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Sunday 27 June 2010

Day 16: The Hamburger

Day 16:
Uruguay 2 South Korea 1
Ghana 2 USA 1


With it origins from Hamburg, Germany but its widespread appeal coming from America there is nothing tastier than cooking up your own burger and of course your own favourite garnish.

A quarter pounder is a little over 100g so a safe bet is to give yourself 100g of mince per burger. Making the burger itself is just a matter of combining everything in the right order. Starting with the mince and the egg yoke, when you add the egg yoke you can straight away feel the change in the texture of the meat as the egg infuses around it.

Next add your seasoning. Here I like to keep it simple – tomato ketchup, grained mustard & fresh coriander with salt & pepper. Recently I started to add one small finely chopped onion that I gently cooked in some garlic & let cool completely. All of the above 4 flavours compliment the burger perfectly.

Finally you add your breadcrumb/biscuit mixture. Here I use beschuit which is a form of Dutch rusk. You crumble in 3-4 biscuits and mix around (if you do not have this a cream cracker will also work) Here you want to remove the moist texture from the burger. 1.5 beschuit per 100g of mince is about normal ratio, but you will figure this part out the more you cook the burgers.

Serve in a toasted bun with melted cheese on top of the burger and with your choice of garnish.

Ingredients - recipe below makes 3 burgers     Cost of meal: < €3

 
300 g mince meat
1 small onion
clove of garlic
4-6 Beschuit Natural
1 egg yoke
Spoon Tomato Ketchup
Spoon Grained Mustard
Small Handful of fresh Coriander
3 Burger Buns
Cheese


Preparation
Finely chop onion & coriander


Cooking Utensils
Large bowl for mixing
Sharp knife
Chopping board
Non-stick griddle pan
Frying pan

Cooking

 
- In a frying pan lightly cook the onion & garlic until lighly softened. Leave to cool completely on a plate.
- Mix the mince meat with the egg yoke in a large mixing bowl

- Add cooked onion, coriander, ketchup, mustard together with salt & pepper (this will now bind together the burger ingredients)
- Now you want to add the beschuit biscuit – you should crumble this up completely in your hands while adding

- You want the beschuit to take away the moisture from the burger – so I would say 4-5 biscuits will be enough
 
- Make your burgers into 3 even sized balls
- Heat a frying to a medium to high heat
- Place your burger ball down onto it, pushing down to make a even sized burger
- You want to cook at a high heat for the first 45 seconds each side
 

- Now turn down to a low heat and only turn one more time each side – cook for 3-4 minutes per side…


- When nearly finished add the cheese to the burger in the pan so it melts or place under a grill
- Serve with a toasted burger bun


Serve burger with your choice of garnish, some of my favourites are:


-    Carmelised onions with a touch of balsamic vinegar
-    Carmelised onions & mushrooms
-    Onion Rings
-    Bacon
-    Fried Egg in carmelised onions




Serving Suggestion: 
- Serve with a corn on the cob with chilli butter instead of the traditional chips option
- Use Lamb mince instead of Beef if you are able to get it

Tip: 

A burger is a very large meat ball in theory...follow the above recipe and make small meatballs which you will shallow fry in sunflower oil and add to a tomato sauce and serve with pasta & parmesan cheese. Recipe for tomato sauce is here:
 



 

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