Lamb Burger Indian Style

[Art Blade]

Yesterday I had a dream of making spicy hamburger patties from lamb.
edit: today I created a variant

Maybe because of the home-made / freshly ground curry powder I'd been using for beef patties. I had also used "American mustard with honey" for the beef patties. Then I decided to skip the mustard "cream" with all the *bleep* in that and instead use pure Mustard Powder (Colman's from Norwich, a UK Brand) which also goes quite well with the freshly ground curry powder. And I'd added real honey. And then I thought lamb might be a cool idea.

Today I bought some lamb shoulder and minced it myself in a powerful kitchen blender.

- I cut a few slices of Spanish onion (they're large and won't make your eyes water cutting them)
- I spread out the minced lamb almost like pizza dough, flat and round.
- I sprinkled it evenly with curry and mustard powder
- don't put salt in the meat mix. Seasoning is just prior to cooking.
- Then I sprinkled it with a little honey
- I rolled up the the whole stuff so it created layers of lamb and spices/honey
- then I kneaded everything so minced lamb and spices with honey would mix thoroughly
- formed burger patties and sprinkled them with salt and some freshly ground black pepper.

In a pan, I heated up olive oil to quickly get a brown surface when frying those patties. Then I slipped in the patties, no lid on the pan yet. Waited a few moments and flipped them.

It is important to recognise that honey will burn quickly. On the other hand, it quickly creates a nice brown surface, in a way it's caramelised. So while the pan was hot, I browned one side and on flipping the patties, I switched off the hot plate (if you use gas, wait a little and then reduce it to a minimum) so I'd just get enough heat to brown the other side.

I flipped them again and this time I put a layer of onion slices on top and closed the lid, let it simmer a little while (couple minutes) and then flipping the whole stuff again: this time the onions would be on the bottom and the patties would "rest" on top, lid closed. Let it simmer until you think they're well done.

Waiting for the patties, I now had time for the sandwiches: I washed a few leaves of iceberg salad and cut a tomato in slices.

Now the food was ready. The result: perfectly brown patties, the onions had almost dissolved into the gravy which was slightly sweet thanks to the honey. The onions had also turned dark brown. I put patties and fried onions and gravy on the sandwich, tomato and iceberg salad, done.

The whole kitchen and later the whole place smelled pleasantly of caramelised honey with a hint of curry. The lamb patties were juicy and well done. The sweetish gravy with those onions had a terrific taste, it was a very nice sandwich.

I abstained from any "chemical junk" like those supermarket dressings and sauces. It was ALL fresh and home-made.

I was in heaven eating my "dream" sandwich, it tasted fantastic

[PZ]

Wow, that sounds absolutely delicious!

I must try that some time, when the price of lamb is not so high.

[Art Blade]

yeah, it's surprisingly expensive but I had that dream I wanted to see whether or not it worked, so screw prices, I just made it happen. And it was good

[Art Blade]

I think you can do that with any meat by the way. For that matter, lamb perhaps is indeed too expensive

Just do it with proper ground beef, and you'll be fine.

One important aspect of the whole dish was to avoid any prefab sauces with lots of sweeteners and especially those stupid emulsifiers, thickening agents, flavour enhancers and all the other ingredients you wouldn't really use at home for cooking, ever. For a change, don't squish that stuff on your good, he@lthy food. Try to create taste by frying (meat: the flavour comes from burning) and adding spices.

I'll never forget Gordon Ramsay and his way of thinking when creating dishes. Use fresh products, don't overdo it with ingredients, keep it simple. He wants to be able to taste the single ingredients. And of course he absolutely condemns prefab sauces and dressings.

With that in mind, I used a well-known mix of spices called "curry" which even Ramsay would accept as it was created from the original curry ingredients, freshly ground. Honey, a hint of "real" mustard. Olive oil. Onions. Salt.

I think I used so little mustard that I could leave it out next time or use a whole lot more

Anyway, it was fun creating this dish

Oh and it's talking to me now. It says "CURRrrr.."

[BinnZ]

 

Sounds very nice! We do use lamb minced meat occasionally when making hamburgers. We buy it in the Bio butcher. It is a little expensive, but we don't eat meat on a daily basis so we don't care if it costs a little extra. At least the animal had a descent life and we get a fresh product without nastiness

[Art Blade]

cheers

Somehow the decent life remark sparks a (jokingly) mean reply: "I don't care about how decent the beast's life was, all I care about is how decent it tastes."

[BinnZ]

 

Totally agree. However I'm pretty sure that when an animal has had a decent life, as in, a relatively happy life, it will pay off in taste!

[Art Blade]

as long as my steak doesn't start to giggle when I jab it with my fork, I'm OK with that.

[BinnZ]

 

[Art Blade]

 

or maybe, "yeah, I like it even better when I knew it by its pet name. We let it run around the house, the kids would play with it, it led a he@lthy and happy life. Eventually we led it behind the house and surprised it with that sawn-off shotgun trained at the back of its head. It made a wonderful dinner. Unlike the frozen *bleep* from the supermarket."

[Art Blade]

Back on topic:

I tried again, differently:

I added finely chopped onion to the minced lamb, left out the honey but added more mustard powder. In the end, I still couldn't taste the mustard lol, but the patty was really good. More of the BBQ type without that honey.

I also created some kind of guacamole dip:

- 1 avocado, pureed
- splash of fresh lemon juice
- cumin powder, more on the generous side
- a pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon honey

It made a really nice dip.

[PZ]

 

In the original recipe, I was intrigued by the use of honey, and was wondering how much sweetness it actually adds. For example, I use honey when smoking pork ribs, and the result is not sweet at all. I'm thinking burgers might be somewhat the same, especially if I grill them outside.

I think I'll spring for the lamb rather than beef - we have a place called Cash and Carry which is a store that typically sells to restaurants, but is open to the public. The quantities are large, but if you have storage methods, you can save much money. As example, many BBQ guys report the price of tri-tip being close to $9/lb, and C&C typically offers it for about $3/lb.

Your avocado dip sounds delicious! Some other variations we like are adding finely diced tomato, onion, and jalapeño.

[Art Blade]

yum And thanks

The honey didn't make it really sweet but the gravy kind of became sweet I suppose because the juices dragged the honey with them while the patty was simmering.

[BinnZ]

Unions go well with honey. And green olives, two. We had a Marocci olive vendor on the market place that used to sell green olives in sweet honey/union gravy which was simply excellent

[Art Blade]

that sounds good Gonna try that, creating something with olives, onions and honey shouldn't be that difficult