best burger ever?

So i had been craving burgers for a while and had realized that i had never actually made them myself, so i decided to make my own patties, and create the best burger ever. I may not have succeeded in the best burger ever but damn these things were good.

I started off my mixing

• 1 lb of ground beef
• tb Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cloves of garlic (crushed and sliced finely)
  
• touch of maple syrup
• touch of cayenne pepper
  
• Salt/Pepper
• an egg to hold it all together
  

So once these were all mixed together i devided it into a couple of patties and threw them on the BBQ. Cooked for around 7 min each side, and than threw them on buns with

• Sliced cheddar cheese
• mixed greens
• hummus
• sweet potato chip
  (http://dansgoodgrub.blogspot.com/2009/05/sweet-potato-chips.html)
• and of course, ketchup/mustard and all the trimmings

Yes they were so so tasty

Sweet Potato Chips

So these were first brought to my attention in Australia, Byron Bay more exactly. They put these in their infamous oci (octopus) salad that my parents just love to make. We have tried to recreate them and have been pretty good.

For the process we use a mandelin, which slices the potato super thin. You may want to play around with the slice size, as they are personal preference...BUT watch out for your hands

once the potatos are sliced, than dip them in ice cold water and pat them dry.

Now this is when you get to start frying them.

Put them in an inch of oil and put it a med-high heat. DO NOT OVERHEAT, and stay watching oil for this time.

Put a chip in a see once it starts to bubble around it. Once this chip is cooking you can put the other chips in. Make sure to not over crowd the pan.

Cook them till they are slightly brown on the edges, but not much longer or they will taste kind of burnt.

Now when you take them off, i drain the oil with newspapers transferring to one, and than another...

These are great on salads, burgers, plain or really with most things...so enjoy

Grilled Veggies

These are the easiest veggies to make, like completely dummy proof.

I sliced up

• zuchini and eggplant
• drizzled with olive oil, salt/pepper, cajun pepper

throw this on the grill, bbq or anything for 10ish min. flipping once they have the nice dark lines showing.

Squid stuff w. Veal Sausage

So for mother's day i felt that i should try some new things. I found a culinary magazine and it inspired me to make this squid stuffed with sausage. Now the recipe used pork sausage, which my family does not eat so i changed that up and bought some ground veal.

To make the sausage i mixed

• 3 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
• 1/2 lb of ground veal
• 1 tsp of chopped ginger
• 1 tb of maple syrup
• touch of cayenne pepper
• salt/pepper

but to make it hold i soaked

• 3/4 cup of bread crumbs in
• 1/3 cup of milk

I added that to the above mixture and mixed it all up with my hands.

I proceeded to stuff the squids body with the sausage. I proceeded to rub oil over the squid and put this on the BBQ at med heat for 15ish min, turning constantly. The recipe called for a thermometer but with inside being around 150 degree, however i didn't use one and just eyed it up.

Hope you enjoy this tasty treat, and the sausage can also be eaten alone.

Rice puff tastyness

So i wont call these rice crispies because that would imply that the only way to make this is with rice crispies. But any sort of rice puff, or well im sure you could make it with other cereal as well. The basics that one needs is

• 250 g of marshmallows (about 1 bag) But i used my homemade Marshmallows which were SO much better
  
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 6 cups of puffy Cereal

So firstly put the butter in a saucepan at med heat, and add marshmallows as it melts. Continually stir the gooey mess till it becomes just a gooey mess with no soft chunks of marshmallow.

Than add the vanilla extract and stir that till it is fully mixed in.

Finally, this mixture to the cereal or vice versa, so they they are combined together.

Put this all in a greased pan, put in fridge for 30ish min and Eat up!

Homemade Veal Sausage Grilled Cheese

So for mother's day I made some veal sausage. The recipe will be posted soon, but im hungry as fuck and well have decided to put the extra sausage to use.

This is pretty simple
make a patty out of sausage and put that in saucepan...making as much as i can assume a sausage burger....

i cooked that on both sides and because my original plan was to make a grilled cheese, as it was cooking a grated up some cheddar cheese and mixed in some goats cheese

i followed this up with brushing some bread with butter and put it in the saucepan, put the patty on the bread and added the cheese mixture...ketchup and some worshtershire sauce...

to make sure the bread doesnt burn, watch...but also add a lid so it heats evenly and the cheese melts...

than flip. and enjoy...

Homemade Marshmallows

These are not the easiest or cleanest things to make but man they taste SO SO good. So i had to post this recipe. You will need a candy thermometer to do this right...

So you have to start off by putting

• 3 packets of gelatin
• 1/2 cup of cold water

in a bowl together, best if its the bowl with mixer. While this is sitting, put the following into a pot at med heat.

• 1/2 cup of water
  
• 3/2 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of corn syrup
• pinch of salt

Turn this on med till all sugar is dissolved, than proceed to heat till it reaches 240 degrees with Candy thermometer. Than add this mixture to the bowl with gelatin, (make sure as you are pouring hot mixture into gelatin, that you hit the side of bowl first)

Now put this all on high with a wisker for 14-15 minutes. The longer, the stiffer the marshmallows will be. This will make it nice and fluffy looking.

• Add tbs of vanilla extract at this point

Now its all finished, BUT you need to prep the pan correctly. So you will need

• 1/2 c of powdered sugar
• 1/2 c of corn starch

Now at bottom of pan and sides add some oil/butter/pam all over pan. Than add a bit of sugar/corn starch mixture and put tin foil on top. move about so that it all gets coated with mixture.

Add the marshmallow stuff and than sprinkle more of the sugar/starch mixture on top

Now let this sit covered with tin foil for 4 hours.

Now you get to eat it, BUT, When you cut it up, make sure to add more sugar/starch mixture to make sure its not so SO sticky..

You can put them into tins, but plastic bags make them last the longest


Now enjoy

Chow Mein W Steak on Top

Chow mein has always been hard for me because well the first few times I made it i didnt cook the noodles properly because i love the crispy ones. so i looked it up and well realized you still have to boil noodles first, than you fry them up. So

Step 1:
Boil salty water. Once boiling throw noodles in for a couple minutes. Once cooked, remove and drain.

Step 2:
Heated up oil in saucepan, Once hot I than threw the noodles in and added

• a handfull of corn
• a sliced up green onion
• crushed clove of garlic
• touch of cayenne powder

I fried this all up till it was nice and crispy and than put this all into a bowl.

Okay, now on top I sliced up a steak i had.
The steaks were marinated with

• ginger
• garlic
• soy sauce
• something sweet
• cayenne powder
• touch of oil
• touch of lemon juice

and than thrown on BBQ. Cooked and than sliced.

Another Fried Tofu

This tofu recipe is pretty similar to my other fried tofu recipes.

Start off my draining some of water from tofu. Put paper towels on both sides and place slight weight on top. Than let it sit for 15 minutes. Make sure surface underneath can be a surface you wipe water from.

Once drained, dice up the tofu

Than roll the diced tofu in a flour based rub. This recipe consisted of

• flour
• salt/pepper
• dash of cajun spice
• half dash of cayenne powder
• double dash of sesame seeds

Once the tofu is covered, place on another plate. Continue this for all tofu cubes.

In a saucepan heat up oil, at med temp. I used canola oil.

Throw tofu in an mix it all up so the tofu no parts of the floury tofu are left uncooked.

I like them nice and crisp, so i fry till they have a nice brown crispy layer around tofu.

Cheers and enjoy

Mango Passionfruit Juice

Hey guys,
I dont know who knows this but I am a feen for passionfruits and mangoes. By far my favourite fruits. So when i found out the metro sells cheaper fruit, and i realized that passion fruit and mangos were a part of this, i bought some of this less pristine fruit and created my favourite juice.

Once i got home i put a decently sized pot of water at med heat. I proceeded to add some sugar, though this is personal preference and some lemon juice.

For the fruit i sliced up the mango, getting as much of the flesh out, and put that into the pot. I than sliced teh passion fruits in half and took out the seeds and tastyness held within the center and i proceeded to put that into the pot.

I brought this to a boil than simmered for 20ish min. THere was a foam that appeared on the top so i just scooped that away.

Once cooked I mashed up slight and drank just like that, however you can also use a sive to make it a cleaner and smoother juice.

enjoy

Fried Rice, again?

I had some rice for the other night so i decided to make some fried rice. Most people put it in microwave to recook, but i hate using the microwave so i always try to make some sort of fried rice. Now for fried rice, its pretty simple, use cooked rice, from previous night, or what you just made than you have to prepare your veggies and decide upon a sauce for the whole meal.

So, for the veggies in this serving of fried rice I used

• carrots (peeled, cut into 1/4s long ways and than sliced)
• baby zucchini (sliced long way)
  
• green onion (sliced)

I put these all into a pan with a

• bit of olive oil
• garlic
• a bit of onion

Let that get to brown and add the veggies.
(now if you like your carrots softer, you can precook those quickly in the pan before with salt/pepper and water with lid on)

Now here you can address rice, a bit more oil an sauce

I like

• soy sauce
• touch of something sweet
• some type of chili
• ginger? more garlic? hoisin sauce?

A simple Chicken Recipe w/ lemon juice

wow its been a long time since ive posted last. Sorry guys but exams, the release of the cookbook and moving has led me to neglect Dan's Good Grub.

Well I'm back with Chicken, cause honestly who does not like chicken. It goes with basically everything and can be cooked in almost any style imaginable. This recipe is nice and simple.

I used boneless chicken thigh But the sauce is what really matters so the sauce consisted of:

• 1 tb lemon juice (touch of rind if you want)
  
• 1 clove of garlic crushed up
  
• 1 tb of olive oil
• lots of black pepper
• touch of salt
• touch of soya sauce
• (if you want it more glazed than add some maple syrup/honey/brown sugar)

Put in pan over med heat, with lid on for a couple min. Take off heat and cook for another few minutes. Enjoy with anything.