Beef burger with mushrooms and cheddar cheese

Ingredients

For the burger
540g/1lb 3oz minced beef chuck steak
2 tbsp paprika
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 free-range egg yolk
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper

12 chestnut mushrooms, sliced
a good handful of grated mature cheddar
1 tbsp butter

To serve
½ iceberg lettuce, shredded
4 ciabatta rolls
1 beef tomato, sliced

Place all the burger ingredients in a mixing bowl and stir to combine. Using your hands, shape into four equal-sized patties. Leave in the fridge overnight to firm up the patties.

Preheat the grill to hot. Cook the burgers under the grill for 15 minutes, or until cooked through, turning once.

Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms in butter till cooked. Add the grated cheese and cook till it’s melted.

Before serving, cut the ciabatta rolls in half and toast under the grill on both sides. Top the bottom halves of the ciabatta rolls with the lettuce, followed by a slice of tomato. Arrange the burger on the tomato. Add the cheese mushroom mixture on top of the burger. Top each burger with the other halves of the ciabatta rolls and serve.

Pan fried chicken in mushroom sauce

From bbcgoodfood.com
Ingredients

2 tbsp sunflower oil
6 large, free-range chicken legs , halved at the joint so you have 6 thighs and 6 drumsticks
700ml/1¼ pts chicken stock (or water)
50g butter
1 onion , finely diced
400g mixed wild mushrooms
300ml/½ pt dry white wine
284ml pot double cream

Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Fry the thighs for 8-10 mins, skin side only, until golden brown, then transfer to a casserole dish. Fry the drumsticks for about 5 mins each side and add them to the thighs.

Pour the stock over the chicken legs in the casserole. There should be enough stock to just cover the chicken, if not add a little water. Bring stock to the boil and cover, leaving lid slightly ajar. Cook at just below simmering point for 30-35 mins until chicken is cooked.

While chicken is simmering, drain oil from the pan. Heat the butter in pan and add onion. Sweat onion for 5 mins until soft, but not coloured. Turn up the heat, add the mushrooms, then fry for 3 mins until they soften and start to smell wonderful. Pour over the white wine, raise the heat to maximum and boil rapidly for 6-8 mins until reduced by two-thirds. Turn off the heat and leave until chicken has cooked.

Once chicken legs are cooked, strain stock into pan with the onion, mushrooms and white wine, bring back to the boil and reduce again by two-thirds until it is thick and syrupy. Pour in double cream, bring it to the boil, season if you want, then pour it over chicken. Heat chicken through in the sauce for 2-3 mins then turn off the heat and leave for a few mins before serving. This is such an aromatic and beautiful looking dish you should serve it straight from the casserole with the lid on.

Layered chicken and potato bake with savoy cabbage

From Chicken – the best ever recipe collection
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 chicken breasts, skinless and boneless, cut into chunks
1 leek, finely sliced into rings
2 ounces butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk
1 teaspoon coarse grain mustard
1 carrot, very finely diced
3 cups white mushrooms
2 lbs potatoes, finely sliced
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat the oven to 350°F Heat the oil in a large pan. Fry the chicken for 5 mins or until browned.

Add the leek and fry for a further 5 minutes.

Add half the butter to the pan and allow it to melt. Sprinkle the flour over and stir in the milk.

Cook over a low heat until thickened then stir in the mustard.

Add the diced carrot with the mushrooms and season to taste.

Line the base of a 3 pint / 7 1/2 cup ovenproof dish with potato slices. Spoon one third of the chicken mixture over. Cover with another layer of potatoes.

Repeat layering, finishing with a layer of potatoes. Dot with the remaining butter.

Bake in the oven for 1 1/2 hours, covering with foil after 30 mins cooking time.

Serve hot.

To be honest, I thought the original recipe was too bland for a chicken bake (the third photograph). So with the leftover serving, I added cheddar cheese and parmesan cheese and reheated it in a toaster oven for 15 minutes; the end product is the first photograph.

Also, I forgot to get mushrooms for this dish and so I just added the leftover savoy cabbage from the duck.

Sausages with oregano, mushrooms and olives

From GoodFood 101 More one-pot dishes
Serves 4

Ingredients
450g pack reduced-fat sausages
1 tsp sunflower oil
2 tsp dried oregano
2 garlic cloves , sliced
400g can chopped or cherry tomatoes
200ml beef stock
100g pitted black olives in brine
500g pack mushrooms , thickly sliced

Using kitchen scissors, snip the sausages into meatball-size pieces. Heat a large pan and fry the pieces in the oil for about 5 mins until golden all over.

Add the oregano and garlic, fry for 1 min more, then tip in the tomatoes, stock, olives and mushrooms.

Simmer for 15 mins until the sausages are cooked through and the sauce has reduced a little. Serve with mashed potato or pasta.

Very very simple dish to make. It’s like having sausages with a rich tomato sauce.

Whole Wheat Pizza With Shitake Mushrooms, Feta Cheese, Bacon and Sliced Tomatoes

Just bought a pizza stone at Whole Foods and decided to make a healthy lunch over the weekend using my go-to whole wheat pizza recipe from Smitten Kitchen and just topped the pizza with whatever we had left in the fridge.

Some stuff to note:

1) Don’t scrimp on olive oil when sautee-ing mushrooms.

2) If pizza stone manual says bake at 450 degrees, and pizza recipe says bake at highest oven temperature, FOLLOW the manual or the pizza base will burn :p

3) If pizza recipe says to wait 2 hours, do not be impatient and wait only an hour.

Penne (fusilli) with wild mushrooms and creme fraiche

From Delia’s Complete How to Cook
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
1 lb 2 oz (500 g) penne rigate
1 lb (450 g) mixed fresh mushrooms (flat, chestnut, shiitake or mixed wild mushrooms, for example), finely chopped
½ oz (10 g) dried porcini mushrooms
9 fl oz (250 ml) crème fraîche
3 tablespoons milk
2 oz (50 g) butter
4 large shallots, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
¼ whole nutmeg, grated
lots of freshly grated Parmesan (Parmigiano Reggiano), to serve
salt and freshly milled black pepper

First pop the porcini in a small bowl, then heat the milk, pour it over the mushrooms and leave them to soak for 30 minutes. Then heat the butter in a medium frying pan over a gentle heat, stir in the shallots and let them cook gently for 5 minutes.

Next, strain the porcini into a sieve lined with kitchen paper, reserving the soaking liquid, and squeeze the porcini dry. Then chop them finely and add them to the pan, along with the fresh mushrooms and the balsamic vinegar. Next, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Give it all a good stir, then cook gently, uncovered, for 30-40 minutes, until all the liquid has evaporated.

About 15 minutes before the mushrooms are ready, put the pasta on to cook (see How to cook perfect pasta, below). Then, 2 minutes before the pasta is cooked, mix the crème fraîche into the mushrooms with the soaking liquid, and warm through. Drain the pasta in a colander, return it to the hot pan and quickly mix in the mushroom mixture, then place the pasta back on a gentle heat so it continues to cook for 1 more minute while it absorbs the sauce. Take it to the table in a hot serving bowl and hand the Parmesan round separately.

I have been having way too much meat this weekend, largely because of my Friday dinner at Hawksmoor which ended up with me eating almost 800g of steak. Anyways, I decided to tone down the meat intake and just have something vegetarian (fine, it’s not really vegetarian because i added some bacon to it).

I think the trick with cooking mushrooms for risotto and pasta is to balance the sharp taste of the mushrooms, this recipe uses balsamic vinegar to do that and I added some flat leaf parsley to further moderate the taste.

Baked macaroni with leeks and mushrooms

From Let’s Cook Italian and Pasta
Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil,
1 onion peeled and finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
2 small leeks trimmed and chopped
450g assorted wild mushrooms, trimmed
50ml white wine
75g butter
150g creme fraiche
salt and freshly ground black pepper
75g fresh white bread crumbs
350 short cut macaroni
1 tbsp freshly chopped parsley

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees, 15 minutes before cooking. Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a large frying pan, add the onion and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the leeks, mushrooms and 25g of the butter then cook for 5 minutes. Pour in the white wine, cook for 2 minutes, then stir in the creme fraiche. Season to taste with salt and pepper

Meanwhile bring a large pan of lightly salted water to a rolling boil. Add the macaroni and cook according to the packet instructions, or until al dente.

Melt 25g of the butter with the remaining oil in a small frying pan and fry until just beginning to turn golden brown. Drain on absorbent kitchen paper.

Drain the pasta thoroughly, toss in the remaining butter than tip into a lightly oiled, 1.4 litre shallow baking dish. Cover the pasta with the leek and mushroom mixture then sprinkle with the fried breadcrumbs. Bake in the preheated oven for 5-10 minutes, or until golden and crisp. Garnish with chopped parsley and serve.

Stewed Pork Belly

I had a strip of pork belly left and somehow the Teochew in me was really craving for stewed pork belly and the Cantonese in me was craving for mee pok tah. So I thought I would combine both and make stewed pork belly and serve it Cantonese noodle style.

Stewed Pork Belly Recipe
Ingredients:

1) Blanched pork belly, cut into 1-2 cm pieces
2) a cinnamon stick
3)some pieces of clove
4) one star anise
5) a few peppercorns
6) 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
7) dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, some Chinese cooking wine
8) water
9) 10 cloves of garlic, peeled

Put just a tiny bit of oil into a pot and throw in the spices and garlic and brown till there’s a nice aroma. Add the pork belly pieces and brown them on all sides. Add dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine. Add brown sugar and make sure all melts well. Add water to cover the pork. And simmer covered for about an hour or until pork is fork tender. When you are almost serving, simmer at higher heat uncovered until the sauce becomes thick and to the consistency desired.

I also added dried shitake mushrooms, boiled eggs and tofu so that I can have some food for lunch tomorrow.

The stewed pork belly is served with meepok (egg flat noodles) mixed with sesame oil, tomato sauce and soy sauce and blanched baby kai lan.

YUMZ.

Vegetarian Stuffed Mushrooms

I accidentally bought stuffing mushrooms instead of regular mushrooms and decided to put them to good use. It’s a welcome change from the usual cooking The recipe is entirely my own invention and I like it that it’s so healthy and good!

Ingredients
10 stuffing button mushrooms (just bigger than usual i guess)

stuffing:
4 cloves of garlic (chopped)
1/4 cup of grated parmesan
chopped parsley
some paprika
1/4 cup of panko breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon of wheatgerm
sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

Method
1. Preheat oven 350 degrees
2. Mix stuffing ingredients together
3. spoon stuffing into mushrooms and place on greased baking dish
4. drizzle extra virgin olive oil over mushrooms
5. bake for 15 minutes
6. remove from oven, drizzle extra virgin olive oil before serving.

Enjoy!

This is my (Nietize’s) mom’s version of it in Singapore! She said it’s a brilliant recipe!

Baked mushrooms with bacon and cheddar cheese

Ingredients

Portobello mushrooms
Cheddar cheese (2 tbsp for each mushroom)
Bacon, finely chopped (1 for each mushroom)
Garlic, finely chopped (1/2 tsp for each mushroom)

Mix the bacon and the garlic. Scatter over the mushrooms. Scatter the cheese over the mushroom and bake in the toaster oven for 15-20 minutes until the cheese is brown and bubbling.

Serve with black pepper and chopped parsley.

This is one of my favourite simple dishes which my mom taught me when I was back in Singapore. I have cooked this dish for friends on a number of occasions and it’s always well received. The mushroom is always bursting with flavour and juices after the oven.