McVirgin Burger, anyone?

My first home-made beef patty. Feels like my first kiss - clumsy but sweet and memorable!

After spending a week studying recipes at the social enterprise I'm involved in, I garnered enough courage today to try making my first home-made beef burger patty. And without consulting my usual go-to Youtube tutor. I thought I would just do it based on some common sense! 

While it wasn't a box-office hit, I was pleased with it on a few fronts. First, I knew exactly what I was eating in this burger - all fresh and unprocessed. A rare treat these days. Two, the patty didn't disintegrate before my eyes as I had feared it might. It stayed true to its form, contrary to my culinary nightmare. And three, the meat was soft and juicy, not tough - another imagined fear. Experienced chefs don't understand the numerous fears we go through in our heads! 

So, here are the ingredients and some photos to share.

1 kg fresh minced beef
1 yellow onion, chopped
8 eggs
Chinese hoisin sauce, 3-4 Tbsp (or use herbs like thyme and parsley for a Western taste)
Salt and pepper to taste

140g each patty

Pan-seared on a non-stick, about 3-4 min on each side

I like it that it's not perfect!

Goes well with sautéed mushrooms. I should blend the mushrooms into the patty next time.

Now, I wish I had made my own burger bun so I can say it's 100% McVirgin!

Read comments from my family members below:


"Tastes like the Korean bulgogi beef. Good burger." - Husband 


Quietly devoured 2 burgers at one go - Foodie son


"Wow, mom, the meat is so soft and juicy. Yum..mm..Keep one more for me, I want to eat it again later." - Fussy-eater son


"OK, not too bad, no strong beef smell." (Packs 2 patties out for her beef-hating friends to try). - My mom who hates beef


"Maybe next time instead of placing the vegetables on top, you can try using it as a base. And since the vegetable is slightly messy, maybe next time you can try rolling the vegetable into a small ball then place it on the bun then spread it out, it would be a lot neater. A neater arrangement could be bun, vegetable of choice, patty then tomato and top bun.

Something I learnt today - you could fry a sunny side and place it at the top above all and instead of placing the top bun in the usual way -- you could place it slanted on the side and stick a satay stick right through from the slanted top bun all the way to the bottom bun."
 - My nephew who is learning to cook in a restaurant as part of his school holiday job 

Spoken like a true pro!

Word of the Week: Curing

My home-cured salmon with dill

I didn't forget it's Wednesday today. Word of the Week for today is "Curing".

Curing is a form of preserving or flavoring food especially of meat or fish, and dates back to ancient times. The process involves adding mainly salt, sugar and herbs. In very simple terms, the idea behind curing is that adding salt to raw meat removes water and moisture thereby eliminating an environment where bacteria can grow and multiply. Salt also slows down oxidation, preventing the meat from turning rancid. 

There is a lot to read and learn about curing and smoking on the internet. Just based on some simple research, I managed to do some home-curing and have lived to blog about them. Check out how I cured salmon - click here. Also, I am in the process of curing a pork belly to make pancetta - click here for more. Or go to the "Curing Meat" label/section on this blog.

If you have any questions on Curing, let me know and I'll be happy to do more research on your behalf as I am also interested to learn more in this area. Just spare me the lame (caught the pun?) healing and disease-curing jokes that my friends are texting me on!

My chef said I can tag onto his order for salmon for the restaurant so I'm going to be getting some good deals! That can only mean more curing projects - and more posts - from me!


Word of the Week features a culinary term each week, usually on a Wednesday. I picked up this practice from the culinary school and have continued with this learning journey after I graduated. See previous Word of the Week:

Mise En Place

Barding

Rotisserie

Dollop

Bain Marie

Vinify

Papillote

Schmear

Mirepoix
Chiffonade
Confit

Counting down to restaurant opening

The number of stoves gives you an idea of the scale of the restaurant

I mentioned last week that I have joined a food-related social enterprise. I have been attending their classroom training sessions and briefings and getting involved in all the pre-opening preparatory work. It has been interesting and educational for me, and I do feel it's such a privilege to be a part of something exciting. It's not exactly a restaurant, more like a cafeteria concept, so nothing of fine culinary art. Still, there is so much to learn if you choose to.

Today, we got a chance to visit the site. It's not quite ready but it seems it will open soon. I won't be mentioning the name to give myself more verbal liberty, if you know what I mean. 

Meanwhile, I have been given a 20-page recipe book to read, with detailed instructions on the method to prepare the cafeteria dishes for the Opening Day. They range from dressings and sauces for grills and sandwiches and salads to local food and roast meats. It would be interesting to try some of these recipes at home. I can't wait to attend the kitchen training sessions next week. I'll post pictures discreetly : ) so keep coming back here for more updates. 

Home-cured pancetta - Part II

For those who missed my first post on this topic, here's the link - Home-cured pancetta Part I.

For those who are still wondering what the heaven a pancetta is, click here - Word of the Week: Pancetta.

And for the faithful followers who have written to say you want to know the progress and outcome of this culinary experiment, here's an update. In the last post, I showed you a picture of how the cured pork belly looked after Day 4 - that was where we left off.

And now, Day 10 or 11, frankly, I lost count and didn't date it because it doesn't really matter.

Day 10 in the fridge, or was it 11.

After ten days of curing this in the fridge, I remove and rinse thoroughly under running water, then pat dry with kitchen towels.

The underside has also turned dark.

Now, technically speaking, I have a pancetta in my hands. But all that is only Part I.

Having rinsed it off the curing mixture, I now proceed to Part II where I rub a spice mixture and leave it in the fridge for a month or so. Yes, a month. Troublesome but also kinda fun to keep this in suspense. 

Some people have a curing chamber where they can control the temperature and humidity. For enthusiastic amateurs and virgin chefs like me, I will make do with leaving it in the fridge. I've researched many sites and found this to be acceptable too. 

So I prepare my spice rub here.

My spice rub consists of Oregano, thyme, tarragon, chilli flakes, paprika, chilli powder, black pepper -
my own concoction of whatever I have in the cupboard that I want to get rid of, no quantity, just an estimate of what is enough to cover the pork belly fully.

I keep staring rudely at the different herbs and spices and they don't mind, something I couldn't do to my colleagues in the corporate world.

I spread the spice rub on a flat porcelain casserole and rub them all over porky.

I also stuff them into the scores I cut.

Tried to cover them as fully as possible but they keep dropping off.

So this is how it looks just before I cover them and pop them back into the fridge for a whole month. I'll give you a sneak preview around mid-December before I take off on a tour in Tuscany, Italy where I get to see first-hand how the experts there cure their meat. I'll be posting actively then, so do look out for it! (Readers in Europe, write to me!)

Cheers for now, and thanks for the likes and follows!

A chef's comments on my blog

I had the privilege of having a chef sit beside me this afternoon giving his professional comments as he scrolled through some of my blog posts. He scrutinised my pictures in my roast chicken post and told me where I could improve, e.g., trussing the chicken better for a more even roast, and gave me many tips on enhancing the flavour. He directed me to Thomas Keller, a world renowned chef and one of his specialties is in making a perfect roast chicken.

He also looked at my cured salmon and cured pancetta and asked his head chef to consider letting me cure some meat in future in his walk-in chiller. Now, how cool is that for an extra virgin chef!

My curing experiment attracted a chef's attention today.  Kewl!