Monday 4 February 2013

Oriental inspired chicken burgers and crispy noodle salad

I won't at all take the credit for this salad, my sister-in-law fed it to Big'Un when she went to Singapore last year, and she raved about it.  It was a hit with our lovely friend who came to tea and supper yesterday, and the Littl'Un loved it too, even though I was worried it might be too spicy for her.
The burgers were a hit with everyone, and Tiny ate more than Littl'Un, which was a great surprise!

I was given money for my big birthday this weekend, so I treated myself to a couple of new kitchen gadgets I'd been hankering after, so this meal was partly an excuse to play with them, to be honest!

Firstly I minced up a pack of chicken breasts (I had bought them in a multi-meat discount purchase, 3 for £10 or similar) and then I added in some shallots and spring onions (if I'd had more spring onions I would have just used those) and whizzed them up together. For this I used the SliceSy attachment for my Bamix, and it was amazing, I did cut each breast in half  and only processed 2 at a time, because I wasn't certain how it would cope, but I needn't have worried, I had perfect mince in seconds.

I enjoyed the lifting plate design to empty the SliceSy, and put the meat and onions into a pyrex bowl.  The blades really are sharp, I managed to cut my finger when really carefully drying the chopping blade! The kids luckily ignored my colourful language!  I'm glad it comes with a blade guard for storage.

I then added 2 tbs cornflour, 1 tbs dark soy sauce and 1 tbs kikkoman soy sauce and 1 tbs shao xing rice wine and mixed really well with a spoon.  I left this to marinade a little while I made the salad.

Using the shredding attachment on my Bosch Mixer, I very easily shredded up a mini white cabbage and 3 large carrots. My Sis-In-Law also suggests using mushrooms, red cabbage and spring onions too, but I didn't have them to hand, and it was still delicious.  I put about a third of the carrot/cabbage away in the fridge to make coleslaw later in the week, and put the rest in a salad bowl.  I called in Big'Un and made her smash up a pack of noodles, the kind that has a sachet of soup base or seasoning, I used this one which is actually marketed as to be eaten dry as a snack, but any would work the same.

The smashed up noodles were then emptied out into the veggies, and mixed in, and the sachet was opened and put in a small jug.  I then added olive oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, sugar and pepper to the seasoning to make a dressing.  This is then poured over the salad shortly before serving.  Not so long that it makes the noodles (or doondles as our household calls them) soggy, but long enough for the flavour to soak in.  Mix well and garnish with toasted almonds and/or sesame seeds.

While Big'Un was smashing out her troubles, I got on with frying the burgers.  I used 2 metal spoons to dollop and flatten portions of mix into a preheated oiled frying pan, turning after a few minutes.  I like these patties to be thin so they cook well but try not to dry them out.

I served this all with pitta pockets.  Some people stuffed salad in with their patties, others kept the salad for separate eating, some did both!

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