" />
Bachelor Cooking – Chilli Burgers
January 15, 2010 5 Comments
A nice easy recipe to cook a simple burger, excellent in a lovely sandwich. This is a basic recipe and can be added to with other ingredients as and how you require depending on what you like to eat. My personal favourites apart from this one are parmesan and herbs and (perhaps oddly) asparagus and mint if using lamb mince (note that if you make burgers using lamb mince don’t use extra lean mince as the fat will help the lamb bind).
Ingredients:
Mince – I use extra lean and this particular packet was 400g
Chillies – Just take a few of your favourites at whatever hotness you like
Garlic – 2 cloves
Small onion (I only use half of the one shown here)
Paprika
Chives – these ones are dried
Salt and Pepper
Butter (cooking oil will suffice)
For this one I also used a Chilli infused olive oil
How to:
Start by chopping the onion nice and fine, take your time here and make sure you don’t leave any big chunks
Now melt a small piece of butter in a pan
add the finely chopped onions
While the onions are very lightly frying chop up the chillis
Take the onion off the heat and grab a mixing bowl.
Add the mince
Add the two cloves of garlic crushed (if you don’t have a garlic press crush them with the edge of your knife and then cut finely)
Add the chopped chillies
Add a sprinkle of chives – a lot if you like them, less so if you don’t
Season with salt and pepper – this is to taste so as much as you like really, but put in less and see the ‘Quick Tip’ below.
Add a helping of paprika
Add the lightly cooked onions
Now comes the fun part where you get to squeeze the mixture together. Don’t use a spoon, you need to get your hands in there. So, wash your hands and simply dive in there and squeeze the mixture together as hard as you can. Imagine you were trying to get every last drop of water out of a wet sponge. mix. mix. mix some more.
There’s no need to be shy here, you have to be a little rough if you want the burgers to hold themselves together during cooking. You’re not making a light crumble here, you’re making good old fashioned burgers.
Squeeze just a little bit more.
Now wash your hands again.
Quick Tip
Fry up a little bit of the freshly squeezed mixture and taste it now. Does it need more salt and pepper? More chives? More Paprika?If so – add it now and go back to the mixing.
Now comes for the actual burger making. I like a large burger, so the mixture here made two decent sized ones. It makes 3 smaller ones okay, but 4 are a little too small for my liking. So, let’s go ahead and make 2.
Halve the mixture and shape it into a ball in your hands
Once rolled you need to shape them into the burger. For this I start by slamming it down, not too roughly – as if you were pushing a buzzer on a quiz show, onto a chopping board. I guess the natural gravity in this helps to start the circular shape
Now push down on the meat to really flatten it out into a burger shape
Once you’re done you should have something resembling a burger, and about an inch in height. Make sure it’s as even as possible so that it will cook equally throughout
Looking good. Now transfer to a plate and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Don’t miss that step I just mentioned…it needs to go into the fridge and stay there for 30 minutes. The burger will often crumble when cooking otherwise.
Go watch an episode of Friends, open a beer, or just wash up the dishes you have used so far…but not the frying pan, you’ll be using that shortly!
30 minutes later…
Take some of that chilli infused olive oil and add a couple of teaspoons to the pan. Once heated, add the burger(s)
While it’s cooking you’ll need to flip it a couple of times – try 2 minutes on one side, flip, 2 minutes, flip, 2 minutes, flip and finally, 2 minutes, done.
Finally, serve with whatever you like. Fries and beans? lovely!
For these ones I just had them on a couple of slices of bread with mayonnaise, tomato and cheese.
as they say in lolcat land – nom nom nom
Free Photoshop Lightscribe Template
January 12, 2010 10 Comments
What is it?
It’s an Extremely simple Photoshop template for you to use on Lightscribe discs.
This is a simple PSD file with just 2 layers that will allow you to create your own lightscribe labels using Photoshop.
How do I use it?
Easy! Just download the template and open it up in Photoshop…you can get a free trial version from the Adobe website.
The top layer should be kept on top and shows the edges and central circle in white – these do not appear on the CD itself.
The bottom layer, and any more you add under that, is what you will see on the CD once printed.
Simply copy images or insert text onto this bottom layer, or other layers under the top layer, and save as an image.
Open up your Lightscribe software – I recommend the cover designer within Nero 9 – and select a new lightscribe cover using the picture you have just saved.
What are you waiting for? Download the Free Photoshop Lightscribe Template now!
Free Desktop Background – Moon
January 6, 2010 4 Comments
Select your desktop background size from the list below for your free desktop background of the moon.
This image was taken with the Canon EOS 500d on Christmas Day 2009 – Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/500); Aperture: f/5.6; Focal Length: 250 mm; ISO Speed: 200
View Desktop Background:
1024×768
1152×864
1280×1024
1600×1200
Unedited versions of the original image can be viewed on my flickr page here
Going down?
January 2, 2010 1 Comment
The goods lift in my building states that it can take up to 600lbs of weight.
That started me thinking. The average newborn baby weighs 7 1/2 pounds.
Let’s do the math: 600 divided by 7.5 = 80.
That’s 80 newborn babies that should be able to fit in my goods lift without it being overloaded, though I’m not sure how they will be able to operate the buttons or the door if they are in there on their own.
That’s one heck of a surprise for the next person to use it also!
