I haven’t made burgers for a while. I have been thinking of a burger for dinner tonight throughout the week. Initially, I was going to grind my meat and make a smash burger.
My Saturday dinner is a burger made with a sourdough roll, Gary’s special sauce, iceberg lettuce, Coon™ burger cheese, Heritage triple cream brie, slow cooker beef cheek, Roma tomato, and Shepard avocado.
The weather for today was looking gloomy, and my mind went to slow-cooked meat.
That’s when I got the inspiration for beef cheeks!
Ingredients
Beef cheeks
Barbecue sauce
Red wine
Beef stock
Sourdough bread roll
Butter
Iceberg lettuce
Roma tomato
Mayonnaise
Tomato sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Dijonnaise mustard
Coon burger cheddar cheese
Avocado
Heritage triple cream brie
Instructions
In a slow cooker vessel, add the beef cheeks, beef stock, red wine, and barbecue sauce.
Cook for eight hours.
Remove the cooked beef and slice off enough for a sandwich/burger.
Make Gary’s special sauce with mayonnaise, tomato sauce, Dijonnaise mustard, and Worcestershire sauce.
Bisect a sourdough roll.
Toast the soft cut surfaces of the bread roll.
Liberally apply Lurpak butter to both halves of the bread roll.
Trowel a layer of Gary’s special sauce on the heel of the bread roll.
Add shredded iceberg lettuce and then the Coon™ burger cheese and Heritage triple cream brie.
Now is when you add the cooked beef cheek.
Atop the meat, add the sliced Roma tomato and thinly sliced Shepard avocado.
Complete the burger with the top of the bun.
Bisect the burger and get your laughing gear around it.
Final thoughts
The burger tasted great. It took quite a bit of effort to make.
Would you go to this much trouble to make a burger?
Do you like slow-cooked beef cheek?
Coles Beef cheeks
Gary’s Special sauce made with mayonnaise, tomato sauce, Dijonnaise mustard, and Worcerstershire sauce
Gary’s Special sauce made with mayonnaise, tomato sauce, Dijonnaise mustard, and Worcerstershire sauce
Sourdough roll
Coon™ burger cheese and Heritage triple cream brie
Coon™ burger cheese and Heritage triple cream brie
Iceberg lettuce and Roma tomato
Slow cooker Beef cheek
Sourdough roll Gary’s special sauce Iceberg lettuce
Sourdough roll Gary’s special sauce Iceberg lettuce Coon™ burger cheese Heritage triple cream brie
Sourdough roll Gary’s special sauce Iceberg lettuce Coon™ burger cheese Heritage triple cream brie Slow cooker Beef cheek
Sourdough roll Gary’s special sauce Iceberg lettuce Coon™ burger cheese Heritage triple cream brie Slow cooker Beef cheek Roma tomato Shepard avocado
My Saturday dinner is a burger made with a sourdough roll, Gary’s special sauce, iceberg lettuce, Coon™ burger cheese, Heritage triple cream brie, slow cooker beef cheek, Roma tomato, and Shepard avocado.
My Saturday dinner is a burger made with a sourdough roll, Gary’s special sauce, iceberg lettuce, Coon™ burger cheese, Heritage triple cream brie, slow cooker beef cheek, Roma tomato, and Shepard avocado.
My Saturday dinner is a burger made with a sourdough roll, Gary’s special sauce, iceberg lettuce, Coon™ burger cheese, Heritage triple cream brie, slow cooker beef cheek, Roma tomato, and Shepard avocado.
A couple of weeks ago, I made and ate my first eggplant parmigiana. Unlike eggplant parmigiana, I’ve eaten lasagna many times, but I’ve never cooked it.
I sought advice from my Italian guru and friend, GC. GC shared her family recipe with me. GC is all about authenticity, so if you expect to see me describe making a béchamel sauce in my fancy saucier pan…NUP, not going to happen! This authentic lasagna has no béchamel.
Freshly Cooked Lasagna and a side salad served in the style of my best friend!
Ingredients
Extra virgin olive oil
One white onion—chopped
Three pinches of oregano
Two bay leaves
Basil
250 grams of minced beef (regular rather than super lean)
250 grams of minced pork (regular rather than super lean)
Two 700 gram bottles of passata
½ cup of red wine—suggest a Shiraz (it looks like blood)
Iodised flaky salt
Freshly ground black peppercorns
Ham—roughly cut
½ cup of freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
Because I halved the recipe from GC, I knew when I bought meat; I’d have to probably aliquot portions and freeze the leftover meat. However, when I went shopping, I spied some “bolognese” mince, a combination of beef and pork. I bought 500 grams of this “bolognese” mince instead of separate beef and pork mince.
I initially thought I’d buy some chuck steak and pork belly to hand grind myself. Unfortunately, I had to attend a work meeting today, so my time was cut short. I prefer hand grinding because the meat doesn’t clump. The store-bought mince tends to clump.
Instructions
Gently heat some extra virgin olive oil in a large pot if you have one. I don’t, so the largest suitable cooking vessel I had is a large non-stick wok.
Sautée the onions until they sweat and turn a golden colour.
While the onions are sautéing, add in the dried oregano and a couple of bay leaves.
When the onions have a nice colour, add in the minced beef and pork and, with a wooden spoon, break up the meat so that all the ground meat is exposed to the hot metal of the cooking vessel to enable better browning.
Once the meat has browned, add in the red wine and allow the wine to “cook out” so the alcohol evaporates, leaving the rich flavour of the fermented grape.
Now it’s time to add in the bottles of passata. Empty the bottles into the cooking vessel one at a time, and with a small volume of boiling water, rinse out the bottles and empty the watery tomato purée into the cooking vessel. The additional water dilutes the tomato purée a little and avoids a sauce that is too thick. This is a good tip to reduce waste!
Bring the sauce to a simmer and add some basil leaves. I like basil so I add a whole lot including the stems and then fish the stems out with the bay leaves at the end.
Cook the sauce for about twenty minutes and stir the sauce regularly to avoid the sauce burning on the bottom of the cooking vessel.
Once the sauce has cooked through, please remove it from the heat source.
In a baking tray that is a suitable size for you, spoon some sauce onto the bottom. Spread the sauce with a flourish across the bottom of the baking tray. I do this by emptying a ladle-full of sauce onto the baking tray and then using the outer curvature of the ladle as a spreading tool.
Add some freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano onto the sauce, and then lay out a layer of fresh pasta sheets.
On the pasta sheets, spread out the roughly cut ham and atop the ham spread out some mozzarella.
Then add a little more sauce making sure there is mince in the spoon, and spread it out.
Repeat the steps until everything is exhausted.
Place a sheet of baking paper over the last layer of sauce and seal the tray with some aluminium foil.
Put the tray into a 180 °C oven and cook for about 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, remove the tray and uncover the lasagna.
Allow the lasagna to rest for about 10 minutes to firm up a little because as much as a wobble is nice, it’s easier to handle lasagna, which is firm.
Slice the lasagna and serve on the warmed dinner plate along with a side salad in the style of my best friend (see photo).
Final thoughts
This lasagna was my first. Having the recipe explained made it easier to make on my own. Compared to lasagna Mum has made and lasagna I’ve eaten in restaurants and cafeterias, this was more delicious and unctuous. It was bloody fantastic! 🤤🤤🤤 Do you like lasagna?
I’ve now got enough leftover lasagna for meals this week, and I have some saved in my freezer.
You can purchase and use pre-grated mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano cheeses. However, pre-grated or pre-shredded cheeses have chemicals added to help the cheese pieces remain separated. These products also contain anti-fungal drugs because the extra surface area exposed to air makes the cheese more prone to fungal growth. Do you prefer grating your cheese? With the fresh mozzarella, I didn’t need to grate it, I just pinched off small pieces, and it came off in flat bits.
I used to joke that oncology patients should be prescribed pre-shredded cheese because of the amount of natamycin in the bag!
I don’t know much about alcohol because I can’t drink, so when I buy wine, I have two rules of thumb. If I’m buying wine to take to dinner with a friend, I use the price as the guide because I figure you pay for better tasting wine. When I buy wine for cooking, I go cheap. I’ve seen celebrity chefs say that you should cook with what you drink. I don’t know if it makes much difference. Do you have a rule of thumb for wine?
You’ll see I also had an affogato for dessert. The coffee is from Atlas on Hibberson Street in Gungahlin. The ice cream is on the recommendation of one of my ACT Pathology colleagues. One of our new trainees whose husband is vegan. It tasted pretty good. I would happily eat more.
As always, praise God, I’m grateful to GC for expanding my culinary horizons. 🙂👩🍳🔪😉
Gary makes lasagna
Shiraz
Lasagna Pasta Sheets
Bolognese Mince
Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese
Mutti Passata bottles
La Casa Del Fresh Mozzarella
Grated Parmigiano Reggiano Cheese
Progress after 2 of 3 layers
Freshly Cooked Lasagna | After about 10 minutes to let it firm up!
Freshly Cooked Lasagna with a side salad
Affogato with Atlas coffee and Vegan ice cream
Lake Ginninderra Foreshore Development. I look forward to this being finished.
Chip crusted eye fillet steak with mustard potato mash.
Red Rock Deli Lime & Black Pepper Potato Chips
Do you like crunchy textures in your mouth? When it comes to steak, most people want a tender bite and beefy flavour. Mum used to make crumbed steak when I was a young fella. It was so good that I would spit on the spare one which Mum always cooked, so my two younger brothers wouldn’t want it. Yes, I was a very naughty boy. Some might say, I still am! 😉
Ingredients
Eye fillet steak
Rock salt (in a grinder)
Whole black peppercorns (in a grinder)
Red Rock Deli Lime & Black Pepper potato chips (1 bag, crushed with a food processor)
Dijonnaise mustard
Birds Eye potato mash (with butter)
Wholegrain mustard
Instructions
Steak
Go to the supermarket and look for the cheapest eye fillet you can find. There’s no point going for a super expensive steak because this meat will be cooked under a vacuum in a water bath (sous vide).
When you get home, and after you’ve made an excellent strong (Atlas blend) coffee in caffettiera, season your meat with liberal quantities of freshly ground rock salt (iodised, of course) and black peppercorns.
Seal your meat in a vacuum bag and refrigerate and go about your day. For example, I went for a lovely walk around Lake Ginninderra and admired God’s wonder in the beautiful autumn leaves.
When you’re ready to think about dinner seriously, heat a water bath to 54 °C and put the steak into the water bath and cook for about 2 hours and 10 minutes.
After cooking, remove your perfectly cooked meat from the water bath, open the bag, and dry your meat with absorbent kitchen paper.
Sear your meat in a cast-iron skillet or use a torch. Avoid basting with butter (yea, I know this sounds heretical for regular readers who know my unparalleled devotion to butter, but there is a purpose to my madness). You want the seared surface to be relatively dry.
With a kitchen brush (yeah, not a bathroom brush), apply a coat of dijonnaise mustard to the outer surfaces of your meat. Then dab your sticky beef into a bowl of crushed potato chips.
Set aside or, if you prefer, sequester your meat to somewhere warm and moist but not too humid. You don’t want the chips to get too soggy quickly.
Autumn trees on Lake Ginninderra
Potato mash
Remove the package from the freezer.
Note the instructions to cook using microwave radiation for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Also, note the microwave radiation oven doesn’t have a functioning 1 or 2 button, so do some mental arithmetic to calculate a two-step cooking process. Make a note to buy a new microwave radiation oven, given this one is nearly 14 years old.
When you have ceased to irradiate the potato mash, allow the package to stand for one minute.
Open the packet and transfer the potato mash to a warm bowl. Stir through a tablespoon of wholegrain mustard for an added bit of flair!
Plating up
Transfer the mustard-flavoured potato mash to a warmed dinner plate.
Place the potato chip crusted steak atop the potato mash.
Serve with green vegetables.
Final thoughts
It’s not a meal to write home about, but it will do.
If you live alone, you can make a slightly pretentious and fancy meal out of steak and potato. Please give it a go and let me know what you think.
You don’t need to cook sous vide either. Eye fillet pan-fries very well and will be tender.
Red Rock Deli Lime & Black Pepper Potato Chips
Crushed Red Rock Deli Lime & Black Pepper Potato Chips
Dijonnaise and Wholegrain mustards
Chip crusted eye fillet steak with mustard potato mash
Chip crusted eye fillet steak with mustard potato mash
Chip crusted eye fillet steak with mustard potato mash
I’ve never made eggplant parmigiana before. I don’t think I’ve eaten eggplant parmigiana before. I know I’ve eaten chicken and veal parmigiana before, which probably reflects my primarily carnivorous mindset.
I was at a work lunch recently, and a friend asked for a chicken parmigiana. When it arrived, it was bigger than my head (and I have a large noggin).
Photograph of eggplants at the supermarket
GC, my amazing Italian friend, has shared photos many times of eggplant parmigiana made by her hands. I asked about a recipe, and GC shared a blog post from Silvia Colloca, an Italian-born Australian opera singer, YouTube content creator, and TV celebrity.
When I visit Brisbane, SBS Food is often on the TV, and I’ve seen Silvia’s show many times and enjoyed the way she presents her food.
The blog post, while instructive, wasn’t written as a recipe per se, so I sought extra instruction from GC, which she generously shared.
So, armed with all the information I thought I needed, I went to Coles and purchased everything I needed.
Ingredients
Eggplants—choose the girthy ones rather than the pencil-thin ones.
Salt—If you’ve read my previous posts, you know why I always use iodised salt. Don’t believe the people who claim iodised salt is terrible for you. These individuals have no idea of what damage they are doing to society.
Vegetable oil—this is for frying the dry eggplant slices. I bought home-brand sunflower oil. I’d appreciate any guidance on whether readers feel this isn’t the best oil to use. I figure it has a higher vapour point than extra virgin olive oil, and I don’t want a bitter taste associated with overheating the oil.
Mutti passata—I bought a 700-gram bottle as per GC’s advice.
Garlic cloves—I bashed them and left the skins on.
Black peppercorns—For the most lively flavour on your tongue, I always try to grind the peppercorns just before adding them to a dish.
Instructions
Eggplant
Wash the eggplants (or aubergine—you fancy pants!) with tap water. You should wash all your vegetables to free them of dirt, potential pathogens, and to dilute potential toxic chemicals on the surface of your vegetables.
With a sharp cook’s knife, slice the eggplants longitudinally. I did ask GC whether it would be best to cut circular discs; however, GC cuts along the long axis of the eggplant. Who am I to question the master!
Layout the sliced eggplant on a tea towel, and then add a liberal amount of salt to each slice. Leave the pieces for about ten minutes, and then using a paper towel, wipe off the accumulated moisture and wet salt.
Turn the slices over and repeat the salting and drying. The aim is to get your eggplant as dry as possible. You don’t want it moist. Frying wet food is dangerous, and you don’t want a problematic eggplant! This step also minimises any bitterness in your eggplant. After all, you want a nice dry eggplant with good taste and mouthfeel. I did watch a few YouTube videos of Italian cooks and chefs making eggplant parmigiana, and many of them sat weights on the slices to actively squeeze more water out. This eggplant squeezing looked like a lot of hard work.
Some people suggest dusting the dry eggplant with flour. Some people even suggest dusting with flour and then dipping it into a beaten egg. GC doesn’t do this. So, I don’t do it.
Heat the vegetable oil in a wok. Yes, I use a wok because a wok is safer for working with hot oil. I wouldn’t use a vertical side saucepan or skillet. When using this sort of cookware, hot oil can “climb” up the sides and results in more dangerous hot oil splatter. I’ve burnt myself too many times.
To test the temperature of the oil, drop a little bit of eggplant skin into the oil. If it bubbles on landing in the oil, you should be good to start.
I took the time to measure the temperature so I’d know for next time. The temperature of the oil was 170 °C.
Fry the eggplant slices in small batches to avoid the oil temperature falling, resulting in the eggplant absorbing oil rather than being fried quickly.
When the eggplant slices are golden brown, remove them from the hot oil with chopsticks (after all, you’re cooking in a wok) and lay each piece onto an absorbent paper towel. Doing this will soak up excess oil.
Tomato sauce (Sugo)
In a saucier pan (yes, okay, I’m fancy, I have an excellent saucier pan, you can use a saucepan or skillet), gently fry off the bashed garlic with the skin on, the chopped shallot, and the basil.
Add in the bottle of passata and gently simmer for 20 minutes, stirring the sauce occasionally.
Set the sauce aside to cool.
Assembly of the eggplant parmigiana
Heat your oven to about 200 °C.
With a ladle, add some sauce to the bottom of a baking tray.
Add a layer of eggplant on top of the sauce.
Add thin slices of mozzarella on top of the eggplant.
Repeat the layering until you have finished.
Grate some Parmigiano Reggiano on top and place the baking tray into the oven for about 30 minutes.
On completion, remove the baking tray from the oven and allow it to rest for about 15 minutes.
Plating up
With a large serving spoon, cut out a portion on the eggplant parmigiana and place it on a warmed dinner plate.
Serve with some freshly steamed green vegetables.
Garnish with fresh basil.
Season with freshly ground black pepper.
Salted eggplant
Tomato sauce with garlic, shallot, and basil
Fried eggplant
Sliced Mozzarella
Layering up the eggplant parmigiana
Eggplant parmigiana out of the oven
Eggplant parmigiana out of the oven
Eggplant Parmigiana with steamed broccolini
Dessert idea
After 15 months, I returned yesterday to working as an honorary visiting medical officer (VMO). I do this clinical work once a week to keep my specialist registration as a pathologist (microbiologist).
It was great being back in my natural habitat and surrounded by pathologists, medical laboratory scientists, and trainees (known as registrars*). I love the banter of being with my colleagues; we laugh, we joke, and we dive deep into enjoying the wonder of the interactions between pathogens and humans.
One of the new trainees recommended a vegan ice cream. Her husband is vegan and so she has adopted many of his food preferences. It sounded perfect, so for dessert (as well as afternoon tea), I had an affogato made with vegan ice cream and Atlas coffee.
Dessert affogato with Vegan Connoisseur ice cream and Atlas coffee.
Final thoughts
Many posts I’ve read and YouTube videos I’ve watched suggest that leftover eggplant parmigiana tastes better than freshly cooked. I’ll let you know what I think in another post in the future.
As far as I’m concerned this was delicious. I think I may have used a little too much salt on the eggplant because it was saltier than I’d anticipated.
Have you made this dish before?
What’s the best oil for frying eggplant slices?
Would adding some slices of provolone cheese on the eggplant be inappropriate? I like the sharp bite of what has become one of my favourite cheeses (thanks, GC, for introducing me to all the great cheeses in life).
Can you describe in the comments below how you cook this dish?
I’ve heard some people say this is better than lasagna. Do you agree?
My next food project is making lasagna. I’ve never done that before.
Shout out to best friends like GC who make life better and worthwhile. Praise God! 🙏
*a registrar is a (medical) doctor in training who is embarking on specialist training.
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