Images Pork Apple Burger

Pork Apple Burger

I tried out this recipe from my favourite cook book ~ delicious, Frugal Feasts. ..only to discover that the same recipe could be found online. Oh, the unfairness of it all.

Link to the recipe:
Pork burgers with sweet potato wedges Recipe | delicious. Magazine free recipes

..still, I wouldn't trade my printed copy for anything in the world! I'm just someone who love flipping pages and bookmarking recipes with a pretty pin or coloured post-it notes.

Anyway, I didn't have all the ingredients. So I did the best I could and even tried something new, a little experiment involving tomatoes and strawberry jam :)

This is probably the best burger I've ever made. The meat patty was very juicy on the inside and has a light sweetish taste. Adding the apple certainly worked wonders.

Because it tasted so delicious, I will most likely include some sort of fruit into any meat patty I make in future. That's right, all patties will have f-r-u-i-t!

Here's the deets on how I did mine, but please do read the original recipe (shared above) because it is "tried, tested and tasted". That means it is finger-licking good.

Ingredients (for four small burgers):
For the meat patty
- 250g pork (minced)
- 1 red apple (grated, without skin)
- 2 small red onions (chopped, lightly fried and cooled)
- Pinch of paprika

For frying
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil

For serving
- 4 wholemeal rolls (sliced in half)
- Fresh baby romaine greens
- Grape cherry tomatoes cooked in strawberry jam
- Baked sweet potato wedges (Baked with a bit of butter)

Minced pork, grated apple, chopped onions and paprika

How-to:
1. Mix all the ingredients for the meat patty together. Shape into round patties (4 small patties for me).

2. Heat olive oil in pan. Fry patties until cooked, which took about 3 minutes on each side on medium heat.

3. Remove patties and place wholemeal rolls on pan, face down until lightly browned.

4. To serve, place greens on top of the bottom half of the bun, followed by one meat patty. Top with grape cherry tomatoes in strawberry jam. Eat with sweet potatoes on the side.

Patties being cooked

To assemble

Tadaaaa...! Delicious Pork Apple Burger ready to be served.

Images Baked Mandarin Orange Chicken with Buttered Potatoes and Apples

Baked Mandarin Orange Chicken with Buttered Potatoes and Apples

Distributing mandarin oranges to friends and family during the Lunar New Year is an age-old practice for people with Chinese roots in my homeland. I received my fair share during the festive season. That said, this is a long overdue blog post, at least two months behind schedule!

Aaah..anyway, back to the oranges. I wish I could have eaten it all as is, peeled fresh and just out of the fridge, but there was more than this household could handle with two boxes in keeping. So, I did what I could to clear it off quicker - I decided to cook it. And this is really yummy stuff although it's a simple recipe! Then again, when it comes to food, I've rarely ever said yuck.

I didn't mess the flavour with too much seasoning. I felt the juice from the orange would be sufficient to pass for delicious and it did.

Ingredients:
- 2 chicken drumsticks
- 2 potatoes (sliced thin, not all the way through)
- 2 red apples (sliced)
- 2 medium red onions (quartered)
- 3 mandarin oranges (Peel skin off from the segments of two oranges. Squeeze the juice out from one)
- 1 tbsp salted butter (softened)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Cooking oil

How-to:
1) Season chicken with a little bit of salt, pepper and some mandarin orange juice.

2) Place the chicken on a lightly oiled baking tray. Add onions, orange segments and the remainder of the orange juice to create the yummy gravy. Sprinkle on a wee bit of salt and pepper.

3) Spread butter onto apples and potatoes. Place in a separate baking tray (also lightly oiled).

4) Bake for about 45 minutes at 175C. Baking time differs. You're done once the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are tender.

I garnished mine with some chopped celery leaves.
 

In the oven - Chicken with mandarin oranges

Baked Chicken and Mandarin Oranges

Images Spicy Apple Chicken

Spicy Apple Chicken with Snow Peas

An apple a day keeps the Doctor away, so they say. I think it's just one of mom's tricks to get us to eat our fruits .. seriously.

This is a really simple recipe, something I made the other day because I had one red apple left in the house and I wanted it gone before it starts to get all dry and wrinkly.

It's mildly sweet and spicy all in - not strongly flavoured. Check out the recipe below.

Ingredients:
- 2 chicken leg quarters (marinated with salt and 1 tsp meat curry powder)
- 1 red apple (roughly chopped)
- 1 clove garlic (roughly chopped)
- 1 medium onion (roughly chopped)
- 1½ tsp blended fresh red chili
- A pinch of dried rosemary
- A pinch of salt and pepper

How-to:
1) Bake chicken in a preheated oven (180c, approx. 45 minutes for me). Save the chicken juice.
 
2) For the sauce, blend apple, garlic and onion together (with a little water to get things moving), until fine.

3) Heat chicken juices in pan with the blended ingredients, rosemary and chili. Season with salt and pepper. Stir until the sauce is slightly thickened.

4) Coat baked chicken in the apple sauce. Serve with vegetables of your choice.

Baked Curry Chicken

Plate the Chilied Apple Chicken

Spicy Apple Chicken Garnished with Coriander