Copycat Ria: Pork Burger Steak (inspired by Jollibee's The Ultimate Burger Steak)

Yesterday, my hubby and I already made a list of our lunch menu for the rest of the week.  So for today, we were supposed to have steamed meatballs.  However, after breakfast,  I was playing with other possiblities of what I can do with the ground pork.  I ended up with the idea of what my son had in Jollibee last week,  The Ultimate burger Steak Meal.  This is a 'fully carbohydrated' meal, if there is such an adjective.  It contains a thick burger patty resting on top of a bed of french fries with mushroom gravy on top and beside it is a cup of rice with a sunny side up egg on top.  Here's a photo of their new offering...

With that said, this is my copycat version.  I made smaller patties since we have little ones and we, the adults, don't want to eat more than we should (if this is not eating too much already).  If I had a can of mushrooms I would've added it to this recipe but I didn't and was too lazy to buy because of the heat!  If you have a can of button mushrooms lying around in your pantry, feel free to add it in the gravy at the end.

I would have to say that this meal is quite a production number. It has four parts, the rice, the egg, the fries, and the pork steak, oh and the gravy so that would be five parts.

We will be focusing on the pork burger steak part. 

Before cooking the pork burger steak, I did some internet research and based some of what I did in this recipe from here and here.

So let us begin...

Here are the ingredients:

750 grams ground lean pork
1 stalk of green onions, chopped
1 red onion, minced,
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbsps soy sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 egg, slightly beaten

For the gravy:

2 Tbsps pork drippings
4 Tbsps butter
4 Tbsps flour
1 pork bouillon cube ( I didn't have beef so I used pork but beef  bouillon or beef broth would've been better)
2 cups of water
a dash or two or three of Worcestershire sauce ( it really depends on your preference)

What to do:

1.  For the pork steak:  Mix all the ingredients well.  Form the mixture into balls using a Tablespoon. 

Flatten them to about half an inch just before putting it in a non stick pan.  I did not use any oil since the pork will shed lots of it.  You can cook about four patties at a time.

 I cooked them 4 to 5 minutes on each side.  You can do it for 3-4 minutes if you don't like the patty to be well done on the outside.    This gave me 20 patties.  The patties are small and please remember: Do not press on the patties while cooking to keep the juices in.

2.  For the gravy:  Crush the buillon cube, mix it wih the water and set aside.  After frying all the patties,  there will be a lot of oil from the pork.  Transfer the excess oil in another container.  Leave about 2 Tablespoons of drippings in the same pan because we will use the same pan we used for frying.

Put the butter in.

 When all of the butter has almost melted, put the flour in. 

Mix it until the butter and flour has incorporated.  

Add the buillon cube bits that are in the water and mix it in the pan.  Add the water little by little because you need to mix the water with the butter-flour mixture to keep lumps from forming. 

When you've mixed it all together and got the right consistency you want, add some Worcestershire sauce.   You can even add some more salt and pepper of you like.  I did not add anything else in since I do not like our food to be too salty.

Gravy with the right consistency.  Don't you just want to run your finger throught that for a quick taste?

That's it! That's it? Let me add how I did the others:

3.  For the fries:  I just used frozen ready to cook fries we bought from the grocery.

4.  For the sunny side up egg:  My hubby volunteered to fry the eggs.  This gave me time to plate the meal and get the table ready ;)

5.  For the steamed rice:  I just used a rice cooker.

 Here is my finished product!!!!

Pork Burger Steak (close up)

 

Verdict:  Let's just say there was peace in the house when were having our lunch.  ;D  Everybody was satisfied and happy.  :)

Cook Ria: Pork Hamonado with potatoes and carrots

My hubby wanted to have something sweet for lunch last Saturday and he told me he liked Pork Hamonado.  I tried searching for recipes online and came up with our own recipe.  It was delicious!

What is pork hamonado?  It's basically pork belly, it can be a solid block or it can be sliced, whichever you prefer.  I am not a strict cook myself so I use whatever part of meat we have and boil it until tender.  In this case we used pork belly and if it's 'hamonado' this means it's sweetened like the sweet ham we have during Christmas.

Let's get on with the recipe and how I did it.

Ingredients:

750 grams pork belly, sliced
1/2 cup soy sauce
1.5 cups pineapple juice
3 pieces medium sized potatoes, quartered
1 big carrot, sliced in discs
peppercorns
salt and pepper
sugar for additional sweetness (this is optional)
3 tspns cornstarch mixed in 3Tbspns cold water (optional)
green onions, roughly chopped

Cooking steps:

1.  Boil 1.5 lb r 750g pork for an hour and take out the scum as soon as it rises to the top.
2. Add 1/2cup soy sauce,1.5 cups pineapple juice & peppercorns.
3. Simmer on low fire with lid closed until the pork is super duper tender. (This took me an additional hour so it would be better to use a pressure cooker if you have one.)
4. Add quarterd potatoes, sliced carrots and pineapple chunks.
5. Simmer until veggies are done.

If you want a runny sauce proceed to step 7.

If you want the liquid to be saucy not runny,  please keep reading...

6. Mix 3 tsps cornstarch in 3 Tbsps cold water and add that in the pot. Simmer for a bit until you achieve the sauciness you like.

7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Add some more sugar if you want it to be sweeter then wait for 5 min before tasting it so the sugar's sweetness is incorporated well in the sauce.

9. Garnish with green onion bits upon serving :)

This is best served on top of rice.   Yummy!!!!

Here is the finished product! Pork Hamonado 

Everyday is mother's day

I was getting lunch ready when Joshua, my big boy, called my attention and showed me a note.

You shine mom. That means you're the best mom in the whole wide world - Joshua

I almost cried.  It really made my morning even though he hasn't taken a bath yet after asking him to do so for the nth time.

He did take a bath after showing me this note though.     :)

Baking spree (part 1)

The week went by so fast! The hubby and I went grocery shopping last Tuesday and the following day I cooked Cheesy eggplant layers?!

Eggplant + breadcrumbs + Cheese = yummy in our tummy! :)

I started to soak the eggplants early before I forget to do so. I was looking at a recipe online and I remembered that I had one from a recipe book. The recipe online was easier and healthier because the one in the book was telling me to deep fry the eggplant before baking. The thought of oily eggplants made me cringe. Eeeew! So I went with the one online, which I was already using in the first place! Here's the online recipe. I added lean ground pork to the dish since I didn't want to shock my family, especially my kids with a full on vegetarian meal. So after reading the online recipe again and again, it seems that there are some parts of the procedure missing since it didn't mention how to use the breadcrumbs so I improvised! I followed the cooking time but when the timer was nearing zero, it looked like the eggplants were still hard and raw, while our tummies were already starting to rumble!!! A very dangerous combination. So I investigated further. I tried poking the eggplant and it wasn't quite done. So what my hubby did was to increase the oven temp up to 10 degrees and add 10 min of cooking time. After that, the recipe said it needed to stand for 5 minutes more but we couldn't wait anymore so we started to dig in! It was a success, almost! Our son didn't like it but our little girl finished lunch peacefully and my hubby and I, of course we ate it! It was just like eating lasagna!  It was a very filling meal!

Here's a recipe of what we did..


250 g lean ground pork
4 pc (450 g) medium eggplants, each piece sliced lengthwise into 4
1 pc (50 g) egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup (55 g) bread crumbs
1 pouch (250 g) tomato sauce
1 cup (115g) grated cheese, depends on how much you like to put
1 pc medium bell pepper, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced
salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Pear or slice eggplants lengthwise, into four strips. Soak them in water for at least 30 minutes before baking.
2. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F
3. Make the sauce. Heat up a sauce pan for sauteeing. Put the flame on low and put in the lean ground pork. Stand by the pan and stir occasionally so the pork won't stick to the bottom ( if you're not using a non stick pan) and to evenly cook the pork. Do this for 15 minutes or until the pork has turned brown or to the color that you will preferably eat ground pork. When this happens, wait for a few minutes more so the pork fat (or what's left of it) will come out. You will use this oil to sautee the ingredients for the sauce.When the oil has come out. Put some salt and pepper. put the onions, garlic and bell pepper in. Sautee them until done. Done is when the onions are transparent.Add the tomato sauce and boil for 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper according to your taste.
4. Beat the egg in a container where you can also dip the eggplants. Put some salt and pepper to the egg. Drain the eggplants and dip them into the egg with salt and pepper.
5. Arrange the eggplants at the bottom of an 8x8 in pan, if you want 2 layers. (Use a 9 x 13 in pan if you want only one layer. Mine was only one layer.) Sprinkle the bread crumbs on top of the eggplants. Pour the sauce in and finish with spreading the cheese on the sauc
6. Bake in the oven for 35 - 40 minutes.

Enjoy! :)

Easy Chicken Cordon Bleu

Wow! It's been ages since I posted on this blog. Well anyway, I would like toshare another dish that was a hit to my family. I found it online and it's called, drumroll please......

CHICKEN CORDON BLEU (THE EASY WAY) !!!!!

I have been thinking of trying to cook this dish the normal way but just thinking about the steps and the rolling of the chicken and all of that makes me so tired already. ( I know I'm so lazy sometimes!) So, while finding an easier way to cook cordon bleu, I found this recipe! 

It was so easy!

  I just had to thinly slice the chicken. Lay the pieces on the pan, lay the ham on the chicken followed by the cheeseand then top all of it off with buttered bread crumbs.

                   Put it in the oven and voila!

          Yummy in our tummy! :)

I didn't make the exact cream sauce in the recipe. I only used the first five ingredients for the sauce and it still tasted great :)

And now for the recipe..

*Serves 6
INGREDIENTS:

For the Cordon Bleu:
3 large chicken boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut in half length-wise (to form two thinner chicken breast cutlets)
12 slices deli ham
1 cup bread crumbs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/3 to 1/2 pound thinly sliced swiss cheese

For the Parmesan-Dijon Cream Sauce:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules (or 1 bouillon cube, crushed)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

DIRECTIONS:
Lightly grease a 9X13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine the bread crumbs and melted butter. Set aside.
Lay the cut chicken breasts in a single layer in the 9X13-inch dish. Layer each chicken breast with two slices of ham and top with 2 slices of swiss cheese, shingling across the chicken breast to make sure the entire chicken breast is covered with ham and cheese. Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top of the chicken.
Bake the chicken for 30-35 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through completely, the cheese is bubbling and the bread crumbs are golden.
While the chicken bakes, in a medium saucepan, melt the 2 tablespoons butter. Stir in the flour, whisking constantly, while cooking the flour/butter mixture for 1-2 minutes. Slowly pour in the milk while whisking quickly. Stir in the chicken bouillon granules and salt. Whisk constantly over medium heat until the mixture begins to simmer and thicken, about 3-5 minutes. Once the sauce has bubbled and thickened, remove from heat and stir in the mustard, Worcestershire sauce and Parmesan cheese. Stir until the cheese is melted. Keep the sauce warm until the chicken is finished baking.
Serve each chicken cordon bleu portion with warm sauce.

Make Ahead Instructions: Assemble the chicken, ham and cheese according to the recipe. Store the prepared bread crumb/butter mixture in a resealable plastic bag or other container. Cover the casserole with plastic wrap and store it and the bread crumb mixture in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours. When ready to bake, sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top and bake according to the recipe, adding anywhere from 5-15 extra minutes since it was refrigerated prior to baking. Make the sauce while the casserole bakes or make it ahead of time, let it cool, and store it covered in the refrigerator for 1-2 days, reheating over low heat and whisking to recombine before serving.

Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe

Enjoy!