Tandoori Burger in all its glory
It’s summer and I can’t help wanting to grill every lunch and dinner… hell!, I am sure a barbecue bacon and egg breakfast could work somehow. Even now as August hints at autumn, I crave the primal process. When most people think about grilling, burgers come to mind. And they should. A grilled burger can reach a point of magnificence if properly chosen, minced, seasoned, shaped, and timed, not to mention the essential accompaniments and condiments. While the common beef burger with melted cheddar and a lightly toasted bun is just fine in my book, I sometimes like to tease my palate with slightly more exotic variations.
One of my favorites is my ode to the English Sunday roast, a lamb burger with mint sauce mayonnaise. Lamb patties in Czechia?, you sarcastically ask. Yes, minced or already in patty form (as well as cuts), lamb is increasingly easy to get here. I actually just popped into my local Albert and picked up three organic lamb patties which claim to be raised in the “Czech mountains”. While, I prefer to buy the minced version, so I can add my own herbs and spices (garlic, thyme, rosemary, p&s), the Albert patties are not badly seasoned at all. Another, albeit more expensive, shop is Robertson, of course. Their lamb hails from Middle Earth and the extra price is sometimes worth it. And don’t be shy to go into your local halal butcher and ask if they can mince some lamb for you. This is where you can get a real bargain; great fresh meat at a decent price. I have been told many of the halal shop’s sheep are sourced from Germany.
Prepared for making Lamb Burgers
Let’s move on to the extras . For the sole condiment star of the show we have mint sauce mayo. I prefer a light mayonnaise to mix with the mint sauce, allowing the herb to rule flavor-wise. Both Robertson and Marks & Spencer carry top-notch mint sauce, but actually it isn’t that difficult to make your own. Like many once hard-to-get items, mild and medium cheddars seem to be available in most major market chains, while the aged variety, only at specialty shops, e.g., Robertson. I usually seek the latter, and, sometimes, it’s perfectly fine without any cheese. While the mint sauce mayonnaise is crucial to this recipe, it’s really up to you, what should accompany your lamb burger. I prefer sliced red onion and some sort of non-iceberg lettuce (romaine, rocket, etc.) as well as sliced tomato if I can find a big-enough, juicy one, willingly of the beefsteak variety. Buns? Yeah, I will go on about them later.
I suggest serving the burger with roasted or, if you have the time, *lightly-herbed grilled potatoes to fit with the English roast theme. Then again, some fat steak fries do the trick wonderfully.
Onward to influences from farther climes. I stumbled upon my tandoori burger recipe a year ago when asked to prepare something for a friends’ grill party. I had found some decent minced organic beef at Albert (this market can surprise every now and then) which appeared to have the right proportion of fat (20 – 30%) to ensure top juiciness levels. While this could have been enough, I wanted to surprise my friends, so I rummaged through my spices. As you will learn from this blog, I love to cook Indian dishes and, accordingly, I have many Indian spices at hand. I chose my premixed tandoori masala seasoning. Yes, I know, it is more commonly paired with chicken, and, yes, I know the majority of Indians would never eat a cow. Regardless, I sacrilegiously ventured on. I diced some fresh red chili peppers, and with the tandoori spice kneaded both into the meat until evenly dispersed and then shaped them into proper patties. The meat became a magnificent lustful red, suitable for the amount of heat I had added; these aren’t burgers for the weak-hearted (read stomached).
What a wonderful color
For the sauce I recommend a mixture chopped shallots and minced garlic whipped up with some plain yogurt. My friends have been known to forgo this mixture when the ingredients aren’t at hand and instead fire it up even more with some Sriracha or sambal hot sauce. I personally prefer the harmonious balance of the spice-laden meat and the yogurt. If cheese is necessary, thin slices of the Czech parmesan Gran Moravia won’t detract from the other more exotic flavors. One to three grilled slices of bell pepper (per burger) and some rocket (or lettuce of choice), and you are set to savor a burger that definitely veers eastward from your father’s old recipe.
A few last things to mention: If you can only get your hands on preformed patties, be sure to pull out your tenderizer and flatten them even more increasing the circumference since they are often formed much smaller than the buns available. Make a small divot in the center of each patty with your thumb just before placing them on the grill. This added depression will ensure the burgers do not puff up when cooking.
Divot those patties!
As many of you already know, houska is Czech for bun, but these Slavic buns do not meet burger standards at all. They are usually small and sweet, but worst of all, they crumble when halving and sometimes even disintegrate upon your first bite. Do not use housky! Tesco and Billa usually carry prepackaged American-style hamburger buns (four per bag). While not amazing, they are the closest I have found to this State-side staple. Alternatively, you can try small ciabatta bread (sometimes with onion, olive or other flavors) or, especially for the tandoori burger, thick pita bread cut to make pockets could be fun.
To paraphrase a recent BBC Food Programme’s podcast on Camping Food, our brain has evolved specifically around the fire; our society developed around cooking around fire. Cooking in the modern sterile confines of the kitchen, while an enjoyable hobby of mine, never feels as natural as being outside with friends and family standing over a grill or encircling a fire. Smells of smoke entwined with searing meat, warm faces aglow from dancing flames while voices intermingle with cracking and popping char — since the dawn of mankind this experience has been ours. BBQing is in our DNA. Go out there and be a human, and grill! …A tasty burger perhaps?
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LAMB BURGERS
What you need:
* approx. 300 g minced lamb meat or 4 ready-made lamb patties
Lamb Burger assemblage
* 4 buns of choice
* 4 slices of medium to aged cheddar (medium melts better but aged adds distinct sharpness)
* Mayonnaise
* Mint sauce
* 1 red onion sliced
* Lettuce of choice
* If meat is not preseasoned:
– tblsp of rosemary sprigs (dry or fresh)
– 1/2 tblsp of thyme
– 1-2 minced garlic cloves
How to do it:
1) Mix chilies and rosemary into meat or patties (if minced meat, shape into 4 patties). It is important make the patties a larger circumference than the buns as the burgers will plump and shrink while grilling (you may have to make the ready-made patties larger as well). You can use a meat tenderizer to help you with this.
2) Mix half a container of mayonnaise with several tablespoons of mint sauce to taste.
3) Prepare grill and wait until charcoals are turning white and spread them evenly throughout.
4) Place patties on grill and cook for about 5 minutes and both sides.
5) With one minute to go on the second side, place sliced cheese over the patties and heat until melted. Also add sliced buns cut side down on grill to lightly toast for a minute
6) Slather mint-mayonnaise on both sides of the buns and stack cheese lamb burger with lettuce and onion and serve.
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TANDOORI MASALA BEEF BURGERS
What you need:
* approx. 300 g minced beef meat or 4 ready-made beef patties
Melt that cheese, toast those buns
* 4 buns of choice (alternatively, 4 thick pita breads sliced open to make a pocket)
* 4 slices of Gran Morava cheese (a parmesan or aged cheddar could substitute)
* 1 large chili or several crushed dried bird’s eye chilies
* approx. 4 tbsp of tandoori masala seasoning
* 1 container white yogurt
* 4-5 small shallots chopped
* 1-2 cloves of garlic minced
* 1 large yellow or green bell pepper sliced
* lettuce of choice (rocket seems to bring a nice bitterness to the stack)
How to do it:
1) Mix chilies and tandoori seasoning into meat or patties (if minced meat, shape into 4 patties). It is important make the patties a larger circumference than the buns as the burgers will plump and shrink while grilling (you may have to make the ready-made patties larger as well). You can use a meat tenderizer to help you with this.
2) Mix the container of yogurt with minced garlic and shallots.
3) Prepare grill and wait until charcoals are turning white and spread them evenly throughout.
4) Place patties on grill and cook for about 5 minutes and both sides.
5) After flipping the meat, add the sliced bell peppers to the grill for the remaining time being careful to flip them accordingly.
6) With one minute to go on the second side, place sliced cheese over the patties and heat until melted. Also add sliced buns cut side down on grill to lightly toast for a minute
7) Slather yogurt on both sides of the buns and stack cheese burger with lettuce and bell pepper and serve.
At her urging they departed for Mělník that morning from Holešovice Nádraží bus station. 40 minutes later they could spy the town’s most notable landmark from afar — the church tower overlooking the confluence of the Vltava and Elbe. A visit to the clock tower teahouse equipped with an ingenious dumbwaiter, a creep through the bone-stacked charnel house and a gaze at the castle‘s courtyard and sgraffiti later and there was only one more destination on our agenda to be had. As a typical regional museum it dictated the history and nature of the region while also offering rotating exhibitions, but the vaults below housed the real treat for him, the wine cellar. Sitting across a large wooden table from her, the entrance was closed, the candles lit and the first bottle opened.
By mid September they would celebrate vinobraní (wine festival) not in Moravia but back in Mělník. This time he came for a less mature yet more wild version of wine, burčák. This cider-like early tapped wine is still in the process of fermenting, which he was convinced meant he would be in the continual process of getting drunk, even after he had stopped. Regardless, he proceeded to enjoy the two varieties, red and white — sure, this cloudy booze is more precisely named after its grapes, but, for him, requesting red or white would suffice — throughout the afternoon and into the evening. Live music of all genres were on hand — the country and folk stage attracting them, while Czech veterans of classic rock and bigbeat held the focus of the majority — yet most were tinted a bit too wholesome for his taste. Sensing his momentary boredom she grabbed his hand and led him to the smaller square to witness a medieval fencing match which nearly turned into a real one due to some spilled burčák in the crowd.
As night fell, they were treated to a wonderful fireworks display on par with others he had witnessed at far grander occasions. Boom!, pop!, boom! went his burčák-burdened belly. Shortly there after he stumbled to his knees and collapsed forward towards the east, as if to mock Moravia, but sadly it was no mocking gesture, only a final one. She, slightly irritated yet wonderfully understanding, lifted him up and helped him home.
The Toast of Bohemia 