From My Kitchen

No photos, because I’ve been slack.

I made beef burgers yesterday and they are honestly delicious. The children love them, I love them, even my partner hasn’t complained. This recipe is gluten free, so long as you double check all of your ingredients for GF status.

1kg of beef mince (2 lbs ground beef)
1 cup of rice crumbs (I bought mine from the supermarket)
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons of all purpose seasoning (check the ingredients, most companies use rice flour in their season-all, but I have found a few brands with wheat starch in them)
1 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoons of tomato paste
3 tablespoons of tomato sauce (ketchup)
2 carrots – grated.

Pop the cold mince into the bowl of your mixer and start the mixer churning, using the paddle/cake batter attachment. You want the meat to become sticky and hold together. After a minute or two, add the Dijon, the all purpose seasoning, the tomato paste and sauce and the salt. Keep mixing until everything is combined and the texture of the meat begins to change.

Once the meat starts to look sticky, add the cup of rice crumbs and continue mixing to combine. At the last moment, add the grated carrot and once combined, stop mixing.

Shape into burgers and fry or grill. The rice crumbs keep them nice and light, as well as helping to retain moisture so the meat isn’t dry at all.

Of course, you don’t need a bench mixer to do this, I just use one because it’s easier on my hands. If you’re not using a mixer, dump everything into a bowl and use either your hands or a wooden spoon to mix the meat vigorously until it starts to stick. Add the rice crumbs and the carrot at the last moment. Prepare to work up a sweat.

Normally I would also add one finely chopped onion and 4-5 cloves of garlic to my burgers, but I didn’t have any in the cupboard this time.

First of all, you have to have something to roast. My favourites are Lamb, Beef or Chicken. I like Pork too, but Nathan doesn’t so it kind of rules that out for me.

Pre-heat your oven while you season and prepare your meat. Just season however you normally season your roast meat, it doesn’t have to be anything fancy.

Slice some onions into halves (I use 1 big onion, or 2 smaller ones generally) and peel some cloves of garlic. 4-5 does me, but use more or less if you want to.

Now the important bit:

You need an oven pan with a rack in it. I use a spare grill pan and rack, but other people apparently have actual roasting pans with racks to fit! Who knew?

Pop the onion and garlic into the bottom of the pan and place the rack on top. Meat goes onto the rack and then… the secret… put a couple of cups of water into the bottom of the pan. I generally don’t use any oil whatsoever as I only end up skimming it off at the end.

Cook your meat for however long it needs, making sure to top up the water in the bottom of the pan. The onion and garlic should be looking nicely roasted and mushy.

While your meat is cooking, combine together in a small bowl, 2 Tablespoons of flour and 2 tablespoons of butter. It should make a thick paste. Set is aside in a coolish spot until later.

Once your meat is cooked, set it aside – on a plate – in a warm place to rest for 15-20. I sit it inside the microwave, as this stops hungry vultures from picking at the meat while you get the veggies and gravy together.

Drain all the water and juices and onion garlicky bits into a saucepan. Let the juices settle a little and then skim off as much fat as you can from the surface. A roast beef gives me very little fat, a chicken gives me heaps (I skimmed nearly a cup off last nights roast chicken) and lamb gives me a little bit. Skim it. Get rid of it, you don’t need it in your gravy making everything oily and gross.

As a side note, my cats always get very interesting when I am skimming fat from juices. They know full well that they get the fat poured over some dry food to eat.

When you have most of the fat gone, pop the saucepan onto a medium heat to warm everything up. Now would be a good time to taste the juices, but don’t worry, your gravy will taste slightly different.

once the juices get nice and warm, give them a good beat with a wire whisk. Yes, the whisk is very VERY important at this stage. You need a whisk.

While whisking everything, drop in some of the butter/flour mix that you made earlier. A piece about the size of a marble is good. Whisk everything madly until you can’t see any floating buttery bits in the juices. Repeat. Repeat. repeat. Keep repeating until your gravy is as think as you want it to be, then stop.

Still whisking – slowly now though, let everything bubble and cook for about a minute or so. Taste the gravy and season as needed. Sometimes I need extra salt and pepper, sometimes I add a little cream and parsley. Whatever you think will go well with your gravy.

And TA DA! The best meat juice gravy ever.

Easy Stir-fry Marinade

Beef – sliced as thin as you can get it. Stick it in a bowl and add….

Enough olive oil to coat meat
Juice from half a lemon
Fresh cracked black pepper to taste
Garlic salt to taste
2 teaspoon Paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons of Fish Sauce
and finally…
A tbsp of light Soy Sauce

Mix and let sit for about an hour. If you are running short on time this marinade still works well even if you don’t let it sit.

Stirfry meat in batches until brown.

I serve the stirfried meat on top of a green salad and it is delicious.