The perfect Saturday night-in. My best friend, Endira, came over and I cooked for her.

She had four sticks.

Then blamed me for her sleepiness.

Burger Queen

One of my favorite fast food is burger, but little did I know that making one is actually pretty fast too. One new thing I learned from adapting this recipe from Jamie's book, is that you need breadcrumb to make burger. The ground beef was the leftover from the Bolognese sauce I had made earlier.

This was actually my second attempt and the first one had been a success too! Well, I actually made a mistake in the second attempt, because I liked how mustard taste, I added too much of it to the beef. It was okay, but I was thinking to add some soy sauce to tame the saltiness. (I'll try it tomorrow)

This dish is actually great and I'm kinda understand why it has fast food as its label. You can make the burger, then store it in the fridge, just fry it when you want to eat it. Put between good buns ( I bought mine at Roti Gempol, but you need to order it one day in advance to get your buns), add some chili sauce, mayo, mustard (again!), pickles, lettuce, cheese, whatever. 

And midnight craving problem is solved! Fast!

ingredients and how to cook the burger : ground beef, mustard, parsley (finely chopped), pepper, salt, breadcrumbs, egg (beaten). Mix up all ingredients with your hands // shape into roundish shape // drizzle with olive oil // store in the fridge if you don't want to eat them straight away, and actually it'll help the meat to firm up // heat your pan on high heat for 4 mins, turn down into medium heat // put burgers on pan, press them down with burner, make sure they are in full contact with the pan // cook them until your liking on both sides (mine usually 3 - 4 mins).

Adapted from Jamie's Food Revolution : A Cracking Burger ( p. 146)
Ps : on the book, instead of breadcrumbs, Jamie used smashed saltine crackers.

What can I do with Ground Beef

After I had Jamie's book : Jamie's Food Revolution, I couldn't help it but wanted to try everything on it. Problem was, I had limited budget so I needed to choose carefully what I wanted to try. Instinctively I wanted to try all those dishes with meat (I just love meat so damn much), but a chunk of tenderloin costs about 40.000 - 50.000 Rupiah and it just serves one. So I decided to try something with ground beef. I bought half a kilo of ground beef for 50.000 rupiah and decided to use half of it to make Bolognese sauce. 

Bolognese Sauce, adapted from Jamie's Food Revolution cookbook.

Homely Ground Beef : Bolognese Sauce ( p. 165)

Result : I felt proud I actually made this famous sauce from scratch, not the ready-to-eat in the supermarket! But, I added too much tomato puree so the beef's flavor didn't really come out. Probably because I was too cheap, I supposed to use 1/2 kg of ground beef, but instead I only used 1/4 kg. 

It was still okay though, not like a big disaster. From the leftover I made Lasagne and oh it was amazing. But I was unsure was the amazing feeling came because I was proud I can actually cooked lasagne or was it because it was actually good. Hendra said that it still tasted too tomato-ey, but my Dad, bless him, said it was great. I think half of the great comment came because he was bewildered to see me in the kitchen. 

Anyway, I've tried to find the link to the Bolognese sauce recipe in Jamie's site but I couldn't find it, I found another in Simply Recipes, just click it. I haven't tried that one but when I read through it, the basics are almost the same, only it used more complicated ingredients. I really wanted to try it too. 

By the way, if you just happen to learn to cook like me and if you want to spend your money on a really good cookbook that teaches lots of basics, try Jamie's. I love it. It has detailed step-by-step instructions with picture during the cooking process, so you have ideas what the food's gonna look like during the cooking. Plus some of the recipes have the how-to video on his website. 

Something new I learned : 

1. don't be cheap with beef
2. 1/4 kg of ground beef only needs 1/2 can of tomato puree
3. Basil is kemangi in Bahasa Indonesia
4. The stalks are the important part in herbs. 
5. When pasta is cooked, drizzle some oil olive to avoid it to get sticky.

The Perfect Steak

Cooking steak is the last thing on my to do list. I think I have some fears toward cooking meat, it looks that it takes a really hard work to serve a steak. I had to grit my teeth and smile (this is something I become better at) when my meat was so hard to chew, even Alf the Saint Bernard feel asleep after chewing those rubbers. Poor dog.

So I tried to find some tutorial through youtube.com  that might be helpful. Then I found Jamie. I mean, I know who he is, but I never really pay attention to what he does, I just considered him as the leader in the flocks of mutant on the cooking shows. But then I know why he's so popular. He makes cooking looks so effortless and he shows it in a very warm and lovely way. He says stuff like, 'this is fantastic!' when referring to a baby potato and 'you've got to give this a try' , referring to a boiled trout. Plus, he's just so cute! I grow obsession toward Jamie and I think so does my mother.

Here's the video :

although in the video Jamie didn't say anything about marinated the meats, I did though. I had fun putting all those herbs and spices and marinated it for about 3 hours. I think the meat will taste better if I leave it overnight, haven't tried that though.

Here's how I did it, and please remember : this wasn't my first attempt (and surely, won't be the last).

1

Choose the meat, go to your supermarket and ask for a tenderloin or a sirloin. I bought mine at Toko Setiabudhi, but the best meat section in a supermarket belongs to Riau Junction (Sorry, for Bandung blogers only this piece of info is useful). I'm like a five years old who doesn't want to leave the candy store. However, if this is your first time, it's better if you just buy the local meat, Australian's costs twice the local's price and let save that when we master the art of cooking the perfect steak.  

2

To marinate your steak, you can put almost anything in it. I tried olive oil, dried oregano, garlic, fresh rosemary, pepper and salt. For my third attempt I tried to use Worcestershire sauce too. Leave it for three or more hours after you smear those ingredients on your meat. Leave it longer if it's possible.  

3

Cook your meat! carefully watch Jamie's video above and don't be lazy to take notes. Have a personal notebook and jot down things that might you need. I think personal notes which you use your own language are really helpful for your next attempt.

4

Served with veggies. I love asparagus, but you can put mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, french fries, anything. You can use mayonnaise or thousand island for a quick fix (the truth is, I did try to make a french dressing and failed big time). 

That's it, after 3 attempts, I got it (almost) correct. Hendra and her brother are my gourmets and have been giving me helpful insights. I think now I'm ready for an Aussie meat. 

Have helpful tips for cooking (the perfect) steak? Feel free to leave comments or share your experiments here!