Month: August 2011

Easy poppy seed burger buns recipe.

Yeah, I can be a little snobbish when it comes to making homemade burgers. I always insist on serving them with homemade buns. Just something about using store bought buns that make me feel like I can’t really call the burgers homemade.

That’s probably why I’ve only ever made homemade burgers twice so far, hehehe.

Anyway, I’ll probably be making more homemade burgers now that I’ve discovered this bun recipe. I took the liberty to tweak it a little with some knowledge I acquired from watching one too many bread making videos on YouTube.

This recipe is fantastic because everything only happens in 2 bowls. You don’t really need a large, clean surface to knead the dough or anything (something I personally quite detest due to the mess).

# – Easy poppy seed burger buns.

The ingredients:

  • 1 cup of warm milk
  • 2 tablespoons of butter, melted
  • 2 tablespoons of warm water
  • 2 tablespoons of white sugar
  • 2 tablespoon of dry instant yeast
  • 1 teaspoons salt
  • 3 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1 egg white
  • Poppy seeds
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil

    • # – First, pour the mixture of warm milk, warm water and melted butter into a mixing bowl.

    # – Then sprinkle the dry yeast and sugar all over the surface. Allow to stand for 10 minutes.

    # – Sift flour over the yeast mixture.

    # – Followed by salt (Don’t put salt in with yeast, it murders them!)

    # – Now, with your fingers gently mix everything together till combined. It will be very sticky, but refrain from adding flour. The more you work with your finger, the less sticky it will be, trust me! Stop when the dough is only just a bit sticky but manageable.

    # – Grease another bowl with olive oil (I poured 1 tablespoon of oil into the bowl then used a kitchen towel to spread it all over). Transfer the dough into the greased bowl and cover with cling film. Leave it be in room temperature for 1 hour.

    # – After an hour, the dough should double in size. Use a pastry cutter or a knife to cut the dough into 6 equal pieces. It is very easy to handle the dough now. Not sticky! :)

    # – Take one piece and pull it towards the end of your finger tips like this.

    # – Then pull it back towards your body, like this. Repeat 2 or 3 times.

    # – Then form into a ball and lay it on a non-stick baking tray. Do the pulling thing with the rest of the dough pieces.

    # – Cover the balls with a clean tea towel and let stand for another hour. They will expand in size as well.

    # – Before sticking them into the oven, brush egg white all over the surface of the balls.

    # – Sprinkle poppy seeds all over. You may use other type of seeds too.

    # – Bake in a pre-heated oven at 190 degrees celcius for 15 minutes.

    # – Poppy seed burger buns, DONE!

    # – Slice bun in half and put in your homemade patty for a true homemade burger :D

    The buns were soft and spongy. Absolutely delicious and so simple to make! Like I said, it all only happened in 2 bowls, no messy counter top to clean, no flying flour. Lovely :)

    The Orange English Trifle.

    It is compulsory for me to make an english trifle since I’m dating an Englishman. Besides, I LOVE trifle. It’s easy to make and it’s so decadent and delicious.

    # – The Orange English Trifle.

    I decided to make trifle the easy way, by using all store bought ingredients rather than making the ingredients from scratch. Reason? LAZINESS.

    # – Some of the store bought ingredients :D

    The beauty of this dish is that you can decide how thick each layer is. If you like more fruits, put in more fruits. For us, we had a massively thick custard hehehehe. So you can just use my recipe as a reference more than anything :)

    For the sponge, fruit, jelly & cream layers:

  • 1 packet of instant orange jello, mine yielded 400ml of jelly
  • 6-8 pieces of lady’s fingers (the biscuit, not the vegetable)
  • A few tablespoons of Cointreau or any orange liquer
  • 300 ml of whipping cream, whipped
  • 1 can of mandarin oranges

    • For the custard layer:

  • 4 tablespoons of Bird’s custard powder
  • 2 tablespoons of caster sugar
  • 600 ml of milk

    • # – First, break the lady’s fingers and lay them on the bottom of a clear jelly bowl.

    # – Add a few dashes of Cointreau or as much as desired over the lady’s fingers until they are quite soaked.

    # – Now lay the mandarin oranges over the lady fingers.

    # – By now you should have cooked the orange jello according to instructions on the packet. Pour it over the mandarin oranges and lady’s fingers.

    # – It will now look like this. Stick it in the fridge to set (length of time refer to jelly setting instructions on the packet).

    # – Make the custard by first dissolving 4 tablespoons of custard + 2 tablespoons of sugar in a large bowl with 10 tablespoons of milk taken from the 600 ml of milk. Use your fingers to dissolve to make sure there’s no lumps. Then warm up the remainder of milk in a saucepan and pour it into the bowl with the dissolved custard while whisking the mixture constantly. Then, pour the mixture back into the same saucepan. On gentle heat, warm up the mixture again and stir until thickens. Allow to cool slightly then pour custard onto the set jelly.

    # – Stick it in the fridge for at least 3 hours or until custard has set.

    # – When the custard has set, whip up the cream and pipe it onto the surface of the custard if you like it like that. Otherwise, feel free to just spoon it over.

    # – The Orange English Trifle, DONE!

    # – Absolutely delightful with a variety of textures that come together so harmoniously.

    Orange jelly, Cointreau soaked sponges, tart mandarin oranges and creamy, smooth custard AND cream. It’s awesome. True story.

    Spicy buffalo meatballs recipe.

    Two reasons to eat buffalo meat:

    1.they are quite lean.
    2.they taste surprisingly beefy.
    3.they are cheappppp!

    Yeah they are ridiculously cheap! The same amount of beef would have cost me more than double minimum, depending on its source. So cheap I just had to try buffalo out, who knows I might just discover a cheaper and tastier alternative to beef?

    So, I did with the buffalo mince what I would have done with ordinary beef mince – meatballs!

    # – Buffalo meatball pasta.

    For the meatballs:

  • 350 grams of buffalo mince
  • 100 grams of bread crumbs
  • 1 chili, finely dice
  • 1/2 a large onion, finely diced
  • 1 tablespoon of oil
  • 2 tablepspoons of mustard powder
  • 1 1/2 tablespoon of salt
  • Pepper to taste

    • For the sauce:

  • 1 can of plum tomatoes
  • 1/2 can of water
  • 1/2 a large onion, sliced
  • 1 tablespoon of fennel powder
  • 1 tablespoon of rosemary powder
  • 2 tablespoons of honey
  • 2 tablespoons of sugar
  • 145 grams of pasta, cooked as per instructions on packet
  • Salt and black pepper to taste

    • Optional:

  • 1 tablespoon of corn flour
  • 2 tablespoons of water

    • # – First, throw in all the ingredients to make the meatballs into a mixing bowl.

    # – With your hands, knead till ingredients are fully combined.

    # – Like this.

    # – Shape them into the size of golf balls. This recipe should yield around 12 meatballs.

    # – Pan fry them in a pan until crispy all over. There’s no need to worry about whether they will cook through. Set aside.

    # – It is not time to make the sauce. In the same pan, throw in the sliced onions and saute until translucent.

    # – Next, pour the whole can of tomatoes in.

    # – Followed by 1/2 a can of water.

    # – Add the fennel powder, rosemary powder, honey, salt and sugar into the mixture. Stir to combine.

    # – Now add the meatballs back into the sauce. Allow to simmer on low heat and uncovered for 15 minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. In the meantime, cook some pasta.

    # – This step is optional, but if you like the sauce to be thicker, stir in 1 tablespoon of cornflour dissolved in 2 tablespoons of water.

    # – Serve the meatballs and sauce with drained pasta and serve immediately.

    # – Juicy, meaty buffalo balls.

    The buffalo meatballs were absolutely delicious! The smooth, juicy texture of the meat and the crunchy onions made a wonderful combination. The chilies gave them a nice kick.

    I’m so glad I got an extra packet of buffalo mince. Next up, buffalo burgers!