Thai Fish Burgers with Green Mango & Papaya Slaw. Homemade fluffy brioche buns, fresh lime-fish sauce green papaya slaw, grilled fish & creamy sriracha aioli.  Jump to Recipe 

Meet my favourite burger ever.

Say hello to that warm, crispy edged, fluffy brioche bun. Enriched with just a hint of butter and egg, and much lighter than a true brioche, its slight sweetness and tender crumb are the ultimate counterpoint to the sharp sweet-sour contrast of the thai green mango & papaya salad. The classic lime, fish sauce and chilli dressing is bright and fresh, supplemented with liberal handfuls of thai basil and coriander, peanuts for crunch. An aioli-sriracha sauce delivers a creamy heat, and chunks of flaking grilled fish finish it off.

You have to try it.

I can sell it some more, if you want. It is healthy – unusual in the world of burgers – packed with fresh fish and without the cheese, processed meat and fats of takeaways. It is fast – you can make the slaw as far ahead as the day before, the fish takes a max of 5-10 minutes to cook, and you can make the buns ahead too (or buy them, even). The sriracha aioli is literally a mix of sriracha and aioli. It is like the best thai/vietnamese salad encased in soft, warm brioche bun and in finger food form.

My efforts to cut down on phone usage and reliance have been proved wrong, unfortunately. Though I still remain convinced that peering at a swiftly scrolling instagram or facebook feed multiple times a day isn’t conducive to efficiency and productivity, I will no longer drive somewhere without my phone.

Last week I went to a gym class only a few kilometres away, phone-less – it was almost flat, so I left it to charge. Notifications and emails could wait, right? After the class, I got in the car to go home, and had the immediate sense that sometime wasn’t quite right. I couldn’t put my finger on it. The harsh bumping sensation and slight tilt of the dashboard as I tried to pull out quickly answered the question – it was a flat tyre. Absolutely pancake flat, in fact.

Now, I don’t know much about cars. I know it is apparently a life skill, but I have never seen a tyre changed in my life. The next realisation was that lacking my phone, I couldn’t contact anybody. At all. I managed to get back to the gym and call the roadside service, but they were at least another hour away. In the meantime, I was meant to be meeting a friend to go to uni, my lectures started in 45 minutes, and my phone sat helplessly on my desk, utterly useless to me and buzzing frequently with missed calls and texts from my housemates. I realised I didn’t even know their phone numbers or emails – they were all stored on my phone too. Being so completely stuck is not a familiar feeling!

It reminded me of how we are constantly connected to each other and the world in a way that no other generation has been before. I just can’t imagine going to look up a question in the encyclopedia, or not being able to get instantaneous directions to wherever I’m going. Being phoneless or wifi-less almost inspires a vague sense of panic, the disorientating sensation that something is not quite right whenever that device is not in the near vicinity. It is by most of our sides 24/7, scrolled through before bed and on waking up, and picked up at any moment of slight boredom or procrastination. I know I’m not the only one – in a Time Magazine survey of 5000 people, 84% said they could not go a single day without their cellphones.

Crazy, right?

In the meantime, use your phones to get the recipe for these Thai fish burgers with green mango & papaya slaw. They’re worth it.

Cooks Notes:

• The salad can be made up to 1 day ahead, and should ideally be made at least 4 hours ahead of time to allow the flavours to combine. Just whiz up the dressing, julienne the mango & papaya, toss it together and store covered in the fridge.
• The brioche buns are worth a try and not hard (but if you are short on time, feel free to buy some!).   Any extras can easily be wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen for another burger night. Make them when you have an afternoon at home – the timetable is:
  • Make dough, knead (15 min)
  • Rest for 1-2 hours in bowl
  • Divide, shape into balls (10 minutes)
  • Rest for 1 hour
  • Bake 15-20 minutes.

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Creamy coconut chia pudding, lightly flavoured with vanilla, maple & lemon, topped with mango, passionfruit, strawberries, pomegranate and macadamias.  Jump to Recipe 

Weeow, we made it to 2016! Sounds so far into the 21st century, doesn’t it? Scary!

I wish I could tell you I had an epic New Years Eve last night, saw fireworks at a music festival or made a huge celebratory dinner and these salted caramel brownies to see out the last of 2015… but I didn’t. My New Years was as boring as they come.

It started with a freezer scare. I was home alone for a few days before joining the rest of my family on holiday, and got back from work on the 30th to an odd smell in the pantry – on investigation, my stomach dropped when I realised the freezer door had been left slightly ajar – by myself, nearly 24 hours earlier. Although most of the meat seemed to still be frozen, all the ice cream was liquid, and I didn’t want to leave the door any open longer to check out all the drawers. That evening it didn’t seem to have gotten any colder, the smell was stronger, and growing more and more concerned (a solo clean out of a defrosting freezer being NOT how I had pictured New Years Eve, as well as the utter embarrasment of having destroyed a freezer full of food) I added a little 1cm full plastic cup of water to the top shelf as a quick check to see if it would freeze.

Skip to 430am on New Years Eve: the meaty, off smell filling the pantry was stronger than ever, the cup of water was still liquid, and sticking around to try and salvage things would result in being late for work. While I spent the morning at work kicking myself and dreading the clean-up, Mum organised a repairman to visit in the afternoon, and neighbours came past to check it out.

IT WAS THE ONIONS. The smell, I mean. The freezer was working again (my cup having iced over – it had just struggled to cool down the overly full contents), all the meat was frozen, and it was a bag of rotting onions a couple of metres away that had caused the decaying meat scent that had begun wafting through the kitchen. Relieved was an understatement.

I landed in Gisborne at 9pm hungry, tired, cold and over life in general – that stage where you feel like just about anything could bring on tears, your eyes start drifting shut every few minutes and you keep desperately trying to shake yourself awake. Vague thoughts of heading to Rhythm and Vines (one of the main New Years music festivals in NZ) were completely out the window, needless to say.

So New Years was a non-event – I hope yours was much better!! And if I have one word of advice – ALWAYS MAKE SURE THE FREEZER DOOR IS COMPLETELY SHUT.

But for a much more satisfying New Years Day, and a healthier start to 2016 than many of the other recipes around here, this is my favourite coconut chia pudding recipe. Lightly flavoured with lemon, maple and vanilla, just stir it together the night before you want it, then top the creamy, coconutty chia with anything you like – I love the tropical combination of mango, passionfruit, berries, roasted macadamias and pomegranate. Chia seeds are packed with nutrients (full of protein, omega-3 fatty acids and lots more- google it for your choice of hundreds of articles proclaiming their benefits!), are really filling and the texture isn’t actually that strange. Once they have been soaked over night they don’t get stuck in your teeth either.

I am far from a health-nut who espouses coconut oil in baking, or unprocessed sugars and spelt flour (though it probably wouldn’t hurt!), but chia pudding does NOT sacrifice taste. Paired with mango, tangy passionfruit syrup and those bright pops of pomegranate, it feeds my sweet tooth without adding to the cups of processed sugar consumed over Christmas time. Try it for a 10-minute, fuss-free 2016 holiday brunch, or a breakfast on the go if you are still working!

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Vietnamese grilled chicken burgers – green mango slaw, avocado, and crispy edged grilled chicken on toasted ciabatta buns.  Jump to Recipe 

Healthy winter burgers.

Yes, you read that correctly. Right now, that statement may seem a little dubious, with burgers being pretty strongly associated either with fried fat, processed meat and late night Macca’s trips or with summer barbecues and warm evenings with build-your-own burger construction lines – but these burgers are here to prove that wrong.

So, I present: Vietnamese Grilled Chicken Burgers with Slaw. Delicately constructed with toasted ciabatta buns, a layer of avocado, heapings of mango-capsicum-mint-coriander-basil-cabbage vietnamese slaw and slices of the easiest, amazingly tender grilled chicken, this is a winner. And yes, it is winter. And yes, you can still make these burgers. They are so NOT a summer-only deal. (In saying this, for all you lucky people in the Northern hemisphere going into summer: please make these too – also still perfect for a summer barbecue.)

PLUS they are healthy – burgers do tend to have a bad rep in that department. Without cheese, heavy mayo, sugary tomato sauce, or anything fried at all, these Vietnamese inspired burgers are just full of colourful veges, the healthy fats of avocado, and the good quality protein of grilled chicken thighs. Don’t take that to mean the flavour can’t pack a punch, however – the intensity of fish sauce, sharp fresh tones of coriander and mint, tangy lime and fiery chili, balanced by the sweet notes in the chicken, mango and smooth, rich avocado results in complex layers of texture and flavour.

Also vital to these Vietnamese burgers is that they are quick: exactly what you need on days when you get home from work late, or have just been flat-out with uni, or, like me, have had minimal sleep the night before and are struggling to muster energy to cook dinner. Last night was our college ball: a great night in Southbank which has left me a little bleary-eyed and ready to hop back into bed (and it is only 10am). The only pain was that it was freezing cold and raining (thank you, Melbourne) but there was no cloakroom at the venue, making for a particularly unpleasant trip there and back (not to mention the stress over my straightened hair – it was the first time I had bothered to straighten it in almost two years, so I was not keen for it to frizz up before we even got there!!). Anyway, I survived, and so did my hair, but if at home, I think I would head straight for this burger recipe for dinner. So easy, but also won’t leave you in a sugar-fat induced food coma. (Although, to be perfectly honest, I would probably follow it up with a big hunk of brownie or chocolate self-saucing pudding with ice cream….my self-control does not extend quite that far!).

Anyway, back to this recipe: I first constructed them in the easter holidays, inspired by Vietnamese banh mi and needing quick and easy holiday-house recipes, and just KNOW that they will be a staple for me in future. Winter, summer, autumn or spring, for a crowd or just for a few, both impressive and simple, these colourful grilled chicken burgers will always hit the spot.

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Vietnamese green mango salad with barbecued chicken – a bright, zesty, crunchy slaw and spicy turmeric grilled chicken. Great served with steamed rice.  Jump to Recipe 

It is currently 6:45am as I sit at my desk typing this blog post. I ran out of time earlier this week, with university work going full steam ahead though the gastrointestinal system, and with the weekend taken up, this morning was my only option. Today, three hours of lectures start at 9am, followed by a 3.5 hour PBL (problem-based learning) discussion session. Our college floor retreat starts tonight, so as soon as uni finishes I am road-tripping with four others from my floor, in my cute little car, down to Torquay for the night.  Needless to say, I will be keeping this short and let the photos do the talking!

This green mango salad is definitely a family favourite – we probably had it at least once a week over the summer, and my brothers love it as well. It is adapted from a Nadia Lim recipe, while the chicken and the salad dressing are recipes from Ms Vy’s ‘Taste Vietnam’, the Morning Glory Cookbook – one we bought in Vietnam 5 years ago after loving a cooking class we went to at the Morning Glory Cooking School in Hoi An. Run by Ms. Vy, we visited the daily markets (where the Vietnamese ordinarily go before every meal to ensure food is as fresh as possible), and then made all our own food as Ms Vy demonstrated up the front. It was the starting point for my love of the fresh, sharp flavours of Vietnamese food which I have sought out at various restaurants since. Part of the difficulty in making authentic vietnamese in NZ is the lack of some ingredients: though some you can find at the Asian markets, like fresh turmeric and crispy fried shallots, many, like banana-flower, I have never seen sold. Below is a shot of the Hoi An Markets from when we were in Vietnamese- the freshness and range of greens was incredible!

Though it is a ‘green mango’ salad, I can hardly ever find truly green mango in Auckland, so tend to use slightly underripe mango from the fruit & vege shop (see the colour of the mango in the photos). I actually prefer the sweetness of it being slightly more ripe, to contrast with the herbs and lime-fish sauce dressing, but if you prefer the crunch and tang of green mango that would work well too. In terms of slicing the mango, I use a special mango slicer that we were given at the cooking school in Vietnam, but you could mimic it by cutting through the mango longitudinally at even 1-2cm intervals, then using a thick vegetable peeler to cut slices off. If your mango is firm enough, you could also try using a julienne peeler, or simply use a knife to cut slices and then cut those into thinner strips.

The chicken is some of the best barbecued chicken I have ever had so please don’t let the ingredient list scare you – it actually doesn’t take long to mix together. As for the salad, the contrasting flavours and textures of the mango and fresh, sharp mint, vietnamese mint, and coriander with the sesame seeds, peanuts and crispy fried shallots, make it light and healthy but absolutely addictively good.

The herbs are essential to the salad: coriander and mint are easy to find, but Vietnamese mint could be 
a bit trickier – you may have to visit a specialty store or markets to find it. It is also very easy to grow, which is a much cheaper and easier option if you have room!

We normally serve this meal with steamed rice on the side.

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