Did someone say burger?

It is the weekend and looking at the weather forecast, Sunday is going to be glorious. So, before autumn rolls in (can you believe it is almost September?!?) you should get outside and get cooking while you can.  If you want a reminder, some top tips on how to braai (or bbq) are here on our last blog.  This year we have had less braai’s than we usually do but much of that was due to the biblical amounts of rain we have had.  Since the rain stopped we have been trying to make up for lost time.

Last week was national burger day in the UK and we have certainly had our fair share of burgers and we have our fair share of recipes to share with you, and so despite this coming out after burger day, we could not wait to get stuck in and thought you would also enjoy.  I absolutely love having food days because it makes you remember foods that you have maybe haven’t thought about for a while - or maybe you have and you just love them and any excuse will do?  Much like us and burgers.  We all love burgers here at Greatness HQ and we often have burgers inspired by different cuisines or themes because it really perks up a simple burger and honestly, makes me smile. 

To wet your appetite and make you start to plan what kind of burger you are going to make over the weekend, let me give you the contenders.

First up is The Cali.  With California bordering Mexico this burger is inspired by the Mexican chillies as well as the apple orchards and avocado trees you find in California, this burger has a smoky Mexican chilli apple bbq sauce and guacamole. It is delicious, the bbq sauce is naturally smoky from the chillies rather than that nasty synthetic ‘smoke’ taste and is sweet and spicy and delicious, the guac is cooling and creamy the salty bacon sets all of the other flavours off perfectly.  All of this means it really comes together as a tasty stuff-your-faceable amazing burger. 

Next up is The Mexicali which is also chilli forward and inspired by Mexico.  The burger has chipotle chilli throughout the patty, guacamole and a spicy salsa along with some very inauthentic chilli cheese (hence the name Mexicali rather than Mexican ha ha). The chilli cheese is sensational on this so it had to be done.  If you have never tried chilli cheese, don’t be scared, the creaminess with the spicy works really well.  I really really love chillies and chipotle is my favourite.  In place of sliced onions and slices of tomato we have a fresh salsa which works so well in this.

We now land in Indonesia for the rendang burger.  I love love love food that is full of flavour and rendang is heady with lemongrass chilli and ginger and so just what you need to make you smile.  There is a spicy sambal in place of ketchup and crispy onions to give you a great texture contrast.  If you like the sound of this but are scared of the spice in the sambal don’t be, you can dial down the chillies in it but know that weirdly it is not THAT hot despite the number of chillies and really works well against the burger which although full of aromatics, is not that hot.

Heading now to Europe, we stop in Ireland for a burger made with Guinness. This is a burger covered in a Guinness bbq sauce with a slice of sharp Irish cheddar cheese, really, what is not to love here. 

Next up on our food tour of the world is Ze German, a German inspired delight with a beer cheese sauce, caraway beer onions and a healthy kick of mustard.  This is a grown up burger with the slightly bitter beer edge but no less delicious.  The pretzel bun really sets this off and Lidl do the best pretzel buns I have come across.

Let’s head now to Spain with the pork and chorizo burger. This uses cooking chorizo rather than cured chorizo which is important as cooking chorizo is basically a chorizo flavoured sausage and easy to mix into the mince.  This is such a delicious, flavourful burger and most definitely one to try.

Our last stop is in Greece with Zorba the burger.  A lamb burger this time with some warming spices and oregano through the meat patty and served with tzatziki, olives and halloumi in the bun.  It is perfect eaten in the sunshine, eyes closed soaking up the warm rays pretending to be on some gorgeous Greek island.

Now if you are vegetarian, obviously replace any of the burgers with a non-meat alternative as we often do, there are some really tasty vegetarian burgers on the market now.  Alternatively we have a couple of really nice recipes.  Firstly for maximum ease and taste is the simple mushroom burger.  You take a large portobello mushroom, season it nicely (marinade it if you fancy) and then put it in a bun in place of a burger.  It sounds so simple that you might think boring if you have not tried it but, really truly it is delicious and when you are eating it, it feels like a burger and not a mushroom.

The next veggie burger is basically a sweetcorn fritter with candied jalapeños turned into a burger and it is absolutely delicious.  If you have never had sweetcorn with green chillies then let me tell you, it just works, they are just two food items that belong together as the spicy heat is cooled and dialled down by the burst of sweetcorn, it is so good.  Take a look at the sweetcorn risotto with green chillies, I was very very skeptical when we first made this but it is a recipe we have since made a lot.  This burger is everything a good burger should be; messy, filling and something you just cannot put down, even when your stomach is screaming STOP! 

Our very last veggie burger is a falafel burger. This falafel recipe has taken me so long to perfect I can’t even begin to tell you but biting into it on the last test run, I knew we had done it. Most falafels use dried chickpeas that you soak overnight but I wanted this to be flexible and so it was important for me to get it right with tinned chickpeas.  The reason dried chickpeas are usually used for this is because they are creamy and haven’t taken on too much water.  The problem for me is that we don’t really eat processed foods often and often plans change with meals.  I might have planned the 7 days worth of meals but it could be Mondays meal involves more work than Tuesdays meal and Monday turned out to be busier than expected and we don’t want to be in the kitchen long and so we swap, or I just suddenly fancy falafels.  I don’t like the inflexibility of dried and so wanted so much to make this work with tinned.  We have had more test runs with this recipe than any other recipe ever.  It got to a point where I would say we are making falafels and I would see Rhona sigh hard.  Finally, finally however we are there with it. What makes this falafel good in my eyes is the addition of peas.  The burger has harissa mayo which really works perfectly.  Try it and let me know what you think.

Now for something a little different, a prawn burger and a fish burger. Now before you turn up your nose, trust me on this. The prawn burger is delicious, little bites of prawn in a soft brioche bun.  Now I have fallen out with brioche buns recently but for this little prawn burger they are perfect.

For something a little more robust try the avocado ritz burger.  This incredible belt busting ’burger’ has a fish cake topped with avocado and prawn cocktail.  The avocado ritz is said to have been invented in SA in the 1970’s by a chef that wanted to improve the classic prawn cocktail.  Avocado with prawn cocktail is a match made in heaven, the slightly acidic Marie rose sauce is tempered perfectly with the avocado. In a bun with a fish cake takes it to the next level.

If you like something a bit more traditional then why not try our classic burger which can be anything from just a hamburger, a cheeseburger or a cheese and bacon burger depending on what you fancy.  Or the juicy Lucy which is a burger with hot molten cheese on the inside.  I LOVE this burger, even if I do quite often burn my lip!

For me the perfect burger has to be messy, absolutely delicious and belt busting because you really want to not be able to stop eating, even if you think you should.  There should be that discussion of should we have it with chips, you decide yes and then can’t eat them because the burger is too good and space is limited so choices need to be made.  It needs a full flavoured patty, have a good sauce, a pickle for an acidic kick and have a good, well structured bun.  We always used to use brioche buns because that sweetness is nice. The problem however with brioche is that it has a tendency to collapse, especially with lots of sauce and fillings.  Experiment with buns to find the ones you like best, there is something about the sesame buns that actually works really well and I can see why they are the popular choice.

However you like your burger, hopefully you have found something here you fancy and want to give a go.  Enjoy the weekend.

Kelly x