Burkina Faso burger recipe

Posted on July 16, 2011 by linda

BH&T Burkina Faso burger recipeBean Cake with Spicy Piri Piri Ketchup
When I first came up with the idea of this cookbook and started talking about it with my friends, many of them said “I can’t wait to see what you’re going to do for Burkina Faso,” not Togo, Vanuatu, Oman, Djibouti or Eritrea, but Burkina Faso.   I have to admit, I was blasé about it, I had already figured out Afghanistan, Algeria and Angola, how hard could Burkina Faso be?  Pretty damn hard as it turns out.  So let’s start with where and work our way to why then what.  Burkina Faso (one of the best country names so far – second only to Azerbaijan in my book) used to be called Upper Volta and was a French protectorate.  According to Wikipedia, the name Burkina Faso means “land of upright people,” (or people of integrity) and, while I don’t usually quote Wikipedia without another source, I like this translation so much, I’m sticking with it.

It is a landlocked country in Western Africa surrounded by Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Which reminds me, congratulations to South Sudan for becoming the newest member state of the UN and getting added to my list of countries for which I need to create a burger – I refuse to change my Twitter ID though, I shall remain @192burgers even though I’ll be making 193 Ok, I gave in, I’m now @193burgers.

Anyway, back to our story.  We are going to be spending some time in this part of Africa between Burkina Faso, Burundi and Cameroon, so I’ve spent some time really diving into the current situation in these countries to give a real flavor of the region.  Burkina Faso is poor, really poor.  According to the CIA World  Factbook, they rank 206th out of 228 countries on GDP per capita.  According to the UN’s statistics, 56.5% of the population is living on less than $1.25 per day – and that’s $1.25 adjusted to really be $1.25 in purchasing power!  Imagine feeding your family on $1.25, paying your mortgage, clothing everyone…I can’t imagine how people do it.  Sadly, Burkina Faso isn’t even the worst in the world for poverty rates, Burundi is even worse and depending on the measure you use, some rank even lower than Burundi.  But the largest concentration of poor nations is in this part of the world.

We could go into a long tirade here about politics and we could talk at length about human rights and dictators and the amazing uprisings that are happening around the world, but let’s leave that to the political bloggers and focus on the food.  Unfortunately, there is a link; given the level of poverty in Burkina Faso we won’t be making a giant beef burger with French bread and a luscious Camembert.  Meat is a luxury that goes pretty low on the list when you’re feeding your family on less than $1.25 a day.  Burkinabe (yes, that is what you call someone from Burkina Faso) do eat some fresh water fish and chicken, but many get their protein from beans and eggs.  So, we are creating a bean cake and spicing it up with Piri Piri sauce.  This sauce is common in West African cooking – it’s the West African equivalent of Argentina’s chimichurri sauce (except super hot and spicy!).  Piri Piri is served as a condiment and used as a flavoring in many dishes.  It’s best if you make it a least a day ahead of time and let it sit overnight at room temperature and absorb the flavors.

Bean cake, check, Piri Piri sauce, check.  Easy right?  Wrong!  Here’s where I went dreadfully wrong.  Burkinabe make a traditional rice dish that is cooked in with stewed vegetables – it stretches the veggies and takes advantage of the flavor of the them to make the rice more interesting.  So, I whipped up a batch of veggie stew and cooked some rice in it, strained the rice to make the starch layer, plopped the bean cake on the rice then topped the whole thing off with the veggies from the stew.  Voila!  I had just created vegetable soup on a plate.  It was boring, boring, boring.  It didn’t suck, but when writing a cookbook, I prefer to not settle for “it doesn’t suck.”  So, back to the drawing board.  The only things I liked were the bean cake and the Piri Piri sauce.  For the starch I decided to return to millet, an inexpensive and tasty grain that we explored in the Benin burger and, if you read the comments for this burger, Zjar gave a really interesting history of the grain and its importance in feeding the world’s hungry.   It’s a nice nutty grain with a softer texture than rice.  For the burger topping, I figured I would lean into Piri Piri sauce and create a ketchup type of topping.  This worked like a charm and the result is a really spicy boldly flavored dish that has a nice balance between the bold flavor of the ketchup and the starchiness of the bean and millet.  You can use a store bought veggie burger if you’d like.

I hope you enjoy this, it is easy to make but not for the faint hearted when it comes to spice.  If you like your food nice and spicy, be bold and give the Bhutan burger a try – it is easily the spiciest burger I’ve made, and soooo good!

Burkina Faso Burger
15 ounce can of black eyed peas
1 large egg
4 teaspoons Piri Piri Sauce (recipe below)
½ cup fresh bread crumbs
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon peanut oil
Millet (recipe below)
Piri Piri Ketchup (recipe below)

Drain and rinse peas.  In a food processor pulse the peas, egg, bread crumbs and salt until coarsely blended.  Form four patties out of the bean mixture (you can refrigerate this mixture if you want until you are ready to use).  In a large non-stick skillet, heat the peanut oil over medium high heat until shimmering.  Add the bean patties and fry each side until golden brown (about 2 minutes per side).  Put a scoop of millet on each plate then add the cooked bean cakes and top with 2-3 Tablespoons of the Piri Piri Ketchup.  Serve hot.

Piri Piri Sauce
10 dried bird chilies
1 dried hot Thai chili
1-2 fresh red jalapenos
2 Tablespoons fresh Italian parsley (chopped)
Juice of one lemon
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup peanut oil

Put all ingredients in a small food processor and pulse until thoroughly combined.  Let sit in a glass container at room temperature for at least 12 hours.  You can refrigerate after that if you need to, just bring the sauce back to room temperature before using.  You can use less of the dried chilies and/or more mild chilies to temper the spiciness if you want.  Removing the seeds will also make for a less fiery sauce.

BH&T Burkina Faso piri piri sauce

Piri Piri Ketchup
1 Tablespoon peanut oil
½ cup onion diced
6 oz can of tomato paste
2½ Tablespoons Piri Piri Sauce
2 Tablespoons water
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Tablespoon red wine vinegar

In a small sauce pan, heat peanut oil until shimmering then add onion and cook over medium heat until onions are translucent.  Add all other ingredients and simmer over low heat for a least 15 minutes.  Serve hot.

BH&T Burkina Faso piri piri ketchup

Millet
1 teaspoon peanut oil
¼ cup onion diced
½ cup millet
1 cup boiling water
¼ teaspoon kosher salt

In a small sauce pan, heat oil then add onion and cook over medium heat until translucent.  Add the millet and cook for 2-3 minutes stirring constantly until millet is golden.  Add the water and salt and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 25-30 minutes until millet is desired texture.

Burkina Faso burger recipe

©Copyright 2011 Linda Monach

Posted in african recipes, vegetarian burgers | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Bulgarian burger recipe

Posted on July 10, 2011 by linda

BH&T Bulgaria burger recipeFeta stuffed burger with cucumber and tomato salsa and dill yoghurt
Our next stop is Bulgaria.  Funny thing about Bulgaria, I kept picturing a dark dreary, somewhat scary place – picture vampires dwelling in large spooky castles.  I also figured the food would be heavy and along the lines of Eastern European styles.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  I forgot that Bulgaria is actually not far from the Mediterranean; it’s bordered by Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Romania, and enjoys a large coastal area along the Black Sea.

courtesy of the CIA World Factbook

The coast is gorgeous, with clear blue water and big sandy beaches; we’re going to have to add this to the list of places to visit some day.

But what about the food?  Oh, the food…  First off Bulgarians like lots of bread – I found many different traditional bread recipes in my searches.  In fact, I found so many different “classic Bulgarian bread” recipes that I decided there just wasn’t one particular bread that I needed to bake to make this recipe authentic.  I also just wasn’t in the mood to bake (it’s been kind of hot here lately).  So I decided a nice soft brioche roll from my local Whole Foods would work fine.  The flavors of Bulgaria are similar to Greek flavors, but there is one big difference.  Bulgarians and Greeks both use a lot of feta, but Greek feta is typically made from cow’s milk, while Bulgarian feta is made from goat or sheep’s milk.  Luckily my local store had both and I could do a side by side tasting – the Bulgarian style tasted more like goat chevre, while the Greek style was saltier and drier.

Bulgarians also enjoy their meats, most commonly pork and lamb, but some beef also.  Veal seems to be a little more common than beef and I read somewhere that this is because cows are usually used for dairy and veal is kind of a by-product of the dairy industry.  I decided to forgo the veal however as I’m just not able to get past the issues surrounding veal.  One of the fun thing about Bulgarians is that they like to mix up their meats – combining different types and also putting lots of flavoring into the meat itself.  I know the purists won’t like this, but it makes a nice change from a standard plain burger.  Another fun thing is that they like to stuff meat in Bulgaria.  I meant to try stuffing a burger with a hard boiled egg, but in the chaos of three different meat combos, I forgot all about the egg.

Every now and then I lose my mind and decide that burger night would make for a good dinner party.  This was one of those times.  We invited over two of our closest friends to help choose the best Bulgarian burger recipe.  I tried three different meat combinations (beef and lamb, lamb and pork, and beef and pork).  I also tried two different topping options.  My goal was to incorporate a traditional salad with the burger.  Salad in Bulgaria doesn’t involve lettuce; the basic tomato and cucumber combo is one of the most common.  We tried just pickling the cucumbers (sliced super thin) in oil and vinegar and serving that with sliced tomatoes.  In the end, it wasn’t as good as the salsa version – you just got more bang for the buck with the salsa.  So, we had six burgers, each different for six people and had to share.  Luckily the stuffed burgers are half pound, so there was plenty to go around and everyone had a blast.  Hectic and crazy tasting, writing notes and keeping the different options straight, but good food and wine combines so well with good friends, it was worth the chaos.

The burgers are chock full of flavor and stuffing the cheese in the middle helps get you cheese with every bite (feta is usually so crumbly, it falls off the top, so it’s a perfect stuffing cheese).  I used the Williams Sonoma burger stuffing device and it is a big help and makes a nicely shaped burger.  I wish it were made of metal instead of plastic, but otherwise it’s pretty awesome.  If you use a device like this, just make sure to squeeze tight to seal the burgers and take the excess meat off the sides, you can make a slider or two with the meat that extrudes from the sides.  I’ve tried stuffing burgers without the device and the problem I always have is getting a good seal.  I’d love to hear if any of you have the secret to doing this by hand.

We served our burgers with an inexpensive cabernet.  We couldn’t find a Bulgarian cab (apparently they make a lot of inexpensive cab that is surprising a good value for the price), so we did our best with local cheap but pretty good wine.  Columbia Crest Cabernet is an old standby, and while I don’t usually go so cheap with company, we were trying to be authentic (we opened a fancier wine for bottle number two).  Everyone enjoyed the burgers, even my dad.  The only problem we had was getting them as well done as dad likes because they were so thick.  The choice of lamb and pork combo was unanimous as was the salsa.  So, invite some friends over and indulge in a tasty Bulgarian burger, and let me know how it goes!

If you like this burger, give the Bosnian burger a try, it also has the yummy freshness of bright ingredients.

Bulgarian Burger
1 pound ground lamb
1 pound ground pork
1 Vidalia onion minced
2 Tablespoons fresh mint chopped
2 Tablespoons fresh Italian parsley chopped
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt
4 ounces goat’s milk feta sliced
4 brioche buns
Olive oil
Shopska Salad (recipe below)
Dill Yoghurt Sauce (recipe below)

In a large bowl combine all ingredients except the cheese until well mixed.  Divide the mixture into 8 quarter pound patties.  Using flatten each patty then create a concave well in each patty.  Place sliced feta on four of the patties in the well, then top each of those patties with the remaining four patties.  Seal the edges.

Grill outdoors on a charcoal grill until cooked to desired temperature.

In the meantime, slice the brioche buns and brush each side with olive oil.  Grill the buns and set aside until burgers are ready.

Placed the cooked burgers on the toasted buns, serve with Shopska Salad and Dill Yoghurt Sauce on top.

Shopska Salad
½ cup Vidalia onion diced
2 medium tomatoes diced (approximately 1 cup)
1 cup English cucumber diced
1½ Tablespoons sunflower oil (you can substitute peanut or vegetable oil)
1 Tablespoon champagne vinegar (you can use white wine vinegar)
Pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon fresh Italian parsley chopped

Combine first three ingredients in a medium bowl.  In a small bowl whisk the remaining ingredients, taste and correct seasoning.  Combine the dressing with the vegetables and let sit at room temperature for at least 20 minutes before using.  If Vidalia’s aren’t in season, you can use regular white or yellow onions, but I recommend soaking them in ice cold water for about ten minutes before adding to the other ingredients – this takes some of the sting out of the onions and makes them more pleasant and less aggressive.

BH&T Bulgaria Shopska salad

Dill Yoghurt Sauce
6 ounces Greek yoghurt
2 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill
½ teaspoon lemon zest
Pinch of kosher salt

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.

Bulgarian burger recipe

©Copyright 2011 Linda Monach

Posted in european recipes, lamb burgers, pork burgers | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Bruneian burger recipe

Posted on July 4, 2011 by linda

BH&T Brunei burger recipeSweet Chicken Curry Burger on Homemade Prata (flatbread)
Brunei is one of those countries that I’ve heard of, but really had no idea where it was or anything about it except that it’s a wealthy country.  If pressed, I probably would have guessed (incorrectly) that it was in the middle east somewhere.  It turns out that the lovely State of Brunei Darussalam (abode of peace) is located in southeast Asia bordering the South China Sea and otherwise surrounded by Malaysia.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

The land of Brunei is not contiguous, in other words, there’s a strip of Malaysia that separates the two territories that make up Brunei.  According to the CIA World Factbook (and I’m thinking they should know this stuff), Brunei is 8th in the world in GDP per capita at purchasing power parity.  Its total land is slightly smaller than Delaware and it is home to about four hundred thousand people.  67% of Bruneians are Muslim another 13% Buddhist.  Brunei is fundamentally a Muslim country – they’ve even created a brand for food Brunei Halal that ensures that the food meets the religious standards – the brand is used world wide much like kosher is used for food that adheres to Jewish religious standards (we even have a local Halal market here in Boston).  Unfortunately, because Brunei is pretty seriously Muslim, they have completely outlawed alcohol, so, out of respect for the customs of the country, you won’t get any tasting pairings from me on this recipe.

Fortunately the lack of booze is made up for by the incredible richness of flavors in Brunei cooking.  Although seafood is pretty common, I wasn’t in the mood for fish, so I went with chicken as something different from our standard beef burger.  Chicken is also pretty common in Brunei and in particular Bruneians enjoy chicken curries.  These curries are often served with a local bread called prata or prantha (depending on who you ask).  The bread is time consuming (because it depends on resting the dough for a long time) but not that hard to make.  I’m sure mine wasn’t perfect, but it was tasty and definitely better than the store bought naan that we tried as a backup.

The bread is very buttery and has a lovely fried flavor to it – because you fry it in butter :).  The curry is rich and sweet and would make an amazing dish all on its own.  I make my own curry seasoning, but if that really intimidates you, you can buy a sweet curry spice from Penzeys.com and use that instead.  If you want to buy your curry at your local market, just try to find a sweet version, this isn’t meant to be a spicy dish.  Nothing in the dish requires great culinary skill, just good time management.  It’s a perfect burger for any weather or occasion and great for your friends who don’t eat red meat.

If you like this burger, and I’m sure you will, give the Indonesian burger a try.  The seasonings are different, but both give me that comfort food feeling, and they are two of my favorites.

Brunei burger
1 pound ground chicken
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon Sweet Curry Spice (recipe below)
1 Tablespoon ghee (clarified butter)
4 Prata (recipe below)
Sweet Chicken Curry (recipe below)
Chopped flat leaf parsley (optional)

Combine chicken, salt and Sweet Curry Spice and form mixture into four patties.  Melt ghee in a large non-stick pan.  Add chicken patties and cook until done (I use a digital thermometer to ensure that the chicken is fully cooked).  Place cooked patties on Prata and spoon a generous helping of Sweet Chicken Curry on top.  Garnished with chopped parsley (optional – this is really just for color, you don’t need it for flavor)

Sweet Curry Spice
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
⅛ teaspoon ground galangal
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ Tablespoon green cardamom pods
¾ teaspoon anise seed
¼ teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground fenugreek
¼ teaspoon peppercorns
1 small clove garlic minced

Combine all ingredients and roast in a dry non-stick pan until fragrant – about 5 minutes.  Grind the mixture and set aside until ready to use.

BH&T Brunei Sweet curry spice

Prata
2 ½ cups all purpose flour (10.6% protein)
1 cup water
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 heaping teaspoon ghee, plus more for cooking

Mix all of the ingredients then let the dough rest in a ghee coated bowl for 20 minutes.  Knead the dough for 10 minutes in electric mixer with dough hook.  Let rest for 10 minutes, knead again for 10 minutes.  Divide into 4-5 portions.  Use some ghee to grease a cupcake pan.  Roll each portion of dough into a ball and place each in the cupcake pan.  Let the dough rest for at least 2 hours and up to 10 hours.  Roll the dough on a ghee coated countertop one portion at a time.  When dough is thin enough to see light through, fold it over on itself until you get a square about the right size to hold a burger.  Repeat for each dough ball.  Melt 2 Tablespoons of ghee in a large non-stick pan over med high heat until shimmering.  Add the dough squares and fry until golden then flip and fry the other side (2-3 minutes per side).

Place cooked prata on a sheet of paper towel to soak up any residual oil then serve warm.

BH&T Brunei prata

Sweet Chicken Curry
1 Tablespoon ghee
2 chicken thighs (bone-in with skin)
4 shallots diced
2 Tablespoons Sweet Curry Spice
Juice of 1 coconut (or one can of coconut milk)
4 Tablespoons of coconut cream
1 red jalapeno chopped
1 green jalapeno chopped
4 large cremini mushrooms chopped
½ cup chopped snow peas
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ cup roasted cashews (unsalted) ground fine

In a medium skillet melt ghee over med-high heat.  Add the chicken thighs skin down and cook for about 3 minutes until browned.  Add shallots and Sweet Curry Spice and cook for about three minutes until shallots are beginning to soften.  Add the coconut juice/milk, coconut cream and jalapenos.  Cook for about 3 minutes.  Add the creminis and snow peas and simmer for 30 minutes over low heat.  Shred the chicken meat off the bone and discard bones and skin.  Add the salt and cashews, taste and correct as needed and simmer for another 15 minutes.

Serve hot.  This can be made ahead of time and reheated.

BH&T Brunei sweet curry

Bruneian burger recipe

©Copyright 2011 Linda Monach

Posted in chicken burgers, south asian recipes | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Brazilian burger recipe

Posted on June 29, 2011 by linda

BH&T Brazil Burger RecipeFeijoada Burger with Plantain Cake
And now we have arrived at Brazil!  The B’s sure are keeping us busy hoping from one end of the world to the next.  Brazil is the first country for which I didn’t feel like I needed to do a ton of research.  When I was an undergrad I took 3 semesters of Portuguese from a Brazilian native.  She was terrific and taught us not only the language basics (most of which I have now forgotten), but also something about Brazilian culture.  We even had a traditional Brazilian dinner at the end of our third semester, so I was ready for this one.  Let’s crank up the Milton Nascimento, mix up a caipirinha (or two) and let’s get cooking!  Oh, yeah, before we start, The Federative Republic of Brazil is a giant country in South America (fifth largest country in the world), bordered by lots of Atlantic Ocean, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, Columbia, Bolivia, Peru, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina and French Guiana.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

They speak Portuguese in Brazil, but the pronunciation is very different from continental Portuguese – it sounds more like Spanish to my ear, but trust me on this, if you try speaking Spanish to fake it in Brazil, the Brazilians will definitely call you on it.  They are proud of their language and don’t appreciate people acting like it’s the same as Spanish.

One note, as a good friend recently found out, if you want to visit Brazil you need to get a visa – check the consulate website, you have to go in-person for an interview, if you don’t have a visa, they’ll turn you back at the airport!  Luckily, we can explore their food without leaving the comfort of our neighborhoods.

Brazilians have had an economic boom lately but for a long time there was a great deal of poverty in Brazil.  Because of this Brazilians became adept at using inexpensive meats and cooking them in ways that made them delicious and stretched them to feed more.  A lot of traditional cooking involves marinating for long periods of time and/or cooking at low temps for long periods of time.  The unofficial dish of Brazil is feijoada.  Feijoada is simply beans cooked with meats for a long time until the flavors meld and the whole thing becomes a yummy meaty/beany wonder.  I’ve used dried beans for this recipe because they hold up to the long cooking times.  You can substitute canned beans, but the end result will probably be a bit mushy.  You can also substitute chorizo for the linguica – we tried both and the linguica had a bit more flavor, a smoky spiciness that we thought would work well in the feijoada, but I realize not everyone has linguica in their local grocery store.  (New England is home to many Portuguese and their descendents, so we get great Portuguese ingredients in our local supermarkets).

To get the right flavors here, you just need to take time, lots of time.  There’s nothing difficult in the preparation of this burger, but you will need 3 hours for soaking the beans and 3 hours for cooking the feijoada – you will be rewarded with your house filling with the scents of spice and beef and general yumminess.  This is not a vegetarian friendly dish, but you could just cook some black beans with onion, bay leaf and a little vinegar and it would be ok on a veggie burger, but not nearly as good as the real thing with meat (sorry veg friends).

This isn’t spicy, just rich and delicious.  Brazilians like to serve oranges with feijoada, I tried that and didn’t love it, so I made a mayonnaise with fresh orange juice that complemented the burger perfectly.  We, of course, served our burgers  with a mid-priced Argentinian Malbec, a great combo.  And, before I forget, my dad hates beans, so I made him an X-Tudo burger.  This is apparently the big burger in Brazil, it’s so much like the Australian Burger with the Lot, that I didn’t feel like it warranted a recipe – it’s basically beef patty, lettuce, tomato, roasted corn, ketchup, mayo, cheese, fried egg and shoestring fries – my dad loved it!  Something for everyone in Brazil, cheers!

BH&T Brazil X-Tudo burger

Brazilian Burger
1 pound ground beef
Linguica from the feijoada with casings removed
Feijoada (recipe below)
Plantain Cakes (recipe below)
Orange Mayo (recipe below)

Mix ground beef and linguica together then form four patties.  Cook to desired temperature.  Serve patties on Plantain Cakes with Feijoada and Orange Mayo

Feijoada
1 cup dried black beans
6 cups water
4 ounces slab bacon cubed
6 ounces linguica sausage sliced
1 small Vidalia onion diced (about 2 cups)
2 beef ribs (10 ounces)
3 bay leaves
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
salt and pepper

Rinse beans and place in a medium saucepan with 3 cups of water.  Bring to a boil then remove from heat and cover.  Let beans sit for 3 hours.  Drain and rinse the beans.  In a large pot, brown the bacon over medium heat for 5-10 minutes until the fat is rendered.  Add the sausage and brown for about 3 minutes turning to get even browning.

BH&T Brazil Feijoada in process1Add the onions and ribs cook for another 5 minutes stirring occasionally.  Add the drained beans, 3 cups of water and bay leaves.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 2 hours.  Add the vinegar and salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer for another hour until the beans are soft and the meat is fork tender.  Add water if necessary as the feijoada cooks.

BH&T Brazil Feijoada in process2

Remove the ribs from the feijoada and discard.  Remove the sausage and use in the burger patties.  Serve feijoada with a slotted spoon so that you don’t get too much liquid on your burger.  Serve hot – this can be made a day ahead of time and reheated before using.

BH&T Brazil Feijoada

Plantain Cakes
2 green plantains
Kosher salt
Peanut oil

Peel and slice the plantains.  Place in a food processor with a pinch or two of salt.  Pulse until coarsely chopped.  In a large non-stick pan, heat enough peanut oil to cover bottom of pan with about ¼ inch of oil.  Heat oil until shimmering.  Form four cakes from the plantains and using a spatula, slowly add the cakes to the hot oil.  Fry cakes until golden, then turn and cook other side (about 2-3 minutes per side).  Place cooked cakes on paper towel to drain oil before serving.

BH&T Brazil Plantain Cakes

Orange Mayo
½ cup mayonnaise
juice from ½ of a large orange
¼ teaspoon chili powder (I used chipotle chili powder, but regular chili powder is good too)

Whisk all ingredients in a bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.

Brazilian burger recipe

©Copyright 2011 Linda Monach

Posted in beef burgers, south american recipes | Tagged , , , , | 12 Comments

Botswana burger recipe

Posted on June 25, 2011 by linda

BH&T Botswana Burger Recipe

Burger with Seswaa and Watermelon Salsa
Africa has been the most interesting part of this journey. Before this, I hadn’t spent a lot of time reading or thinking about Africa and I’m so glad that this project has changed that.  The Republic of Botswana is in the southern part of the continent, just north of South Africa and bordered by Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Seventy percent of Botswana is the Kalahari Desert.  Just this evening Michelle Obama finished up a tour of Africa in Botswana, if only I could get her take on the food…  Alas, I will have to settle for stories from Peace Corp volunteers and articles from travel writers.  Researching the food of Botswana has been really interesting.   I can’t decide whether it is Western writers feeling like they need to say something nice, or if people really think the food in Botswana is really amazing.  I’ve read several general description about how remarkable the food is in Botswana, yet when they get to specifics there doesn’t seem to be a lot of there, there.  The national dish is Seswaa – ingredients are beef (all sorts of cuts), onions, water and salt – cook for hours until meet is tender.  This is usually served with a mash/mush made of sorghum water and salt.  This is really simple food.  As it turns out the seswaa is pretty good (it just looks terrible), but the sorghum is nasty.  Maybe the sorghum we get here is different, maybe I just don’t have a sophisticated enough palate, but this tasted like cardboard.  Yuck.

So this left me with grey meat and very little other inspiration.  Oh yeah, they do have a spinach-like green.  At this point I became a little desperate – it would suck to get stumped on the B’s, so I bought a bottle of Goats do Roam (a cheap but tasty South African red wine) and kept searching.  Inspiration strikes in the oddest of places – turns out Botswana is the birthplace of watermelon.  Ok, I know, watermelon and a burger – crazy right?  I tried a couple of options, a chili lime watermelon mixture just didn’t work, but I hit pay dirt with a simple salsa.

Instead of sorghum I used cornmeal and it was much more palatable.  The seswaa added a rich undertone to the burger while the watermelon added a light freshness.  It surprised the whole family that this burger actually works.  I would never have paired watermelon and beef, but now that I have I’m beginning to think anything is possible.  We paired the burgers with a nice South African Chenin Blanc (since I had finished off the Goats do Roam) and it was a perfect summer dinner.

Botswana Burger
1 pound ground beef
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground pepper
Cornmeal Mash (recipe below)
Seswaa (recipe below)
Watermelon Salsa (recipe below)

Mix ground beef with salt and pepper and form 4 paties.  Cook to desired temperature (I recommend cooking these burgers over a charcoal grill).  Serve up about half a cup of the Cornmeal Mash on each plate then place a couple Tablespoons of Seswaa on each serving.  Place patties on top of the Seswaa and top with Watermelon Salsa.

Cornmeal Mash
2 cups corn meal
2 cups water
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Mix all ingredients together in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Stir until mixture is smooth.  Cook 10-15 minutes stirring regularly until mixture is thickened.

Seswaa (tastes a lot better than it looks)
½ pound sirloin tips (or other cut of beef)
1 onion chopped
2 cups water
salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer covered for 2.5 hours until meat is fork tender.  Mash the mixture with a fork and keep warm until ready to use.

BH&T Botswana Seswaa

Watermelon Salsa
1 pound watermelon diced into ¼ inch cubes (about 2 cups)
½ cup minced Vidalia onion
1 jalapeno minced
½ inch ginger root grated

Mix all ingredients and refrigerate until ready to use.

BH&T Botswana Watermelon Salsa

 

Botswana burger recipe

©Copyright 2011 Linda Monach

 

 

 

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Bosnia and Herzegovina burger recipe

Posted on June 17, 2011 by linda

BH&T Bosnia Burger Recipe

Cevapi Sliders with Roasted Red Pepper Ajvar
We have arrived to the land of (one set of) my ancestors, or close to it anyway.  My great grandparents were from Yugoslavia, I have no idea where exactly, and came to the US a little before they had my grandmother.  They were actually Croatian, but the whole geography of this land doesn’t always match up with the ethnicity, so for today I shall claim a small piece of Bosnia for myself (preferably one with a sea view).  Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1992.  It’s located in the southern Alps and is gorgeous (if the internet can be believed).

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Except for a tiny coast on the Adriatic, it’s virtually landlocked surrounded by Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia.  For simplicity, most Westerners refer to the country as Bosnia, although I didn’t find any commentary on this, I imagine it pisses off those who live in Herzegovina.  However, the hour is late and I am lazy, so I’m going to simplify and go with Bosnia – apologies to Herzegovinians everywhere.

When it comes to food, this one was a slam dunk – the most mentioned dish of Bosnia is Cevapi (or Cevapici or Chevap, lots of spellings out there).  Cevapi is a dish where you mix a couple of kinds of ground meat with onions and garlic and roll it into small sausage shapes then grill it.  Of course this blog isn’t “hot dogs here and there” so I immediately changed Cevapi into sliders, and it worked like a charm. Cevapi is usually served with greek yoghurt, yummy, and raw onions, yuck, but, when in Sarajevo…  and with all of this is the traditional Ajvar.  Ajvar is a relish like dish made with roasted red peppers and eggplant – it can be sweet or spicy depending on how you spice it up.  For a change, I elected to keep it sweet and it was lovely with the sliders and the yoghurt and even the onions.

We tried to find a Herzegovinian wine (apparently they make the best wine in the country), but we didn’t try super hard and we weren’t successful.  So, instead we served with a nice Greek wine, a light bodied Chianti would also be perfect.   These burgers take a bit of time (12 hours is recommended) but aren’t difficult to make.  Do not be tempted to substitute jarred roasted red peppers for the homemade peppers, the jarred version doesn’t taste remotely the same, they tend to have a more acidic flavor and almost tomato like overtones.  When you roast them yourself, the natural sweetness of the peppers shines through and make the relish outstanding.  Enjoy…

If you love these sliders, you might also enjoy the Greek Burger, it has the red pepper and yoghurt flavors then adds a yummy layer of feta cheese.  Check it out!

Bosnian Cevepi Sliders with Roasted Red Pepper Ajvar                                                     
½ pound ground beef 80% lean
½ pound ground pork (lamb works well too)
½ cup onion minced
1 large clove of garlic minced
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Roasted Red Pepper Ajvar (recipe below)
1 cup Greek yoghurt
1 red onion
4 mini pitas cut in half

In a large bowl, gently mix all ingredients. Form 8 patties (2 oz each). Place the formed patties on wax paper and cover with wax paper. Refrigerate overnight or 8-12 hours. Bring sliders out of the refrigerator about an hour before cooking so that they are room temperature.  Cook until done.

While the sliders are warming to room temperature, slice the red onion into strips then soak in an ice water bath for at least 15 minutes. This takes some of the sharpness out of the onion so that it doesn’t overpower the dish. Drain and dry before using.

In each half pita, place a cooked slider, 1-2 Tablespoons yoghurt, 2-3 Tablespoons Ajvar and red onion.

Roasted Red Pepper Ajvar
2 red bell peppers
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 small eggplant chopped
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 clove garlic minced
½ teaspoon white wine vinegar

Preheat oven to 425º.  Rub peppers with olive oil then place on a cookie sheet. Roast on middle rack for 15-20 minutes or until skin starts to blister.  Place peppers in a medium bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Let sit until peppers are cool enough to handle.

BH&T Bosnia roasted red pepper

While peppers are roasting, generously salt the chopped eggplant and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.  drain the water and brush off excess salt.  Place eggplant on the cookie sheet and roast in the over for 10 minutes stirring/turning once.  Let eggplant cool.

Once pepper are cool enough to handle, peel off the skins and remove the tops and the inside membranes and seeds.  Roughly chop the peppers.  Place the peppers, eggplant, garlic and vinegar in a food processor and pulse until ingredients are combined and form a chunky relish.  The Ajvar can be stored in an airtight container for several days – I recommend serving it at room temperature, but it can also be used cold.

BH&T Bosnia Red Pepper Ajvar

©Copyright 2011 Linda Monach

Bosnia and Herzegovina burger recipe

 

 

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Bolivian burger recipe

Posted on June 12, 2011 by linda

BH&T Bolivia burger recipeCheeseburger with Spicy Llajua Sauce
Apologies for the delay of burger, this is what happens when you’re trying to go too fast and not doing research ahead of time.   So here we are at Bolivia or the Plurinational State of Bolivia as those of us in the know like to call it J.  I was fascinated by Bolivia as a child, mainly because I wanted to be an archeologist and I had read in National Geographic that there were forests in Bolivia that modern man had not yet fully explored.  I thought it would be really cool to be the first to discover the hidden secrets of the jungle.  Alas, life took me a different direction and given my dislike of bugs and things that go bump in the night, that’s probably for the best.  But enough about me – Bolivia is in the heart of South America.  It’s a landlocked country surrounded by Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Chili and Peru.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

People first settled in large numbers around 600 AD, the Tiwanaku hung out for a while, then there was some quiet time, then the Inca settled in, after that the Spanish colonists took over and finally the modern Bolivian state was formed in 1825.

With all of that rich history, I was expecting to find really interesting food traditions.  What I found was a lot of contradictory information about Bolivian food.  Either it’s really boring or the best in the world.  General consensus is that it isn’t spicy, except llajua sauce, which everyone seems to agree is the national side dish and can be quite spicy.  Which, to me is like saying Americans don’t like tomato flavors except for ketchup which they use on everything…well, on we go.  My cousin’s wife suggested I try quinoa – so I did and, frankly, yuck.  Quinoa is a seed pod that you cook like rice. BH&T quinoaThe problem I had with it is that it had almost no flavor except a vaguely plant-like flavor that wasn’t exciting.  I’ll stick with Bhutanese red rice myself.  So rather than torture myself on the starch, I decided to go with a basic burger bun.

Since the llajua is the national dish that got the most press, I knew we need to have some of that and this is where the delay came.  There are many different recipes for llajua, all of them include tomatoes, peppers and salt.  Beyond that there are different spices and herbs that you can add.  One that intrigued me was huacataya.  Huacataya is from an Andean marigold.  It is described as like cilantro but without the soapy taste.  Since I don’t like the soapiness of cilantro I thought I should try it.  Well, it’s hard to find the herb on its own, there are some pastes out there, but not just the dried herb.  But I persevered and found a place to order it.  Well, my packet arrived on Friday and started whipping up llajua.  My goal was to figure out what we could substitute so that you guys wouldn’t have to search all over the internet or wander your local Latin market endlessly.  The thing is, the flavor of huacataya is subtle, really subtle.  I used three times as much as the recipe that came with the packet suggested and still had trouble pulling out a distinctive flavor.  The taste is earthy with a little bit of bitterness.  The recipe below gives you those same overtones, but the flavor isn’t exact.  It is the closest I could come after many failed attempts, but the reality is the main flavors of the sauce are tomato and pepper – after that, add the herbs that you like and call it a day.

Our end result here is a simple savory burger seasoned with cumin and oregano with a spicy tomato/jalapeno sauce – clean bright flavors, even better when cooked on the grill.  It’s incredibly easy to make and you can easily adjust the sauce for different spice preferences.

Bolivian Burger
1 pound ground beef 80% lean
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
kosher salt and pepper
Manchego cheese (or cheddar if you prefer) sliced
Llajua sauce
Four burger buns

In a large bowl, combine the meat and spices.  Form four patties and grill to desired doneness.  Add the cheese about two minutes before burgers are done and cover until cheese is melted.

Place patty on each bun and spoon 1-2 tablespoons of Llajua sauce on top.  Serve with extra sauce on the side.  The extra Llajua also makes a good salsa and is yummy with tortilla chips.

Llajua Sauce
3 ripe tomatoes roughly chopped
3 jalapenos seeded and roughly chopped
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried parsley
¼ teaspoon ground coriander

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until thoroughly combined into a slightly chunky sauce.  This can be refrigerated until ready to use.

BH&T Bolivia llajua sauce

Bolivian burger recipe

©Copyright 2011 Linda Monach

 

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Bhutanese burger recipe

Posted on May 29, 2011 by linda

BH&T Bhutan burger recipeHot Pepper Ema Datshi burger with Bhutanese Red Rice
And, now we arrive at Bhutan.  You can blame my poor education or my lack of attention span or American indifference, but I’ve never heard of Bhutan.  In my defense, less than a million people live there and it is in the Himalayas, so not exactly local or easy to get to.  The Bhutanese also are so protective of their land (from an ecological, nature preserve sort of way), that you can’t just go visit Bhutan.  Tourists must sign up for an official tour, no random back packers climbing the local mountainside.  So, those are my excuses, but now, forward on our culinary adventure!  The Kindom of Bhutan is located smack dab in the middle of the Himalayas.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Ok, that’s not true, it’s actually on the far Eastern edge, but that doesn’t sound as fun.  It is bordered by India and China.  Bhutanese -who call themselves as the Drukpa people, have referred to their country as Druk Yul or “land of the thunder dragon.”  So obviously, they are super cool.  The Kingdom has a pretty nice website (amazing for such a small country) http://www.kingdomofbhutan.com.  They say on their website that the country’s population is about 750k or about the same as the city of San Francisco.

The country is primarily Buddhist, which made me assume I’d be doing a vegetarian burger…  Turns out that while it is against the rules for a Buddhist to kill an animal, eating meat is perfectly ok.  So, the Bhutanese, who love meat, import it!  I love the loophole.  And, luckily for us, they like beef (or yak, but we’re not going there).  The Bhutanese also love hot peppers, really love them.  I read in several places that they treat chili peppers like a vegetable.  The national dish is ema datshi and it is made with chili peppers (at least as hot as jalapenos, but probably not as hot as habeneros), butter, milk and cheese.  They love cheese in Bhutan – my kind of folks all the way around – but the most common cheeses are yak cheese and you just can’t get that in Boston grocery stores.  I looked at a lot of ema datshi recipes on the web and the most frequently cited used feta as a substitute for yak cheese, others used blue cheese, parmesan, and Monterey jack – so in other words, who knows?  I decided to use farmers cheese because it was mild and would balance the peppers.  If you substitute a less spicy pepper, you might want to use a more flavorful cheese.

My favorite moment in developing this recipe was shopping at Whole Foods and looking for red rice (a staple in Bhutanese cooking) and finding…gasp…Bhutanese red rice!  They actually sell rice imported from a country with a population of 750k, in my local grocery store!  It’s a crazy world we live in.  I also decided to try Himalayan salt – it’s pink, how fun.  The rice is really tasty, nutty and has firm texture that is kind of cool – it’s like the rice pops as you chew it, hard to explain, but my one year old is a huge fan now (and there is rice all over the house to prove it).  The salt tastes like, well, salt…only more mild.  It might be fine as a finishing salt, but I’ll stick with kosher salt for cooking.

This burger is a fork and knife meal – no pretense of “bun” here.  Just rice, meat and peppers.  It is HOT, HOT, HOT.  My husband and I loved the ema datshi and the nuttiness of the rice helps balance the spice, but it’s a spicy dish.  My mom thought it was good but too spicy and my father thought I was trying to kill him 🙂   You can try to substitute milder peppers, but pick a pepper that you really like because the pepper is the primary flavor.

Serve with milk to counter the oils of the peppers.  I made the mistake of drinking Syrah with my burger, terrible choice as it accented the spice, killed the Syrah and I drank an entire glass without really realizing it.  Beer would probably be a good choice, I’d go with something light and hoppy.   I tried the ema datshi and the rice with a veggie burger and it was delicious so I’m putting this one in the veggie friendly column.  It’s also a really easy recipe to make but the rice does take about 20-30 minutes, so plan a little ahead.

Bhutan Buger
1 pound ground beef 80% lean
salt and pepper
Bhutanese Red Rice (recipe below)
Ema Datshi (recipe below)

Season meat with salt and pepper (I use about ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper).  Mix and form four patties.  I recommend making a fairly flat burger (indent the middle a little bit so that it will stay flat), this allows the Ema Datshi to stay on top and not just fall off.  Cook to desired temperature.

Place ½ cup of Bhutanese Red Rice on each of four plates.  Place the cooked burger patties on the rice.  Top with Ema Datshi (I used tongs to get the peppers out then a big spoon to get some of the sauce on both the burger and the rice).

Serve warm.

Bhutanese Red Rice
1 cup Bhutanese Red Rice (or other red rice)
1 ½ cups water
½ teaspoon kosher salt

combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20-30 minutes.  The package will tell you 20 minutes, but I’ve found it takes about 30 minutes to absorb the water and get to a texture I like.

BH&T Bhutan cooked red rice

Ema Datshi
6 red jalapenos
6 green jalapenos
1 medium onion
2 Tablespoons ghee*
3-4 cloves minced garlic
2 cups whole milk
1 cup farmers cheese
kosher salt

Slice the peppers and onions lengthwise into strips.  In an 11” skillet over medium heat, heat the ghee until melted.  Add the peppers and onions and stir for 1-2 minutes until the vegetables are coated in the ghee.  Add the garlic and stir to mix well.  Add enough milk to just cover the peppers.  Stir in the cheese and let mixture cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes or until peppers are just getting soft (I like my peppers to still be a little crunchy).  Add salt to taste.  Serve warm.

*ghee is just clarified butter, you can make it yourself, or substitute regular butter if you want.

BH&T Bhutan emi dashi

Note:  I hate mincing garlic.  My wonderful mother got me the coolest gadget for Christmas and it makes mincing so easy (and no, I am not getting paid for these comments).  You just crush the garlic, peel it and put in it the gadget, then twist and, voila! instant minced garlic.  It’s called The Garlic Twist.  Now that I have this, I’m using fresh garlic all the time instead of the jarred stuff that completely lacks flavor (yes, I hated mincing garlic that much, I was willing to use jarred minced garlic rather than risk slicing off my fingers mincing what is already a super tiny item).

BH&T Garlic twistBH&T Garlic twist2

 

Bhutanese burger recipe

© Copyright 2011, Linda Monach

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Benin burger recipe

Posted on May 21, 2011 by linda

BH&T Benin burger recipeBurger with Spicy Peanut Sauce on Millet Cake

And, here is another country that I learned of under a totally different name!  I’m beginning to really despair at the quality of my early education.  I learned of The Republic of Benin as French Dahomey, but that’s about par for the course at this point.  Benin is a Western African country bordered by Togo, Burkina Faso, Niger and Nigeria.

benin map

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

The primary language of the country is French and the population is a melting pot of Africans.  The cuisine varies a little in the south vs. the central and northern area.  Yams are really popular in the south and make up one of the main starches.  I really don’t like yams, so I decided to look north for inspiration.  As I move along this journey I’m realizing that the starches are far more individual country by country than the meats.  Reading through foods commonly eaten in Benin, I found millet listed as one of the main grains in the central and northern regions.  Having never tasted or worked with millet I though, no time like the present!  Hence our millet cake.

It turns out that millet is tastes a nutty and is one of the more interesting grains I’ve worked with so far.  It has a tendency to pop a bit when it gets too hot (like corn), so I did end up with millet all over the place, you’ve been warned! 🙂  I read somewhere that beans are used mashed up in dishes and I incorporated that into the cake.  The spices were the tricky part because I couldn’t find any of the specific spice mixtures that I found referenced in Benin cooking.  There is something called West African Curry Powder with a bunch of ingredients that I couldn’t find, even online.  So I adapted and used some of the spices I know and love.  The flavor may not be authentic, but we thought the cakes were so good they could be used as a side dish to a number of tasty dinners.  The recipe makes about twice as much as you need, but when I tried to cut the recipe, I couldn’t get the flavor quite right.  So, I make extra and used the leftover the next morning with a poached egg, roasted Brussels sprouts and a little hollandaise and the family was in heaven.

An now we come to the sauce, oh, the sauce…I’m getting hungry again just writing about it.  I originally made two versions, one more complicated and authentic, including more vegetables in the sauce, but the extra ingredients and effort didn’t really pay off, the simple version was fantastic.  This is a spicy sauce, but you can moderate it by using less spicy peppers.  My husband thinks that the combination of peanut butter and tomato is the savory equivalent of raspberries and chocolate.  He practically licked his plate.  The sauce is pretty easy, but does take some time.  It can be made ahead, but should be warmed up before serving.

The burgers were great with a nice crisp Sauvignon Blanc or a good pale ale.  We tried Duckhorn SB and Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA – both were excellent choices.  The sauce is great with veggie burgers, but I’d skip the millet cake for the veggie version – too similar to a veggie burger, just go with a standard bun.  The sauce also works with ground chicken burgers, but the beef was better (the opposite result from what I expected).

Overall, the spicy richness was amazing and the millet cake was a nice nutty balance – another favorite burger for my family.  I hope you enjoy it too!

Benin Burger
1 pound ground beef
salt and pepper
4 Millet Cakes (recipe below)
bib lettuce
Spicy Peanut Sauce (recipe below)

Season ground beef with salt and pepper.  Grill to desired temperature.  Put 1-2 leave of lettuce on each Millet Cake then place burger patties on top.  Add a generous portion of Spicy Peanut Sauce to each burger.

Spicy Peanut Sauce
2 teaspoons peanut oil
1 small onion diced
1 habenero pepper quartered
2 Maggi beef bullion cubes crushed*
1 Tablespoon grated fresh ginger
1 cup tomato puree
½ cup natural, unsweetened, unsalted peanut butter
½ cup water
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Heat oil in small saucepan and sauté onions over medium heat until golden stirring occasionally (about 5 minutes).  Add habenero, bullion and ginger.  Stir until evenly combined.  Add tomato puree, peanut butter and water.  Stir until the mixture gets to an even consistency.  Taste and add cayenne if you want more spice.  Turn heat to low and cook for 30 minutes stirring regularly (note: you don’t want the sauce to spit at you, keep the heat low enough so that it doesn’t keep venting and spitting).  Taste periodically and when you have a spice level you like, fish out the habenero pieces to keep from making the sauce too spicy.  Serve warm (but it doesn’t need to be hot).

*I found in the Latin section of my local super market, if you can’t find it, just use another brand

BH&T Benin Spicy Peanut Sauce

Millet Cake
¾ cup canned black eyed peas, rinsed and drained
1 cup millet cooked to package directions
1 jalapeno minced
¾ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon ground coriander
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 Tablespoons cornstarch.
1-2 Tablespoons peanut oil

In a large bowl, roughly mash black eyed peas, then add millet and all spices and mix thoroughly.  Add 1-2 eggs and cornstarch as needed to get the mixture to a thick and sticky consistency.  Form 4 cakes from about half of the mixture and place the cakes on plastic wrap in refrigerator for 20-30 minutes (if you can’t wait, you can cook these right away, it’s just sometimes easier to get them to work if you refrigerate for a while before cooking).

Heat peanut oil in a large non-stick pan until shimmering.  Using a spatula, place the millet cakes in the oil and fry over medium heat until golden (about 3 minutes).  Turn the cakes over and cook the other side for another 2-3 minutes until both sides are golden and cake is heated through.

BH&T Benin Millet cake

© Copyright 2011 Linda Monach

Benin burger recipe

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Belizean burger recipe

Posted on May 15, 2011 by linda

BH&T Belize burger recipeZesty Fish Cake with Belizean Rice and Beans
As I journey alphabetically around the world I realize that my knowledge of geography sucks.  Well, that’s not entirely fair, my knowledge of modern geography sucks.  The problem is that I learned all the countries of the world when I was in elementary school and that was a long time ago (ok, a really long time ago).  And, frankly, there are a whole bunch of countries that just couldn’t be content with the names I learned, so, they changed them.  This is further complicated by the fact that my schools used really out of date textbooks, which insisted on calling Belize, British Honduras, which it had changed in 1973.  Kids today don’t know how lucky they are that they don’t have to rely solely on textbooks, they were uber boring and usually out of date by the time they were published.  But I digress.

I first heard of Belize (by that name) about 12 years ago when I lived in Chicago.  My husband tells me that Chicago has the largest population of Belizeans outside of Belize – I have no idea if this is true and he can’t remember where he read it, so let’s just leave it at there are a bunch of Belizeans in Chicago.  When I heard “Belize”, it sounded like someplace in the South Pacific, so rather than ask and look ignorant, I assumed and actually ensured my ignorance for years to come.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Belize is in the Northeast corner of Central America.  It’s bordered by Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean Sea.  On this rather cold and rainy day in Boston, the pictures of the blue sea and white sandy beaches are torture.  The food is diverse and all of the recipes I found sounded amazing.  There’s a traditional chicken stew that is considered one of the national dishes, but given that we just did a stew covered burger, I decided to avoid repeating myself.  Rice and beans is the other national dish – importantly this is different than beans and rice.  Rice and beans involves cooking the rice and the beans together in coconut milk.  With beans and rice each is cooked and served separately.  I decided that I could use rice and beans to make a rice cake that would be tasty.

With such a lovely coastline, of course Belizeans enjoy a lot of wonderful seafood so I chose to make another fishcake to get us in the tropical spirit.  The critical ingredient to get the real flavor of Belize is Achiote (also known as Annatto paste and Recado Rojo).  It isn’t available in any of my local grocers, but I found it online and it was relatively inexpensive – you would also be able to find it in a Latin market.  I tried to duplicate the flavor, or to find something that would make sense to substitute, but there really is no substitute.  Achiote is a little tart, with flavors of nutmeg, pepper, paprika and chili, it isn’t hot/spicy, it’s just its own thing.  The recipe is still pretty good if you don’t use the achiote, it’s just less interesting.

This is, to my taste, the best of the fish cakes so far.  It has a tanginess and a richness of flavor that make it seem more substantial, yet still light.  The starchiness of the rice cake is nicely balanced with the tomato, avocado and lemon aioli.  Great summer time eating.  I recommend a nice Sauvignon Blanc to compliment the flavors of the burger.

The recipe isn’t hard, it just takes a bit of time and planning.  Make the aioli, slice tomato and avocado first, then make the rice cakes, then start the fish cakes.  Ideally the rice cakes will still be warm and the fishcakes will be hot when you serve.

Belize Burger
2 medium dried ancho chilies
1 Tablespoon coconut oil
1 pound cod or other flaky white fish
1 teaspoon peanut oil
½ cup onion minced
1 medium jalapeno minced
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 teaspoon salt
juice of 1 lime
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs lightly beaten
1-2 Tablespoons peanut oil.
4 Belizean Rice and Beans Cakes (recipe below)
1-2 tomatoes sliced thin
1 avocado sliced
Lemon Aioli (recipe below)

Place ancho chilies in a heat proof bowl and pour boiling water over them.  Let sit for at least 15 minutes to rehydrate.  Remove seeds and chop chilies and set aside.

Heat coconut oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat until oil is melted.  Add cod, sprinkle with salt and lime juice.  Cover and cook over medium heat for approximately 2 minutes per side or until fish is just cooked.  You should have about 2 cups of cooked fish when you’re done.  Flake fish into a large bowl and set aside.  In a small sauté pan, heat 1 teaspoon peanut oil over medium heat.  Add ancho chilies, onions, jalapenos and garlic and sauté until onions are just beginning to soften.  Add to fish and mix with a wooden spoon until evenly combined.  Add flour, baking powder and eggs and mix until combined.  This will make a pretty wet mix, that’s ok, you want your cakes nice and moist.  In a large nonstick pan, heat the 1-2 Tablespoons peanut oil (enough to cover the bottom) until shimmering.  Form patties out of the fish mixture and place in the hot oil.  Cook over med-high heat for about 2 minutes per side until nicely browned and cooked through.

Place one Belizean Rice and Beans cake on each plate.  Lay 1-2 slices of tomato on each rice cake.  Add cooked fishcakes to each plate and top with avocado and Lemon Aioli.  Serve immediately.

Belizean Rice and Beans Cakes
1 cup uncooked long grained rice
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup water
15 oz can small red beans (rinsed and drained)
1½ teaspoon salt
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 teaspoons achiote paste
½ cup flour
1-2 Tablespoons peanut oil

In a medium saucepan, add rice, coconut milk, water, red beans and ½ teaspoon salt and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until rice is done.  Place rice and beans into a large bowl.  Add the remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly.  This makes a little too much, but the rice cakes make a nice snack.  Form six rice patties and place on a plastic wrap covered platter, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15-30 minutes.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan over medium high heat until shimmering.  Place patties in oil and cook for approximately 2 minutes or until well browned.  Turn and cook for another 2-3 minutes until browned and cooked through.

BH&T Belize Rice and Beans Cake

Lemon Aioli
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
½ cup mayonnaise

Whisk ingredients together and refrigerate until ready to use.

Belizean burger recipe

©Copyright Linda Monach 2011

Posted in central american recipes, fish burgers | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments