9/21/2012

Hamburgers! with fresh herbs

We're a lazy bunch ( I mean my husband's lazy, while I do all the work :)), but while it's much easier to go to MC Do for a burger, it does take more time to make your own. But at least you know how to make it, what's in it, and do it your way. If you have one.

The basic 100% hamburger is actually not made of ham, pork, but Italians use both. I mean one kind of patties from pork meat, others from beef. T. prefers beef to pork and while I don't really care, I wanted to make them beefy. So search in your shop or at your butchers for some ground round beef. Round beef is from the back/hind part of the cow. You can check it up. Don't be lazy like my T.
I didn't find ground beef so I had to buy some for goulash, which came in chunks that I had to ground by myself. That was a big mistake. I could have waited 1 day and bought the ground stuff. Instead I tried to kill my grinder by stuffing the knife and holey bit with the tendons. It was a tragedy. And it took to much time, so too bad.
Ok, let's do it!

Type of dish: main
Cost: medium or cheap ( depends on the
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 2-6
Time: 20 min
Preparation time: 10 min
Frying time: 10 min

You'll need:
a frying pan, a spatula, a medium bowl, a fork or spoon to mix, sharp knife, cutting board, plate and paper towels.

Ingredients:
  • 1 box of ground beef or pork around 500gr
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 bunch of parsley, finely chopped
  • 1 bunch of thyme, oregano, dill, chives, finely chopped ( basicly any fresh herbs, apart from coriander, but if you're aiming for a slightly curry flavour, go on with that base)
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/3 cup of breadcrumbs
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 chili pepper, finely diced
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • additional: 3 tbsl lemon juice, 1 tsp worchester sauce,
  • olive oil

How to do, youhoo:
Get your bowl. Plunk in the meat, add all of the ingredients  except for the oil, mix well with fork- you know you're on the right track when the meat is nicely forming in a ball and not sticking to the sides of the bowl. Take a handful of the meat in your hands and form a ball, flattening it down on the cutting board to form a flat patty that will be no thicker than 1 cm. When you're halfway through making the patties, heat up on high heat your frying pan, finish making the patties, pour a small amount of oil on the pan, decrease the temperature to medium. If my cooker has a max 9 level, I heat on 9, pour in the oil, decrease to 6/7, depending on the strength of the cooker.
Plop the patties on the pan. 3 at a time, or 4 if you start. I came up with 7 patties, so I did 4 and 3, so I cooled down a little the temperature of the pan when I finished the first batch. Fry 3-4 mins each side, flipping them over to check if they're not burning. when brown on both sides, transfer to plate with paper towels to suck away excess fat.

Serve by themselves, or on warmed hamburger buns, or Kajzerki ( polish  buns), with ketchup, mustard, mayo, sliced pickles, tomatoes and lettuce. Go crazy and make add some caesar sauce instead:)

You can also freeze the done hamburgers and refreeze them for a quick lunch option. Ta da!

Oh, we didn't have buns today, so we just had them on a slice of bread and it was okay too. But not very hamburgerish.
Too bad:)

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