Creativity - Cooking lesson

Today i made chicken patties with rosemary and pancetta. It's a recipe that is not hard to make, and can make a lot of patties all at once, so it's good for a lunch the next day as well, etc.

First i peeled the onion and chopped it finely (i've finally learnt how to do that from all my salads!), then peeled two garlic cloves and chopped them finely as well. I then heated a non-stick frying pan, and put a thick slice of butter in there (in place of olive oil) and then dropped the onion and garlic in to soften. Once they were all a honey colour, i took the little cubes of pancetta (100g) and stirred them in. I then took the three sprigs of rosemary, and stripped the leaves from the stalks (apparently the stalks have no flavour and therefore contribute nothing to the overall deliciousness of the meal), before adding them into the mixture. I then let this cook for a few minutes until the pancetta is nice and coloured. Next, i mixed the minced chicken (450g) into the mixture, before seasoning quite generously with pepper and a little salt (my mom mentioned that i shouldn't put too much salt, as the pancetta already contributes to the seasoning).

Before doing anything else i had to preheat the oven to 190*C, to save some time. Next, the patties were ready to be made. I took the mixture and shaped it into six nicely sized burgers, depending on how much of the mixture was made (more mixture = more/bigger patties). I then had some time to just relax, as they need to settle for about half an hour. I wrote half of this blog post in that time, just because it was still fresh on my mind.

Next i took the onion pan that was used before and cleaned it a bit, then put it onto the stove to get it hot. I added some olive oil and added the patties. It didn't take long to brown both sides (my mom was watching over me here, as she wanted to make sure i didn't burn it; it really didn't take long at all), only about three minutes per side. Once done, i transferred every patty to an oven dish. Once nicely arranged i poured in the chicken stock (250ml made from chicken bones by my mom on the weekend) and then baked it for about another half an hour. I knew they were done when they were sizzling nicely, and the stock was bubbling.

I also made some rice in a rice cooker at the same time to go with the patties. Once plated up, i poured the stock over the rice to add some flavour to it. My mom helped by making some brussel sprouts to go with it (i didn't really want to learn, as i'm not a big fan, though i did eat them). On top of all of this, i made a nice salad to go with it (lettuce, tomatoes, onions, avocado from a tree in my garden).