Long Boy Burgers

I first saw these burgers several weeks back on a delicious blog that I like to visit entitled Full Bellies Make Happy Kids. Sandra is a stay at home mom and she cooks the most delicious things for her family. Reading her page reminds me of what my life was like at the same stage in life . . . when I had a whole houseful of hungry kids (Five to be exact!) . . . and was so very busy preparing delicious and interesting meals to tempt their palates! (In between doing laundry, laundry and um . . . more laundry!!)



Anyhow, I saw these burgers on her page the other week and I thought they would be something that Todd and I would love to eat. Not only that, but they seemed to be pretty healthy as far as burgers are concerned.



I adapted them a bit by using low fat evaporated milk, which gave them a bit of richness without any extra calories. I also used half fat cheddar cheese slices, which cut back on the fat again.



I only ever use extra lean steak mince . . . it's a lot better for you and I think it tastes pretty good. I also added some creamed horseradish sauce which added a bit of zip, which we loved.



Garnished with some fresh rocket leaves and served with some oven baked sweet potato fries, these were fabulous! I think mine got cooked just a tad bit too long . . . next time I will take them out about 5 minutes sooner, so do check on them after they have been in the oven for about 15 minutes, if you don't want yours to get overdone.



In any case, these are something that I will definitely make again!! Thanks Sandra and Cook's Country for a wonderful recipe that is a winner in my books!



*Long Boy Burgers*
Makes 6 to 8 half burgers
Printable Recipe

Delicious open face burgers, easy peasy, with no frying or the mess that goes along with frying. Adapted from a recipe found in Cook's Country.

3 to 4 finger rolls, split in half lengthwise
150g fine dry bread crumbs (1 1/4 cups)
1/2 small onion, grated on a fine grater
125ml evaporated milk, undiluted (1/2 cup)
4 TBS ketchup
1 TBS prepared horseradish sauce
1 TBS Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
680g extra lean minced steak (1 1/2 pounds)
6 to 8 slices strong cheddar cheese (sandwich size)
a couple handful's of fresh rocket leaves (arugla)
Steak sauce to serve



Preheat your oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Place your finger rolls, cut side up on a baking sheet. Bake in the heated oven for about 5 minutes, until just beginning to brown.

Place the beef into a large bowl. Add the bread crumbs, grated onion, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, garlic powder, egg, evaporated milk, horseradish sauce and some salt and black pepper to taste. Mix together with your hands, kneading gently until well combined. Divide this mixture into 6 or 8 (depending on how many bun halves you have) equal portions and spread the raw beef mixture on to the tops of the toasted roll halves, making sure you cover the bread right to the edges.

Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven. Cut the cheese slices in half diagonally. Place two halves onto each burger and return to the oven to bake for a further 3 to 4 minutes, until the cheese is melted over top. Remove from the oven and let stand for about 5 minutes before serving. Top each with some fresh rocket and serve. Pass the Steak Sauce.

Sweet and Sour Chicken Wraps

Back home I used to love to go to the local Chinese restaurant in town on occasion for a special meal. The owners were friends of my parents and had been for years. You order by a number. I always ordered a number 4. Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls, Beef and Broccoli, Egg Fried Rice and an Egg Roll. It was my favourite meal. I have tried to make my own Beef and Broccoli at home before, but it never tastes the same. I don't know why.



This restaurant used to be called the Shaker Restaurant when I was a teen . . . and it was where we used to hang out after school drinking cokes and eating chips. It had those quaint booths and all . . . it was the place to go if you wanted to check out all the hunkaroonies in the town. Anyways . . . I digress!!



Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls. Love them . . . but they're not all that good for you are they? Dipped in batter and deep fried . . . tsk tsk. Very naughty, but totally delicious.

These lovely wraps are a way of fulfilling the craving you might have for Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls . . . except nothing is deep fried and they're quite healthy. You simply make the sauce and pour it over the chicken filets (tenders) and then bake them in the oven until the sauce thickens and gets all sweet and sour scrummy.



I cheat and use one of those pouches of ready cooked basamati rice, the two serving size . . . it stretches easily to help fill at least 4 wraps, if not more.



Of course you could just have that delicious chicken on it's own as a main course with some rice and vegetables . . . it's just as tasty that way . . . but these wraps are extra delish . . . a bit of crunch from the fresh lettuce . . . that tender sweet and sour chicken . . . some tasty rice . . . layered together and wrapped up in a warm whole wheat tortilla!



Wowsa . . . wowsa!! Dey be mighty good if I don't say so myself. I think I sometimes come up with the most delicious ideas, don't you? And it's even better when they are kinda, sorta . . . healthy!!



*Sweet and Sour Chicken Wraps*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

These are one of the best things I've eaten lately. Toasty warm wheat tortillas wrapped around sweet and sour chicken tenders, lettuce and chinese rice. Yummo! Plan ahead as the chicken needs to cook for about 1 hour before you make the wraps.

For the chicken:
1 400g pack of chicken mini fillets (tenders You will need 2 to 3 per person)
garlic salt
black pepper
2 TBS corn flour (cornstarch)
125ml of white vinegar (1/2 cup)
145g sugar (3/4 cup)
125ml of chicken broth (1/2 cup)
4 TBS tomato ketchup
1 TBS dark soy sauce

To finish:
1 pouch of cooked oriental stir fry basamati rice (2 serving size)
1/2 small head of lettuce, shredded (about 2 cups)
4 large whole wheat tortillas

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Place the chicken filet pieces into a shallow baking dish. Dust with garlic salt and black pepper. Whisk together the cornflour, sugar, vinegar, broth, ketchup and soy sauce. Pour this mixture over the chicken pieces, and stir to coat. Bake in the preheated oven until very tender and glazed. The sauce will be nice and thick. Take out of the oven and proceed as follows.

Heat the pouch of rice in the microwave according to package directions. Set aside.

Heat 4 tortillas in the microwave as per package directions. Lay each on a heated plate. Place 1/4 of the lettuce down the middle of each heated tortilla. Top with 1/4 of the pouch of heated rice and then with 2 or 3 glazed chicken tenders. Close each wrap and serve immediately.

PSSSTT!! The winner of the Cillit Bang All in One Cleaner is commentor number 4 as chosen by a random number generator. (Sorry don't know how to post a picture of that, or even take one.) Gil you are the winner. If you could e-mail me your details I'll make sure they get one out to you as soon as! Thanks all for entering. Wish I could give one to each of you!

Ham and Cheese Scrolls

I just love doing different things with baking powder biscuit or savoury scone dough. It's just so darned versatile and takes to almost any flavour you want to pair it with.



Of course more often than not I just stamp it out into rounds and bake it that way, but every now and then I like to raise the bar and bake something scrumptiously different with it.



Like these Ham and Cheese Scrolls. Kinda like cinnamon rolls, except that they're savoury . . . with a chutney, ham and cheese filling, instead of butter, cinnamon and sugar.



I pat the dough out gently and lovingly . . . trying to handle it the least amount as possible, so that the scrolls stay tender and light.



I love mine spread with mango chutney . . . but you can use honey mustard if you like, or a combination of hot mustard and apricot jam. This tasty layer lies beneath the ham and cheese which you place on top like a salty cheesy blanket of scrum.



Rolled up, sliced and baked and you have the perfect little savoury rolls to go with a cup of hot soup on a cold day . . . or even as is with a tasty salad on the side.



In any case, I know you'll love them. We do! Easy, quick and oh so tasty delish!



*Ham and Cheese Scrolls*
Makes 10
Printable Recipe

Tender scone type of dough spread with mango chutney, topped with slices of italian ham and grated chedder, rolled up, cut into slices and baked until scrummy yummy!

198g of plain flour (2 cups)
1/2 tsp salt
4 tsp baking powder
5 1/2 TBS vegetable shortening (1/3 cup)
6 ounces milk (3/4 cup)

To fill:
mango chutney
10 thin slices of baked italian ham
(or any other baked ham)
8 ounces grated strong cheddar cheese (2 cups)

Preheat the oven to 20-0*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Drop in the vegetable shortening and cut it in using a pastry blender, or two round bladed knives, until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in enough of the milk, using a fork, to give you a soft dough. You don't want it to be sticky. You may or may not need all of the milk. Tip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Pat the dough out into a rectangle 8 inches by 10 inches in size. Spread the surface with some chutney, adding as little or as much as you like, without overdoing it. Lay your slices of ham over top of the chutney, overlapping them as needed to cover the space, and leaving a bit of a border along the long sides. Sprinkle the grated cheese evenly over top. Roll up from the long side into a tight roll, pinching the edges closed. Using a sharp knife cut into 10 evenly sized slices. Place each slice cut side down onto the parchment paper.

Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown and lightly crisped. Serve hot.

Banh Mi 11 at Berwick Street Market

The banh mi craze swept London last year and I found my favourite, Panda Panda in Deptford. Theirs were chock full of pickled vegetables, delicious pork and encased in a warm, rice flour baguette - what more could I want? I stopped looking. The one downside is, of course, that I don't work in Deptford, or anywhere near it. When I heard that Banh Mi 11, usually a fixture on Broadway Market, now had a pitch on Berwick Street, I couldn't get out of the office fast enough. I crashed into people rushing towards their stall.


And what of the baguette? Light bread was filled with Imperial BBQ pork, coriander, pickled Chinese turnip and was decently spicy. Petra of Eat St was next to me in line and she recommended the fish banh mi, but my eyes were only on the pork. At £5 it's more expensive than my favourite, and I'd have liked a little more (and varied) pickled veg but nonetheless this was an excellent lunch. No more fridge-cold sandwiches from Pret.

Banh Mi 11

Berwick Street Market - Mondays - Fridays 10am - 3pm

Crusty Chicken Pot Pie Buns

We had the missionaries over for supper the other night and I roasted a couple of chickens and did a nice roast dinner for them. There was lots of veg, and mash and stuffing . . . and for dessert, sticky toffee pudding with cream. Todd said to me, that's a lot of chicken . . . but you know . . . I like to have leftovers. Two chickens equals 4 drumsticks as well, and you know lads and drumsticks!



Anyways, I had all this leftover chicken and was wanting to do something different with it . . . something not like the usual chicken casserole, or chicken sandwiches, enchiladas . . . or whatever. I wanted to something really different.



Then I had a brain storm. WE do like chicken pot pie. We do like chicken sandwiches . . . hmmm . . . the wheels started to turn. What if I put the two things together???



I think it was a few years ago when I shared my Crusty Lasagne Buns with y'all . . . they're wonderfully delicious! I thought to myself . . . why not a Crusty Chicken Pot Pie Bun???? Just the idea sounded fabulous, and I found myself thinking why had I not thought of this before!!!!



I just happened to have some crusty rolls in the house as well . . . also leftover from the roast dinner. I didn't have any leftover gravy . . . so I used cream soup instead, but you could use leftover gravy and it would be even better!!! (I like my pot pies made with leftover gravy. They're the bees knees!) I just used frozen mixed vegetables, thawed out, but if you had leftover vegetables that would be good too.



I had leftover stuffing and so I crumbled some of that on top and it was oooooooohhhh so scrumdiddlyumptious, but you could just make some buttered bread crumbs from the bread that you pull out of the rolls and that would be fine too.

All in all, I decided that these were totally awesome as the kids would say!!!! (DO kids still say that?? I dunno!!)



Nice crusty rolls filled with a scrummy chicken pot pie filling and topped with crumbly stuffing bits and baked until the whole thing is bubbling delish and the stuffing bits are nicely browned on top. No faffing about with pastry or dumplings. Easy peasy lemon squeasy.

Todd says they are a new favourite. I call them fabulous. Sometimes I even surprise myself!



*Crusty Chicken Pot Pie Buns*
Serves 6 - 8 depending on the size of your buns
Printable Recipe

Chicken Pot Pie without the pastry . . . served up in your very own crusty roll. Deliciously different!

1 tin of condensed cream of chicken soup (415g or 10 3/4 ounces)
(In the UK this is the Batchelor's Brand of soups)
1 soup tin of milk
1/2 tsp savoury
1/4 tsp sage
1/4 tsp marjoram
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
2 large mug fulls of cubed cooked potato
2 large mugfuls of cubed cooked chicken
2 large mugfuls of frozen mixed vegetables, thawed (the one with peas, carrots, corn and beans)
salt and black pepper to taste
6 large crusty rolls (8 if they are not overly large)
leftover stuffing, crumbled, enough to top each bun, optional (can use buttered cracker crumbs, or even
the bread removed from the centre of the buns, crumbled and mixed with a bit of melted butter

Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Have ready a baking tray.

Mix together the soup, milk, savoury, sage, marjoram, onion and garlic powders, cooked potato, cooked chicken, and mixed vegetables. Season to taste with some salt and black pepper.

Using a serrated knife, cut a sliver from the top of each bun. Using your fingers hollow each one out, by plucking out the soft bread inside, leaving a shell of about 1/4 inch all round. (Use the plucked out bits and tops to make bread crumbs or treat the birds.) Stuff each empty bun with the chicken mixture, allowing it to come a bit above the top. Place on the baking tray as you finish stuffing each one. Crumble the stuffing over top of each. (If using buttered crumbs sprinkle them over of each.)

Bake in the heated oven for 25 to 30 minutes until crisp and golden brown and bubbling on the insides. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.



Over in The Cottage today, Hot Cross Muffins.

Big Breakfast Sarnie

I just love a meal that you can fit easily between two slices of bread. That's the lazy person in me I suppose. I guess I just love sandwiches full stop . . . any kind, any place . . . You put it between bread and I am there.



When the Toddster and I used to work at the Service Station together (when I first moved over here) we used to sell tons of Bacon, Sausage, as well as Bacon and Sausage Baguettes every morning . . . just dripping with grease and fat . . . The bacon and sausage were baked in ovens, and then kept warm in a heat cabinet. I would have to clean the heat cabinet at the end of the day and the amount of fat that I had to scrape off and discard was nobody's business. Lots of it ended up in the baguettes too . . . crazy, crazy. Heart attack waiting to happen.



Breakfast sandwiches are always very popular . . .they are big business with fast food companies . . . all loaded with fat and calories. It's not impossible though to have a breakfast sandwich which is relatively low in fat, and yet still satisfyingly scrummy tasty! It's not really all that hard to do actually . . . and when you make it yourself in your own kitchen, you know exactly what's gone into it. No mystery there!



I always use whole wheat toast . . . it's better for you and you get lots of nice extra flavour . . . if it's whole grain as well . . . well that's just the ultimate in taste. (I love the Vogel Sunflower and Barley Bread, or the Vogel's Honey and Oat Bran Brown Bread!!) Now that's mighty good bread.



There is no butter used . . . not in the cooking of the egg, nor is there any butter going on that toast. You spread it with grainy mustard and a drizzle of honey . . . oh so good. I use weight watchers or another brand of low fat thin sliced baked ham . . . Low fat baked ham is not all that difficult to find anyways . . . Low fat cheese is also easy to find these days and I really like the low fat Leerdammer Light, which has great oozing melting qualities. It's a swiss type of cheese and also has a nutty sweetness.



The egg gets it's scrumminess from chopped peppers, onions and a pinch of salt and black pepper.



Put them all together and that's one heck of a sandwich . . . if I don't say so myself!! Oooooh baby, come to mama! The perfect weekend breakfast treat for sure!



*Big Breakfast Sarnie*
Serves 1

Beautifully tasty breakfast sandwich. Surprisingly low in fat too, so not all that bad for you actually!

1 large free range egg
1 TBS chopped spring onion, green and white bits
1 TBS chopped mixed peppers (whatever you happen to have on hand, red, green, orange, yellow)
pinch of salt and black pepper
4 thin slices of shaved ham (bundle them up so they look like more!
1 slice of Leerdammer light cheese
2 slices of whole wheat bread, toasted
1 TBS grainy mustard
drizzle of runny honey

Beat your egg together in a beaker along with the spring onion and peppers. Heat a small nonstick frying pan over medium heat. I spray mine with low fat cooking spray. Pour in the egg mixture. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Allow to cook until lightly browned and set on the bottom. Carefully flip over and then turn off the burner. The other side will cook in the residual heat. Immediately lay the slice of leerdammer cheese on top. The heat from the egg will melt it.

Take your two slices of toast. Divide the grainy mustard betwixt the two, spreading it to cover. Drizzle with a bit of honey. Lay the ham slices, bundling them up a bit, onto one slice of bread, honey and mustard side up. Top with the cooked egg, cheese slice up, then cover with the other slice of toast, honey and mustard side down. Cut in quarters and serve immediately.



Over in The Cottage today, a delicious Upside Down Pizza.

Crunchy Tuna Wraps

Due to ongoing local gas works there hasn't been a whole lot of cooking done here today. They were supposed to turn off out gas this morning, but here we are gone 1 PM and the gas is still on. I haven't dared start anything as they could knock on the door any minute. They are supposed to be removing the old lead pipe which brings the gas into our house and replacing it with a new plastic one and replacing the old gas meter as well.

We have stayed in all day waiting for them to do the job. If they don't get it done today, they can forget about doing it tomorrow. We already have plans and we're not open to changing them . . .

So anyways, instead of cooking anything for our lunch and risking having it interrupted halfway through I made us some tuna wraps.



Britain is a Nation of Sandwich Lovers. Oh boy do they love their sandwiches over here. They are definitely Sandwich connoisseurs! I was quite amazed at the different kinds that you can find when I first arrived on these green and verdant shores . . .



Pickle and cheese. (Branstons and cheddar) Cheese and Onion. (A mixture of Red Leicester, Cheddar, spring onions and mayo.) Cheese and Tomato. (Sliced tomato and grated cheddar.) Tuna and Sweetcorn. (Tuna Mayo with the addition of sweetcorn.) Egg and Cress. (Egg mayonnaise with spicy mustard cress sprinkled on top.) Bacon and Egg. (Egg Mayo with the addition of cooked bacon.) I could go on and on . . . there just seems to be no end to the variety of tastes and flavours you can find.



There is also no end to sandwich shops either. I think there has to be at least half a dozen in the centre core of Chester alone . . . and then each grocery shop has whole sections dedicated to the ready made sandwich. Rest stops on the motorways are also filled with ready made sandwiches . . . a boasting a great variety of fillings and breads. (I love the sandwiches from M&S. They are beautiful . . . always fresh, generously filled and never dry.)

There are panini and there are wraps. I don't think any nation on earth does the humble sandwich more honor than does Great Britain. But then again . . . the sandwich was invented here was it not?



(John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich and "Inventor" of the sandwich.)

It has been duly noted that the Earl of Sandwich, who lived during the 1700's, was attending a card-game tournament. He was hungry, but wanted to continue playing while eating, so he needed both hands to stay clean and he needed one hand free to hold up the cards. So he told one of the servants to fetch him some slices of roast beef and put them between two slices of bread. The other royals noted this and eventually started ordering "what the Earl of Sandwich came up with". Eventually they just started calling it a sandwich. And thus was born the sandwich.



Nobody loved sandwiches as much as my late Aunt Freda did. Oh, my . . . but they were one of her most favourite of all meals. It was a joy to watch her eating one, her pleasure was so very evident. She even made the humble peanut butter sandwich look like haute cuisine when she was eating it.

I do confess . . . I love a sandwich as well. Today I made us these tasty wraps for our lunch . . . filled with a delicious low fat tuna filling, stogged full of crunchy bits, like celery, peppers, cucumber, spring onions and shredded lettuce. With low fat mayo, the added spark of some prepared mustard and wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla . . . they were most healthy indeed.



Is a wrap a sandwich??? I think so! Mind you . . . we made up for the lack of fat in these healthy wraps by imbibing one of these after . . . but . . .



shhh . . . I didn't tell you that! for what is an eclair . . . but a sandwich of a different type . . . choux paste, cream and chocolate. Meh . . . don't burst my bubble.



*Crunchy Tuna Wraps for Two*
Serves 2Printable Recipe

A sandwich by any other name!! Tasty and crunchy and very healthy!

2 TBS reduced fat mayonnaise
2 heaped tsp of prepared mustard
1 (200g) tin of tuna packed in water, drained and flaked (7.06 ounces)
2 spring onions, trimmed and chopped
1 stalk of celery, trimmed and finely chopped
3 TBS chopped red sweet bell pepper
fine seasalt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 inches of English Cucumber, very thinly sliced
a handful of shredded lettuce
2 whole wheat tortillas at room temperature (8 inches in diameter)

Combine everything but the cucumber, lettuce and tortillas in a bowl, mixing all together well. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Lay out the tortillas. Divide the tuna mixture equally between them and spread it out to cover the surface. Lay the cucumber over top. (You want this to be very thin for ease of rolling. I use my mandoline. You may also just chop it finely if you wish instead of slicing.) Spread the shredded lettuce over top of the cucumber. Roll each topped tortilla up tightly. Cut in half on the diagonal and serve immediately.



Cooking in The Cottage today, Beef and Vegetable Stir Fry. (Thank goodness for electric skillets!)