Smoked Paprika Potato Burgers

As promised, here’s my recipe for the burger patties I used at our beach bbq. They are the most delicious blend of potatoes and smoked paprika.

Ingredients

3 large potatoes
1/2 red onion
1 tbsp roasted garlic powder
1 1/2 tbsp smoked paprika powder
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
8 oz cheese block
salt as required

Method

Cut the potatoes in quarters and boil in a large pot with water.
Pull out when fork tender and immediately dunk in cold water to stop the cooking
While potatoes cook, finely chop the onion
Mash potatoes and add all ingredients
Mix well and divide into 8 equal parts. I like thinner patties, so I made 8. You can divide the mixture according to your choosing!
Cut the cheese block into 8 equal pieces
Oil your hands and press one part of the mix into a flat disc
Put a piece of cheese in the middle and enclose completely with the potato mix
Shape into round patties and freeze till needed or use immediately!

This recipe originated completely by accident. Usually we’d buy frozen patties when grilling, but some of our friends are vegetarian. The frozen vegetarian patties taste like cardboard and thus, I tried these patties. After much trial and error, I finally made some that did not break on the grill.

Make sure you oil the grill before putting these on. It is also necessary to watch the potatoes and make sure they don’t over cook. Over cooked potatoes will make the mixture wet and the patties will fall apart on the grill.

Since the patties are extremely dry, I like to brush mine with sauces like sriracha or a spicy Bbq sauce. Just brush some on while grilling and the patty will turn moist! I also add a single slice of low fat cheese on the patty while it’s grilling so it melts before adding it all on a bun…

That’s it for this recipe. Do try it out and let me know how it turned out!!

End of Summer Bbq

Summer is almost gone, so we decided to take advantage of the warmth while it lasts. We drive out to China beach in San Francisco and had ourselves some beach bbq!

One of my friends was the non-official photographer and all picture credits belong to her!

Let’s talk about the grill first. We bought this small portable grill on Black Friday from Amazon. It’s super easy to use and cleans well. You can set it up anywhere. Just make sure that the area allows a charcoal grill first! This Black Friday, we’re going to invest in a propane grill so we can Bbq anywhere…

The food was amazing and plentiful. The stars of the picnic were definitely the Reshmi kebabs my friend got and some grilled peaches.

Reshmi kebabs are nothing but marinated chicken breasts that you can skewer and grill. Since the kebabs marinated overnight, they turned out super tender and cooked faster. I personally use this recipe for making the yogurt marinade: http://www.tasty-indian-recipes.com/kebab-recipes/reshmi-kabab-recipe

Chicken Reshmi kebabs with cilantro and mint chutney

I made a spicy green chutney to go along with the kebabs. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

cilantro 2 bunches
Mint 1 bunch
Green chili 1 (depending on how spicy you want it)
Juice of 1 lime
Salt
Ginger 1/2 inch piece
Water 3 tbsp

Method

Roughly chop cilantro, mint, green chili and ginger
Add the chopped veggies to the smallest blender container you have.
Add the water and blend smooth. You can add more water to help in blending, just make sure to add a little at a time so the chutney doesn’t become cilantro juice
Add salt and lime juice and blend to combine

Grilled portobello mushrooms and some vegetarian burgers followed the kebabs. I’ll post a recipe for the mushrooms and the patties next week!

To finish, we grilled some peaches! I just followed the recipe by Chef John from Food Wishes with minor modifications. I did not use barbecue sauce since none of us really like it and I also grilled the cut side of the peach. The peaches turned out amazing!! Here’s a link to the recipe I used: https://youtu.be/QM5No_4YKRo

After eating that much, all we did was laze around on the beach and got sun burnt in the process.. I hope you’ll give these things a try and let me know how it goes!

P.S. Don’t forget the sun screen, and make sure it’s not expired!!! :p

Baked Vegetables and Toasted Sourdough

We try to eat as healthy as possible, but weekends are cheat days. This weekend I made baked vegetables in white sauce. It’s a ‘continental’ cuisine recipe from India. I’ve never actually heard of a cuisine named ‘continental’ outside India though.

Anyway, this is an extremely popular dish and I’d been craving it for a while. I used this recipe with a few adjustments: https://m.recipes.timesofindia.com/recipes/baked-vegetables-in-white-sauce/rs52568191.cms

I used a cast iron skillet to make the sauté the vegetable and make the sauce so that I’d only need to clean one pan. A cast iron skillet is perfect since it works on the stove and in the oven! I also used low fat cheese and olive oil instead of butter…

The recipe I’ve given the link for does not say how to make the white sauce. It’s nothing more than a béchamel. I’ve included the recipe below:

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil
5 finely minced garlic cloves
2 tbsp all purpose flour
2 cups milk
1/4 cup shredded cheese
1 tsp mixes herbs
Salt and pepper according to taste

Instructions

Heat the olive oil in a cast iron skillet
Add the garlic and sauté till fragrant
Add the all purpose flour and mix
Add the milk a little at a time, whisking continuously. Make sure there are no lumps.
Heat the mixture on medium heat till it is thick.
Add salt, pepper, mixed herbs and cheese and mix till combined.

We ate toasted sourdough bread on the side. I love the citrusy and earthy taste of sourdough, but you can use any bread you want! Of course, this recipe can be eaten without any accompaniments as well… If there is one drawback this recipe has, it’s that it cannot be frozen. Since it is dairy based, it will most likely split. I like eating it, so I haven’t tried freezing it. If you do and it works, let me know!!!