The Efx3 Recipe Collection

500g lean steak, cut into chunks

1 yellow pepper, chopped

1 medium to lge onion, chopped

2 teaspoons wholegrain mustard

1 slice white bread, crusts removed

pinch of salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper (or seasoning to taste)

method.

blitz everything in a food processor until very fine, shape into around 8 burgers, depending on how thick you like them, then chill for at least 30 mins.

grill under a hot grill for a few minutes on eavh side untill cooked through, again depending on how thick you like them, and according to taste.

Serve in buns with salad and mayo

Here is one for Hummus:
Hummus is a very popular dish all over the Mediterranean Basin and Middle Eastern region made out of chickpeas (hummus in Arabic). Other ingredients are tahini (sesame paste), olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and salt.

Ingredients:

• 16 oz of soaked and boiled chickpeas or garbanzo beans
• 2 fluid ounces of the liquid from boiling the chickpeas
• 3-5 tablespoons of natural lemon juice
• 1 ½ -2 tablespoons of tahini
• 2-3 crushed cloves garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of virgin olive oil

Some people add red pepper powder to the mixture. Others, just sprinkle it later on the dish.

Process:

Soak about 3 ounces of chickpeas during a minimum of 12 hours. Boil them and set aside from boiler. Keep the water. Combine the chickpeas with the rest of the ingredients in blender. Add 2 fluid ounces (about ¼ of cup) of water from chickpeas. Blend for 3-5 minutes on low speed until is properly mixed and get a smooth consistency.

Place in a dish, forming a type of basin with hummus, with a shallow well in the center.

Add a small amount (1-2 tablespoons) of virgin olive oil in the center of the dish. Sprinkle some red pepper and garnish with parsley (both optional). If you want a low calories hummus, don’t add olive oil and reduce the amount of it you put in the food processor

Serve accompanied with warm or toasted pita bread.

Calories of a cup (8 fluid ounces or 250 grams) of hummus: from 350Kcal (low fat) to 500 Kcal. It is a rather rich food.

Hummus is very healthy. It lowers bad cholesterol, due to the cheakpeas. It is very caloric and should be eaten moderately.

Stupidly quick ‘n’ easy. No pics – they were gone too fast!

Base Ingredients:

2 cups self-raising flour
1 cup milk
2 tbsp cream
(If the milk / cream is sour, even better – it may sound icky but it makes the scones taste nicer )

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: roughly 20 minutes at 200C

Method:

• Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl until it makes a thick, sticky batter. If it’s too dry, add a little milk; too wet, add a little flour.
• Spoon blobs onto a greased baking tray. Should make 6 in total. Bake until the tops begin turning golden.

The good thing about this mix is you can add anything you want to the base ingredients. However if you’re putting something ‘heavy’ in, add a 1/4 tsp of baking powder too.

Last night I made them with 1/2 a small grated onion, some thyme and rosemary, and had one of those just now warmed with melted Camembert and plum jam on top – delicious!

This morning I used the same base mix and added about 1/4 cup of sugar and 2 tbsp of maple syrup (as well as the 1/4 tsp baking powder), and we had those for breakfast with butter and honey. Yum!

Serves 2 as a snack

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato
Sunflower oil for frying (approx. 1 inch in a pan)
1 cup ice-cold water
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg

Preparation: 5 minutes for the batter, a few minutes to chop the potato
Cooking: 3 minutes per ‘batch’

Method:

• Heat the oil in a pan. Meanwhile, slice the sweet potato (you can leave the skin on, it’s tasty) either into long strips or into circles, about 5mm thickness.
• Whisk an egg in a bowl. Pour in the water (as cold as you can get it), and then sieve the flour over the top. I also added a pinch of cajun spice mix to flavour the batter a bit, but it’s not essential.
• When the oil is hot enough (you can test by dropping a pea-sized blob of batter into it and seeing if it fizzles), dip the potato slices into the batter to coat them and drop them gently into the oil. Don’t overcrowd the pan – you can fry them in batches.
• Fry for about 3 minutes, remove from the pan, set aside (you can put them on kitchen paper to drain the excess oil if you want to) and fry the next batch.

We were starving so we ate them pretty much as they were coming out of the pan. Very tasty They’d also be good with some sweet chili sauce.

Something I cook often, especially when I’m lazy (which is very often). A great one bowl snack,  party dip or picnic dish. Can be served with crusty bread, corn chips or poured on fresh vegetable filled tacos.

Ingredients:

half a head of garlic (use less/more depending on your love of garlic) – chopped roughly
one large onion – chopped roughly
1 – 2 tbsp meat curry powder mix (or one/two teaspoons each of  these powdered spices – cumin, turmeric, chilli, fennel) (or your favourite chilli mix)
500-750grams of minced beef (or chicken/turkey, if you like)
1/2 cup stock
8 tbsps tomato paste (more if you prefer)
half a 300ml can of black beans
one 175ml can of sweetcorn niblets
as much cheese sauce or grated cheese you like
Optional: chopped peppers, zuchinni, tomatoes, etc
a few tbsps of your favourite vegetable oil
salt, sugar, pepper to taste

Preparation time:
How ever long it takes to defrost the mince meat, chop the garlic and onions and open the cans

Cooking time:
30 minutes on medium heat

Method:

1) In a deep saucepan, saute the garlic and onions till browned and fragrant. Add in the spices and let it fry for a bit (10-15seconds) to release the flavours. Add in the mince meat, stir and let it brown.

2) Pour in the stock and add the tomato paste. Stir well and let it simmer till sauce thickens.

3) Add all the beans/corn/vegetables in, let cook if necessary till they reach your desired tenderness.

4) Add in the cheese. Mix it well or until the cheese is melted (if using grated cheese). Season with salt/pepper/sugar to taste.

I’ll try to post my recipe for homemade cheese sauce that you could use in this recipe.