ATK Chicken Marsala

Crisp, tender chicken with a sweet, rich sauce. 

1/2 C all-purpose flour

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed

Salt & pepper to taste

3 Tbsp oil

3 oz pancetta (I used 3 slices of bacon, chopped)

8 oz white button mushrooms, thinly sliced (they shrink so next time, I'll use 12 oz or more)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tbsp tomato paste

1 3/4 C sweet Marsala

1 1/2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

3 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces and chilled

2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 200 degrees. Spread the flour in a shallow dish.

Pound the thicker ends of the breasts as needed to make chicken even. Pat dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Dredge both sides of the chicken in flour and shake off excess.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Add the chicken and cook until light golden brown on both sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a plate and keep warm in the oven.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the skillet and return to medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the pancetta and mushrooms. Cook until the pancetta is crisp and the mushrooms are brown, about 10 minutes.

Stir in the garlic and tomato paste. Cook until the tomato paste begins to brown, about 1 minute. Stir in the Marsala, scraping up any browned bits, and simmer until reduced and slightly syrupy, about 8 minutes.

Stir in the lemon juice, and any accumulated chicken juice from pan in oven along with chicken. Turn the heat to low and whisk in the butter, one piece stirring until mixed. Add chicken to pan. Off the heat, stir in the parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste.

ATK's Caribbean Grilled Kebabs

This marinade is so easy and so flavorful. This may be my go-to recipe for grilling. If you're using wooden skewers, make sure to soak them in water and use 2 sticks to thread the meat.

2 pounds of chicken, trimmed and cut into 1 1/4" chunks
1/4 C olive oil
1/4 C minced parsley
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp cinnamon
3 red, yellow, or orange bell peppers, cut into 1" pieces
2 onions, peeled and cut into 3/4" pieces
Other vegetable ideas: mushrooms, zucchini, etc.

For the meat and marinade: combine all of the ingredients in a gallon sized ziploc bag. Press out as much air as possible and seal the bag. Refrigerate for 1 hour, flipping the bag after 30 minutes.

Turn all the burners to high, close the lid, and heat the grill until very hot, about 15 minutes. Clean and oil the grill. Leave all the burners on high.

For the vegetables: meanwhile, toss with a drizzle of olive oil, then season with salt and pepper. Using 8 12" skewers, thread each skewer with 3 layers of onions, 1 pepper and 1 cube of meat. Repeat the sequence two more times.

Grill the kebabs, covered, until well browned on all sides, 8-12 minutes.

Transfer to a platter, tent with foil and let rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

Serves 4-6

ATK The Best Meatballs

 

I actually agree with America's Test Kitchen's title for this recipe; these are seriously the best meatballs I have ever eaten. There was so much flavor from the bread and the parmesan and then the texture! What a delightful crunch and moist, tender centers. Wow.

The book says this texture comes from the bread paste, which is called "panada" in Italian cooking. "It helps bind together the meat and flavorings. We found that fresh bread did a better job...The buttermilk also has a subtle, tangy flavor, making these meatballs the absolute best we've ever tasted."

2 slices white sandwich bread (I used sliced sourdough)
1/3 C buttermilk
3/4 pound ground beef (I skipped the pork and did 1 pound of beef)
1/4 pound ground pork
1/4 C grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
2 Tbsp minced fresh parsley
1 large egg yolk
2 garlic cloves, minced
Salt and pepper
Vegetable oil

Remove and discard the crusts from the bread, then tear the bread into small pieces. Mash the bread pieces and buttermilk to a smooth paste in a large bowl, using a fork. (I eventually got in there with my fingers because the sourdough was pretty resilient.)

Add the meat, Parmesan, parsley, yolk, garlic, 3/4 tsp salt, and 1/8 tsp pepper to the mashed bread. Stir the mixture gently until combined and uniform. Gently form the mixture into 1 1/2" round meatballs. You'll get about 12.

Oil a skillet (I used a cast iron). Heat over medium high heat until shimmering. Add the meatballs in a single layer and cook until nicely browned on all sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer the meatballs to a paper towel lined plate and discard the oil left in the pan.

Place the skillet with any browned bits over medium heat and add the tomato sauce. Bring to a simmer, scraping up any browned bits. Reduce the heat to low and add the meatballs. Continue to simmer, turning the meatballs occasionally, until heated through, about 5 minutes.

While the meatballs are simmering, it's a good time to boil your spaghetti.

Makes 12 meatballs, serves 4, from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

ATK Skillet Lasagna

Reminds me of a home cooked gourmet Hamburger Helper. I used to love that stuff as a kid. Cleanup is pretty simple since it only uses one pan (a 12-inch nonstick skillet with a tight-fitting lid) on the stove so you don't even need to turn on the oven during those hot summer days. The cheese doesn't get nice and bubbly like when you bake it, but the pasta comes out tender and the sauce is rich and sweet. It's really pretty good and overall much easier than baked lasagna.

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, minced
2 C chopped spinach
Salt
3 medium cloves garlic, minced
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
12 oz Italian sausage, casing removed (can also buy sausage not in casings)
10 curly-edged lasagna noodles, broken into 2-inch lengths
1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce
1 C mozarella
Grated Parmesan to taste (optional)
Ground black pepper
1 cup ricotta cheese
3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Pour tomatoes with their juices into 1-quart liquid measuring cup. Add water until mixture measures 1 quart.

Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook until onion begins to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the spinach.

Stir in garlic and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add sausage and cook, breaking up the meat into small pieces with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink, about 5 minutes.

Scatter pasta evenly over meat but do not stir. Pour diced tomatoes with juices and tomato sauce over pasta. Cover and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally (which really means pressing the pasta back into the sauce and kind of poking around), until pasta is tender, about 20 minutes. (The sauce should look watery after 15 minutes of cooking.)

Remove skillet from heat and stir in the mozarella. Season with salt and pepper. Dot with heaping tablespoons ricotta, cover, and let stand off heat for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with basil and remaining 2 tablespoons Parmesan. Serve.

 Serves 4 to 6, from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

ATK Pan-Seared Steaks

 

You can prepare a sauce with the browned bits in the pan but this recipe is amazing in all its glorious simplicity.

In general, you can facilitate a well-caramelized exterior and crust by doing the following:

1. Pat the steaks dry

2. Get the pan really hot (you can tell it is hot by the smoking oil)

3. Use a pan that is big enough so the steaks have enough room to sear

Boneless beef steak (8 ounces) 1 to 1 1/4" thick, trimmed--I used a rib eye steak

Salt and pepper

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Pat and dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a 12" skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Brown the steaks on the first side, about 4 minutes.

Flip the steaks over and continue to cook to desired doneness, 4-6 minutes. Transfer the steaks to a clean plate, tent with foil, and let rest for 5 minutes.

Serves 1, from America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Playing with food

Ground Pork Steamed Rice Cake

I like the idea of using actual rice instead of that boxed rice flour to make...rice cake. Hm. Why does this seem like a novel idea? The spices are ok, but not the combination I was looking for. Maybe it was because I didn't add MSG.

Of course, MSG is optional but it's also the best tasting thing on earth. I didn't use it because I couldn't convince myself that it's worth putting myself through horrible migraines and blacking out. I gotta work on my persuasion skills.

1/2 tsp oil
5 cloves garlic, crushed
150g ground pork

¼ C dried deep fried chopped garlic
¼ C dried deep fried chopped shallots
1 T soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
¼ tsp licorice powder
½ tsp five spices powder
1 tsp white pepper powder
(1 tsp msg)

300 g white rice
300 ml water

450ml water
1 1/2 T sugar
1 T salt
1 ½ T msg

Additional dried garlic and shallots to taste

Heat oil in a pan and sauté garlic. Brown the pork. Add the dried garlic and shallots and cook for 5 minutes or until fragrant. Add the rest of the seasoning to white pepper powder and sauté for 5 minutes, turn off heat.

Combine rice and 300 ml water in a blender and blend until grains are broken down and the liquid looks milky. Try to break up all the little pieces to make sort of a paste. This took my blender a while to do. In the book, it looked like they were using some intense grinding machine to make it look like a pasty horchata. I couldn’t get it quite like that.

Bring 450 ml of water to a boil, dissolve the sugar and salt in the boiling water. Then, pour rice mixture into the pot, whisk until thickened. Use every bit, even the little grains that were hiding on the bottom.

Pour into a metal pot without handles. I used a metal pot that could fit inside my bamboo steamer. Equally wonderful alternatives include, a big pot with a little bowl turned upside down to make a stand in water, or a steamer. Sprinkle the rice with ground pork and add dried garlic and shallots on surface.

Bring water to a boil in a steam pot and depending on thickness of the mixture, steam about 40-120 minutes. I steamed it for about an hour and it still looked wobbly. It does firm up once removed from the steamer.

Chicken & Green Chili Enchiladas a la Gallarda

This was the dish that impressed Anna's dad. WHAT A FEAT! I adapted this recipe from Jen Gallarda's enchiladas recipe. I miss that family.

If buying a roasted chicken, discard skin. If you choose to cook your own chicken, you can either boil it (not that tasty, but a lot simpler) or pan fry it. To pan fry, cut the whole breasts into pieces the size of a deck of cards, season the outside with a little salt, then cook on medium heat with a little oil. When I made it this past weekend, the chicken wasn't fully cooked, but I shredded it and heated it a little more in the pan until no longer pink but not until it was overcooked and dry.

Great with a side of beans, corn, and Mexican rice.

1 roasted chicken, shredded or 2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded
1 can of minced green chilies (4 or 6 oz?)
1 can of condensed cream of chicken soup
1/3 C milk
1/4 C chopped onions
10-12 flour tortillas (diameter should be about 9")

8 oz shredded cheese
2 Roma tomatoes, chopped
3 stalks of green onions, chopped
Sliced olives (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix 2/3 can of soup, onions, chilies, about 2 Tbsp of milk and the chicken.

Mix the remaining 1/3 C of soup and a little bit of milk until it resembles a creamy sauce. Spoon a little into the bottom of a 13x9x2" Pyrex pan, enough to coat the bottom.

Spoon two spoons of chicken mixture into the center of each tortilla and roll up from one side to the other. They can be a little thin. They shouldn't be like burritos but not as thin as flautas. Place the enchilada seam side down into the pan.

Top with remaining sauce, cheese, tomatoes, green onions and olives. Bake about 25-30 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly and melted.

Serves 8

Creamy Tomato Cardamom Chicken

Super cardamom-y. But it's nice in a floral, spicy way. Like, Indian but not. I liked it a lot. I used a George Foreman grill, which I actually don't know how to use (haven't used it since like...2002?) But I think it could have been really moist if I watched the cooking time.

1 lb. chicken cut into pieces
1/2 can condensed tomato soup (OR 6 oz. tomato paste+2 Tbsp sugar+1/2 tsp salt)
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp ginger, microplaned or 3 Tbsp ginger juice
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 Tbsp curry powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice

1/2 C buttermilk

In a 8x8 pyrex pan combine the tomato, garlic powder, ginger juice, cardamom, curry powder, salt, brown sugar and lemon juice. Mix well. Marinate the chicken in the refrigerator overnight or for at least 4-5 hours.

The next day, mix in the buttermilk, then grill the chicken until cooked through. No need to reserve the marinade since it will be flavorful enough...But check after it's been grilled. If you want more sauce, you can heat it up on the stove in a sauce pan, but I didn't think it was necessary since I probably put too much salt and ginger in it.

Serves 3-4

Charmoula Pork Chops

Lamb is not universally accepted so I opted to use pork. Still worked really well! Heard you can also use shrimp, salmon or chicken. Whatever meat you choose, you can also cook in a hot, lightly oiled, seasoned grill pan or a cast iron skillet over moderate heat.

Definitely needs salt. Try out the marinade before adding the pork to make sure it's salty enough for you.

Serve with couscous and grilled veggies or a light salad. The salad in the photo is a failed attempt at a salad we shall not speak of any more.

1 small onion, chopped
1/2 cup fresh cilantro sprigs
1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves
6 garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
salt and pepper to taste (at least 1 tsp salt)

2 (1 1/4-inch-thick) loin lamb chops (10 oz total), trimmed (or pork)

Blend all ingredients except chops in a blender (or food processor) until smooth, about 1 minute. Pat chops dry and transfer to a plate, then rub chops all over with 2 tablespoons charmoula and marinate, covered, at room temperature 30 minutes.

While chops marinate, prepare grill for cooking. If using a charcoal grill, open vents on bottom of grill, then light charcoal. Charcoal fire is medium-hot when you can hold your hand 5 inches above rack for 3 to 4 seconds. If using a gas grill, preheat burners on high, covered, 10 minutes, then reduce heat to moderate.

Grill chops, covered only if using a gas grill, on lightly oiled grill rack, turning over once, until medium-rare, about 8 minutes total. Transfer to a plate and let stand, loosely covered, 10 minutes.

Charmoula keeps, its surface covered with plastic wrap, 1 week. It will lose its bright green color after a couple of days.

Adapted from Epicurious.com

Callison's Seasoned Skewers

First tried Seasoned Skewers at the 2008 Fancy Food Show in San Diego. Apparently, it's the same "technology" they use to flavor dental floss. It's pretty exciting stuff. All you do is thread the skewers into your meat, wait 15 minutes and flavor is imparted! It can be pretty subtle, but a dash of coarse salt and some dipping sauce completes it.

Here, I threaded chicken thigh cubes and pan fried them without oil in a cast iron skillet then served them with a yellow curry sauce you can buy at Trader Joe's. I liked the Garlic Herb but the Ginger Mango tasted artificial.

Pork Adobo with Sue Tan, April DeVeyra, Shilo Joy Chiu

Sue was missing Filipino food and I've always wanted to cook Filipino food. That's how all four of us found ourselves running around Ranch99 and cooking one Monday afternoon. These girls are so fun and so crazy! I love them. They were telling me about all the tropical fruits they eat back home and the excellent all-you-can eat buffets. (In addition to dirt cheap cell phone service!) Uh oh. Sounds like the Philippines is calling my name!

The longer they cooked the pork, the more tender it got, but I enjoyed the pungency of the vinegar and the different flavors. The salted duck egg was authentic, but I'm not sure if I could handle the saltiness of it all the time.

Dark Soy sauce
White vinegar
Sugar
Cornstarch (if you would like the sauce to be thick)
Salt and pepper
1 pound pork leg (1.99 at Ranch99) cubed a little smaller than 1”

½ medium red onion, chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 laurel leaves
1 T Whole peppercorns
Maybe a couple of hardboiled eggs, they recommend

Serve with
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
Chopped salted duck egg
White rice

Combine 5 T soy sauce, 4 T vinegar, 2 T sugar, maybe 1 tsp of cornstarch and salt and pepper together with water. Enough to dilute. Marinate the pork for 30 min-1 hour.

Heat oil and garlic and onions. Then the pork without the marinade. When browned, add the sauce and cook on medium low until tender. Serve with tomatoes and salted duck egg with vinegar drizzled on top of white rice.

Moroccan Lamb Stew

"Many people assume that wrinkled, sticky dates are a dried fruit, much like prunes or dried apricots. In fact, regular dates are fresh fruits that acquire many of the same characteristics as dried fruit (thin skin, extreme sweetness) because they are grown in the desert. This recipe calls for dried dates. You will find this specialty food sold chopped and often covered with flour to prevent sticking. They act as a perfect sweet foil to highly spiced lamb stews."

This lamb stew was so good--sweet and spiced just right. It must have been Christina's secret touch (i.e. her tossing everything she sees into the pot, including sweet chili sauce). Pure magic.

4 Tbs. olive oil
2 yellow onions, finely chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 lb. cubed lamb for stewing, we used beef which worked out beautifully too
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. saffron threads
1 Tbs. peeled and minced fresh ginger
2 1/2 cups beef stock
1 cup canned crushed tomatoes
1 cup chopped dried dates
Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
2 Tbs. finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Preheat an oven to 350°F. 

In a Dutch oven over medium heat, warm 1 Tbs. of the olive oil. Add the onions and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the carrots and cook until slightly softened, about 3 minutes more. Transfer to a bowl and set aside. 



Pat the lamb dry with paper towels. Place the flour in a large bowl or sealable plastic bag and season with salt and pepper. Add the lamb in batches and stir or shake to coat thoroughly with the seasoned flour. 

Warm the remaining 3 Tbs. oil in the pot over medium-high heat. Working in batches to avoid crowding, add the lamb and brown on all sides, 4 to 5 minutes for each batch. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.



Return the onion mixture and the lamb along with any accumulated juices to the pot. Add the garlic, cumin, saffron and ginger and stir to coat the meat and vegetables. Add the stock and bring to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits from the pan bottom.

Add the tomatoes, dates, and orange zest and juice and bring to a boil over high heat. 

Cover the pot, transfer to the oven and bake until the meat is tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. If the sauce seems too thin, using a slotted spoon, transfer the meat and vegetables to a bowl and boil the sauce on the stovetop until thickened. Return the meat and vegetables to the pot.

Taste and adjust the seasonings. 

Transfer the stew to a serving bowl and garnish with the parsley. Serve immediately with couscous or bread.

Serves 6, adapted from Williams-Sonoma Collection Series, Soup & Stew

Chicken Bacon Bake

Pal made this for me before I left for the training. Really good and simple. Some brush it with egg, I guess to make it more tender, but I like it without and to broil it a little to get the bacon good and crispy.

4 Chicken breasts, sliced in half and then sliced on the thin side.
1 8oz of Neufchatel Cheese (Cream Cheese is good too)
2-3 stalks of green onions, sliced
¼-1/2 C of pecan pieces
¼ tsp salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 package of bacon strips (maybe try ones that aren’t so thick sliced? Maybe these will bake quicker and get crisp quicker)

Cover a baking pan with aluminum foil.

Mix the green onions, pecans, salt, black pepper and cream cheese.

Cut the chicken breasts into quarters from top view, half of the chicken, then using your knife parallel to the cutting board, make another cut. Pound down to flatten a little. Place a good rounded teaspoon of the cream cheese in there. Then take one bacon strip and placing it on the cutting board, start on one end of the chicken breast piece and wrap the bacon around it, covering all cream cheese trying to use the bacon to keep the chicken in a tight bundle. Place cream cheese “side” down on the pan.

Bake at 425 degrees until the thermometer reaches 165 or until juices run clear—about 15-20 minutes.

Sliced Beef with Broccoli

Basic, sweet, savory tasty beef. Susanne made it once. Now for brother Ron Kangas’ dinner at our house!

½ lb beef tenderloin, sliced (maybe flank steak next time since the cut we used was a bit stringy and muscle-y)

Marinade
2t sugar
½ T soy sauce
½ t baking soda
2 t cornstarch
1 T cold water
1 T oil

1lb Broccoli
15 pcs scallion cut 1/2” long
1” ginger, sliced
½ white onion, sliced

Seasoning sauce
2 T oyster sauce
1 T wine
2 tsp sugar
½ tsp cornstarch
3 cloves garlic, minced

Marinate beef in marinade for at least one hour.

Boil broccoli 30 seconds, remove and plunge in cold water.

Heat onions and garlic in pan. Add beef in pan.
Stir fry all in sauce.

Indian Chicken w/Spices from a Packet

I bought this spice packet at an international farmer’s market in Arizona several years ago. Yes, it's the same spice mix as several years ago. And yes, I probably should have thrown it away but it was $1.19 and said it could make Tandoori Chicken!! Just look at the lovely picture on the box:

How could I say no? I thought I’d try it even though I didn’t know what some of the ingredients were that it called for. Like Deggi Mirch? You add ½ tsp of that. 1 tsp gram flour? You add it to the spices to make a paste with water. Can anyone help this ignorant cook?

3/4 onion, finely diced
¼ or maybe ½ sliced onion
6 cloves garlic, minced
1” ginger, decimated by a microplane

1 lemon
Magical spice packet, which includes: Coriander, Chillies, Cumin, Tumeric, Fenugreek leaves, salt, black pepper, dry ginger, mustard, bay leaf, pusle, cloves, nutmeg, caraway, cinnamon, cardamom seeds, mace, asofoetida.

1 red bell pepper, sliced
1-2 Chicken breasts, rinsed, dried and then scored on the top and cut in half (hamburger style) partially, keep a little hinge
cayenne pepper (optional)
olive oil

Set oven to 400.

Mix diced onion, garlic, ginger, and salt in a bowl then shiatsu massage it into the chicken. Hiya! Don’t forget to rub some inside the cut that you made earlier.

Mix 1/3 to ½ of the spice packet with the juice of 1 lemon, and enough water to make a paste. Rub rub rub on the chicken. Place in a pan covered in foil. Put the bell pepper and sliced onions around inside the pan and drizzle everything with olive oil and sprinkle with cayenne pepper. Bake for 10-15 minutes. Baste the chicken with the juices. Then bake until juices run clear. For my fatty breasts, it took probably 20 minutes total baking time.

Let the breasts rest for at least 10 minutes and even after slicing, baste with the juices. It’s good to put chicken in a smaller bowl and then pour all the drippings and onion and pepper on top and to cover. Then slice and serve with basmati rice.

Serves 2-4

Paprika Sirloin Steak Wrap

Does not travel well. Sorry, Miriam!

4 to 6 oz. sirloin steak
Olive oil (didn't have so used flax seed oil to toss the arugula in)
1 tsp smoked paprika (regular paprika + ground cayenne pepper works too)
Salt and pepper
A handful of arugula
2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
red onion, thinly sliced
1 T lemon juice
Tortillas (TJ's handmade sundried tomato ones are excellent)
2 Tbsp hummus (TJ's eggplant hummus)
1 Tbsp sour cream (or greek yogurt)

Heat a griddle or frying pan until very hot. While heating, score each side of the steak and rub with olive oil. Season with the paprika, cayenne if using, and salt and pepper. Sear in the hot pan for about 2 to 3 minutes per side, depending on how you want the steak cooked and how thick it is.

While steak is cooking, mix the arugula with the tomatoes and dress with lemon juice and olive oil.

Remove the steak from the pan and wipe the pan with paper towels. Briefly heat the tortillas in the hot pan.

To serve, slice the steak into thin slices and serve atop tortillas with the arugula salad, hummus, and sour cream.

Serves 1-2, adapted from Jamie's Dinners

Jamie Oliver's Burgers and Chips

It was really fun to grind my own meat! It turned out just like real ground beef but now I know what's in it and that little piece of peace just makes the burgers so much better. Next time, I'll add a little bit more of the spices and not so much breadcrumbs. Maybe the breadcrumbs were not dry enough. Anyway, they are normal burgers, but still one of the best I've made.

I didn't do the fancy rosemary salt, but it did sound tasty. Something to try the next time.

1kg/2lb 3oz chuck steak, or good minced steak
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
olive oil
a pinch of cumin seeds (dash of ground cumin)
1 tablespoon coriander seeds (a little less than a Tbsp of ground coriander)
sea salt and freshly ground
black pepper
a handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 heaped tablespoon English mustard
1 large free-range egg
115g/4oz breadcrumbs (I used 3 stale slices of bread and food processed them)
8 burger buns

for the chips
2kg/4½lb large potatoes, skins left on, cut into chips 1cm/½ inch thick
olive oil, enough to coat the potatoes. I needed more than 1/4 cup
1 whole bulb of garlic
freshly ground black pepper
3 sprigs of fresh rosemary
zest of 1 lemon
85g/3oz sea salt

If you're using chuck steak to make your burgers, slice it up and pulse it in a food processor. Transfer the meat to a bowl. In a big frying pan, slowly cook the onion in a little olive oil for about 5 minutes until softened but not coloured. Add the onion to the meat - it will give sweetness to the burger. Using a pestle and mortar, bash up the cumin and coriander seeds with a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper until fine and add to the meat. Then add the Parmesan, mustard, egg and half the breadcrumbs and mix well. If the mixture is too sticky, add a few more breadcrumbs.

Lay some greaseproof paper on a tray or large plate and sprinkle over some of the remaining breadcrumbs. Shape the meat into 8 fat burgers and place these on top of the crumbs on the tray. Sprinkle more crumbs on top and press down gently. The burgers are better if they are chilled before cooking, so put them in the fridge for an hour or so.

Half an hour before you want to cook the burgers, put a large flat baking tray in the oven and turn the heat to 230°C/450°F/gas 8 (it could have used more time, or put to hi broil). Parboil your chips (still with their skins on) for about 10 minutes in salted boiling water and drain in a colander.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan, smash the garlic bulb up and chuck in the cloves, then add the chips. Toss in the oil and season with freshly ground black pepper. Transfer the contents of the pan to the preheated tray and cook for 20 to 25 minutes until crisp and golden.

Now make your rosemary salt. Remove the leaves from the rosemary and put them in a pestle and mortar with the lemon zest and salt. Bash up to make a green paste, adding more salt if the mixture is too wet. Push this paste through a sieve, and keep to one side until you're ready to serve.

Take your burgers out of the fridge and fry them in a little oil on a medium to high heat for about 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the burgers and how you like them, turning occasionally. Serve them on toasted burger buns, with tomato ketchup, and your fat chips sprinkled with the rosemary salt. Other great things to top your burger with are layers of sliced beef tomatoes, thinly sliced cheese, raw onion rings, lettuce, a grating of fresh horseradish - even a fried egg!

Makes approx. 8 burgers, from Jamie's Dinners

Tender Flank Steak with Green Onions & Mushrooms

Soak 3-4 black mushrooms in water for 10 minutes. Slice thin. With flank steak, slice and rub with a little bit, maybe 1/2 tsp of corn starch and let it sit. Then heat the oil, add the mushrooms, soy sauce, corn syrup/sugar, black beans then the meat. Near the end, add the green onions and season with salt. If you want an extra kick of flavor, you can add a little bit of rice vinegar too.

Bell Pepper Steak with Black Beans

It's funny, my dad doesn't cut his bell peppers, he tears them with his hands. And he uses the inner ribbing of it, which turns out to be tender and delicious. You basically heat the pan with oil, cook the garlic with the sliced flank steak until almost done, then remove from the heat onto a separate plate. Cook the bell pepper until tender and add the black beans (which, according to Chinese medicine is good for your emotional welfare. "Add more! More!") Add the beef and season with soy sauce.

Pineapple Fried Rice

Quick fried rice using training cashews and sandwich meat with my own personal old, cold rice.

¼ C roasted, salted cashews
2 cloves of garlic, minced
soy sauce
dash of sesame oil

1 egg, whisked in a bowl
2 C prepared rice (I used leftover basmati), refrigerated
¼ C canned, cut pineapple
2 slices TC lunch turkey ham, diced/cut into squares
salt
cayenne pepper

Heat pan and ¼ tsp oil in a pan. When hot, add cashews and cook until lightly toasted. Set aside in a separate plate.

Add a little oil, when heated, add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Then add a little (about 1/8 tsp) of sesame oil, 1-2 tsp of soy sauce. Add the rice and pineapple and ham. Stir and heat until thoroughly heated. Add the nuts. Push all to a side of the pan and add a little oil to fry up the egg in that little circle of pan exposed, scrambled egg style. Stir all together and season with cayenne and salt to taste.