Basotho burger recipe (country name Lesotho)

BH&T Lesotho Burger Recipe

Curry Spiced Chicken Burger with Pap Pap and Spicy Kale and Peas
Perhaps it’s my lousy attention span rather than the poor state of education in the US, but I’ve never heard of Lesotho.  It’s not even vaguely familiar.  Yes, it was formerly known as Basutoland, but that’s not familiar either.  (BTW, that’s why the name of this burger is Basotho, that’s the adjective form of Lesotho)  So, assuming I’m not the only poorly educated person around, let’s find out a little about Lesotho together.  First of all, it’s pronounced li-soo-too.  And, oddly, it’s not only completely landlocked, it’s South Africa locked.  It is a country completely surrounded on all sides by South Africa.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Ok, so how did that happen?  It’s complicated, but essentially the Basotho people kept fighting during the years of European colonization and they generally caused enough trouble that the British gave them some self-rule within the protectorate of Basutoland.  When the South African Union was formed in 1910, the British wanted Basutoland to be part of the Union, but they have enough self-rule to say no.  So they remained an independent protectorate.  In 1966 the British granted them full independence and Basutoland became the Kingdom of Lesotho.

DSC3707wtmk

http://www.africaontheblog.com/lesotho-enchanting-kingdom-in-the-sky/

Independence has not been kind to Lesotho.  The country is poor and largely dependent on South African imports.  Worse than the poverty is the destruction that has been caused by HIV/AIDS.  Lesotho has the 2nd highest adult prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the world.  Some estimate that there are, within the 1.9 million people living in Lesotho, almost 400,000 are HIV/AIDS orphans.  I couldn’t find a good source for that number, but CIA World Factbook puts Lesotho with the 3rd highest death rate in the world.   Life is hard in Lesotho.

On the other side of the equation, years of staying more or less independent have resulted in a rich culture.  And that leads out of the darkness and to the dinner table.  At the center of the family food experience is the 3 stone fireplace in the courtyard of the family home.  This is where the women cook a giant pot of pap pap every day.  Pap pap is the staple of the Basotho diet.  It is a cornmeal porridge.  Much like the yucca porridges so common in other parts of Africa, few meals are enjoyed in Lesotho without pap pap.  It is sometimes seasoned with garlic, but often is just cornmeal and water.  It is filling but bland to the American palate, so I spiced it up a bit with a generous amount of garlic and some fresh corn.  It helped pump up the flavor and the pap pap is a great creamy balance for the spice and acid of the rest of the dish.

Because of the British influence, flavors have come to Lesotho from various British colonies, which means we can bring some curry into our burger patty.  Meat isn’t always available, but when it is, chicken is one of the most popular.  Like I’ve mentioned before, the best way to do chicken burgers is to get chicken thighs and marinate them, then grind the meat fresh for the burger.  So that’s what I did here, lime, curry, onion and garlic flavors ground in with the meat – flavorful and delicious.

I topped the whole thing off with a kale and pea mixture with some spicy peppers.  What we got was a rustic tasting burger with just enough spice and a hearty feel.  It reminded be of a nice roasted chicken and polenta – but a little more interesting because there was a hint of curry and a touch of spice.  Perfect for the cold nights that are starting to hit New England.

If you like this burger, you should try the Gabonese burger – it’s another great chicken burger that’s packed with flavor.

Lesotho Burger
1½ pounds boneless/skinless chicken thighs
1 Tablespoon peanut oil
1 teaspoon curry powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
Pap pap (recipe below)
Kale and peas (recipe below)

Rub the oil all over the chicken.  Combine all spices in a bowl then sprinkle the spice mixture on the chicken.  Let it sit for an hour.  Grind the chicken then form four patties.  Cook the patties in a cast iron skillet until chicken reaches 165°F.  To serve, spoon ¼ of the pap pap on each plate, then add the cooked patties and a scoop of the kale and peas.

Pap pap
1 ear of corn
4 cloves of garlic minced
1 Tablespoon ghee
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups water
1 cup medium grind corn meal

Remove the corn kernels from the ear.  In a large sauce pan, melt the ghee over medium high heat.  Add the corn, garlic and ½ teaspoon salt and cook stirring regularly until garlic browns lightly (about 3 minutes).  Add 2½ cups of water and stir to get any stuck on bits off pan.  Add the corn meal and the remaining ½ teaspoon salt.  Turn to medium low and cook for 30 minutes.  Add the rest of the water and stir until smooth.  Cook another 10 minutes.

BH&T Lesotho Pap Pap

Kale and peas
1 Tablespoon peanut oil
1 medium onion cut in half then thinly sliced
1 jalapeno seeded and sliced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
5-6 cups fresh kale, stems removed and chopped
1 cup frozen peas

Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet.  Add onions, jalapenos and salt and cook over medium heat until soft and just starting to brown.  Add kale and peas, cover and cook over low heat for 2 minutes.  Uncover and turn up heat to medium and stir.  Cook for another 2 minutes or until kale is softened.

©Copyright 2014 Linda Monach

https://burgershereandthere.com/?p=1695

 

Posted in burger recipes | 5 Comments

Lebanese burger recipe

BH&T Lebanese Burger
Lamb Kibbeh with Za’atar Spiced Labne
Finally we get to Lebanon and Paul and I have a good excuse to try the Lebanese restaurant that opened a year ago down the street.  So we went to Al Wadi, and we feasted…but more about that in a minute.  First let’s cover the basics.

Lebanon is a country on the Mediterranean Sea bordered by Syria and Israel.  It is an ancient land; in fact the name “Lebanon” has been in use for about 4,000 years making it one of the oldest country names in the world.  And the city of Byblos in Lebanon (according to Wikipedia) is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.   In addition to being home to too many archeological sites to count, Lebanon is also home to a thriving modern society.

le-map

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

"Beirut Downtown" by Bertil Videt - Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beirut_Downtown.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Beirut_Downtown.jpg

“Beirut Downtown” by Bertil Videt – Own work. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons – http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beirut_Downtown.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Beirut_Downtown.jpg

The population of Lebanon is around 5.9 million people, but the influence of Lebanon goes well beyond that.  While it’s impossible to get a completely accurate count, most estimates put the number of Lebanese living outside the country at around 14-15 million.  Which brings us back to our local Lebanese restaurant.  So our feast began with some basic hommus and baba ghanouj – always a crowd pleaser.  We then moved on to more exotic fair and sampled Sfeha (dough filled with meat, onions, peppers and tomato), Makanik (sausage) and, of course some Kibbeh and Kebabs.

So aside from having a good meal, did I learn anything useful about Lebanese food that could inform my own recipe?  Not really, if you’ve been paying attention, you know that I really like Middle Eastern food.  Lebanese food is pretty classic Middle Eastern, since it’s such an old country, it makes sense that the flavors here would be prototypical.  The only note I could find differentiating Lebanese food was a reference to a stronger use of lemon and olive oil than some other Middle Eastern cuisines.  Not much to go on, and not noticeable as we dined as Al Wadi, but that’s ok, we’ll figure it out.

So we’ll start with meat – meat and meat products are a huge part of Lebanese cooking.  Lamb and chicken are two of the more popular meats, although beef is not uncommon.  I decided to stick with lamb because I think it goes best with the flavors of the region, and, we haven’t had lamb in a while, so let’s go with lamb.  We haven’t tried kibbeh yet, so lamb kibbeh it is!  And the kibbeh will be stuffed with more lamb, raisins, olives and tons of spices – I think you’ll be pleased.  We’ll top with a classic tomato salad and some fresh labne.  Overall the stuffing is the standout with meaty savory flavors marrying perfectly with the sweet spices and raisin, I could eat it by the bucketful.  Adding za’atar and some lemon to the labne brightens and freshens the flavor and cuts the meatiness of the lamb perfectly.  It’s a filling yet not heavy dish that will please the whole family.

If you like this, there are a ton of burgers based on similar flavors.  Two of my favorites are the Iraqi and Jordanian burgers.

Lebanese Burger Recipe
1 cup bulgher
1 small onion roughly chopped
1 pound ground lamb
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
½ teaspoon dried marjoram
Kibbeh Stuffing (recipe below)
Peanut oil
2 large pita rounds cut in half
Za’atar Spiced Labne (recipe below)
Tomato Salad (recipe below)

Rinse the bulgher and place in a glass bowel.  Cover with water with an inch extra of water and let soak for 30 minutes.  Drain the bulgher and combine with onion, lamb, cumin, cinnamon, pepper and marjoram.  Form four balls from the mixture.  Using your thumbs, make an indent into each ball and widen to form a bowl type shape.  Scoop in 1-2 Tablespoons of stuffing into each bowl then stretch the meat to cover the stuffing so you end up with a ball again.  Gently press each ball into a slightly oblong patty.  In a large non-stick pan, add peanut oil to about ¼ inch depth.  Heat to shimmering.  Cook patties in the hot oil until lamb is cooked through.

To serve, warm the pita bread in a 200°F oven for about 5 minutes.  Gently pry open the bread.  Scoop the Za’atar Spiced Labne inside each pita, then add the cooked patties and top with the tomato salad.

Kibbeh Stuffing
2 Tablespoons pine nuts
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion finely chopped
1 clove of garlic minced
6 ounces ground lamb
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon ground sumac
3 Tablespoons golden raisins
6 kalamata olives finely chopped

In a non-stick skillet, toast the pine nuts until fragrant and glistening.  Remove pine nuts from pan.  Add olive oil to pan along with onions and garlic.  Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes.  Add lamb and spices (from cumin to sumac) and cook over medium high for another 5 minutes.  Add the raisins and olives and cook for another 5 minutes.  Cool slightly before use.

Za’atar Spiced Labne
8 ounces labne
1 Tablespoon za’atar
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Zest of one lemon

Combine all ingredients in a glass bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

BH&T Lebanon Za'atar Labne

Tomato Salad
1 large tomato sliced super thin
1/3 of an English cucumber sliced thin (use a mandoline if you have one)
3 Tablespoons olive oil
Juice of 2 lemons
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh mint

Place all ingredients in a glass bowl, cover and set aside until ready to use.

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©Copyright 2014 Linda Monach

 

 

 

Posted in lamb burgers, middle eastern recipes | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Latvian burger recipe

BH&T Latvian BurgerCheeseburger with Sauerkraut, Bacon and Grey Pea Spread
As the weather begins to turn colder here in New England, it’s the perfect time for a hearty meaty burger, so let’s move on to Latvia for a dish that will stick to your bones and warm you with it’s savory goodness. As usual, we’ll start with a little about Latvia…

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Latvia is one of the Baltic countries located on the Baltic Sea and bordered by Lithuania, Belarus, Russia and Estonia. This land has been controlled by Germany, Poland, Sweden and Russia at various times in it’s history, it has a lovely multicultural culture. There is also a tremendous amount of national pride, they even have contest for best use of the Latvian language (important since less than 60% of the population speaks Latvian as it’s first language). In tension with that is the large minority of Russians living in Latvia. Almost 30% of the population is ethnically Russian and speaks Russian as their first language.

Given the conflict in nearby Ukraine, concern is mounting that the Russians may begin aggressions in Latvia. It is a tense and difficult time in this country. Other than the political unrest, Latvia is by all reports a lovely place to visit. It’s capital city, Riga, is particularly known its stunning art nouveau architecture.

By Rastapopulous (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

By Rastapopulous (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

It has the good fortune of being placed perfectly so that Latvian’s enjoy 4 distinct seasons (unusual in most of Europe). Summers are warm, even hot – great for the sandy beaches. Snow in the winter – great for skiing and ice fishing.

http://www.latvia.travel/en/article/climate-and-weather-conditions

http://www.latvia.travel/en/article/climate-and-weather-conditions

http://www.latvia.travel/en/article/skiing-and-snowboarding

http://www.latvia.travel/en/article/skiing-and-snowboarding

Traditional Latvian food brings to mind winter rather than summer as it is based on hearty peasant food. While Latvia has enjoy prosperity in recent times, historically it has been a relatively poor country and the food has been simple, filling, and inexpensive. Meat is important, all different kids of meat, so of course we’ll need some bacon for this burger. Luckily there’s a traditional dish of grey peas and bacon. It’s perfect topping for a burger, but just note, grey peas are actually brown – go figure.  The starchiness of the beans work wonderfully with sauerkraut.

BH&T Latvia Grey Peas

Since we don’t find a lot of spices in Latvian cooking, the sauerkraut and bacon give us a great base flavor, sharp and smoky at the same time. Caraway seeds add a little licorice tang while the meat and cheese provide the rich backdrop that pulls it all together.

Overall the Latvian burger is rich and hearty with a smoky meatiness that was satisfying and delicious. If you like this burger, check out Belarus and Czech Republic – three different ways to enjoy meat and sauerkraut…my Midwestern taste buds are in heaven!

Latvian Burger
1 pound meat loaf mix (pork, veal and beef)
1 onion diced
1 egg (lightly beaten)
4 slices dark rye bread
1 Tablespoon butter
Grey Peas and Bacon Spread (recipe below)
4 ounces havarti with caraway seeds
Latvian Sauerkraut (recipe below)
4 Tablespoons sour cream

Combine the meat, onion and eggs until evenly mixed. Form 4 patties. Melt butter in a large cast iron skillet. Grill bread slices over medium heat on each side for about 3 minutes per side or until just toasted. Remove the bread and cook the meat patties in same pan. Cook for about 5 minutes, then turn and cook for another four minutes. Add cheese slices to each patty and cook for another minute covered until cheese melts. To serve spread a generous portion of Grey Peas and Bacon Spread on each piece of bread, then add the patties, a scoop of Latvian Sauerkraut and a tablespoon of sour cream.

Grey Peas and Bacon Spread
2 cups dried grey peas
water
½ pound bacon
1 onion chopped
Kosher salt

Place the peas in a large pot and cover with water to about 2 inches above peas. Bring to a boil then reduce and simmer for 2 hours or until soft. Drain and check for rocks (yes, rocks, there were literally rocks about the size of peas in the mix) – remove the rocks. Meanwhile, cut the bacon into 1 inch pieces. Cook the bacon in a medium skillet until crispy. Remove the bacon and drain on paper towels. Add the onions to the bacon grease and cook until soft. Place the peas and onions in a food processor and pulse until you get a nice spread. Fold in the bacon and add salt if needed to taste. Serve warm.

BH&T Latvia Grey Peas and Bacon Spread

Latvian Sauerkraut
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 small onion sliced
1 granny smith apple, cored and sliced thin
14.4 ounces canned or jarred sauerkraut
1 cup cabbage sliced
1 Tablespoon course mustard
Kosher salt

Heat olive oil in a medium non-stick skillet until shimmering. Add onions and apples and cook until soft. Add sauerkraut and cook for another 15 minutes then add cabbage and mustard, cover and cook 5 more minutes until cabbage is wilted. Add salt if needed to taste. Serve warm.

BH&T Latvian Sauerkraut

©Copyright 2014 Linda Monach

https://burgershereandthere.com/?p=1671

Posted in beef burgers, burger recipes, eastern european recipes, pork burgers | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Laotian burger recipe

BH&T Laos burgerSpicy, Sour, Salty Pork Burger with Fresh Herbs
Laos is one of those countries about which travel writers love to write.  I read so many beautiful articles about Laos and Laotian food, that I was tempted to hop on a plane and take a trip.  Then my husband reminded me that traveling half way around the world with an 8 year old with Autism and a 4 year old that is…well…4, might not be fun.  On top of that, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are few and far between in that part of the world, so our oldest would probably starve.  But I digress.  Needless to say, we’re staying put.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

So, about Laos.  Laos is a landlocked Southeast Asian country that borders Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma and China.  Unlike its neighbors’, Laotian food hasn’t really caught on.  According to Zagat, New York City got its first Laotian restaurant in 2013 (although if you do a Yelp search, there are several Laotian/Thai restaurants).  At any rate, you certainly aren’t seeing any jeow bong, laap phet or khao niaw stands opening up in your local mall food court.  Part of this is because Laos was, until 1986, a one party communist state.  Since then, the government has been gradually decentralizing and encouraging privatization.  For the most part this has worked well and Laos has enjoyed fairly steady growth in their economy.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Unfortunately, that growth is off of a very low base, so much of the country is still pretty primitive in terms of infrastructure.  Also unfortunate is that as the country opened up, someone, or probably some ones, brought MSG to Laos.  “Modern” Laotian food is chock full of MSG.  Luckily, you don’t have to search too hard for “old fashioned” food minus the MSG.  Travel/Food writers have done this for us – there’s a particularly good article written by Emily Kaiser for Food and Wine that really brings the countryside to life and inspired many of the flavors I used to create this recipe.

By McKay Savage from London, UK via Wikimedia Commons

By McKay Savage from London, UK via Wikimedia Commons

So let’s get to it – what the heck does Laotian food taste like?  Much like Thai food, the food in Laos is about balance – balance of salty, sour, spicy, umami (earthy) and bitter.  Unlike some of their neighbors, sweet is not as important and doesn’t show up in savory cooking very much (or at least not in quantities that are noticeable).   According to a couple of the sources I discovered, the food of Laos often leans into the bitter and sour categories more than many other cuisines.  Since these are taste sensations that we don’t exploit much in the US, I thought we’d try them out and see how they suit.  The coconut lime sauce that I created is this odd combination of bitter, umami and salty, and on it’s own is overpowering (it could be the heavy use of fish sauce driving this), but, when you combine it with the fresh herbs and the spicy jeow bong sauce, then balance with some starchy stick rice and the light sweetness of pork…well, we were in heaven.

Sticky rice is critical for making this dish, and you may have to go to an Asian market to find it.  Don’t believe anything you read about making sticky rice with sushi rice or jasmine rice – you can’t create sticky rice with anything but sticky rice!

BH&T Laos glutinous riceAlso known as glutinous rice, it is a different creature entirely from the rice that we eat regularly.  Unlike sushi rice, you don’t add anything to glutinous rice to make it sticky, it’s sticky because it has more gluten in it than other kinds of rice.  You also prepare it by steaming rather than cooking in water.  When made correctly, you should be able to grab a handful and form it into a ball, then dip that ball in sauce and enjoy (that’s how they do it in Laos)!

One side note, Laotians don’t typically use chopsticks, they traditionally eat with their hands, using spoons for soup.  I just thought that was an interesting point of trivial knowledge and could find no elegant way to weave it into the story 🙂

Laotian food is not for the feint at heart when it comes to spice/heat.  Like Thai food, Laotian cuisine involves those scary hot Thai peppers, and lots of them.  Yes, you can use a milder pepper if you are not spice tolerant, but the flavors will change depending on the pepper.  I used a combination of peppers I could find locally – I was lucky enough to find fresh Thai peppers and combined those with Serrano and jalapeño.  If you can’t find fresh peppers, you can usually find dry Thai chilies, just start with a few and add more to taste – it’s easy to blow out your taste buds with this hot little suckers!

I find this burger difficult to describe because it is very different than food I’m used to eating.  The umami earthiness of the pork and the coconut lime sauce is at the center of the taste.  But the salty sourness of lime and fish sauce combination pulls your taste buds in a totally different direction.  Add the bitterness of the dandelion leaves and the fresh zing of herbs and this burger takes you to the brink of “oh man, that’s just too much going on”…but only to the brink.  You are saved from falling over the edge by the simple clean flavor of the sticky rice.  My husband (not for the first time, he’s a bit fickle in this respect) declared it “the best burger yet”.  And I even ate the burger I made for the picture the next day (plus made an extra one that Paul heated up and ate left-over and still declared amazing).  I would say that if you’ve been reading these recipes for a while, but haven’t made one, this is a great one to try – it really epitomizes what I’m trying to do here.  It’s as exotic as it gets, but still a burger, and man, I love burgers!

If you like this burger, I have no idea what other recipes you’ll like.  This one kind of stands alone.  Bhutan is another spicy hot burger, so you could try that or you could check out Bahrain for another burger that celebrates herbs in all their glory.  Neither one is really very similar to this one, but they are both excellent and memorable (IMHO).

Laos Burger
1 pound ground pork
Sticky rice (recipe below)
2 cups chopped dandelion greens (or other bitter greens)
Coconut Lime Sauce (recipe below)
Jeow Bong Sauce (recipe below)
Fresh Herbs (recipe below)

Separate ground pork into four portions.  Form patties and fry until cooked through.  Form four balls from the sticky rice then flatten into discs.  To serve, place the sticky rice discs on each plate, then layer a generous portion of bitter greens (I used dandelion, but you could use beet, collard or chard).  Top the greens with a generous scoop of Coconut Lime Sauce, add the cooked patties, a tablespoon (or more if you like it hot) of Jeow Bong Sauce.  Finish it off with Fresh Herbs.

Note – I didn’t season the pork because the Coconut Lime Sauce is quite salty, you really don’t need to directly season the meat.

Sticky Rice
2 cups glutinous rice
Water

Place the rice in a glass bowl and completely cover with cold water.  Soak the rice for at least 10 hours.  Drain the water off the rice, place rice in cheese cloth then steam the rice for 20 minutes.  Let the rice cool to luke warm before using.

BH&T Laos sticky rice

Coconut Lime Sauce
¼ cup fish sauce
Juice of 3 limes
5” of lemon grass grated
12 ounces coconut milk
½ teaspoon dry Thai basil
¼ cup glutinous rice

Combine first 5 ingredients in a small saucepan.  In a dry pan, toast the rice over medium heat until just beginning to color.  Grind the rice into a find powder.  Cook the sauce over medium heat for 5 minutes then whisk in 2 Tablespoons of the rice powder.  Cook until thick.

Jeow Bong Sauce
13 fresh Thai chilies chopped
2 Serrano chilies chopped
2 Tablespoons chopped jalapenos
4 large garlic cloves sliced
2 large shallots chopped
Vegetable oil
¼ teaspoon ground galangal
1“ piece of fresh ginger chopped

Toast the chilies in a non-stick pan over medium heat until just beginning to color.  Fry the garlic and shallots in a small amount of oil until soft and lightly browned.

Put all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it forms a paste.  Return the mixture to the dry pan and cook over medium low until it’s a rich brown color.

BH&T Laos Jeow bong sauce

Fresh Herbs
½ cup fresh dill
½ cup fresh mint
¼ cup fresh cilantro
¼ cup fresh watercress

Chop all of the herbs and toss them together.  You can adjust the herbs if you have strong preferences for a particular herb.

BH&T Laos fresh herbs

 

https://burgershereandthere.com/?p=1652

 

©Copyright 2014 Linda Monach

 

 

Posted in asian recipes, burger recipes, pork burgers, south asian recipes | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Kyrgyzstani burger recipe

BH&T Kyrgyzstani burgerBeef Burger with Pickled Vegetables, Sour Cream and Homemade Rolls

And now we’re back to a land where horsemeat is common on the dinner plate! Again let me reassure you that: A-I’m not going to make a burger out of horse meat (pretty sure it would be really difficult to find a legitimate source in Boston), and B-the horses used for food in Kyrgyzstan are raised, much the same we raise cattle here. Nobody is shooting My Little Pony in the street, so let’s back up. We’re here in the Kyrgyz Republic, or Kyrgyzstan.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

The Kyrgyz Republic is located in Central Asia bordering Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and China. It is a former Soviet republic. It is mountainous and beautiful, poor and troubled.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

By Vitaliknyc (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

By Vitaliknyc (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

Kyrgyz history goes back to around 200 B.C., and it travels from Mongolia through Northern and Central Asia. The Kyrgyz fought Russian control with one particularly nasty revolt resulting in the death of 1/6 of the Kyrgyz population in 1916. Once the Soviet Union dissolved, Kyrgyzstan entered a period of government corruption, mismanagement and ethnic conflict.

What they do have in the Kyrgyz Republic is a rich tradition hospitality and a love of food. The food of Kyrgyzstan is not fancy; it’s based on meat and dairy. And one thing I love is that they love good bread, all different kinds of bread. Because of the poor growing conditions and the lack of infrastructure (like a reliable power grid), they often pickle vegetables and use soured milk products rather than more perishable ones. It was easy to develop a burger recipe around these traditions.

This was the perfect opportunity to grind my own meat. I’ve been hearing a lot about using short ribs in a burger so I grabbed some boneless short ribs and a little bit of sirloin and mixed them with garlic to make a basic but flavor filled patty. By grinding the garlic in with the meat, you get the taste of garlic through each bite. I combined this flavorful patty with a home made roll stuffed with grilled onions. This tradition of stuffed breads is one of my favorites; it brings flavor to every bite and is worth the effort of making your own bread (this from a woman who hates baking!).

Pickling the vegetable is easy – I tried using different vinegars, white wine and cider, but I’m not sure it made a huge difference, so use what you have. It would only be noticeable if you used a super flavorful vinegar like sherry vinegar or balsamic – just use a wine or cider vinegar and you’ll be happy with the results. Lastly I used some labne. Labne, in terms of flavor and texture, is a cross between a cream cheese and sour cream or yogurt. If you can’t find it, I’ve also used quark and Vermont Creamery makes a Fromage Blanc that has a similar flavor. If none of those were available, I’d go with sour cream. I think yogurt is just a little sharp and overpowering for such a simple burger.

The result of all of this is a beef and garlic lover’s burger. Make sure you don’t skimp on salt and enjoy the pure taste of beef. If this sounds good to you, you should also try the Argentina burger – it is another celebration of meat with a different flavor accent. Enjoy.

Kyrgyz Burger
2/3 pound sirloin tips
1 pound boneless beef short ribs (excess fat trimmed)
3 cloves garlic
Kosher salt
Pepper
4 Kyrgyz rolls (recipe below) (you can substitute ciabatta)
6-8 Tablespoons Labne
Pickled red pepper (recipe below)
Pickled carrots (recipe below)

Cut the meat into 1-2 inch cubes and place in freezer for 30 minutes. Smash the garlic cloves and add to the meat. Grind the meat along with the garlic on the smallest setting and form 4 patties. Generously salt and pepper each patty. Fry the patties in a cast iron skillet to desired temperature (depending on the fat content of your meat blend, you may want to add a little oil to the pan, my ribs had enough fat that I didn’t need to add more).

To assemble the burgers, slice each roll in half and spread a liberal amount of labne on each. Add pickled red pepper slices, the cooked patties then the pickled carrots. Top with the other half of the roll.

Kyrgyz Rolls
1 cup tepid water
1½ Tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons yeast
3 cups flour
1 Tablespoon salt
1 onion, halved and sliced thin
Vegetable oil

Combine the water, sugar and yeast and let sit until it begins to foam. In a separate bowl, combine flour and salt. Pour the yeast mixture into the flour mixture and mix until it forms a dough ball (you can add more flour if it’s too sticky or more water if it’s too dry). Knead the dough for 5 minutes. Place the dough in an oiled glass bowl and let rest in a warm spot for 30 minutes.

While the dough is resting, fry the onions in a cast iron pan with vegetable oil until the onions are golden. Portion the dough into balls then flatten each roll and put a scoop of cooked onions on each disc. Fold the dough over the onions and make into a ball again. Then flatten the roll to about ¼-½ inch thick.

BH&T Kyrgyzstan bread1

Heat ¼ inch of vegetable oil in cast iron skillet until shimmering. Place the dough discs into the hot oil and fry until golden brown, then flip it over and fry the other side until it’s a nice toasty brown. Place on paper towel until ready to use

BH&T Kyrgyzstan bread2

BH&T Kyrgyzstan bread4

BH&T Kyrgyzstan bread5

Pickled Red Peppers
1 red pepper sliced thin
Cider vinegar

Placed the sliced red pepper in a glass jar then cover with vinegar. Cover and let sit for at least an hour before using.

Pickled Carrots
1 carrot sliced thin (use a mandoline)
White wine vinegar
½ teaspoon whole pepper corns

Place carrots in a glass jar then add vinegar to cover and peppercorns. Stir or shake to make sure each carrot slice gets coated. Cover and let sit for at least an hour before using.

BH&T Kyrgyzstan pickled carrots

Note: both pickle recipes will make more than you need. I suggest you use the left over in a nice cole slaw. I try not to make recipes that use half of a vegetable, so you can, of course, just use half a carrot and half a red pepper and make less.

https://burgershereandthere.com/?p=1638

©Copyright 2014 Linda Monach

Posted in burger recipes | 2 Comments

Kuwaiti burger recipe

BH&T Kuwait Burger RecipeSpiced Lamb Burger with Tomato Sauce, Grilled Onions & Labne
Our next stop on this culinary journey is Kuwait.  Kuwait is located in the Middle East bordering Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf.  The culinary traditions of Kuwait are rich with flavor inspirations and it was easy to develop an amazing burger recipe to represent this country.  What’s proven more difficult has been developing a story to tell you, finding something compelling and novel to talk about has been the challenge here.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

It isn’t that Kuwait doesn’t have an interesting history, it does – we could go back all the way to when this land was part of Mesopotamia.  We could talk about the Dilmun civilization, the Babylonians, the Portuguese or even the British – but you can read all of that on Wikipedia, and frankly it reminds me of the uninspired history classes of my youth.

By Mikael Lindmark (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

By Mikael Lindmark (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

I could talk to you the fact that Kuwait is more supportive of women’s rights than many Middle Eastern countries and has greater GDP per capita than Germany or Japan (and France, Netherlands and UK), but these facts are a bit dry and don’t really tell the whole story.  There’s also the problem of almost half the population (mostly Bedouins) not having full “citizen” status, but this gets really complicated by the influx of displaced people from around the region all wanting to claim citizen rights and at the end of the day, it’s a bit of a muddy mess.

I suppose that if I were a more talented writer, I could bring this story to life and mesmerize you with the details from 6500 B.C. to modern day, but I’m not.  Beside which, I have a cold, my youngest daughter has a cold, and I’m way to tired to put forth that kind of effort.  So let’s find some lower hanging fruit.  Let’s talk about the food – ummm, the food.

Kuwait is well known for hospitality and generosity and the food is what we would call comfort food.  Rich sauces and stews, lots of spices (not hot spices, but deep and sensuous spices like cinnamon, cardamom, saffron and sumac).  Fruits and nuts with dessert spices combine with onions and garlic and the marriage is lovely.

Machboos is a traditional rice dish made with this kind of balance of sweet and savory and I’ve created my simplistic version for this burger.  There’s also a dish call Duqoos that is based on a richly seasoned tomato sauce – makes a great substitute for ketchup.  Add some labne (a Middle Eastern cheese that is closer to yogurt than what we think of cheese in the States) and grilled onions and you have a messy but delicious treat.

Kuwait has a big burger culture.  Kuwait City has an enormous number of burger restaurants; they even have a place called the Diner that serves a ramen burger.  What they don’t have is a quintessentially Kuwaiti burger.  They enjoy burgers from International chains like Smashburger and Shake Shack.  What most of these restaurants in Kuwait City have in common is a variety of toppings and choices. So that’s what we have here, a burger with lots of toppings, lots of flavor, lots of mess.  It looks like an American burger, but has the distinctive taste of great Middle Eastern food; I’m getting hungry again just writing about it!

If you like this burger, you’ll probably like the Columbian or the Australian burger – each has lots of toppings that marry together to make extraordinary taste, both would probably sell well in Kuwait City.

Kuwait Burger Recipe
1lb ground lamb
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon Kuwaiti Spice Mixture (recipe below)
4 hamburger buns
Watercress
Seasoned Rice (recipe below)
Labne (or Greek yogurt)
Tomato Sauce (recipe below)
Grilled Onions (recipe below)
Spiced Mayonnaise (recipe below)

Combine lamb, salt and spice mixture.  Make 4 patties and grilled until cooked to desired temperature.  To serve, start with the bottom of the bun; layer on some watercress and a scoop of Seasoned Rice.  Add a Tablespoon or so of labne then place the cooked patty.  Now add a scoop of tomato sauce and some grilled onions.  Spread Spiced Mayonnaise on the top bun and finish it off.

Kuwaiti Spice Mixture
2 dried limes (crushed)
1 cinnamon stick (crushed)
1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
4 whole cloves
8 whole cardamom pods

Heat spices in a dry pan over medium heat until fragrant (about 3 minutes).  Let cool slightly then grind in a coffee or spice grinder.

Seasoned Rice
1 cinnamon stick
6 cardamom pods
3 whole cloves
1½ cups Basmati rice
3 cups lamb stock (can substitute beef stock)
Pinch saffron
1 medium onion diced
Olive oil
1/8 cup golden raisins
1/8 cup pistachios

Tie the cinnamon, cardamom and cloves in cheese cloth.  Cook the rice with the spices in cheese cloth in the lamb broth.  While this is cooking crush the saffron in 2 Tablespoons of hot water and dissolve the saffron.  In a medium sauté pan, heat the olive oil and cook the onions for about 10 minutes over medium heat.  Add the other ingredients including the saffron and the cooked rice (discard the spices in cheese cloth) and cook 5 minutes.  Adjust salt to taste.

BH&T Kuwait Seasoned Rice

Tomato Sauce
Olive oil
4 cloves garlic minced
2 large tomatoes diced
2 Tablespoons tomato paste

Heat oil in a medium saucepan and add garlic.  Cook until softened over a low heat.  Add the other ingredients and cook for about 15 minutes over medium heat.

BH&T Kuwait Tomato Sauce

Grilled Onions
Olive oil
1 large onion, halved and sliced

In a medium non-stick skillet, heat the oil until shimmering.  Add the onion and stir to coat.  Turn the heat down to medium and stir regularly so that the onions don’t burn.

Spiced Mayonnaise
½ cup mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon Kuwaiti Spice Mixture
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
Kosher salt (to taste)

Combine all ingredients in a glass bowl.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

https://burgershereandthere.com/?p=1625

©Copyright 2014 Linda Monach

 

Posted in lamb burgers, middle eastern recipes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Kiribati burger recipe

BH&T Kiribati burger recipeCurried Fish Cakes with Papaya & Sweet Potato Curry Sauce
The Republic of Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas) is an unusual place.  It consists of 33 islands, 32 of which are atolls (an atoll is a ring shaped coral reef) about 4,000 km southwest of Hawaii.  Twenty-one of the islands are inhabited and the total land mass is 811 square kilometers.  Home to over one hundred thousand people, Kiribati is a country in crisis.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Several problems plague the islands, first there is the problem of climate change – between unusually bad storms and rising ocean levels, there are many on Kiribati who believe their country will quite literally disappear in the next 30-60 years.  While many argue the details of the timeline, it is clear that climate change is adversely affecting this group of islands.

From pensandoelterritorio.com

From pensandoelterritorio.com

The largest island is Tarawa Island; it is home to fifty one thousand people on only 35 kilometers of coral.  The inhabitable land is about 10 square kilometers.  The resulting population density of about 5,200 people per square kilometer is about equal to the population density of London.  In the commercial sector, the population density is estimated to be about three times that of Tokyo.  Rising ocean levels are affecting the water lens in Tarawa – this is a shallow underground bubble that collects rainwater and is the primary fresh water source for the Island.  In addition to the rising ocean levels, the overcrowding has led to people living in restricted areas, too close to the water supply.  Contamination of water supply is a huge problem, and several smaller islands have completely lost access to fresh water.

The result of all of this is that the current President has called for “migration with dignity” – basically a plea to other countries to open their doors to the people of Kiribati and allow them to flee the sinking ship (my words, not his).  So, for now life on the islands is a bit precarious, but how’s the food?

Here’s the thing, when you live on a coral reef, not much grows.  But you do get lots of fish – so fish was a no brainer in designing a burger to represent Kiribati cuisine.  I was looking for a white fish and tried both mahi mahi and cod.  The mahi mahi was better; it melded with the flavors of the curry and gave a little bit of a meatier texture to the fish cake.  Curries are popular in Kiribati – probably because they are so versatile and work with whatever food you can find and, when much of your food is imported, you can’t always be certain what’s on the boat.

Breadfruit, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and papaya are staples in the Kiribati diet and I longed to try breadfruit for this recipe.  Unfortunately, Boston in winter is not the place to find breadfruit – there is a Latin grocery store nearby that I’ve heard sometimes carries breadfruit, but they were fresh out when I visited.  So I stuck with rice and a nice sweet potato (batatas) and papaya curry.  I topped the burger with some lovely tomatoes and pumpkin seeds.

The resulting burger was like a warm winter squash soup with a sweet fish cake – overall sweet flavors with a hint of acid from the tomatoes and a little crunch from the pepitas.  I’m not the biggest fan of fishcakes, but this project is starting to turn me around – this dish is homey and yummy and surprisingly perfect for a cold winter’s day in Boston.  I have no idea if it would be familiar to a Kiribati native, but my family loved it.

If you like this burger, try my Fiji burger – it is lighter and more tropical fish cake, less surprising than Kiribati, but equally delicious.

Kiribati Burger Recipe
¾ pound mahi mahi
Coconut oil
Kosher salt
Pepper
1 cup Batata Mash (recipe below)
1 teaspoon Curry Sauce (recipe below)
1 egg
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Peanut oil
2 cups cooked rice
Curry Sauce (recipe below)
2 tomatoes sliced
Pepitas
Unsweetened coconut flakes

Salt and pepper the mahi mahi and cook in coconut oil until fish is just cooked through.  Let the fish cool and flake it then combine with Batata Mash, Curry Sauce, egg and salt.  Mix together until well combine (be gentle with the fish though so you don’t lose the texture).

Form four patties and place on wax paper.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes (this helps set the fish cake).  Heat about ¼ inch of peanut oil in a non-stick pan until shimmering, then fry the fish cakes until brown on both sides and heated through.

To serve, scoop ½ cup of rice on each plate then add a generous scoop of Curry Sauce on each.  Add the cooked fish patties then top with slices of tomato, pepitas and a sprinkling of coconut.

Batata Mash
2 Batatas diced
2 Tablespoon of butter
2 Tablespoons unsweetened coconut

Boil the batatas until soft.  Drain and mash the batatas with the butter and coconut.

Curry Sauce
3 Tablespoons coconut oil
1 small onion chopped
1 clove of garlic crushed
½ fresh papaya chopped
14 ounce can of hearts of palm drained and chopped
4 teaspoons curry powder
13.5 ounce coconut milk
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon honey

Heat the coconut oil in a medium sauté pan until melted.  Add onions and garlic and cook over med/low until onions are soft (about 10 minutes).  Add papaya, hearts of palm and curry powder.  Cover, turn up to medium and cook 10 minutes.  Add the rest of the ingredients, try it and adjust to your taste.  Cook about 10 minutes.  Pulse in a blender until smooth.  Adjust to taste.

BH&T Kiribati curry sauce

https://burgershereandthere.com/?p=1615

©Copyright 2014 Linda Monach

Posted in australian and oceania recipes, burger recipes, fish burgers | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Kenyan burger recipe

BH&T Kenyan burger recipeDouble Cheese Burger with Curried Sauce & Masala Fries
My lovely husband commented that the last couple of blog posts haven’t shared much about the countries themselves, they’ve been primarily food focused. Since he’s a pointy-headed geography and history buff, I took this as a criticism and will do my best to make up for my past failings with a discussion of Kenya.

Kenya is an Eastern African country located along the Indian Ocean and bordered by Somalia, Ethiopia, Southern Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania. It is home to 44 million people making it the 32nd most populous country in the world. It has been Eastern Africa’s largest economy for a long time, but that standing has been less certain in the last 30 years as the country has been rocked by government corruption and damaged by low investment in infrastructure.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Kenya was part of the British Empire starting in the late 1800’s. Jomo Kenyatta led the movement toward independence. In 1963 Kenya became independent and Jomo Kenyatta became her first president. When he died in 1978, Daniel Moi took over through a constitutional succession and real elections weren’t held until 1992. Elections that were fraught with violence and fraud in 1992 and 1997 kept Moi in power. Kenya finally had peaceful elections in 2002 and a new party came in to power on an ant-corruption platform (I’ll skip all the party details, feel free to read up on CIA World Fact book if you’re interested). This didn’t last long, 3 years later the party splintered, allegations of vote rigging in the 2007 election led to violence that left 1,500 people dead. Finally the UN stepped in and helped build a new governing system with a new constitution overwhelmingly approved in 2010 by Kenyans.

By Daryona (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

By Daryona (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

The first Presidential elections under the new constitution were held in 2013 and Uhuru Kenyatta won. If you’re paying attention, the name should be familiar, he’s the son of Jomo Kenyatta, the first President. Kenyatta is now tasked with bringing Kenya around, eradicating corruption and building up the infrastructure to support Kenya’s large population. With current unemployment around 40%, this is no small task. The good news is that oil was recently discovered in Kenya, so if that can be developed, that should make a positive impact on the overall situation.

By Mkimemia at en.wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia), from Wikimedia Commons

By Mkimemia at en.wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia), from Wikimedia Commons

You can’t really talk about Kenya without talking about safaris. Kenya is a top tourist destination for viewing incredible wildlife. It’s on my personal bucket list and also made National Geographic’s list of top 30 Suggested Family Trips. There are tons of websites if you want to learn more about the natural wonders of Kenya, here’s a link to Kenya Wildlife Service http://www.kws.org/

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

The food of Kenya is influenced by the diverse population. No one ethnic group makes up more than 22% of the total population and CIA World Fact book lists 5 different groups with more than 10% of the population. And, of course, there’s the British influence. Not only did the Brits bring their own food traditions, they also furthered the spread of other influences from within the Empire, most importantly food and flavors from the Indian subcontinent. Indian flavors are everywhere in Kenya and curries and samosas are particularly popular.

As I was researching the flavors of Kenya I found lots of vegetable stews and diverse starches along with many Indian sounding curries and spices. I was looking forward to creating a burger with some stewed greens and garam masala, it was sounding pretty good, then I happen to come across several references to Burger Hut in Nairobi. According to the reports Burger Hut makes the best burger in Kenya, and the pictures look delicious. It is yet another riff on the Big Mac, the big difference here is a little bit of curry flavor to spice up the basic pink sauce. The other important element here is Masala Fries – they’re awesome! Who would have thought that tossing some fries in butter, tomato paste, lemon juice and spices would make for such a yummy dish. The fries are messy, but worth it.

So at the end of the day we got a double cheeseburger with a curried sauce and a fried egg on top – stupendous! You’ll need about twelve napkins, but that’s half the fun. The key here is curry, that makes it distinct, but it you like this, you’ll probably love the Australian burger (fried egg and pickled beets) and the Columbian burger (pink sauce and pineapple sauce with potato chips on top). Enjoy!

Kenyan Burger
1¼ ground beef
½ teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon ground pepper
½ teaspoon kosher salt
Olive Oil
Cheddar cheese
Leaf lettuce
Sliced tomatoes
4 soft hamburger buns, unsliced
Curried Pink Sauce (recipe below)
4 fried eggs
Masala Fries (recipe below)

Combine the meat, onion powder salt and pepper. Form eight thin patties. Heat olive oil in s non-stick skillet. Fry patties – add cheese after you turn them over and cover to melt the cheese. In the meantime, slice the buns into three pieces. If you can’t find unsliced buns (I couldn’t), just cut a thin slice off the thickest half. Lightly oil a non-stick skillet and grill the buns (grill both sides of the middle slice) until just lightly browned.

To serve, start with the bottom bun, add lettuce, tomato, one grilled patty, the middle slice of bun, a scoop of Curried Pink Sauce then the next patty, the fried egg and another scoop of the sauce. Top with the final bun and enjoy with a side of Masala Fries.

Curried Pink Sauce
1 cup mayonnaise
¼ cup ketchup
1 teaspoon curry powder
½ teaspoon white wine vinegar
Kosher salt to taste

Combine all ingredients in a glass bowl. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

BH&T Kenya Curried Pink Sauce

Masala Fries
2 Tablespoons butter
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon garam masala
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Cooked French fries (I used a 24 oz bag of frozen fries and just baked them to save on calories)

In a small sauce pan and melt butter, add the other ingredients (except the fries) and cook for about 2 minutes until fragrant. Toss the fries in the sauce and serve immediately.

BH&T Kenya Masala Fries

https://burgershereandthere.com/?p=1485

©Copyright 2014 Linda Monach

Posted in african recipes, beef burgers, what's it made of? | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Kazakhstani burger recipe

BH&T Kazakhstan burger recipeLamb and Marinated Beef Burger on Fried Noodle Cake

I have a good sense of humor, I think…  Would you really know if you didn’t have a good sense of humor, perhaps we all think we have it, but really we don’t?  Regardless, I like to laugh and have been known make others laugh.  Despite this, I do not like humor that puts people in uncomfortable situations then mocks them.  So I really disliked the movie Borat.  Don’t start defending it, the movie is just rude.  Some of the people mocked are bigots, but many are just trying to be polite.  And the portrayal of Kazakhstanis as backward  and unsophisticated peasant people managed to insult an entire country – pissed them off too.  I’m just glad Sasha Baron Cohen isn’t from the US, he’s British, so blame England 🙂

So I really wanted to write a nice summary of Kazakhstan.  I wanted to show the sophisticated, civilized side to this country and to make up a little for Borat.  Let’s give it a try.  Kazakhstan is a Central Asian country bordering Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.  It is the largest of the former Soviet republics (other than Russia of course).

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Kazakstanis have large mineral and oil reserves and a big agricultural sector.  That being said, the global economic crisis hit Kazakhstan pretty hard and the country is just started turning around over the last three years.  The government is investing to improve infrastructure including roads and electrical grids, and as you can see below, there’s plenty of Kazakhstanis living a modern lifestyle.

from http://kazakhstanwonders.wordpress.com/

from http://kazakhstanwonders.wordpress.com/

Food traditions are incredibly important in Kazakhstan (like in so many places).  Now some of these might sound odd, but don’t go all Borat on me, give it a chance.  If you were invited to a special dinner in Kazakhstan, you might find that you are served a roasted goat’s head – don’t panic!  The head will be placed in front of you as the guest, but you aren’t expected to eat the whole thing.  The honored guest should take a small slice off the head then pass it on to the elder of the table.

The elder will then serve the goat.  He’ll serve pieces of the goat to each person at the table.  The interesting part is that he’ll served particular parts of the head depending on what each person needs – the children usually get a piece of the ears as they need to listen better, it goes on from there.  I can’t remember the meaning behind each part, but each has a specific importance.  You won’t have to eat a lot; the main dish will be something else.

What it will likely be is horsemeat, yes, horse.  Now don’t get all worked up, they raise horses just like we raise cattle.  The horses for eating are plump and don’t look anything like horses raised for riding.  I’ve read that the meat tastes pretty much like meat, nothing gross, a little like a sweeter version of beef.  I did not use horse, don’t worry.  I combined lamb and beef that was marinated in sour milk – the flavor was lovely – who knows if it was anything like horse, it was tasty.  Meat and sour milk are a popular combination in Kazakhstan and letting the beef marinate in the milk gave it a softer and juicier texture.

One of the popular dishes is called Besparmak – it’s horsemeat stewed in sour milk and served over noodles.  Since I had the meat and sour milk covered, I thought it would be fun to make a noodle cake for the starch.  The problem is that wide noodles don’t hold together in a nice pretty circle, but since they taste like yummy fried noodles, you’ll find you don’t care.  Add some caramelized onion and some pickled beets and carrots and the flavor is better than the sum of its parts.  The balance of the acidic vegetables and the meaty patty is perfect with the crispy noodle cakes.  This was one where I longed for seconds!  Paul and I both ate this burger again the next day when I did the picture version.  It has a rich and succulent flavor, sure to please even your pickiest eaters.  And hopefully this burger will give you a new view on Kazakhstan – a land of hospitality and lots of yummy meat.

If you like this burger, try the Estonia Burger, it’s another meat filled burger with tangy over tones.

Kazakhstan Burger
1 cup milk
Juice of 1 lemon
1 pound sirloin cut into chunks
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ pound ground lamb
¼ cup minced onions
Oil for cooking (olive or peanut is fine)
4 Noodle Cakes (recipe below)
Sautéed Onions (recipe below)
Carrot and Beet Salad (recipe below – make ahead about 3 hours)
6 Tablespoons Sour Cream

Combine the milk and lemon juice.  Place the beef in a glass bowl and add the sour milk mixture.  Cover and refrigerate for 1-3 hours.  Drain the beef and grind on the finest setting.  Add salt, lamb and onions and mix it with your hands to completely combine.  Try not to over work it though.  Form 4 patties.  Grill in a non-stick pan to desired temperature.

To serve, place a noodle cake on each plate, add Sautéed Onions, cooked patties then top with the Carrot and Beet Salad and 1½ Tablespoons of sour cream.

Noodle Cakes
7 ounces pappardelle cooked and drained (not rinsed)
4 Tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Peanut oil

Combine the noodles, butter, salt and pepper while noodles are still hot.   Portion the noodles into 4 portions.  Do your best to form 4 circles out of the noodles.  Place the circles on wax paper and refrigerate for 30 minutes (you can skip the refrigeration part if you want, it just helps hold the noodle cake together better).  Heat 1/8 inch of peanut oil in a heavy frying pan.  When oil is hot but not smoking, add the cakes and fry each side until it is crispy and golden.

BH&T Kazakhstan Noodle Cake

Sautéed Onions
1 large onion
4 Tablespoons butter

Cut the onion in half then slice it into thin slices (about ¼ inch).  Heat the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat until melted then, when the foam subsides, add the onions.  Cover and turn the heat to low.  Cook for 20 minutes until soft.

Beet and Carrot Salad
2 carrots grated
1 large beet grated
1 Tablespoon pickling spice (wrapped in cheesecloth)
2/3 cup cider vinegar
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon sugar

Add all ingredients into a glass bowl.  Cover and refrigerate for 3-4 hours.

BH&T Kazakhstan Beet&Carrot Salad

https://burgershereandthere.com/?p=1469

©Copyright 2014 Linda Monach

Posted in beef burgers, lamb burgers | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Jordanian burger recipe

BH&T Jordanian burger recipeLamb burger with Za’atar seasoning, warm garlic yoghurt sauce and ful medames
Creating a Jordanian burger has taken a ridiculous amount of time.  Luckily it was totally worth it and the warm garlic yoghurt sauce is a revelation.  Big claim, I know, but I would eat this sauce on anything (ok, not anything, ice cream would be gross, but you get the idea), and die happy reeking of garlic.  But I’m getting ahead of myself, why did it take so long you ask?  Well, let’s begin at the beginning…

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Jordan is a Middle Eastern country bordering Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria and Israel.  It is a land rich in history and food traditions.  Like so many of the Middle Eastern countries we’ve explored, food is a critical part of hospitality and hospitality plays a major role in the culture of the Jordanian people.  Jordanians will say that if you don’t gain weight during a visit to their country, they haven’t done their jobs – sounds like holidays with my mom 🙂  They are especially fond of sweets and you can apparently get all sorts of pastries dripping in sweet syrups at street stands in the cities.  I keep imagining the smell you get at a carnival near the elephant ear stand, fried dough and sugar, it really brings us together.

By DuiMDog (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

By DuiMDog (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

Sweets however, do not help me build a burger recipe – a sweet, sugary pastry is not my idea of an accompaniment to meat (I know that several crazy American restaurants have used doughnuts to form burger buns, but much like the burger between two grilled cheese sandwiches, I find the idea disgusting and insane in light of the heart disease and obesity issues we have in this country, not to mention the people all over the world who don’t have enough while we overindulge in so many calories it’s killing us, don’t get me started…).  So I had to move on from all the luscious sweets and into the savory to find inspiration.

Amman City Scape - By David Bjorgen (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

Amman City Scape – By David Bjorgen (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons

Which led me to the Bedouins.  Bedouins comprise around 35% of the Jordanian population.  The word Bedouin translates to “inhabitants of the desert” and refers to nomadic tribe across the deserts of the Middle East and North Africa.  There are Bedouin tribes in Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, Sudan, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya.  Many Bedouin have become only semi-nomadic and have settled homes that they return to for part of the year, but many still travel as a way of life.  It’s difficult to get a good headcount when dealing with nomadic people, but one estimate I saw was that there are 4million Bedouin in the Middle East and Africa today.

Although ethnically Arabic, the Bedouin are considered different, in fact some Arabs think of the Bedouin as the “ideal Arab” because they live a traditional life and herd animals, have strong honor codes and rich oral poetic traditions.  The tribal life has led to strong cultures within and across tribes and Bedouin are generally considered more Bedouin than Jordanian, Israeli, Saudi, etc….  When I mentioned that I was working on my Jordanian burger recipe to an Israeli friend of mine, she made one of those dismissive non-verbal sounds that so many cultures excel at that indicated she had no interest.  When I told her I was basing off Bedouin foods, she said, “oh, well that’s different, that’s not Jordanian.”

Luckily for me, it isn’t really different in this case because the national dish of Jordan, the dish that everyone says you must try when you visit, is a Bedouin dish called mansaf.  Mansaf has moved in from the deserts and is made everywhere in the country.  After tasting it, I understand why.  I’m lucky enough to live near a city with abundant culinary opportunities, including take-out mansaf!  Since mansaf is made with dehydrated, fermented yogurt (called jameed), and jameed is tough to find in Boston, I decided I should try the dish from a local restaurant and see what it tasted like before I attempted to use it as inspiration.  So we ordered mansaf and lots of other goodies and gorged on yummy Middle Eastern food – a great way to get inspiration in my book.  Mansaf is goat or lamb (sometimes chicken) cooked slowly in a yogurt sauce with onions and garlic.  It is traditionally served on saffron rice that is layered over pita bread with the yogurt sauce on the side for dipping.  It is eaten with your hand (right hand only please), and is messy, very messy.  We loved the mansaf from our local spot – it was tangy and more flavorful than I imagined.  It was served with a garlicky yogurt sauce to which I instantly became addicted.

But I wasn’t satisfied, I really wanted to find jameed and make the traditional sauce to taste it myself, so I searched for an Arabic grocery store, and searched, and searched…  We have a lot of Indian, Armenian, Chinese and Latin stores, but not so many Arabic stores.  I checked 3 Armenian stores, no luck – well that’s not totally true, I did find Jordanian za’atar at one and they carried something they call jameed, but it was a liquid soup started rather than a dry powder, so I don’t think it translates.  I bought some anyway and tried it – very sour with an odd processed taste, I didn’t like it.   A friend who lives next to an Arabic grocery store in the South End was kind enough to stop by one day and found me the elusive jameed (thank you Deepan).

So I was able to try to make mansaf myself.  I’ve got to say, the fermented, dehydrated yogurt must be an acquired taste.  The yeasty, fermented flavor was overpowering to me and I didn’t love it.  Perhaps I just didn’t do it right, and my jameed was a powder not a hard ball, so let’s just blame those factors and assume that the real mansaf is more like the restaurant version.  Luckily, I’m looking for inspiration, not authentic traditional recipes – inspiration is easier 🙂

So, after a couple months of research and trial and error, it was time to knuckle down and figure out how the flavors we experienced could come together in a burger.  Ground lamb for the patty was obvious, rice and pita was an easy base.  I added za’atar seasoning to the lamb – za’atar is a seasoning blend typical to this part of the world, but varies somewhat from country to country and home to home.  The basics are sesame seeds and thyme, which sounds simple until you read more and discover that the thyme used here isn’t the same as the French thyme that I typically use, it’s closer to oregano than to the European or American versions of thyme.  Sumac is also added to most blends to give a little citrus tang.  I bought a blend from an American company (Penzey’s, my favorite spice company), and two blends from the Armenian store.  One blend was actually made in Jordan.  We tasted all three (just blended them with olive oil and dipped bread into the spice mix), and we liked the Jordanian blend the best, so that’s what we went with, but all of the choices were tasty.  You could also make your own, but I would use oregano rather than thyme.

I realized I could easily make a yogurt sauce with onion and garlic, you wouldn’t get the meat flavoring that you get when you cook the meat in the sauce, but that’s ok.  But the sauce is pretty runny and I wanted something to give the dish more body.  So I added ful medames – this is a popular Middle Eastern dish made with fava beans.  It’s a mash of fava beans, garlic and spices with a little lemon for balance.  My last step was olive oil.  Jordanians are very proud of their locally produced olive oil and many say it has a distinctive taste.  Alas, I don’t know if this is true.  While searching for jameed, I searched Jordanian olive oil.   No luck, the closest I could find was Lebanese olive oil, and lots of Italian options.  So I purchased the Lebanese oil and it tasted, to my palate, exactly like the Italian olive oil I cook with every day.  So I used it, but I don’t recommend you search it out.  If you can find Jordanian olive oil, I’d love to hear your thoughts on how it compares, otherwise, just use Italian EVOO.

So, at the end of the day, we got a burger with that sweet and herby lamb patty, covered in rich ful medames and coated with the slightly sour, extremely garlicky, totally awesome yogurt sauce, and life was good.  I’ll admit, I ate the photo version the next day (I don’t usually indulge in two burgers in one week), and I dipped bread in the yogurt sauce and finished it off after everyone went to bed the next night.  I have since made chicken in the yogurt sauce and it works really well – tart and savory and the yogurt gives a nice tender texture to the chicken.  This recipe has become a part of the way we eat; I hope you love it as much as we do.  I can’t cook for you, so sharing my recipes is my version of hospitality – enjoy!

If you like this burger you should check out my Bahrainian burger, it’s a little bit lighter yet still has great Middle Eastern flavors.   Also, if you want to know more about mansaf, here’s a link to a great article about mansaf (this is not the recipe I tried, so perhaps hers would be better) http://www.dimasharif.com/2011/08/jordanian-mansaf-more-than-just-food-it.html

Jordanian Burger
1 pound ground lamb
2 Tablespoons yoghurt (preferably full fat, Middle Eastern yoghurt)
2 Tablespoons za’atar (available online or at specialty markets)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 large pita (see note)
Ful medames (recipe below)
Yellow rice (recipe below)
Garlic-yoghurt sauce (recipe below)
Sliced almonds

Note:  Do not buy the typical pita that we use in the US to make sandwiches, it is thick and dry and tastes like cardboard.  Find a good Middle Eastern bakery and get real flatbread – thin, light, soft.  If it doesn’t look like this, don’t buy it, skip the pita and just serve with rice.

note how soft this pita is

note how soft this pita is

note how thin and light

note how thin and light

Combine the lamb, yoghurt and za’atar.  Don’t use the low/no fat versions that are so popular these days, find a full fat yoghurt.  Middle Eastern yoghurt is creamy and luscious; it’s perfect for this dish.  Let the meat sit for and hour in the refrigerator for an hour to infuse the meat with the flavors.  Form four patties.

Heat the olive oil in a cast iron pan.  Cook the lamb patties to your desired temperature.

To serve:  cut the pita into quarters and place one quarter on each plate.  Scoop some ful medames and some rice on each piece.  Place a patty on each then spoon some yoghurt sauce on and top with sliced almonds.  Be generous with the yoghurt sauce, it’s awesome.

Ful Medames
16 ounce can of fava beans
2 cloves of garlic, mashed
3 Tablespoons olive oil
Juice of one lemon
½ teaspoon ground sumac
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
1 tomato chopped

Drain and rinse the fava beans then place in a glass bowl.  Mash the beans then add all the other ingredients.  Set aside until ready to use.  I prefer this room temperature, but if it’s going to be more than an hour, you’ll want to refrigerate it.

BH&T Jordan ful medames

Yellow Rice
1 cup medium grain rice
1¾ cup water
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
Pinch of kosher salt

Rinse the rice and drain, then place all of the ingredients in a medium saucepan.  Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.  Cover and cook for 20-25 minutes.

BH&T Jordan Rice

Yoghurt Sauce
2 Tablespoons ghee
1 small onion minced
2 cloves garlic minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup Middle Eastern yoghurt

Melt the ghee in a medium sauté pan; add the onions, garlic and salt.  Sauté over medium/low heat until soft (you don’t want to brown the onions, so watch the temperature).  Add the yoghurt and stir until warm.  Taste and salt more if needed.

BH&T Jordan Yogurt Sauce

 

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©Copyright 2014 Linda Monach

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