Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Chinese Hamburger

   I enjoy cooking, especially for my friends & family. I cook at least one or two family meals a week. I always try to alter recipes, mixes,, what have you to put my own spin on them and hopefully improve the taste. I often get remarks like, "Oh that sounds so good." or " How do you make that?" and the like. Therefore I have decided, since I have this spiffy new bloggy thing, that I will post the recipes for what I cook on here. So anytime I cook something I haven't posted the recipe for yet I will do my best to share it here. With that in mind here is the first recipe of what should be many to come.

Chinese Hamburger

2 pounds of Ground Beef
3 cups of Minute Rice
3 beef bouillon cubes
1 8 oz can of sliced water chestnuts
1 10.75 oz can of cream of mushroom soup
1 10.75 oz can of cream of celery soup

1 12oz bag of Chow Mein noodles (the short crunchy kind)
Soy Sauce
Seasonings (I use sea salt, garlic powder, black pepper, oregeno & parsley flakes)

+ Get your Minute Rice cooking. I like to use double the water the directions call for and 1 bouillon cube per cup of rice. Then you can pop your (microwave safe) bowl into the microwave for 12 minutes (pending on the power of your model). Drain in a colander and your done.

+ While the rice is in the microwave get your ground beef working. You just need to break it up thoroughly and  brown it. Season the beef to taste. I use the Seasonings mentioned above along with about 3 tablespoons of soy sauce. Make sure to drain the fat once its browned. I like to keep just a little of the fat but not much, maybe 2 or 3 tablespoons worth. No reason to measure just save a bit for extra flavor.

+ While the rice is draining put both cans of soup and the water chestnuts into a large pot (big enough to hold and mix everything) and warm over medium heat on the stove. I like to use the same glass pot I used for the rice to save on washing up later and so the pot is still nice and hot still from cooking the rice.

+ Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

+ Once the celery, mushroom sauce is warmed through take it off the heat. Mix in the rice and about 4 tablespoons of soy sauce (The soy sauce is always to taste. Some like it saltier. Some can't take as much salt. So do what you like.). Then dump in the ground beef and about 2/3rds of the chow mein noodles and mix  it all together.

+ Put the entire mixture into a 13 x 9 inch baking dish. I like to spray a little Pam Cooking spray first just to be sure nothing sticks. Make sure to smooth it all out as evenly as possible. Next dump the last of the chow mein noodles on top making sure then are evenly distributed across the top like a crust. Sprinkle a few dashes of soy sauce across the top (Just a bit to wet the noodles but not too much. You don't want to end up over seasoning the whole dish.)

+ Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Since everything is cooked we aren't trying to do anything here but dry out a little of the moisture and reduce the flavors down.

+ Remove from the oven (Making sure to turn in off. Safety first!)  and serve. This recipe will feed 8 people easily as a stand alone meal. At 8 equal servings this recipe has about 685 calories per serving.

*************

I hope you enjoyed this recipe. If you cook this I'd love to hear what you thought. Thanks for stopping by and have an awesome day!

No comments:

Post a Comment