Melty Mashups to Make Dinner Fun

3 recipe combinations to make dinner fun!

Chef Matt Dean Pettit is here with fun food combinations to make dinner fun. “Essentially when you can take two of your favourite foods, and put them in one dish.”

INGREDIENTS

Butter Chicken Filling Empanadas

Empanada Dough

Cheeseburger Tacos

Optional Big Mac Sauce

METHOD

Recipe #1- Butter Chicken Filling Empanadas

  • Preheat oil in a large cooking pan over medium heat. Add butter chicken, potato, and carrots. Cover, and cook for 5 minutes. The potato should feel soft but not mashed.
  • Add in sweet corn, green peas, black pepper, and Italiano seasoning (optional). Stir to combine, then remove from heat and let it sit for 20 minutes to cool down.
  • Add flour, butter, and salt into a food processor. Pulse mix on and off until mixture forms into small pieces of dough, approximately 1 minute. Drizzle ice water into the mixture (ice water is the key here). Close the lid and continue to pulse for another 1 minute, until the dough turns into a breadcrumb consistency.
  • Take out one disc of dough at a time from the refrigerator and roll into 2 round circles, approximately 6-inches in diameter and ¼-inch thick (One will be used for top crust and one for the bottom crust).
  • Gently press one circle of dough into a 4-inch ramekin. Use a small spoon to fill the bowl with the butter chicken filling. Place the second circle over the bowl to form a lid (It should completely cover the edge of the bowl). Press down to seal the edge and remove any excess dough. Crimp the edges of the empanada and poke a few small ventilation holes on top of the pie.
  • Brush the top of the empanada generously with the egg wash and sprinkle with curry pounder. Repeat steps for remaining empanadas. 
  • Bake in 360 F oven for 30 to 35 minutes until the top is golden brown.
  • Eat warm and enjoy!

Recipe #2 – Cheeseburger Tacos

Method

  • In a small bowl, mix together the mayo, ketchup, mustard, and relish to make the sauce. Totally optional as you can also buy burger sauce or simply use your favorite condiments. 
  • Preheat a Blackstone griddle, cast iron skillet, or even regular pan to medium-high heat. 
  • Separate the raw ground beef into six equal parts and smash the beef down onto your tortillas to create an even thin layer covering the entire surface of the tortillas. Sprinkle the beef with your seasoning of choice. 
  • Lightly grease your pan or griddle with oil. The amount of oil needed will depend on the pan you are using as well as the fat content of your beef. We used about 2 tbsp on our Blackstone griddle.
  • Place the tortillas down onto your cooking surface with the BEEF SIDE DOWN and cook for approximately 2 minutes. 
  • Flip and immediately top the beef with shredded cheese. Continue cooking for 1-3 minutes or until the tortillas are crisp and the beef is cooked to your liking. The tortillas can burn easily if your griddle is too hot! Keep a close eye on them as they may be done after only a minute. 
  • Remove from the heat and add your desired toppings. Fold and eat like a taco while you savor every scrumptious bite.

Recipe #3 – Deviled Eggs Pasta Salad

Method

  • Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted water according to the instructions on the package. Once it’s cooked, drain the pasta and rinse well with cold water.
  • Meanwhile, peel the eggs, chop them into pieces and add them to a large bowl.
  • Stir in the mayo, yoghurt and Dijon mustard, toss well to combine. 
  • Add the cooked pasta to the bowl together with the celery, red onion, avocado, lemon juice, paprika, parsley and salt and pepper.
  • Mix everything well until evenly coated and adjust the seasoning to your taste.
  • Sprinkle the salad with extra paprika and serve! 

 

 

Crème Brulee

Satisfy your sweet tooth with crème brulée!

Indulge yourself with this fruit topped creamy and caramelized dessert.

METHOD

  1. Combine heavy cream and coffee beans. Seal and infuse together in the fridge overnight.
  2. The next day – Preheat oven to 300 F and heat some water in a kettle.
  3. In a saucepan, strain heavy cream, reweigh and top back up to 400 g. Combine innards of vanilla bean, and the pod.
  4. While this comes to a simmer, whisk together egg yolks, sugar, and sea salt.
  5. When the cream comes to a gentle simmer, remove the vanilla pod and slowly start to pour it into the yolk mixture while constantly whisking. Please do this slowly so not to cook the egg yolks.
  6. Pass mixture through a mesh sieve into a large pouring vessel. You may use a large glass measuring cup.
  7. Place ramekins into a larger, rimmed baking pan.
  8. Fill the pan with hot water so it reaches about ¾ – 1” up the ramekins. Fill ramekins with cream mix.
  9. To eliminate any bubbles, use blow torch very lightly over the cream mix. It will pop all the surface bubbles.
  10. Bake for 45-50 mins. Custard will be set but they will jiggle in the middle. Do not over bake as the custard will lose the creaminess we want. If the whole ramekin jiggles, leave in the oven a while longer.
  11. Remove tray from oven, and then carefully remove the ramekins. Let them cool to room temp, and then place them in the fridge overnight. You can do this process 3-4 days ahead of time.
  12. When you’re ready to serve, coat with a thick layer of icing sugar and toast with a blow torch.
  13. Top with berries and serve.