Sweet and sour meat patties

I like to use minced meat in cooking because it is very versatile. That day I decided to try using my japanese hambagu recipe and tweak it to make something different. So I came up with sweet and sour meat patties! Initially I wanted to make them into meatballs but it is much faster to make patties. Haha I am such a lazy mum.

Ingredients
approx 150g minced meat  
1/4 yellow onion
some chopped spring onions
sesame seeds (garnish)
1/3 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
1 tbsp milk
1 egg
Fine black pepper
Salt 

Sauce
1 tbsp tomato sauce
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp sugar
4 tbsp Water

Recipe
1. Finely chop the onion and add into the minced meat, followed by egg, milk and panko. Season it with black pepper and salt. (I added some chopped spring onions because I happened to have them.) Use one hand to mix the mixture well.
2. Shape the meat into patties of equal sizes (or meatballs if you want).
3. Heat some oil in the pan on medium heat and place the patties into the pan. Let it cook uncovered for 3-4 minutes. When it is nicely browned, flip them over to the other side and cook till it is browned too. Remove from pan and set aside.
4. Prepare the sauce in a bowl and add the sauce directly into the same pan.
5. Let the sauce came to a boil. Adjust the taste of the sauce according to your liking i.e. more vinegar if you wish it to be more sour.
6. Return the meat patties back to the pan and let the sauce thicken and stir to allow patties to be evenly coated.
7. Transfer to the serving plate and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.


Note: the sauce just coats the meat patties nicely. If you wish to have more sauce, you will need to increase accordingly.

Stir fry minced meat and pumpkin

I prepared this dish because my dear husband is a meat lover. If I don't cook enough meat for dinner, he would ask me why I cooked so little. It happens that I had one chunk of pumpkin sitting in my fridge so I decided to combine it with minced meat. It turned out to be quite a nice combination.

Ingredients
approx 80g minced meat
1 small chunk of pumpkin
1 dried shiitake mushroom
chopped garlic
chopped shallots
white pepper
soy sauce
sesame oil

Sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp normal dark soy sauce
1 tsp sugar 

Recipe
1. Soak the dried mushroom in a bowl of water and set it aside to soften before cutting it into small cubes. Do not throw away the water. 
2. Cut the pumpkin into cubes but not too small else it will disintegrate during cooking. Marinate the minced meat with soy sauce, white pepper and sesame oil.
3. In the wok, heat up the oil and put in the chopped shallots. Let it cook for a little while and turning translucent, then add in the garlic followed by the mushroom cubes. Stir fry a little till it is fragrant.
4. Add in the minced meat. Let it cook for a little while before stir frying it to break it into smaller pieces.
5. When the minced meat is no longer pinkish, add in the pumpkin cubes. Let it for cook for a minute or two then add in the water for soaking mushroom. You can either prepare the sauce in a bowl or just add it directly into the wok. I did the latter. Test taste the sauce and adjust accordingly. Add a dash of pepper if you wish.
6. Cover the wok and let it simmer for a few minutes. Remember the longer you simmer, the softer the pumpkin cubes will be.
7. Transfer to a deep plate and garnish with chopped spring onions.