Butter Burgers

BBQ season well and truly on us it’s time to get the covers off, clean up the winters neglect and get grilling. I love getting a few burger patties on the grill, don’t have to worry about smoking the house out and you get a nice char only really achievable on a BBQ, even better if you have a charcoal grill. I like to keep the patties quite simple, salt, pepper and good beef, don’t knead it to much but gently shape it so it’s just holding together. To really gild the lily I’ve take to folding in grated frozen smoked butter, it adds a great flavour to the burger and of course makes it extra luxurious too.

Mac and Cheese Sliders

Mac and Cheese isn’t really considered healthy, and well it is pretty much starch with starch with cheese, so not really helping out with the 5+ a day vegetable intake that is recommended. So why not gild the lily and coat patties of Mac & Cheese in some tasty potato starch (instant mash potato), fry the little cheese pasta goodness and slide it into a soft bun with some hot sauce and lettuce. Why not indeed, a total carb overload, bread, pasta, flour based sauce, not at all bad for you, well not your taste buds anyway.

Macaroni
Cook to the packets instructions, I prefer the small elbow to the large. Take care not to overcook. Strain and dump into a large bowl. I think I used about 300 grams of pasta.

Streaky bacon
Slice up into little lardons and place in a hot oven until the fat has started to render out and crisp up around the edges, don’t make it too crispy otherwise you’ll have little bacon bullets in your pasta. Tip the bacon, fat and all, on top of the strained pasta and stir through.

Cheese Sauce
750 ml milk (whole milk please)
Parsley
Bay Leaf
Thyme
Peppercorns
Onion (peeled and quartered)

Place all of the ingredients in a pot and put over a low heat, allow it to gently simmer for ten minutes or so, be careful not to scald the milk. Strain into a jug for easy pouring.

Over a medium heat melt 3 tablespoons of butter and then stir in 3 heaped tablespoons of flour, stir until the flour has cooked through, make sure not to colour the roux too much. Pour in a portion of the milk and whisk until it has incorporated and begins to thicken, repeat until all of the milk is incorporated. Cook until thick, stirring often. If the white sauce is lumpy, don’t worry just keep stirring and cooking, the starch in the flour will eventually hydrate and the the sauce will become smooth.

Remove the pot from the heat and whisk in an egg, and two cups of cheese, I like to use a combination of strong flavourful cheese and good melting cheese.


Pour the cheese sauce into the bowl with the pasta and stir through making sure it is evenly coated, taste and season as needed.

Now you can spoon this into a baking dish, top with some crumbs and cook in a hot oven for about half an hour and you’ll have some tasty mac & cheese, or you could wait for it to cool and transfer it to some containers and place in the fridge. When the mix has set and is completely cold remove from the fridge and spoon into ring molds, pressing down with the back of a spoon to make little slider patties, carefully coat each patty in potato starch (instant potatoes).


Heat a good amount of oil in a heavy based frying pan and cook the patties until they are golden brown on each side, you could probably deep fry if you wish but I find shallow frying works perfectly well. Allow the patties to drain on some kitchen towels and serve in a slider bun with shredded iceberg lettuce and hot sauce.

Easy brioche

I had planned on making some potato buns for burgers but after flicking through Aki Kamozawa and H. Alexander Talbot's book Ideas in Food: Great Recipes and Why They Work (their blog is blog.ideasinfood.com), I came across their No Knead Brioche recipe and knew I had to make brioche burger buns for the ultimate extravagant burger. The no knead brioche is pretty simple, it just takes a bit of time.


Over a low heat melt 226 grams of unsalted butter, once melted set aside to cool.


In a bowl whisk together 50 grams of sugar, 10 grams of fine sea salt, 1.5 grams of instant yeast, and 488 grams of flour.


In another bowl whisk 4 large eggs (a large egg is between 63-73 grams), 113 grams of water, 65 grams of milk, when combined whisk in the melted butter.


Using a wooden spoon or spatula, beat the wet mixture in to the dry until smooth and free of lumps, it should resemble thick muffin batter.


Cover and leave at room temperature for about 4 hours.


After resting for 4 hours, dampen your hands, use a spatula and fingers to fold one side into the middle and press down, turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat, do this twice more so each side has been folded in. Turn the whole batter over, so the seam is on the bottom. Cover with cling film and leave it to rest for 8-12 hours, it should have doubled in size.


Preheat the oven to 175°C (with fan). With damp hands shape the batter into buns and brush with milk (I should have made some rings from tin foil to stop the dough spreading). Cook for 30 minutes, the buns should sound hollow when tapped on the underside. Alternatively you could put the dough into a loaf pan and cook for 1 hour.


Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.


A Buttery and delicate crumb, makes a killer burger bun, but it's very rich so smaller portions are probably the order of the day.

Burger night

I'm a bit over beef when it comes to burgers, unless you get some good quality mince the beef doesn't seem to add much flavour. So lamb burgers were on the menu.


I had made a batch of celeriac salad the previous night to have with a roast, it's super simple and tasty. Julienne a celeriac (use a mandoline, so much easier), thinly slice some celery and red onion and stir through some home made garlic mayo.

For the garlic mayo, in a food processor or blender (or by hand if you wish) start mixing an egg, a splash of vinegar/lemon juice, a teaspoon of mustard and a clove of garlic. When the mixture has some volume and turned a pale colour, slowly start pouring in oil while the machine runs (I use a light oil such as grape, I avoid olive oil as it has a strong flavour). When the mixture is thick it's ready (it'll take a decent amount of oil 1 cup+).


The burgers! I flavoured the lamb with thyme, grated garlic, lemon zest, salt and white pepper. It's important to give the meat a really good kneed (like bread) to develop it and make sure it has a strong bond to itself. Let it rest for a while, and then shape in to patties and sprinkle each side with ground coriander.

Cook however you like, I usually start in a pan and finish in the oven. I highly recommend you don't cook your patties well done, leave it pink in the middle (pink not raw).


Pattie 70% cooked with a good coating of ewes milk cheese ready for the grill. They were the tastiest burgers we've eaten for ages.

Past couple of days in the kitchen

Burgers for dinner




Plaited bread


Steak with sautéed mushrooms and pepper sauce served with endive and roast potatoes


Steak marinating with bit of olive oil, paprika and garlic


Chicken vindaloo

Butter makes the world better

Is there nothing butter can not improve?

Butter Burgers

In a bowl mix together with your hands minced beef, a couple of good tablespoons of tomato paste, garlic powder (if using fresh garlic, finely grate it in(or crush it) you can also add grated onion too, but make sure you use a fine grater so it produces a pulp), and grated butter.

Then roll up balls of the meat mix and flatten out in to patties, ready to fry or bbq (I usually can't be bothered with the clean up that comes with a fry up on the stove, so chucked them in a super hot oven)

The meat patty, slice of tomato, cheese, and tomato relish with a bit of aioli on a toasted bun = super tasty burger. After it had been scoffed down, i remembered i had some home made pickled beets in the fridge that should of got between the buns but oh well next time.