Caprese Beef Burger

We love burgers...who doesn't? I must say we do love making our own. When we feel like tasting nothing else but the juicy taste of beef, all we put in the burger is just good quality lean minced beef, salt & freshly ground black pepper...nothing else!! Here we simply served them on a toasted bun with a Caprese salad, fresh milky mozzarella, fresh ripe tomatoes and a fresh basil leaf! Give them a go...very easy to prepare!! For 4 burgers you will need...

• 500g extra lean minced beef
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

To serve

• 1x 125g mozzarella ball, sliced
• 1x ripe beef tomato, sliced
• 4 fresh basil leaves
• 4 sesame seed topped burger buns

How to...

1. Put the beef in a bowl and season with salt & pepper. Mix well with your hands into 4 patties. 
2. Grill for about 3 minutes on each side.
3. On the same grill pan or grill, toast the split buns and put a burger on each bun, top with a mozzarella slice, tomato slice and a basil leaf.

Enjoy!!

R&A

Pretzels - Laugenbrezeln

One of Amanda's favourite breads/snacks, Pretzels are delicious German bread that some say were first baked by German monks long time ago. Their toppings vary from sweet to savoury, coated or sprinkled. We prefer the traditional savoury ones sprinkled with coarse sea salt. Personally I thought that pretzels are hard to prepare but after doing them for the first time I can confirm that they are easy to prepare. We prepared them know to commemorate the start of the Oktoberfest season in Germany, we also prepared some Obatzda, a German Camembert based spread which is served with the Pretzels. We will post the recipe for Obatzda in our next post. Give these home-made Pretzels a go and you and all your loved ones will love them. You can top them up with sesame seeds, poppy seeds or even grated cheese. If you love them sweet you can dip them in melted chocolate...why the heck not!! So, for about 10 medium sized Pretzels you will need...

• 500g plain flour
• 1 packet instant yeast (7g)
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• 350ml lukewarm milk (2 minutes in the microwave)
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

• 1½ litres water
• 2 tablespoons bicarbonate of soda

• Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling

How to...

1. In a large bowl mix the flour, yeast and sugar. Add the milk and salt and knead into a sticky dough (you might want to flour your hands). Knead for 5 minutes, put back into the bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave to rise in a warm/dry place until doubled in size, about an hour.
2. On a lightly floured surface, knead for about 10 minutes and shape into a 20cm sausage shaped roll.
3. Cut 10 equal pieces from the roll and re-roll into long strands. Shape the pretzel by twisting the ends towards the centre of the strand.
4. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
5. In a large pot, bring the 1½ litres of water with the bicarbonate of soda to a rolling boil, leave to boil for about 10 minutes. Now carefully drop each pretzel into the boiling water separately, leave for about 30 seconds and take them out with a slotted spoon. Put them on a baking tray covered with greaseproof/baking paper and sprinkle with the coarse salt. Repeat the process for the remaining nine pretzels. 
6. Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes.
7. Serve warm
8. Enjoy!!

R&A

Salmon & Pumpkin Stir-fry Asian Style

We love salmon, we love Asian cuisine, it is pumpkin season and this recipe is the result of all these three combined. This recipe has a variety of ingredients that give this stir-fry different textures, saltiness and sweetness. As I said earlier it is indeed pumpkin season and we try to include it in our cooking as much as we can during this season. It is so delicious, we love it. WE also used salmon fillets in this recipe but you can use any fish fillets you like, you can also try steak fish like Amberjack (Aċċiola in Maltese), Grouper (Ċerna), Swordfish (Pixxispad) or Wreckfish (Dott). Fish is quite versatile so feel free to use whatever you find fresh at the market.  We served this stir-fry on top of some delicious thick rice noodles but again you can use regular egg or wheat noodles. So if you feel in cooking your fish in a different way than usual, give this a go, all the ingredients can be found on the international food aisle at your supermarket. For 2 people you will need…

• 2 Salmon fillets of about 150g each, skinned, boned and sliced
• 250g cooked pumpkin
• 50g bean sprouts
• 50g bamboo shoots, thinly sliced
• 50g water chestnuts
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed
• ½ teaspoon minced fresh ginger or galangal
• Juice of half a lime
• 2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon shrimp paste (optional)
• 1 teaspoon palm sugar (or brown sugar)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, for frying
• 1 package rice noodles
• Sesame oil

1. Preheat the oven to 240°C.
2. Start by cooking the pumpkin. Chop about 400g of uncooked pumpkin in large pieces (do not peel at this stage). Put them skin facing up into an oven tray, add half a cup of water and bake into the preheated oven for about half an hour. When cooked, carefully peel the skin off, it should peel off easily. Slice the pumpkin flesh into slices and set aside.
3. In a wok or large pan, heat the oil and throw in the garlic, ginger and shrimp paste (if using). Stir-fry for about a minute until fragrant.
4. Add the fish, rice wine or sherry, soy sauce, sugar and cook, always stir-frying continuously, until fish is cooked, about 5-8 minutes.
5. In the meantime, start cooking the noodles as according to the package, drain and set aside.
6. Add the bean sprouts, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and pumpkin and cook until they are warm. Stir fry to mix all up. Add the lime juice and stir again. Serve into a deep medium sized serving dish.
7. In the same wok/pan, add the noodle and dress with sesame oil. Stir fry for a minute and serve.
8. Plate the noodles and top with the fish stir-fry.

Enjoy!!

R&A