build your own burger

ingredients:
1/4 lb ground beef (not too lean, i think 20% fat?)
1 burger bun
1 egg
1 slice of bacon
1 slice of large tomato
1 slice of onion
1/4 ripen avocado slices
(other adding options: sliced portobello mushroom, shreds of bell pepper, slice of american or cheddar cheese, mustard, ketchup, etc)

- score avocado along the long way up to the pit, twist the 2 halves with your hand and separate them. with a heavier knife (like cleaver or chopping knife), hit the pit so the knife gets a little stuck on the pit, twist the knife and lift the pit out. with a smaller knife (like steak knife), slide it around between the meat and the shell, then remove/tear the shell away from the meat.
- cut onion at the cross section so that we get rings, cut all the veges into 1-2mm slices.
- toast the bun, with inside down to get grill mark, this make the bun stronger.
- make patty out of the ground meat with hand, don't squeezes too hard or pack the meat too tight, make it as big/wide as you can, best if as wide as the bun, but not so thin that it will fall a part, also make sure the middle of the patty is flat or lower, not bulged.
- heat up griddle, put down the bacon first, so we can use bacon fat to grease the pan.
- put the burger patty down, griddle should be in high or medium high heat, cook patty for few minute, and flip over. cook until you don't see any more juice or blood coming out from center. poke it with a fork to check the center, if you aren't sure.
- also flip the bacon and fold it/shape it so it will fit on the bun.
- grill onion and other veges, such as mushroom and bell pepper, but not avocado or tomato. don't over cook the veges, remove it after its cooked. better under cooked then over cooked.
- on a flat grill, grease pan with a little bit of oil or butter. crack the egg on it, try not to break the yolk. use spatula to prevent egg white and yolk from spreading too much, try to keep egg to size of the bun. once egg white forms shape, break the yolk and spread it over white, then flip it over and cook it thru. alternatively, scramble it before cooking, but it would be harder to keep it in shape. you can also try cooking egg on griddle, doable, but difficult to scope up. fry egg without grease does not taste very good.
- stack your burger. suggested stacking order: bottom bun, burger, [ketchup,] bacon, [cheese,] egg, onion, [mushroom and grilled veges], tomato, avocado, top bun.

burger by definition is not healthy, have to give up something for the taste =p

Beef & vege stir fry

Ingredients:
half pound of beef
half eggplant
2 stalks of bok choy
(either or both vege)
1 garlic chunk
1 stalk of scallion (white half)
House of Tsang Szechuan Spicy Stir Fry Sauce (or any other soy sauce based stir fry sauce)

Cut beef into bite size, cut eggplant into bite size wedges, wash and split up each leaves of bok choy, slice garlic, cut scallion into 2cm pieces (as oppose to the usual dicing of green half).

Heat up wok or frying pan with oil. Throw in garlic and scallion, stir alittle, you should smell the aroma from garlic and scallion. Throw in beef, stir til half cooked. Throw in vege, stir some more and cover the pot. Check and stir occasionally til beef is fully cooked, shouldn’t take long.

marinated beef stew

Top flat iron steak, turnip, onion, chicken broth, marinating spice pouch, soy sauce, brown suger, anise, garlic, ginger, "five spice powder", sweet noodle sauce.

First cut steak and (shaved) turnip into even sized cubes.

Sprinkle five spice powder on the beef cubes and stir fry on stove (bigger the fire the better). Cook it just enough so all sides are brown but the insides are still raw.

stir fry onion with the oil the steak produces until it's brown.

boil the chicken broth and stir in all the ingredients (beef, turnip, onion, ginger, garlic), add in the spice pouch, soy sauce, suger, anice, and sweet noodle sauce, and let it boil in medium heat for 30 minutes, then covered with the stove off for another 30minutes.

beef curry

2 cups of rice 1 cube of curry mix (S&B golden curry) 1/2lb of beef 1 potato some baby carrots

cook rice separately. peel potato, cut everything into bite size. in a pot, heat up 1 tsp of oil, throw in everything, toss for a little bit until beef is mostly cooked. add 1 to 2 cups of water, depends on how much and how runny you want the curry sauce to be. add the curry cube, stir every once in a while, until everything is nice and gooie.

szechuan beef

green giant - stir fry szechuan 2-3 cups of rice 1/2 - 1lb beef

cook the rice in rice cooker, cook the stir fry as directed on the packet. cooking beef can be tricky, poke it with fork to make sure the inside is cooked.

rice: clean the rice in running water, stir a little, drain. add 1.5 cup of water for every cup of rice, usually water level should be 1/2 inch above the rice. it's better to have too little water and add more later than to have too much water and end up with mushie rice.

meat: you can use any meat, but i prefer flank. you can store meat in freezer for few months, as long as you don't keep refreezing and defrosting it. cut the meat up into serving size blocks, put them in freezer bags and freeze them separately, so that you never have to defrost more than what you need. meat is easier to cut if it's half frozen, so don't defrost all the way.

stir fry: cut meat into bite size. in a pot or frying pan, heat up one tsp of oil (vege, corolla, peanut etc), throw in meat, stir a little, add the sauce from packet, throw in vege, stir some more, you can cover the pot to cook faster. add in the nuts when it's almost done, stir few more times. and ready to dish!