Since it was a public holiday yesterday, I decided to embark on a little project that’s been long sitting in my bucket list ~ making burgers. The girls LOVE burgers ~ Burger King and Mac Donalds especially but this is an occasional holiday food. We only eat burgers when we travel back to Ipoh by ETS as these two giant fast food chains are so conveniently located at KL Sentral. We normally grab burgers for a quick bite before boarding the ETS back to Ipoh.
I’ve always wanted to make my own burgers and let the girls eat to their hearts’ content without any guilt but I’ve always put off this project due to time constraint. I only have an hour to spare for prepping dinner from Monday ~ Friday before I rush off to fetch Drama Queen back from school.
It’s actually pretty easy to prep the meat patties. It is rolling and shaping the meat patties and then pan-frying them that’s time consuming. With Drama Queen and Cass around to help out yesterday, it was really fast. The big princess who avoids the wet kitchen as much as she can was happily working out at the gym for over an hour. When she came back, she was pleased as punch to see burgers on the dining table. Haiz, this princess with royal fingers better get herself a high-paying job or marry a rich man in future so that she can afford to hire helpers to cook her dinners.
I taught #2 and #3 the art of shaping the meat patties and they rolled out 12 pieces. I oven-grilled 4 pieces and pan-fried 8 pieces, just to see which tasted better.
#2 and #3 thoroughly enjoyed shaping the meat patties.
Can you tell which ones are oven-baked and which are pan-fried?
The 3 pieces on the right are oven-baked.
Verdict: both types taste almost the same. We can’t really distinguish the difference, except that oven-baked ones get slightly burnt on the sides. I managed the pan-fried ones better as I kept flipping them, so the colors are more uniformed. Taste wise, they are YUMS!
Drama Queen stuffed cubes of Kyubu Japanese nacho cheese into her meat patties and the outcome was pretty good. The cheese gives out pops of salty creaminess to the meat.
Drama Queen gave tutorial to Cass on how to fry wallet eggs. And this teacher is so garang! Cass told me quietly that her 2-che was bossing her around in the kitchen, hahaha! Check out the teacher’s hand impatiently hooked on her waist…
This tomato ketchup is sweetened 100% by veggies, made in Auckland and couriered to us from Hong Kong by the sil. The mil got this for us from New Zealand and sent it back to us along with other goodies when she reached Hong Kong recently. She’ll be in Hong Kong for another month.
I sauteed shimeji mushrooms with miso, garlic, home-grown scallions and black pepper as one of the sides besides cucumbers, tomatoes and grilled sweet potatoes, carrots and cherry tomatoes.
This is Cass’ DIY burger. She shaped her meat pattie into hearts.
This is Chef Sherilyn’s creation. She prepped the grilled vegetables under her own steam and initiative. The grilled veggies were seasoned generously with olive oil, mixed herbs and black pepper.
And this burger is meat-free, specially prepped by Drama Queen for kakak Maria who does not eat pork. The girls adore our part-time helper who has been working for us for almost 5 years.
Recipe for the meat patties:
Ground meat. We used organic pork.
Chopped onions
Chopped garlic
Chopped scallions / green onions / spring onions
Black pepper
Garlic powder
Salt
Organic soy sauce
Bread crumbs. As we didn’t have any bread (other than the buns), I used corn flour (about 2 teaspoon)
Lea & Perrin sauce
1 egg, beaten
Method
Season the ground meat with all the ingredients and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Shape the pattie using your hands and gently press / flatten the top.
Find a flat tray and spread cooking oil on it. Place the shaped meat patties on the tray.
You can pan-fry or oven-grill these meat patties.
Cooking is one of the best ways for a family to bond. The girls (except the big princess) love cooking and we always have loads of fun cooking and bonding, despite leaving a big mess, including oil splatters (OMG!!) in the kitchen. Just don’t sweat over the mess when the kids help out in the kitchen but focus on the fun and end product 😉
Top Kids Backdrops for photography
The skies were cloudy after a downpour on 31 Jan 2018, the day of the super blue blood moon’s appearance. Thus, we didn’t get to see any moon that night. But the next day, we saw the moon, big and bright, though it was a tad cloudy.
Picture above was taken with my Huawei Mate 10 phone with dual leica lenses at around 9:30 p.m. on 1 February 2018.
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Thx for sharing the recipe! Drooling over the pics you shared on FB.
Couldn’t help laughing at Drama Queen’s hand position. hehehe.
She’s one bossy teacher and sister, Adrine. LOL!
I’m also always drooling over your cookies 😉