Beef-asparagus patties

I made some rice with asparagus to accompany chicken thigh for school lunch from Costco-s frozen asparagus but the bottom end of the asparagus was too fibrous for anyone's liking. Well, at least some of them.
For "safety", eg not to have the school lunch returned uneaten, I ended up chopping of the bottom third, but really didn't feel like throwing it away. I decided they'll go into some patties, especially that I already had minced beef at home.
After school I manually picked out the "bad" ones, they looked more yellow than the rest, and chopped them into very small, max 1/2 inch pieces, well, most of it.
It all weight about 90g..

Ingredients (serves 4)
300g lean minced beef 
about 200 g dry-ish bread (stone hard my take long to soften, but works, too) soaked in water and lightly squeezed
90-100 g asparagus, boiled and chopped
2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
1 egg
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt (adjust the salt to your liking)
pinch of minced chili, absolutely optional
avocado oil for frying

Serving
Basmati rice, in my case, but would go well with the potato salad, or most of potato side dishes really.


I washed and boiled the Basmati rice. How to do it.. follow the instruction on the packaging, I might add a short post later. (It takes 15-20 minutes starting with washing until it is cooked).
While the rice is cooking soak the bread, chop the asparagus, chop the garlic, and the parsley. 
Place the meat in a medium sized bowl. 
Squeeze most of the water out from the bread, add it to the meat, add the chopped asparagus, parsley, salt, pepper, mixed until evenly combined, and at the end mix in the egg.

Add about a generous quarter inch of avocado oil in a frying pan, and heat the oil. Reduce the heat back slightly, and form about 80-90g patties adding them straight to the pan. Mine were about 1.5 cm, or 1/2 inch thick.

Fry them about 3 minutes each side, or 4 if you like them more well done. They should be slightly springy when done.
Remove from the pan, on a paper towel lined plate, and serve while hot.
I offered soy sauce on the side with the rice as my family is big fun of it, but it is up to you. Potato dishes definitely don't need soy sauce.
It would definitely go very well with a mustard sauce, I'll come up with some variations next.

Gluten free pannukakku - old fashioned milk pie

Ingredients 

Milk pie/porridge base

1 dl porridge rice (about 0.5 cup)
3 dl water (1.3 cup)
5 dl milk (2.1)

Pie base

2½ dl heavy whipping cream
½ dl almond flour (blanched)
3 eggs

3 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cardamom seeds (minced)
½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of cinnamon (optional)

Serve with 

Vanilla ice cream

berry jam (raspberry, strawberry or mixed berries) or you can go with fresh berries

Preparation steps

Step 1: prepare the porridge base. 

In a pot add the water and the well rinsed rice, and boil until the water evaporates and the porridge thickens, about 10 minutes. Add the milk, and boil for an additional 40 minutes, mixing occasionally.

Let the porridge cool.

Step 2

Preheat the oven to 200C, 400 F.

Lightly mix the eggs with the sugar, add the almond flour, vanilla extract, cardamom, salt, and the porridge base until the cooled porridge base.

Pour the mixture into a 10x16, at least 2 inch deep pan. (I add a sheet of parchment paper to make sure I don't have to scrape the pie out but rather it will lift easily.

Bake the mixture for 30 minutes, or until it feels jelly-ish to light shaking, and the top gets a lovey golden color. If the top browns too fast, throw a foil to the top to protect it from burning, and let it thcicken.

Let is cool, cut into squares, and serve as soon as it reaches room temperature with your favorite toppings.

Bon appétit!