Ingham's Turkey website. I didn't have raisins but found sultanas in the fridge but I didn't have enough sultanas either so substituted the remaining quantity for dried cranberries. I also used dried sage leaves as that's what I had on hand. As there was more stuffing than the amount needed for the turkey cavity I pressed the leftover stuffing mix into a baking pan and popped it into the oven with the turkey until it had turned golden brown on top. It had a nice drier texture in contrast to the stuffing that came out of the turkey which was a lot more moist from soaking up the juices. I loved this stuffing recipe, saltiness from the bacon, the sweetness of the fruits, fragrant sage, it went well with the turkey and gravy.

      My rosemary and garlic roasted potatoes are a big hit with the family so I make these for every family dinner I cook for. I tend to measure my ingredients by eye, dried rosemary (you can use fresh rosemary finely chopped), finely diced garlic, cracked black pepper and salt to season and also a small sprinkling of sugar to balance the salt (a very Asian thing to do but it works). Drizzle over some olive oil, toss the potatoes to evenly coat and then I roast them on a rack in the oven at 220 degrees Celsius for about 45-50 minutes.

      I absolutely adore roast pumpkin (though not as much as I adore roast potato). I'd be happy to have a whole bowl as it is. Usually I'd toss the pumpkin pieces in some paprika, cayenne and cinnamon (about 2 teaspoons of each per kilo of pumpkin) with olive oil and salt and pepper before roasting but this time I decided to roast them with maple syrup and cinnamon instead. They were a big hit, especially with Ryan.

      I believe that there should always be something green and mum had bought some green beans so I sauteed them in some garlic. It's the only way I enjoy my green beans. Mum did complain they were a touch under cooked but Ryan and I loved the crunch they still had. Oh and did I tell you how much I love garlic too?

      I made sure that the roasting pan was topped up with water during cooking so that any drippings from the Turkey wouldn't dry out and burn so I could use it to make a white wine gravy. I used this gravy recipe from the Ingham's Turkey website. It's actually a really great website that they have developed with recipes, how to's and product information on the other turkey products in their range.

      It was not a fancy schmancy dinner but the important thing is that everyone enjoyed it. I was just really happy that I managed to cook the turkey perfectly and that the meat was juicy and tender. As usual, plenty of leftovers which were happily packed for lunch the next day or turned into sandwiches.

Happy Thanksgiving dear readers! Have you had your turkey yet or will you be having a Christmas turkey?

Easy Sticky BBQ Pork Ribs

        Who doesn't love a nice sticky rack of ribs? Funny thing is I'd actually been craving for ribs ever since going on holiday with my family to New Zealand. Of course we would talk about food, and ribs were brought up but we never actually got to have any. Since coming back from the trip I wanted to try and cook them at home. I'm not sure why I hadn't done so earlier but I think I was under the impression that ribs were really hard to cook.

        New Year's was approaching so I invited the extended family over for a BBQ on New Year's Eve. My parents were away at the time so I was left to prepare and cook for approximately 20 hungry mouths that afternoon all by myself. Okay, so I did get some help cooking the meats on the bbq, and getting my potatoes peeled, but I was pretty much left to planning and executing the whole thing by myself to the suprise of my uncle and aunty and grandparents. Mum is known as the big cook in the family and I guess they were always under the impression that I was her side kick. My menu consisted of pork ribs, t-bone steaks, lamb chops, bbq'd corn, roast potatoes, sauteed beans, garlic bread and salad.

        These ribs have now become a family favourite ever since I started making them way back then, continually improving the flavour and cooking technique each time I make them. Mum is constantly bringing home gifts of rib racks from the butchers because she sees how much the sibblings (and sibbling's friends) enjoy eating them. Everytime ribs are on the menu my little brother thinks we're a restaurant and invites friends over for dinner.

        The original recipe for these was found on the taste website. It's actually a recipe for sticky smoky spicy ribs cooked over a bbq but I usually start it off in the oven and finish it over a coal bbq. Finishing them off in the oven is also fine if the bbq is not running when you are making these. You just lose out on the smokiness but I havn't had any complaints about that. I'll give you the recipe as original, just multiply the quantities accordingly to how many ribs you'll be cooking. The actual quantities that I personally use may vary slightly, as I measure with my eye most of the time, but it all comes down to the taste.

        I also started off buying the American style pork racks, but Mum has been bringing home all sorts of different ribs for me to try out from our local Vietnamese butcher (trying to find a better and cheaper cut, ribs are not cheap considering there's more bone than meat, but there's more meat than ribs on an animal so I suppose that's why they're pricey to buy).

        We've settled on a perfect cut of rib that has quite a bit of meat still attached on both sides of the bone (which is actually quite thin, maybe it is a short rib?), and has a nice amount of fat so releases plenty of juice when cooked which helps to keep them quite juicey during the cooking process. I would have no clue what they are called but they are actually really hard to get, some days they'll have one or two small racks only and Mum will buy them and stockpile for the weekend.

        You can really use any style of rib that you can get your hands on. The fattier and meatier they are, the better or else you end up with a very dry rack of ribs after the long slow cooking. But I guess it's personal preference. I like my ribs to still have a nice amount of meat on them once they are cooked through. And the meat needs to be nice and tender, almost falling off the bone.

Recipe: Sticky BBQ Pork Ribs (recipe adapted from taste) 

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/3 cup barbecue sauce
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 2 x 680g racks Aussie-style pork ribs (or any other ribs will do)
• 1 tablespoon corn flour

1. Combine all the ingredients in a dish.
2. Coat the ribs in the marinade, cover and refridgerate overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Place ribs into a roasting tray and bast generously with the marinade, reserve any remaining marinade. Cover with foil and cook for 45 minutes. Turn the ribs and bast them again with the marinade and cook for another 45 minutes.
4. Take out the ribs and pour the pan juices into the remaining marinade and return the ribs to the oven.
5. Place the marinade and pan juices into a saucepan and cook over medium heat until reduced and thick.
6. Combine the corn flour with a small amount of cold water to dissolve and stir into the sauce. Take off the heat.
7. Take the ribs out and pour the sauce over them. Cook over a smokey bbq or in the oven uncovered until the sauce caramelises and the ribs are sticky. Turn and coat the other side for even coverage.
8. Serve with some roast potatoes or chips and extra sauce on the side.
(I usually don't garnish my ribs but these were being taken to a birthday party, I wanted them to look a bit more presentable so sprinkled over some sliced shallots that were already in the fridge)

        I recently had a request for these from a friend celebrating her 21st birthday. She'd had my ribs at my sisters 21st (though they still had heaps of improvement needed back then) and when I asked what she wanted me to bring to the bbq, ribs were immediately requested. At first I was reluctant to because ribs arn't cheap to buy and I was worried there just wouldn't be enough to go around. In the end I gave in and got Mum to buy me 3 kilos worth. I cut them up into individual ribs and even made a note to get people to just take one first so that most people had a chance to try them out (mum's idea). I finished them in the oven at home and stuck them into a styrofoam box to keep them warm to take to the park. At the end of it the box was empty - always a good sign.

        We had ribs again this weekend. Though they wern't my best batch as I was a little rush with a change of schedule. They were meant to be Saturday's dinner but then were changed to Sunday dinner and then last minute were changed to Saturday lunch. I just didn't have the time to let them cook as long as I wanted as I needed the oven to cook other things for the lunch too. I also had a birthday cake order to do so spent my entire Saturday in the kitchen. No complaints though which is always a good thing.

Pan Fried Fish Fillets with Pea Puree, Tomato Salsa & Tempura Kumara

        All my blog posts seem to be about baked and sweet items. It's not that I don't know how to cook savoury dishes, it's not that I don't like savoury dishes, I'm just better at baking and making sweet items. It's also a bit of a pain to keep stopping and starting during cooking to take photographs and I just want to dig in to my food straight after because I am just absolutely starving. When I am that hungry I don't really have the time or patience to take that 'perfect' photo, one that actually looks appealing for the blog. I'm also not into setting up my food with props and having extra washing up to do on top of the mess I make cooking and serving my food, maybe one day in the future I will, but for now I like the enjoyment of eating what I cook while it's still nice and hot and freshly made, straight from whatever container that I have decided to serve it in. I do have a backlog of photos of dishes that I've cooked, but I guess none of them have looked so appealing to me that I don't think anyone else would want to look at them either.

        There was a whole heap of frozen fish in the freezer, courtesy of my trip up to Queensland with my brother and cousin to visit my relatives after the floods. We caught over 100 fish from a lake which my aunty froze and put in a styrofoam box for us to bring home (not all 100 of them though). I have no idea what species they are (Vietnamese to English translations wern't quite working for me whenever I tried to ask someone what the fish were). I just know that because they were frozen almost straight after they were caught, the flesh remained nice and firm and still tasted quite fresh. I decided that I wanted to cook something with the fish since we had so much of it. Ryan also requested no meat on Fridays during Lent so fish it was going to be for dinner.

        This dish is actually my own creation, though inspired by a dish I had at a restaurant a couple of weeks before (and bits and pieces I picked up reading cookbooks/foodblogs, watching cooking shows) but adding my own twist to it. When I cook like this I don't really measure out all my ingredients and just cook by vision and taste. It's how my mum cooks and that's how I learnt to cook.

        I start with the tomato salsa, I had some cherry tomatoes left in the fridge from the weekend before that needed to be used and thought they would work perfectly as a salsa. I quartered them, added some capers, chopped basil (Thai basil because that's what we had at home), minced garlic, salt, pepper, a pinch of sugar, a couple of teaspoons of olive oil and mixed it all up. Salsas (and tomatoes) seem to be a popular as an accompaniment for fish. Mum makes a dish where she pan fries a whole fish until crispy and then sautees a chopped tomato which just gets placed on top of the fish which is then dressed with a home made fish sauce dressing and then served with rice.

        Next I make the pea puree. I just used frozen peas (a freezer staple item) and cooked them in some chicken stock and then blitzed it all in a blender.

        Such a vibrant green! I actually end up with a much thinner puree than I had anticipated (almost like a soup it was) so I'd suggest using only a small amount of stock to blitz the peas with. I ended up using a whole 500gr bag of frozen peas and about 2/3 cup of stock. The puree was to also act as a bit of a sauce for the fish.

        I wanted another element to go with the salsa and puree and decided to make some tempura kumara slices. I sliced them a little too thick, and my tempura batter didn't quite give me the consistency I wanted. They were more like battered sweet potato chips, which was fine, but not obviously not quite the 'tempura' I wanted.

        Lucky for us my aunty and cousin gutted and cleaned the fish before freezing which meant less messy work for me - yay! I can't say I've ever attempted to gut and clean a fish myself, but I don't think I could bring myself to do it, I get really squirmish about things like that. I'll buy my fish readily cleaned from the fishmongers thanks. I did have trouble filleting the fish though as I've never done that before either! Mum came to the rescue though and helped me get my fillets. I get people telling me I should try out for Masterchef, if I can't even clean and fillet a fish I'd be kicked out of the competition when it comes to those kind of challenges.

        I was under the impression that the seemingly fat fish I chose would give me some nice sized fillets. When mum gave me my fillets she pointed out that there was probably only enough to feed one so I quickly go and defrost another fish in the microwave. I overlooked the fact that there was a big stomach cavity and a spine going through the fish, lucky there was backup in the freezer.

        Apart from grilling and pan frying salmon fillets, battering fish fillets and deep frying them I have never actually cooked with other fish before. Paying attention to cooking shows helps here ;) I season the fish with salt and pepper and rub some salt onto the skin. A pan is heated to high and I make sure that my oil is very hot before adding the fish, skin side down. The fish does look a little burnt around the edges here but it actually is not. I should have pressed down the middle of the fillets more while cooking as the middle of the skin doesn't crisp up as much as the edges do. I got a little overzealous with one of the fillets and flipped it over a couple of minutes before the skin was crispy and browned so flipped it over again to get the skin as crispy as I could.

        Ryan was actually stuck at work doing the afternoon shift on Friday (not his usual work day). I spent most of the evening in the kitchen prepping and doing all the elements myself so that as soon as he came over after work, all I had to do was heat the puree, fry the fish and kumara chips and assemble the dish.

I wouldn't suggest making the puree too far in advance though as it starts to seperate a little sitting there. I probably could have strained it to refine it a bit more but it seemed fine after I blitzed it. I'm too hungry to wait for Ryan so make my own dinner and eat it without him.

        Presenting a dish nicely has never really been my strong point. It's usually all about the eating. But I'm quite happy with this attempt of mine. And I absolutely love all the vibrant colours in it, and the flavours are as vibrant as the dish itself. I am one who loves her strong bold flavours, it's something I have been brought up on. Was probably a little heavy handed on the pea puree but I had heaps of it and I do love my sauce in dishes. When you think about it, it's pretty much fish and chips with a salad that I've cooked up ;) But it sure was hard sitting there looking through the lens of my camera thinking how delicious it all looked! It sure was a great reward to be able to eat it once I was done photographing it.

        Ryan's verdict: It's really good. Really strong flavours, all the elements work well and complement each other. Sweetness of the tomatoes works well with the saltiness of the puree and the tartness of the capers gives it another dimension. The sweet potato could have been sliced a bit thinner and the batter could have been thinner too. But what's with the bones?

        There was a small sliver of bones still stuck in one of his fillets. The semi defrosted fish was a little trickier to fillet and when I attempted to cut this piece out I saw that it would have made the fillet really small and I wanted to maximise whatever we could get out of the fish so I left it in, and forgot to warn him beforehand. Oops.

        I had also bought some plump figs for dessert. The figs have been absolutely gorgeous the past few weeks and I have been totally obsessed with them, eating a couple almost every day of the (working) week. I wanted to try and cook with them this time around so decided to stuff them with some ricotta cheese, drizzle them with some honey and then grill them. I initially was thinking some Manuka honey but remembered that I had some Lavendar honey I had bought from NZ in the pantry and thought it would be a better pairing with the figs.

        I was too eager to eat them (and impatient) and pulled them out of the grill a little too soon so they don't get the caramelised finish I was looking for. Ryan and I both agreed that they needed a bit more honey so I drizzle over another few spoonfuls and quickly zap them in the microwave. It was just heavenly to eat. The lavender honey complimented the figs really well, drawing out the floral tones and enhancing their sweetness. I think this is where my fig obsession ended, I saw them at the fruit shop on my lunch break this week and actually didn't buy any (unlike my other recent visits). It was a perfect way to eat the figs though and a nice sweet end to the meal.

Steak with Mushroom Red Wine Sauce, Sweet Corn Puree & Duck Fat Chips - Ryan Cooks

        It's been a while since Ryan has cooked for me and even longer since I've posted about him doing so. The last post on Ryan cooking was when he made the loin of lamb with broad beans. It's nice to know he doesn't need some overcomercialised day in the calendar to spoil me ;). He's working tonight anyway so there is no romantic dinner for two or anything 'special'. We did catch up for afternoon tea before he went to work as we usually would, and watched all the male species of the world queue up at the florist for last minute roses/flowers.

        I did bake him some cupcakes as a 'Valentine' present yesterday. I would have baked them either way just to cheer him up a bit from the weekend's events. Oh and to think I knew everything there was to know after 10 and a half years, I only recently discovered his favourite cake as a kid was banana cake, especially the cream cheese frosting. No wonder he absolutely demolished my hummingbird cake! So I whipped up a batch of banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and had some frosted especially for him. He absolutely loved them! =)

        If you've followed me for a while you'll know that I love watching Ryan in the kitchen. Look at the concentration =). I had absolutely no idea what he was going to cook for me before he showed up at my place a few weeks ago. He just said 'beef'. I spied Matt Moran's book which I bought for him in his car on the weekend, which I can safely assume is where he got his inspiration from (he would have taken it to go shopping with).

        I thought I would get away without having to lift a finger in the kitchen but I have to help him peel the potatoes. The peeler which we use at home is not to his liking, but it's one that I am used to using.

Lurveee sweet corn!

        Cooking the corn in milk and cream, was wondering what the white streaks are in the top left corner and realised I must have taken this while he was seasoning it with salt =D.

        He wanted to make some fat chips and I remembered that I had some duck fat in the freezer (saved from when I made duck a l'orange (backlogged post) so I pulled it out so he could fry the potatoes in it.

Blender, best kitchen applicance next to the food processer.

Ryan frying the fat chips in the duck fat - YUMM.

Steaks resting.

Mmm corn puree!

He makes a mushroom and red wine sauce to go with the steak.

And dinner is served!

        The steak was nice and pink. Ryan said he was a little disappointed by the quality of the steaks he was given at the local butchers but I was totally happy with it. I loved all the flavours on the plate.

        The potato chips were really tasty straight out of the pan but quickly lost their crispiness. He was meant to finish them off in the oven but we ran out of time - too hungry to wait!

        Being a pair of sweet tooth's that we are we got the munchies later that night so decided to whip up some dessert. I've had a hankering for a souffle for a while and was about to give up when I discovered my electric beater had still not been returned but Ryan volunteered to whisk the egg whites by hand. It was all very impromptu and made up as we went along but I can say that we had Nutella and corn infused cream/milk (from the corn puree) in this souffle (was originally meant to be white chocolate & grand marnier, but the white chocolate didnt melt properly and we actually ran out of milk).

        It turned out to be the most spectacular looking souffle that we have made so far and the flavour of it, well I can say it was very interesting. It was not too sweet, and a little nutty according to Ryan. The souffle stood for what seemed like forever before it started deflating ever so slowly. We were mightly impressed, and even did a bit of a high five =D.

Home Made Beef Burgers (and Brioche Bun) with Parmesan Truffle Fries

        Guess who's back from holidays? Me of course. I've been back for a few days now but have been either busy spending time with the boy (away from the 14 other people who were on holiday with us) and helping to paint his room, or have been cooking for my sibblings because Mum and Dad have flown straight to Vietnam after our family holiday. In between all of that I have just been resting, a holiday from my holiday before I head back to work. I'm just thinking about the mega back log of posts I have and also the 2500 holiday happy snaps I have to sort through... oh dear. Oh and not to mention catching up on my blogs to read too!

        Well being the eldest of 4 I have been left in charge of the household. First thing we did when Mum and Dad were gone was to go grocery shopping. And try and figure out what we were going to eat for the next few days (and weeks). I had a request from one of the brothers for burgers so tonight was burger night. I really do love a good burger and most times when I've had to pay for one I seem to be left slightly disappointed. Dry patty, soggy fillings or bun, sometimes overpowering ingredients too. How could you go wrong with something so simple like a burger?

        Originally I was just going to go buy either some hamburger buns or bread rolls to make things easy but our pantry is absolutely stocked with yeast that is all about to expire so I thought I could 'quickly whip up' some bread dough before I head to Ryan's place to do some more painting. I googled for a hamburger bun recipe and after some clicking and browsing I settled on a light brioche bun recipe found via tastespotting which was from Honey and Butter, which was adapted from Smitten Kitchen, which was adapted from a recipe on The New York Times from Hidefumi Kubota of Comme Ça restaurant, Los Angeles.

        I end up slightly adapting the recipe again. It is really only a light brioche because you don't use as much butter as you would a regular brioche hence it isn't as rich. I find that this works perfectly for a burger bun. I probably shouldn't have flattened my balls of dough so much either because the brother was asking me where the burger bottoms were, these were the whole burger buns I told him. Oh and make sure when you leave the dough to proof the first time to use a nice big bowl, I went out and came home to my dough seeping out of the plastic wrap coming down the side of my bowl - but then again I don't think I was meant to leave it for that long.

Light Brioche Buns

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp. warm milk

• 1 cup warm water
• 1 sachet dry instant yeast
• 2 ½ tbsp sugar
• 1 ½ tsp salt
• 1 large egg
• 3 1/3 cups plain flour
• 2 ½ tbsp unsalted butter, softened
Egg wash
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tbsp milk
Optional
·  Sesame Seeds

1. Place milk, water, yeast, sugar, salt and egg in the bowl of a mixer and mix on low until well combined. Add  flour and mix on low until the mixture comes together and is slightly tacky. Add the butter and mix until combined.
2. Change to a dough hook and work dough on low for about 8-10 minutes until dough comes away from bottom of the bowl. It will still be slightly tacky but you don't want the dough too dry.
3. Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap then leave in a warm area to rise until doubled in size. This should take approximately 1-2 hours (or even 3), depending on how warm the room is.
4. By now the dough should have expanded and is very airy. Punch down the dough and quickly knead until it all comes together again.
5. Pre heat fan forced oven to 200 degrees celcius. Turn dough onto lightly floured bench and divide dough into 8 portions and roll into balls. Place on lined baking tray and cover with a tea towel until doubled in size again - approximately 1-2 hours.
6. For egg wash, beat together egg yolks and milk and lightly brush the buns. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Place a pan with boiling water at the bottom of the oven.
7. Place tray in oven and bake at 180 degrees celcius for 15-20 minutes rotating tray half way through cooking.

        The best thing about home made burgers is that you can customise them according to your own liking - or whatever ingredients you have on hand. Or you can have them simple and plain. Just remember to use quality ingredients, good flavour combinations and don't overcook your patties!

Beef Hamburger Patties

Ingredients:

• 1 kg minced beef

• 3 tbsp chopped onion

• 3 cloves garlic, crushed or finely chopped
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs soaked in milk, made from day old bread
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1/4 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp ground pepper
·  2 tbsp olive oil
Optional - This is where you can chop & change to your own accord
• ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
• 2 tbsp dried parsley (or 4 of fresh)
• 1 tsp paprika
To serve:
• Lettuce
• Tomato
• Fresh pineapple. grilled
• Cheese of your choice
• Sauce or relish of your choice
• Anything else you want in your burger

1. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix until well combined.
2. Shape into patties and heat some olive oil in a pan until hot.
3. Place patties into pan and cook until well browned then turn down heat. Once patty is half cooked through turn heat to high and flip the patty to brown the other side. Turn down heat and cook through.
4. Set patties aside for a few minutes to rest while assembling the burgers.

        You can't have burgers and not have fries on the side! I was half way through cooking some when the brother poked his head into the kitchen and asked if I was making fries too. Of course I was! However these wern't your average fries - some grated parmesan cheese and a few dribbles of some truffle oil and you have the most scrumptious fries ever! These were first encountered when Ryan and I went to try out Charlie & Co. Burgers at the new Westfield Sydney. Fries just arn't the same anymore without some parmesan and truffle oil!

        So my burger layers were: bun bottom, almost melted cheese (unfortunately the sibblings eat the plastic Kraft stuff, I forgot about the other cheeses I just bought in the fridge), lettuce, juicey beef patty, tomato, grilled fresh pineapple, bbq sauce and then bun top. The brother was wanting a burger with the lot so I had to fry up some bacon too, but then he skipped on the egg because he thought the burger would be too hectic to eat. The can of beetroot we had remained unopened. Seriously the best burger and fries I've ever had!

Mediterranean Style Lamb Shanks with Truffled Potato Mash (7th August)

        I've always loved a good lamb shank when eating out and have always wanted to cook it at home but never really got around to doing it because I knew that they required a fair bit of cooking time. The easiest way to cook them would probably be to use a slowcooker however you generally need to plan ahead of time to get all your prep done and then pop the slow cooker on for a fair few hours if not a whole day.

        The weekend that I wanted to cook lamb shanks was also a busy weekend, as I wasn't home on the Friday night and was going to be out on the Saturday. I had to do all my shopping on the Thursday and wake up extra early on the Saturday (when I usually sleep in) to do all my prep. I decided to adapt this recipe from taste as it sounded like a good hearty dish perfect for winter.

        I thought that while I was at it I might as well double the recipe to make the most of the slow cooker. Didn't end up using all the vegies as they wouldn't have fitted into the slow cooker with the 8 lamb shanks I bought.

        My shiney new knife from Wenger which I received as part of the Wenger Calabrian Master Class. Thought I might try it out at home and chop up some of my vegetables with it.

        I can't say the knife made me any better at chopping, need to practice some more.

        I find out that 'french' lamb shanks just means that they come ready trimmed from the butchers, the ones I bought were untrimmed so I thought I would trim them myself, not a very good attempt there so I gave up. I thought that most of the meat and fat would just fall off the end by the time cooking was done anyway.

        As I had my 8 lamb shanks sitting in the fridge for a couple of days, they were a bit hard to miss and Mum had noticed them but couldn't figure out what kind of meat they were so she asked me. I told her they were lamb shanks, something that she actually was not familiar with. I guess lamb is not a common meat in Vietnam and the only lamb she knows of are the bbq chops and ribs she buys at the butchers and the cutlets which I've recently introduced to her.

        I also chose this dish to cook because it was packed full of healthy vegies.

        I had totally underestimated the capacity of the slow cooker, everything managed to just fit.

        Making the most of flavours and minimising clean up, the liquids are poured into the pan and mixed together before adding to the slow cooker.

        There was a fair bit of maneuvering around with the shanks, vegetables and liquid making sure that everything was covered. Now I have never used a slow cooker before, seeing as it's Mum's I was hoping that she was able to guide me. She couldn't even really tell me how to use it as she always leaves it on at medium setting and checks on it and when whatever it is that she is cooking is about half way done she turns it down.

        I try and tell her that I've read you can leave the slow cooker on low and let it slowly cook for the whole day but she didn't seem to trust those instructions so insisted that we do it her way and that she'll look after it while I am out. Hmmm, I decided to leave my dear shanks in her control. I really hoped that they wouldn't be under or overcooked when I got home.

        So I go out hoping that everything will be okay when I return home. Mum advises me that the meat is falling off the bone and that she has only just rotated the shanks around not too long ago as a few of them at the top wern't quite as tender. As I pull up a shank to test the meat I am excited to see that the meat is easily pulled off the bone. We have success! Though the few that had been sitting towards the top could have done with a bit more cooking time, if I knew I would have called home to get mum to rotate the shanks around half way through cooking.

        Definately had to have mash potato so I left Ryan in charge of making it. He does a good job and it is absolutely soft and fluffy and creamy. I seriously can sit with a pot of mash potato and I'd be happy. He gets experimental and wants to add a bit of truffle oil to it. I am skeptical at first but it ends up complimenting the sauce really well giving the whole dish an earthy taste.

        It was an absolute delight eating this on a cold winter night. It was so good I'd be happy to eat it any time of the year too.