Little Burger

This is a fantastic recipe from Jamie Oliver's "Jamie's Dinner". After followed his recipe I don't feel want to buy those frozen burger anymore. Nothing can be better than making your own homemade burger and it taste much better than those frozen one. His recipe is simply the best!

This suppose to be a large burger but I intentionally make it into small portions to match with the little homemade buns I've made.

Ingredients for the burger: (Makes Approx. 8 Burgers)
(book reference: Jamie's Dinner)

1kg minced pork (I used lean minced pork)
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
Olive oil
A pinch of cumin seeds (powdered)
1 tablespoon coriander seeds (powdered)
sea salt and ground black pepper
a handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon english mustard (I used D-jon mustard)
1 large egg
115g breadcrumbs (I used fresh bread and pulse in a food processor)

For the Buns: (makes 10 buns)

300g bread flour
7g yeast
9g sugar
6g salt
4g milk powder
190g (1 egg + water)
20g butter

Method for the burger:

1. Fry the onion with some olive oil in a pan for few minutes until softened. When the onion completely cool down, mix it to the meat.


2. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. (if the mixture is too sticky, add a few more breadcrumbs). Shape the meat into the eight fat burgers and place on a tray with greaseproof paper.


3. Sprinkle some bread crumbs on top of each burger and press down gently. Chilled in the fridge for 3 - 4 hours.


4. Fry the burger in a little oil on medium high heat for few minutes, depending on the thickness of the burger you shape. (here is a little different from the book, I grill it at a preheated oven 190'C for 15 minutes)

Method for the buns:

1. Knead all the ingredients with a dough hook for 15 minutes. Proof for 40 minutes then divide it into 10 portions.


2. Let it rest for 15 minutes. Then shape it into little bun and proof for another40 minutes or double in bulk.


3. Bake in a 190'C preheated oven for 15 minutes.

Godumai Dosai - Wheat Flour Pancakes

Godumai Dosai -
Wheat Flour Pancakes

One of the quickest and easy dosas to make is the tasty, light and lacy Godumai dosai. Although not popular with my children, I would resort to making Godumai dosai when I ran out of ideas. Menu planning was never easy with three children with different tastes. It needed to appeal to their taste buds, and yet be nutritious. On then occasions when I made this dosai, I had to resort to cajoling, or using distracting techniques like telling stories, and sometimes even being very stern to make them eat. Sometimes, by the time the three kids ate, I would really feel enough is enough!

I don’t recollect how, but I started the practice of making dosais shaped like flowers, stars and so on, after which they would readily eat up these dosais, with a little sugar or curd. I still remember the kids sitting in a row in the kitchen and demanding dosais shaped like a house, rabbit, bird, lion and so on! I would be a sport and try to fling the thin godumai dosai batter into these shapes. Children are anyway very imaginative. They would happily see these shapes, in the odd shaped dosais I made!

Ingredients
Wheat Flour - 1 cup
Water - 4 cups
Salt - to taste
Chopped corriander - 1 Tbsp
Curry leaves - a few
Jeera (Cumin seeds) - 1/2 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a pinch
Ghee / Oil - 1 tsp per dosa
Optional:
Grated ginger - 1/4 tsp
Grated coconut - 1 Tbsp
Finely chopped onion - 1 Tbsp

Method
1) Make a batter of thin consistency by mixing all the ingredients. The consistency should easily pour-able. Regular pancake or dosai batter consistency is too thick for this dosai. This should be watery enough, such that a ladle poured on the tava (pan) quickly spreads out on its own.

2) Heat a tava or pan. A non-stick pan is the easiest to use. Wipe a bit of oil or gree on the pan, using a halved onion. This helps spread the oil evenly all over the pan.

3). Stir the batter so that it is well mixed. Take a ladle-full and pour into the tava. If the consistency is right, the batter will spread out on its own, or you can swish the nonstick pan to help spread it.

4) Air bubbles will rise and break giving a porous appearance to the dosai.

5) Turn down the flame to sim. You can add a little ghee around the dosai and inside a few of the pores.

6) There is no need to turn over the dosai to cook it. Leave it untouched, until the bottom becomes reddish brown and crisp, and the Godumai dosai easily slides off the pan onto a plate!

You can serve this with a variety of chutneys. However I relish this with the adee rasam or the thick part of rasam!

Sathumaavu Urundai /Multigrain Balls

In South India, health drinks are available which is a powder made from roasted multi grains and few nuts flavored with cardamon. Some brands sell the roasted grains and nuts, packed in individual packets and sold as one unit. And all we have to do is to powder them. I find the roasted ones cost effective than the powdered one. I usually buy the roasted one and get it powdered from a near by flour mill. For breakfast, we usually have the sathumavu kanji along with the tiffin.

The idea behind making the balls is from a traditional sweet - Poruvalangai, which was a common sweet in most Iyer households. Its almost a forgotten sweet now. I do make Poruvalangai once in a while. Since this powder is always in stock, it is easy to make these urundai/balls with the instant powder at hand. Once my hubby got the powder instead of the grains that we usually buy. I made this using the store bought sathu maavu. Since it has all the ingredients in it, only jaggery is required to prepare this.

Sathumaavu/Multi grain flour - 2 cups

Powdered jaggery - 1 cup

The store bought flour has cardamom added to it. So no need to add any extra flavor.

Mix jaggery in just enough water to immerse, simmer on low heat till it dissolves. Strain & boil again till it reaches the soft ball consistency. The consistency is reached when ½ teaspoon of syrup added to 1 tbsp water, can be rolled into a soft ball. Remove the syrup from fire.

To make balls, take 1 cup of powder in a wide bowl, add syrup & mix well simultaneously with a ladle. Care should be taken while adding the syrup. The quantity of syrup added, should be just enough for the whole flour to get coated and the mixture should resemble bread crumbs.

While hot, form small balls. Don’t make the balls very tight. If the syrup added is more, the balls will turn chewy. As you bite into the ball, it should be powder like. I warn you, its not easy to bite into, as in ordinary laddus. This is a bit hard kind. And the fun of eating those balls lie in that.

Note: There is a possibility for the syrup to caramelize as you finish the first batch. To keep the syrup in the same consistency, keep the syrup vessel in a double boiler on a low flame.

This nutrition packed flour with jaggery makes an ideal sweet for all. All our traditional sweets have taken care of the nutrient requirements and the health concerns. With out any ghee or any other fatty ingredient, an yummy sweet is ready. Jaggery is always recommended in place of the white sugar. This sathumaavu urundai is a favorite in my house, that it gets over in no time.

This guilt free healthy sweet is making to Mythrayee's Sweet Series which calls for Chikki and Laddu for the current edition.

Sunita has asked to send a dish with our favorite spice. Cardamom, the most commonly used in my kitchen, is my favorite. So this goes to the Think Spice:Think Favorite anniversary edition.



Whole grains being a good source of calcium, I am sending this to Sangeeth's Eat Healthy - Calcium Rich event.