What's in the fridge? - Deconstructed Burgers

A few months ago, my mom was making my sister a Chili Lime Burger from Trader Joe's and asked if I wanted one. At the time I was in a phase where all bread and doughy foods did not seem appetizing to me whatsoever. So, I told her I'd make my own. I raided the fridge for whatever vegetables we had and threw them in the pan with the cooked patty. It was delicious and it's something I do when I don't really feel like cooking too much.

You obviously don't have to use the Chili Lime Burger's from Trader Joe's, you can use whatever meat you want. Sometimes I'll use sausages or other types of frozen burgers. 

The way I approach a lot of things is to work backwards. For instance with math, if I didn't know how to do a problem with my math homework, I would look at the answer in the back of the book and work backwards to find the answer. I apply this same technique in many things that I do. Cooking is no different.

I'll look at the ingredients in the burger and use that to inspire what I add to this dish. These burgers include Ground Chicken, Onions, Bell Peppers, Garlic, Cilantro, 'Natural Flavor' (no clue what that is), Salt, Lime Juice Concentrate, and Red Pepper Flakes.

This recipe isn't really about following it step by step. It's about taking the idea and applying it to yourself. Use whatever you've got in the fridge and make it work for you. That's what this recipe is about.

Ingredients:

Meat:

1 Chili Lime Chicken Burger Patty  

   Again, use whatever meat you like. But these are very good, I've been eating them for years.

Vegetables:

   I used about half a bag of corn and about a cup of broccoli because that's all we had in the fridge.

For seasoning I used:

A handful of chopped cilantro (and by chopped I mean I rinsed it and then broke it up into pieces with my hands on top of the pot. Super Lazy, I know.)

Lemon juice (I literally just poured it from the bottle for like five seconds)

A few shakes of garlic powder (again, I was feeling super lazy. I need to get used to chopping garlic myself - I'm working on it).

Black Pepper (Again just shook a bunch on top)

Salt (do this to your taste. It will depend on the flavors in the pan. You've really just got to taste it and see)

I topped it with freshly grated Parmesan cheese (and as you can see from the picture I am a cheese fiend, so I was very generous with my usage of cheese). 

Steps:

1. Cook the meat (I always start the pan with olive oil. Use butter or whatever oil you like).

2. Cut up the meat.

3. Add some vegetables.

4. Add some seasoning.

5. Add some cheese.

6. Eat.

I could do more formal steps, but this format just makes sense for this recipe. This recipe's all about being crafty with whatever you have on hand. 

Spaghetti & Meatballs!

My little cousin's favorite food happens to be spaghetti. So for dinner the other day I made everyone spaghetti and meatballs. Free from all the major allergens of course.

So lets start with the pasta shall we?

Spaghetti

Ingredients:

1 box of Barilla's gluten Free Spaghetti
1/2 stick of butter
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
Some salt

Steps:

1. Fill pot with water and a pinch or two of salt.
2. Once boiling, add 1 box of the gluten free Spaghetti.
3. Drain water from the pasta ( I used a colander).
4. Add butter to the pasta (approx 1/2 a stick) and stir.
5. Grate some fresh Parmesan cheese into the pasta to add flavor.

It's really very simple.




Spaghetti Sauce.

Steps:
1. Heat Olive Oil in a pan, just enough to coat the bottom of the pan.

2. On low heat, add 1-2 jars (depending on how much sauce you want) of your favorite spaghetti/ marinara sauce - just carefully read the ingredients of the jar to make sure it doesn't have anything you don't want.
           *TIP* Even if you don't have allergies, you should get into the habit of reading the ingredients on everything. It'll really surprise you and you should know what you're eating. The ingredients will always surprise you. For example, Ragu brand sauce had soy in it, so I couldn't use that. I used Classico Brand. And I know I should make sauce from scratch, and I will eventually do that. Sometime soon.

3. Add the leftover onion from the meatballs (approximately 1/2 an onion), and some garlic.

4. Top with a handful of chopped cilantro, (Because cilantro makes everything lively).




Meatballs!!!

Ingredients:
1 lb of ground turkey
1 tablespoon of salt (roughly)
3 tablespoons of black pepper (roughly)
3 tablespoons of oregano (roughly)
3 tablespoons of garlic powder (roughly)
          ( --> you can use real garlic if you want)
1/2 onion
olive oil for coating




Steps:
1. Take the meat and put it in a large bowl. Work the meat through your hands and mash it into a large singular patty.

2. On top of the patty, add the spices: the salt, black pepper, oregano, and garlic powder (approximately 3 tablespoons of the black pepper and oregano and 1 of salt.).

3. Fold in the spices into the meat. Work the meat until the spices are approximately uniformly spread throughout the meat.

4. Cut up an onion into small pieces.
          *TIP* If you cut up the onions really small (smaller than I did) it will help lock in the moisture in the meatballs.

5. Add the chopped up onions into the meat and spread it throughout the meat.

6. Pre-heat the oven to 350 * F. (Again, I'm slow and meticulous, so I always do this when I'm arund halfway through with the prep. You can do it much earlier if you work faster.)

6. Spread aluminium foil over a pan (or whatever method you prefer), and then start to make the meatballs.

7. Roll the meat into whatever size you want. I made really small meatballs, approximately the size of a golf ball. You can make them whatever size you prefer. Spread them evenly throughout the pan.

8. I poured olive oil over all of the meatballs, then rolled each meatball around in the oil to make sure they were thoroughly covered.

9. Bake for approximately 30 minutes. Base cooking time on the size of the meatballs. As a rule, I always check every 5/7/10 minutes. I cooked these for 27 minutes. Again, it's all up to your preferences.

These meatballs tasted great and were pretty heavy so a bowl with three meatballs and some pasta and sauce filled you up quite nicely. This can easily be altered slightly to feed a lot of people. Try your own spice blend on the meatballs and see what works for you!

I grated fresh Parmesan cheese on top of the whole dish. I made all three components separate so people could choose their own combinations. Some people ate just the meatballs, or only the pasta and sauce, and so on. I like to give lots of options and keep things separate. You can also just throw everything in one pan. That works too.

My Grandma's Indian Style Curry Chicken

This is the chicken I grew up eating practically every day. I absolutely adore it and today she taught me how to cook it.

We made boneless chicken thighs, but you can also use chicken with bones, use whatever chicken you prefer. We prefer thighs because it cooks very well. Be careful with chicken breasts because they can dry very easily.

First we have the marinade. We let it stew in the fridge for 24 hours, however, typically you'll want to aim for anywhere between 4-12 hours, You can prep it the night before and cook it in the morning. That is ideal and quite convenient. 

Marinade

Ingredients: 

2 lbs of boneless chicken thighs

4 tablespoons of plain yogurt

1/2 tablespoon of turmeric 

1/2 tablespoon of red chili powder

1/2 tablespoon of garam masala

2 pinches of salt

* Garam Masala you can buy in a store. My grandma makes her own blend and when she runs out I'll do an article of how she makes it *

Ingredients for Cooking the Chicken:

3 cloves of garlic

2 onions

1/2 tomato

4 tablespoons of Shan Meat Masala

1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander (powder)

1/2 teaspoon of fennel seeds (powder)

1/2 teaspoon of garam masala (powder)

1 cinnamon stick

1 tablespoon of paprika

1 1/2 cups of water

cilantro to garnish with.

Steps

1. Peel and mince 3 cloves of garlic and 2 onions. 

          *TIP* The trick to cutting onions (and other things) into small pieces, is to use a knife with a serrated edge.

2. Take 1/2 tomato and cut it into 4 - 8 pieces. Then put it through the food chopper. It should end up in a liquid paste like consistency. 

3. Make the spice mix in a separate bowl:

          - 4 tablespoons of Shan Meat Masala 

          - 1/2 teaspoon of ground coriander (powder)

          - 1/2 teaspoon of fennel seeds (powder)

          - 1/2 garam masala (powder)

4. In a large pan, add 1/3 cup of canola oil, 1 cinnamon stick, and the chopped onions and garlic. On medium heat, stir softly and consistently. Adjust heat accordingly, use your best judgement to make sure it heats evenly. 

5. Add the chicken piece by piece into the pan. Don't dump it in because you want to avoid the excess water in the marinade. Stir the pan as you add the chicken in.

6. Stir and cook the chicken. A lot of water will come out of the chicken. We pushed the chicken and the onions to the side of the pan and for approximately two minutes we let the excess water evaporate out of the pan.

7. When the water evaporates add in the spice mixture.

          *TIP* If the spices soak up all of the oil, because spices can do that, then add in more oil. But be careful because your dish could become too oily. At the end of the cooking process, a lot of the oil soaked up by the spices may release back into the dish as it starts to cool.  

8. Add in 1 tablespoon of paprika for color. It really brightens up the dish. Our oil amount was perfect in proportion to spices and the chicken, so we didn't add anymore oil.

9. Add in the tomato paste-like substance. 

          *TIP* At this point, you can also add in whatever vegetables you want. For example, Bell Peppers, Potatoes, and Spinach or Kale pair nicely with this dish. My mom likes to add parsnips. Since this is the most basic form of the recipe, we didn't add anything else.

10. Now add in the 1 1/2 cups of water. This will make the curry.

11. Cover the pan and simmer on low heat for approximately 20 minutes. Watch the chicken and stir frequently. Keep checking on it. This will allow the chicken to cook all the way through and allow the spices to seep into the chicken as well as form a nice strong curry.

12. Taste and Check the salt level after it's done cooking. We added 1/2 a teaspoon of salt at the end for flavor. 

13. Before serving, add a handful of chopped cilantro to garnish. We're eating the chicken later tonight so there's no cilantro in the pictures. 

To keep your eating gluten free, eat this delicious chicken with rice. There are options for gluten-free naan and other bread types, but my favorite way of eating it is with rice. 

This is a dish I recommend everyone try making. It is way too good to miss out on!