10 April 2009

Beautiful Burgers...

One of my favourite in the food family is burger. It was originally known as hamburger and the basic ingredient will be two pieces of bread, ground beef patty between it and with condiments such as pieces of vegetables, few blots of sauces and maybe some slices of cheese.
A hamburger nowadays is solely used for ground beef patty in it. A burger then may have chicken, lamb, goat, fish, crab or even vegetable patty. Some burger do not use patty even but instead uses steak as the patty.

The hamburger started to make its name in the early 1900. Various people and restaurants claimed that they had created the hamburger. I do not really care who created it but seriously, it is one of the best creation in the food family ever…

It is actually hard to find halal hamburger patty here where I staying now. This led me to the search for burger patty maker. I know it exist because my mother bought one for herself when she visited here. Lo behold, after that, it is impossible to find one. I had going in and out of different kitchen utensil stores to no avail…

Hey, I have not tried the internet. Maybe I should order one instead…

Anyway; I can actually make my own patty from the mince meat without using the burger patty maker. It is just that I do not like my burger patty in an odd shape. As circular as possible will be nicer!

Yeah, sound a bit useless, but I do appreciate art and beauty in food too.

Another alternative to lower my craving for burgers is to head into Nando’s. They have quite a number of burger variations with either chicken breast or vege patty basted in peri peri sauce or rib sauce. For those who does not know what peri peri means, just remember that peri peri is chilli. I had tried all of the Nando’s burgers but it is still not the hamburger.

Yet another alternative is to eat my burger with steak! I tried it and I am totally pleased with the result. I mixed and match the knowledge I have with some stuff I have picked up from Nando’s.

The most important main ingredient to make a beautiful burger, I went to buy some round steaks for the patty. This will be the burger patty which is also the heart of the burger. Round steak is quite long piece of meat, but you can fold it up so it is not a problem.

Anyhow, a good rule of thumb to remember is, get a piece of steak that does not have even a single piece of bone in it. That is totally not a good burger, no sir!
Sirloin steak or even rib eye steak will be a good patty providing you like the extra thickness. I will try that next!

I marinade the steak few hours before I cook them. I just use any marinade sauce available from the shop and you can make your marinade sauce if you want. Use the sauce for basting when you cook the steak to make it taste better. I had tried roasting and frying and both taste super!

So it just basically your preferences.

The usual burger bun is nice. I also learned that rolls are nicer if you prefer crunchier buns. So I went to the bakery and get myself some wholemeal rolls. If you do not want your rolls to be broken rolls, heat them up in the oven for a bit and cut them into two when it is still warm and soft.

Gourmet salad gives some fibre in your burger. Add the usual burger condiment such as tomatoes. I am not a pickle fan so no pickle and cucumber even. I used avocadoes instead. Slice the avocadoes up when you had get rid of the seed. Mayonnaise is a must and other sauces such as tomato ketchup or even the chilli sauce will add more taste to your burger. I forgot the cheese and I usually like to have a slice of cheese in my burger. That will be next time then. I still have few more pieces of steak waiting…

Put them together and you have one of the most beautiful burger…



Sigh...

Next will be steak burger with cheese, then steak burger with caramelised onion and hopefully homemade burger patty.

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