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 Nai Pak Choy (Extra Dwarf Chinese Cabbage) with Pork in Egg Gravy

Extra Dwarf Chinese Cabbage (Fairlady) in an Eggy Gravy

Extra dwarf chinese cabbage..mmm. Ok, that's a weird translation for"nai pak choy" but it was the closest description I could find on the internet. That, and Fairlady - something I connect only to Nissan..

Nai Pak Choy - it's fresh, it's so fresh!

It has a distinctive thick white stem with dark green scrunched-up leaves. This particular head that I'm holding up for the camera has also been in my fridge for four days but looks as fresh as when it was popped into my shopping cart.

I've often included this vegetable into soups. Soups are a must-have on our dinner table. It's almost a daily affair and I'm surprised I haven't resorted to pulling my hair out yet thinking what to put on the table everyday. When I'm short of time, the nai pak choy comes in handy for making a quick bowl of soup. I'd toss it into a hot pot of boiling water with just garlic, some seasoning and voila! Sneaky, I know.

Today, I wanted to try out an eggy gravy that I so often see served in Chinese restaurants.  It gives the otherwise plain stir-fry green vegetables dish more appeal and more "slurp".

It's a simple recipe but requires some quick work, so I would prepare everything before I even think of lighting up my pan and I would keep things close.

Ingredients:
- 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 200g / 7 heads nai pak choy (cut stemmed leafy parts away from main stem)
- 1 tbsp dried wolfberries (soaked for 10 minutes)
- 50g boneless pork meat - loin (sliced thin)
- Two small eggs
- 1-2 tbsp cooking oil
- 1-2 cups water
- 1 tbsp corn flour (diluted in 2 tbsp water)
- Salt and pepper to taste

How-to:
1) Heat oil in pan. Add garlic, fry until lightly fragrant. Add pork slices, stir it about.

2) Add 1 cup water or more (just enough to make the sauce). Once it boils, add wolfberries, vegetables and season with salt and pepper.

3) When the vegetables are almost cooked, stir in the corn flour and lift the pan off the fire.

4) Crack one or two eggs in, immediately stirring it but lightly. Quickly serve it out onto a plate before the egg cooks further.

The result? You can taste the juice from the pork, mixed with a mildly salted egg sauce. Along with it, is a tinge of sweetness when you bite into a wolfberry.

The ingredients - Nai Pak, Wolfberries, Pork, Egg and Garlic

Toss the vegs in once the water boils

Nai Pak Choy (Extra Dwarf Chinese Cabbage) in an Egg Gravy