minced meat patty with Mediterranean sauce

[Art Blade]

just returned from a nice dinner experiment.

Rather than frying what I did you could use a grill.

Prepare a big patty of minced meat or tartar (I used the cheaper ground beef aka minced meat) with a bit of salt and coarsely ground fresh black pepper and fry it.

Meanwhile, dice 1/4 onion and 1 garlic clove and some fresh chopped rosemary. Put it with some olive oil in a separate frying pan, let it simmer at low to medium temperature, add a slice of Cheddar on top and let it melt, add a shot of Madeira. Scrape the stuff towards the centre and spread a sliced tomato around the centre so they have full contact with the pan, let it simmer a bit more with lid on.

Then serve the patty and top it with the content of the other pan.

Heaven! :)

[PZ]

Sounds very simple and tasty!

[Art Blade]

thanks, I was experimenting. :)

I know a simple rule: keep it simple. And another rule: use fresh ingredients. :-D

Important is to find the right amount of few ingredients so they all can be tasted in the mix. rosemary needs to be treated carefully not to turn it into a bitter taste and don't use too little because its taste will kind of disappear, so be generous with fresh rosemary. I like Madeira basically for its sweetness and flavour so probably a tasty sugar such as some wet brown cane sugar or honey could be used instead. Fried onions always add a nice flavour, so does garlic.. but use it sparsely :-D Tomato is sour so it needs a sweet counterpart. Mashed carrots can be used to neutralise the acid and they'll add some sweetness but that is more for sauces such as Bolognese. Olive oil always adds a nice flavour and its great for frying because it can stand high temperatures.

When I had finished eating and walked around in my place, it smelled like in a Mediterranean restaurant :-D

[PZ]

Sounds like you know how to cook, AB!  :-X

[Art Blade]

Thank you my friend, I very much hope so and I do try very hard to get the best result possible within my abilities. That requires practice. So one simple way to good results is to specialise rather than to diversify. Invent or learn just a few dishes, keep them simple but master those like no one else does. Works for me :-()

Here a tip what I do sometimes to avoid having to eat whole cloves of garlic, chew on twigs of rosemary or eat loads of onion dice yet getting all of the flavour onto the meat:

Like described above, cook a good portion of chopped and diced onion, garlic and entire twigs of rosemary (just rip a few small twigs off a rosemary bush) in a little olive oil, just don't cook it too hot so nothing burns. When you think the mix looks and smells good enough for you, add a shot of Madeira and let it simmer some more so the Madeira gets reduced just enough to get some creamy texture of olive oil and Madeira and the juices of those onions, garlic and rosemary and stir it all the time so it doesn't burn. You should end up with a pile of chopped stuff in a semi-liquid fluid, a bit creamy perhaps. You may add a little flour to make it a bit thicker if it's too liquid.

Put that stuff on your plate.

Now.. You did prepare a nice juicy steak, didn't you? :) Cut off a bite and press it into that stuff, rub it on a rosemary twig and NOW put it in your mouth. Rinse and repeat.

An explosion of tastes in your mouth, sweet (the Madeira) yet fresh, vivid, sticking to your juicy bite of steak.. yet you didn't have to eat that pile of compost there  :-D

[PZ]

Yum yum, that sounds delicious!  :-X