Andrew’s Hamburger

Andrews Hamburger, originally uploaded by yongtze.

Ph: (03) 9690 2126; 144 Bridport St, ALBERT PARK 3206

I moved to Albert Park 6 months ago and I am extremely delighted that Andrew's Hamburger is just 5 minutes walk from my house.

The shop front and the interior will bring you straight back to the 70's, when food was still properly made with quality ingredients and patience. Every time when I was there the queue is always so long that it snakes out onto the foot path. Consider yourself lucky if you are told there is a 15-minute wait during dinner hour. It opens from Monday to Saturday until 9:30pm, but get there earlier because the beef patties are always sold out well before the closing hour.

No you won't get fancy ingredients here. These are good old, honest burgers that are cooked to the perfection in front of your eyes. The patties are grilled till the edges are crunchy, with cheese melted over the top. Below the patty are big fat thick tomato slices and finely shredded
white cabbage and iceberg lettuce.

No photo of burger here because it is always most eagerly consumed after a well-worth wait. Take my word for it – you won't be disappointed.

Andrews Hamburger, originally uploaded by yongtze.

Steamed chicken-and-leek bun

steamed chicken-and-leek bun, originally uploaded by yongtze.

I have been wanting to eat cha siu baau (Cantonese barbecue pork buns) for a while.

Actually, no! The truth is that I have been dying to bake for a long time. But my new place that I moved into doesn't have an oven! That means no pie, quiches, tarts, gratins, fresh bread, roast chicken, the list can go on and on.

Well anyway, I had the sudden urge of eating a chicken-and-leek pie one day. Obviously I can't bake any pie without an oven. So I had this idea of using chicken-and-leek as a filling in Chinese steamed buns. After a few days of gathering ingredients and researching on the recipe for steamed buns, the end-product is what you see above.

The steamed bun looks yellow-brownish instead of white because I didn't use bleached flour. The dough for Chinese steamed-bun is actually not hard to make. It is double risen, first with yeast and then with baking powder, which makes the buns light and fluffy. Most recipes I found reccommend low-glutten flour to make the buns light and soft. I used a mixture of plain flour and corn flour which works fine too.

You can be creative with the fillings, which can be either savoury (e.g. the classic barbecue pork bun) or sweet. With sweet fillings like lotus seed paste or red bean paste these buns make great afternoon snack.

Makes 6 steamed buns:

- 3/4 teaspoon dried yeast
- 80ml lukewarm water
- 1 cup plain flour
- 2/5 cup corn flour
- 20g caster sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoon oil (vegetable oil or pork lard)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Fillings:

- 1 cup leek (white part only, chopped)
- 2 shallots (chopped)
- 1 cup chicken meat (diced or minced)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons pure cream
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoons roasted sesame oil (optional)

1. Dissolve the sugar in the water, then add the yeast. Stir and set aside until foamy.

2. Sift the flour and corn flour in a bowl and add the yeast mixture and the oil. Using a wooden spoon, mix the ingredients to a rough dough. Knead for about 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. If it is very sticky, knead in a little more flour.

3. Lightly grease a bowl with some oil and place the dough in it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and set aside to rise in a warm place (which means anywhere in Melbourne right now) until double in volume.

4. For the filling, melt butter in a frying pan on medium heat. Add leek and shallot and cook for 5 minutes or until they are soft. Stir frequently not to let the leek and shallot brown. Add in chicken and cook until the meat is cooked. Pour in the cream, stir and mix well. Simmer for 1-2 minutes. Season to taste. Add the roasted sesame oil if using. Let the filling cool down.

5. Once the dough doubles in volume, punch it down and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Flatten it and make a well in the centre. Place the baking powder in the well and gather up the edges to enclose the baking powder. Pinch the edges to seal. Lightly knead the dough for several minutes to even incorporate the baking powder.

6. Divide the dough into 6 portions. Working with one portion at the time, press the dough into circles with the edges thinner than the centre. Place the filling on the dough. Draw the sides in to enclose the filling. Pinch the top together and put each bun on a square of greaseproof paper (which I don't have it so I just put the bun on a lightly greased plate as shown below).

7. Place the buns well apart because they will continue to rise during steaming. Steam over simmering water in a wok or anything that suits you for 15 minutes. Serve hot. Steamed buns freeze well too.

My vegetarian brunch

my vegetarian brunch, originally uploaded by yongtze.

I have been eating a lot of pasta this few weeks. I wanted something rich and creamy but didn’t feel like eating meat (because there was no meat in the fridge!). This is like a vegetarian version of carbonara and I think I might cook this more often than the real thing in the future =) 

Serves 2

- 250g pasta of your choice
- 2 zucchinis, diced 1.5 cm cubes
- 1 garlic head, skinned and chopped fine
- 3 egg yolk
- 1 cup of grated parmesan/romano cheese
- half cup of cream
- light olive oil
- salt and pepper

1.
Boil water in a large pot, adding some salt and oil. Once the water has
started to boil, add the pasta and cook until al dente.

2.
Heat up a skillet and add 3 tablespoons of oil and the chopped garlic.
Cook with medium heat for about 2 minutes. Add diced zucchinis, stir and mix well with the garlic. Cover with a lid, cook for another 3-5 minutes or until the zucchinis are cooked. Open the lid from time to time to check and release some excess moisture.

4. Drain the pasta, return it into the pot, add egg yolk, cream, cheese to mix well with the pasta. Add in garlic and zucchinis mixture too to mix again. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

 

Simple pasta with left-over roast pork, garlic and herbs

simple pasta with left-over roast pork, garlic and herbs, originally uploaded by yongtze.

This is a very simple quick lunch I made today because I've got some left-over roast pork meat in the fridge. Feel free to use any left-over meat you have in the fridge because most of the flavour comes from the garlic and the herbs – a fast, simple and tasty lunch.

Serves 2

- 250g pasta of your choice
- 150g leftover cooked meat, I used roast pork here
- 1 garlic head, skinned and chopped fine
- 10-15 basil leaves
- 2 tablespoons chopped chives
- light olive oil
- salt and pepper

1. Boil water in a large pot, adding some salt and oil. Once the water has started to boil, add the pasta and cook until al dente.

2. Heat up a skillet and add 3 tablespoons of oil and the chopped garlic. Cook with low heat for about 3-5 minutes. Watch the heat and stir the garlic often as not to burn the garlic. It should remain golden but not brown.

3. Add the leftover meat and mix it well with the garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cover the skillet with a lid to warm the meat through quickly without burning the garlic, about 3-4 minutes.

4. Drain the pasta, mix well with the garlic and meat. Add in the basil leaves and chives to mix well. Season to taste before serving.

Fish porridge with local snapper

Fish porridge , originally uploaded by yongtze.

It's been a while since I put up a new recipe here. My guilt finally hits and here is a fish porridge recipe that is light and yet subtly tasty. Be sure the fish is fresh as it is the freshness that makes the porridge. Also, to cut down the cooking time, I used a stick blender to make the porridge smooth and creamy.

Serves 2-4:

- 1 cup of jasmine rice
- salt
- 1 whole snapper, about 1 kg
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil
- 10 cups of water
- 2 good knob of gingers, cut into thin shreds
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 spring onions
- 2 shallots
- 2 tomatoes, skiinned and cut into cubes

1. First we fillet the snapper. Keep the trimmings, tail, bones, and fish head for the fish stock. Cut the fillets into 2cm x 2cm smaller pieces.

2. Next, we start making the fish stock. Place the water, the trimmings, tails, fish bones, head, onion, half of the ginger, 1 spring onion (roughly sliced) into a stock pot and bring to boil on high heat. Once boiling, turn down to medium heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes, adding salt to taste.

3. Meanwhile, wash the rice thoroughly and drain the water. Add the oil to the rice and  mix them well in a heavy-bottomed stockpot. Set aside, let the grain to soak up the oil.

4. Once the fish stock is ready, pour it through a sieve into the rice and start cooking with high heat until the rice turns soft. Turn down the heat to low-medium to slowly cook for about 30 minutes, stirring often. Once the rice is really soft, use a stick blender to blend the rice for the creamy texture.

5. Add sliced fish, tomatoes and the other half of the gingers into the porridge and simmer for another 10 minutes, keep stirring as the porridge tends to burn at the bottom once blended. Salt to taste. Thinly slice the other spring onion.

6. For confit shallot: slowly cook the shallots with oil over very low heat
for about 10 minutes until very crispy. Keep the oil together with the
shallot.

7. To serve: Pour the fish porridge into serving bowls. Place some thinly sliced spring onion, confit shallot and its cooking oil on the porridge. For stronger flavour, sprinkle a few drops of sesame oil and some white pepper.

Steamed asparagus with kaiser fleish and garlic

Steamed asparagus with kaiser fleish and garlic, originally uploaded by yongtze.

I decided to steam the asparagus quickly and then mix with pan-fried kaiser fleish (kind of like smoked bacon) and garlic. I have been eating steamed vegetables recently for its simplicity, speed and obvious health reasons.

Another reason is that as I always cook rice on the stove – when the rice is being boiled and cooked, just wait until most of the water evaporates and little holes appear in the surface on the rice, throw in the cut vegetables onto the rice and put the lid back on. While the rest of the water continues to boil and evaporates as the rice is being cooked, the steam cooks the vegetables in 2-5 minutes. So I get the rice and the vegetables cooked in the same pot and around the same time, extremely simple, fast and less washing-up to do!

 

 

How you like your omelette?

I'm just wondering how people like their omelettes? Fully cooked and slightly browned on one side? Or like French omelettes – moist, creamy inside?