Ghanaian burger recipe

Posted on April 25, 2012 by linda

Lamb Burger with Spicy Tomato Rice and Dandelion Greens
Through the miracles of modern technology, I’m sitting on an airplane typing this up – God bless Virgin America.  Sorry for the delay in posting, we just had the joy of Spring break.  The funny thing about school breaks is that they are anything but a break if you’re a stay at home mom.  I had a great time playing dolls and baking cookies (metaphorically speaking, I don’t really bake much), but now Mommy is off for a much needed vacation to wine country!  That being said, I don’t want to let you guys down, so I’ve brought my work with me.

The G’s are flying by pretty fast – we’re already at Ghana.  The Republic of Ghana is located in West Africa bordered by Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso and Togo with a lovely coastline along the Gulf of Guinea.  The country gained independence in 1957 and was the first sub-Saharan African countries to become independent.  The locals chose the name Ghana after The Kingdom of Ghana, which used to dominate a large portion of the region.  The name means Warrior King, which I think is a pretty cool name for a country.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

The situation in Ghana isn’t sunshine and roses, but it isn’t as grim as some of the places we’ve “visited” so far.  There are over 25 million Ghanaians in the country and about half of them work in the agricultural sector.  The good news is that Ghana has the 81st highest GDP in the world and last year it grew 13.5% (the third highest growth rate in the world).  The bad news is that the GDP per capita is 170th in the world and the youth unemployment rate is 25%.  Out of the 25 million people in Ghana, there are only 1.3 million Internet users.

Author Erik Krestensen via Wikimedia Commons

The food in Ghana is pretty typical of the region.  Lots of stews, spicy, peanuts, greens, etc… Again we have a country where bread is not the usual starch; instead it’s cassava, yams, millet or rice.  Since we’ve done a few of the other options, I thought we’d try rice this time.  It’s relatively common to cook rice in a stew rather than have it separately – it turns out that’s a really yummy way to make rice.  I also took this opportunity to try dandelion greens, which I’ve never had before.  They are really bitter – I’m amazed people eat them raw at all.  But when they are cooked, they take on a sharp but smoother flavor.  I added corn to give a little sweetness.  Unfortunately we ate all the dandelion greens at dinner and the store didn’t have any more, so for the pretty picture I used Swiss chard – which gives the dish a milder flavor, but still very tasty.

Ghanaians do get to enjoy meat, one of the advantages of a large agricultural base, and they eat all different kinds.  Beef, lamb, goat and of course chicken.  We decided to try lamb for this one and it worked really well with the spicy tomato stew and the slightly bitter greens.  I’m not sure there’s anything that is uniquely Ghanaian in the final recipe, but it is another really good burger inspired by this region.  Somehow the spiciness and the greens lighten the whole thing and the overall effect is light and summery.  Great for a hot day with a cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc.  The rice alone would be a great side dish with fish or chicken or even steak.

Ghana Burger
1 pound ground lamb
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Spicy Tomato Rice (recipe below)
Sautéed Mustard Greens (recipe below)

Combine lamb salt and garlic powder and form into four patties.  Fry patties in peanut oil until cooked to desired temperature.  Place a scoop of Spicy Tomato Rice on each plate then add the cooked patties, top with the Mustard Greens.  Serve it while it’s hot.

Spicy Tomato Rice
½ cup chopped onion
1 teaspoon red palm oil
1 teaspoon peanut oil
6 tomatoes roughly chopped
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 cloves garlic minced
½ cup chopped roasted unsalted peanuts
1 habenero seeded and quartered
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
¼ teaspoon dried ginger
1-2 cups beef stock
1½ cup long-grain white rice
1 cup water

In a large sauce pan, heat both oils over medium heat.  Add the onions and cook until soft.  Add the tomatoes, salt, garlic, peanuts, habeneros, caraway and ginger.  Simmer 10-15 minutes until tomatoes start to break down.

Add 1 cup of beef stock and the rice and salt to taste.  Cover and simmer until rice is cooked (about 30 minutes).  Check the liquid levels every 5-10 minutes and add more liquid as needed, you’ll probably need about 3 cups of liquid total.  I used 2 cups of beef stock and 1 cup of water.

Sautéed Mustard Greens
1 Tablespoon peanut oil
1 bunch dandelion or chard greens chopped (about 2 cups)
1 ear of corn – kernels removed

Heat the oil in a medium sauté pan over medium heat.  Add the greens and the corn and cover.  Cook for 5 minutes until wilted.  Uncover and continue to cook until liquid is evaporated.  Serve hot.

Ghanaian burger recipe

©Copyright 2012 Linda Monach

Posted in african recipes, lamb burgers | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

German burger recipe

Posted on April 4, 2012 by linda

Frikadelle Burger with Sauerkraut and Bratwurst
Our next stop on the culinary adventure is Germany.  Germany is one of those countries that I think most of you are familiar with, so I’ll keep the upfront pretty brief here.  It’s located in central Europe and surrounded by Denmark, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, France, Belgium and the Netherlands and has coastline on both the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

So much German history is really the history of the 20th century and I don’t see any reason to go into it here.  But German history goes way back and the influence of the German culture goes back centuries.  You guys probably know a lot of that too, so let’s just get to the food.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

I have to admit that I had one scarring incident with German food on a business trip to Cologne about ten years ago.  There are two challenges for me when presented with a menu in a German restaurant.  The first problem is that I’m allergic to beer and Germans really like beer.  I also prefer red wine to white wine – again, totally out of sync with Germans – I had dreadful red wine in Cologne.  No big deal, I can drink water or soda, so I adapted.  The second problem is the meat.  I have become more adventurous in my eating habits over time, but I still cringe a little at strange meat cuts.  Germans, like many people around the world, eat as much of the animal as they can.  Pig knuckles, in particular, seemed to be popular on the menus of restaurants in Cologne.

I’ve never attempted to eat a pig knuckle, but I’ve watched my husband tackle one – I’m sure it’s tasty, but it seems a lot of work for your food…lots of fat and connective tissue to fight through to get to the meat, not my thing.  It was also really hot, over 80°F, and I don’t know about you, but really heavy meaty food doesn’t really appeal to me when I’m really hot and drinking bad wine.  So, I thought I would try the sausage instead, cause I like sausage.  I don’t think about what’s in it, I just eat it and that works for me.  I got served a giant plate of sausage with sauerkraut and potatoes – not exactly the light option I was hoping for.  And, the sausage was blood sausage.  I ate a few pieces, but it’s not really my thing – please pass the bad wine.

All that aside, I do like German food, really, I do.  The Germans like hearty food filled with meaty richness, it isn’t a bad place to start creating any recipe, but especially a burger recipe.  Frikadelle (or Frinkandelle) is a meat patty usually made with a combo of pork and beef.  The exact perfect ratio of beef to pork is hotly contested.  This mixture is then combined with stale bread that’s been soaked in milk, some onion and some herbs.  Then you coat the whole thing in breadcrumbs before frying it in butter – YUM!  I used buttermilk instead of regular milk to get a little extra flavor and I used panko for the breadcrumbs for a little more crunch.  Lastly, since I had cooked some bacon for a German potato salad side dish, I cooked the burgers in the bacon grease, cause I could.  J  Feel free to use plain milk, plain breadcrumbs and butter instead, you’ll still have a good burger.

The sausage was really the most interesting part of the recipe creation.  Germans make a ton of sausage; the real question is what sausage to use for a burger topping.  Knockwurst is a little too close to a hot dog, so we eliminated them as a choice.  The other readily available German sausage (at least in my neighborhood) is bratwurst.  I tried a couple of brands of bratwurst – one of which looked and tasted a lot like your standard American breakfast sausage, and found one the was perfect.  I like bratwurst (even though it looks strange), because it has a nice mild flavor that just adds a bit of a kick to a dish without overpowering it like some of the bolder spicier sausages can.

For the sauerkraut mixture I added some apple and onion to the bratwurst and sauerkraut to mellow the tartness of the sauerkraut a bit.  Then put some Gouda on the burger (not smoked gouda, smoked cheese is just wrong), and a good German mustard on the bread.  What you get is a super hearty, smoky and tart combination that is just packed with flavor.  Even the ¼ pound burgers seem huge (of course they are because of the bread and bread crumbs), so you might want to make six instead of four so that you don’t stuff your self or your guests.  Either way, bring your appetite, make a great German potato salad (vinegar, no mayo) and serve with a nice amber beer or a fruity Riesling.  This is easy to make and a real crowd pleaser – even my cranky father enjoyed the burger and pronounced it “ok”.

German Burger
2 stale hamburger buns (or 2 slices white bread)
1 pint buttermilk (or regular milk)
12 ounces 80% lean ground beef
4 ounces ground pork
1 small onion diced
½ teaspoon dried marjoram
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 eggs
¾ cup panko (or plain bread crumbs)
Butter or bacon grease for cooking
Gouda cheese – about 4 ounces
8-12 slices of Dark Rye/Pumpernickel bread
Coarse German mustard
Sauerkraut and Bratwurst (recipe below)
Italian parsley chopped (optional)

If your bread isn’t stale enough to be dry, toast lightly to get the moisture out (not too much though, you don’t want to brown it).  Soak the bread in buttermilk until it’s completely moistened.  Squeeze out the excess buttermilk from the bread.  Add the bread to the meat, onion, marjoram, salt pepper and eggs and mix until evenly combined (I find the only way to do this is with your hands – it’s messy, but allows you to be sure the ingredients are evenly blended).  Form 4-6 patties (depending on big you like them).  Press both sides of each patty into the panko and coat the whole patty with panko.

In a large cast iron pan, heat the bacon grease until shimmering.  Add the patties and cook to desired temperature.

About 1-2 minutes before the burgers are done, add the Gouda and cover lightly to melt the cheese.

In the meantime butter and grill the bread slices.  Then spread the grilled side of half of the slices with the German mustard.

To serve, place the cooked patties on top of the mustard coated bread then top with the sauerkraut and bratwurst mixture.  End with the second piece of grilled bread, grilled side down.

This is what the burger looked like the night I first made it – shows that this is pretty easy to make and make it look good.

Sauerkraut and Bratwurst
1 pound of sauerkraut
1 small onion chopped
2 bratwurst chopped into ¼ to ½ inch pieces
1 granny smith apple, cored, peeled and diced
1 Tablespoon bacon fat (or butter)

Heat a medium sauté pan over medium heat then add the sausage.  Brown the sausage stirring regularly for about 5 minutes, add the onion and brown for 2 minutes stirring constantly, now add the apple and the bacon fat and cook for another 2 minutes stirring constantly.  Add the sauerkraut and simmer for 15 minutes over low heat.  Serve warm.

 

German burger recipe


©Copyright 2012 Linda Monach

Posted in beef burgers, european recipes | Tagged , , , , , | 11 Comments

Georgian burger recipe

Posted on March 26, 2012 by linda

Gupta Burger with Walnut Garlic Paste, Sour Plum Sauce and Cheese Stuffed Bread

I admit, I am just as susceptible to stereotyping as the next person, when I started researching Georgia, I figured I’d be making some very hearty burger with cabbage, potatoes, beets – lots of earthy flavors.  I hadn’t really placed Georgia in my head geographically, I was just lumping it into a large category of “former Soviet” states.  Of course I was wrong, and the result is the most interesting and surprisingly yummy burger yet.

Georgia is located on the Black Sea and is bordered by Russia, Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan.  Think about the diversity of flavors those four countries represent and you get some sense of what goes on in Georgian cuisine.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Courtesy of CIA World Factbook

In addition to the modern day influences, people have been living in Georgia for a really long time, and lots of different people have ruled here.  I think this is the basic order, first the Romans, then the Arabs, then Georgian rule, next the Mongols attacked, then back to Georgian rule, then anarchy for a little while, then Persians in the east and Ottomans in the west, then Georgian again, next Russia, then USSR then finally back to Georgian rule in 1991.  You can imagine that this kind of history leads to an eclectic and interesting culture.

Before we start talking about the food, there’s one other interesting piece of info about Georgia – according to Wikipedia, the western part of Georgia was the “location of the Golden Fleece sought by Jason and the Argonauts…” so they’ve got that going for them, which is nice.  Extra credit for readers who get that last part and remember the movie reference.

By ilan molcho from israel, via Wikimedia Commons

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

But probably the most interesting thing about Georgia is the food (or at least the most interesting for me), oh yeah, and the wine.  So my husband (our resident wino wine expert) tells me that there are many folks who think that Georgia is the birthplace of wine.  Apparently the genetic diversity of grapes in Georgia is greater than anywhere else in the world, a strong indicator that grape growing originated there (so my geek scientist husband tells me).  This provided a good excuse for us to enjoy a nice Georgian wine – lots of good choices, if you haven’t tried it out, you should.

Georgians love food.  They have a tradition of feasts called supra.  At supra someone is designated the toastmaster and his job is to, well, toast.  They do a lot of toasts.  And, just in case you are ever at a supra, apparently you aren’t supposed to sip the wine, you drink all the wine in your glass after each toast, then they are refilled.  Luckily, the glasses are small.  There’s also lots of food to help absorb the booze.

Lots of food is also a Georgian tradition – at supra it’s apparently pretty amazing how many different dishes are set out, but even at a regular Georgian dinner table, the tradition is to provide a wide variety of food.  Now, for those of you that have been reading this blog for a while, you are familiar with the process I use to develop the recipes – for everyone else, here’s the basics.  I look at traditional recipes, collect flavor ideas and see how I can combine them into a burger.  Georgian flavors were the strangest combinations of flavors I have encountered so far.  They use a lot of walnuts – in all sorts of unusual ways.  One of the common uses of walnuts is in a walnut garlic paste that they use in many different dishes.  Ok, a little odd, but not too far out there.  But here’s the thing, the recipes for garlic walnut paste have an amazing variety of spices and herbs that can be used in the dish – cilantro, coriander seeds, cayenne, fenugreek, tarragon, saffron, parsley, savory…you get the idea, almost anything you can think of can be used in this dish.  So I played around and found a combination I liked and moved on to the sour plum sauce.

The sour plum sauce is the Georgian equivalent of ketchup – they apparently use it on everything.  This again has a bizarre combination of possible ingredients – sour plums (of course) then everything from fennel to mint, fenugreek to laurel leaf.  Since every recipe is different, it’s super hard to figure out what the classic flavor is, so I through some stuff in a pot and hoped for the best.  The sauce is weird tasting, really weird, I began to worry…

Next came the meat patty.  Georgians eat something called gupta.  Gupta is a patty made of boiled beef, raisins, boiled potatoes, walnuts, parsley, eggs and breadcrumbs.  Really?  Are you afraid now?  I changed it up a bit and used ground beef (and didn’t boil it first).  Now I was intrigued, now I was afraid…

Lastly, Georgians enjoy a homemade bread that is stuffed with cheese.  Finally, something I understood and that didn’t frighten me, perhaps there is hope.  Now let’s put it all together.  The garlic paste is easy to make and interesting tasting – very strong garlic flavor, but you can moderate to your tastes.  The sour plum sauce is weird and I frankly don’t think I like it on it’s own – must be an acquired taste.  The beef patty is strange, looks strange, and has an unusual texture, but it somehow works.  The cheese bread is easy to make – especially since I used store bought pizza dough rather than pulling something together from scratch – it was tasty even separate from the burger.

Oh, I almost forgot, I also had to include yogurt.  After all, it was the Dannon commercials featuring Georgian octogenarians that really introduced Americans to the joys of yogurt.  Even though Dannon never produced proof that the people were really that old, we all bought into it and decided yogurt would make us young.  So I added yogurt to the mix, why not right?

But here’s the thing, this burger is really good.  Somehow these crazy flavors work together – even that sour plum sauce.  I have no good explanation, I fully expected to have to re-do this burger and find something less odd, and my family was equally dubious.  But my husband has declared this the greatest victory yet – an unlikely combination of ingredients, none of which are amazing on their own, but together made for a delicious hearty burger that the whole family enjoyed.  I cannot describe the flavors, I’m just not that talented – so please, try the burger and tell me what you think.  This is one for the ages.

Georgian Burger
2 russet potatoes, peeled, cubed and boiled until tender
¼ cup black raisins
½ cup walnuts
1 pound ground beef
¼ cup fresh breadcrumbs
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 Tablespoons butter
4 slices of Cheese Stuffed Bread (recipe below)
Garlic Walnut Paste (recipe below)
Sour Plum Sauce (recipe below)
2% milk fat Greek yogurt

Combine potatoes, raisins and walnuts in a food processor and pulse until blended.  Add 1 cup of this mixture to the ground beef along with the breadcrumbs and eggs.  Form four large patties.

In a large cast iron skillet, melt the butter.  Cook the patties to desired doneness.  Note: the burger tends to fall apart a bit, but it tastes good, so don’t worry too much.  You can also make this burger with a plain patty and it’s still good, just a little less interesting

To serve slice up a big piece of Cheese Stuffed Bread for each plate.  Put a cooked patty on each.  Add a generous helping of Garlic Walnut Paste and a big scoop of Sour Plum Sauce then top with a dollop of Greek yogurt.

Cheese Stuffed Bread
Pizza dough – from the store or from your recipe, thawed and room temperature
4 ounces shredded Monterey jack cheese
4 ounces crumbled feta cheese

Spread the dough out to about 7 inches in diameter.  I made the mistake of letting the dough rise at this point and I ended up with really poufy bread, I recommend just working the dough and not letting it rise, but either way the taste is good.  Combine the cheese into a big ball and put it in the center of the dough.  Wrap the dough up from the sides and around the cheese.  Pinch the top closed.  Roll the dough out again and place on a pizza pan.  Cook per the package instructions until lightly browned.  Let it sit for about ten minutes before cutting.  Serve warm.

Garlic Walnut Paste
1 cup chopped walnuts
4 cloves of garlic
¼ of an onion chopped
1 Tablespoon cilantro chopped
1 teaspoon coriander seeds

Pulse all ingredients in a food processor until a paste forms

Sour Plum Sauce
2¼ pounds unripe plums (about 8 plums)
1 teaspoon whole fennel seeds
1 teaspoon whole coriander seeds
4 cloves garlic chopped
¼ cup cilantro chopped
¼ cup Italian parsley chopped
2 Tablespoons fresh mint chopped
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon ground fenugreek
½ Tablespoon fresh dill chopped

Peel the plums and remove the pits.  Place the plum halves in boiling water along with the fennel and coriander seeds.  Cook until plums are soft (about 10 minutes).  Drain and cool slightly.  Place in a food processor with garlic, cilantro, parsley and mint.  Pulse until relatively smooth.  Put the mixture in a medium saucepan.  Add salt, cayenne, fenugreek and dill.  Cook over low heat for 20 minutes.  Cool to room temperature before using.

©Copyright 2012 Linda Monach

 

Georgian burger recipe

 

 

Posted in beef burgers, eurasian recipes | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

The Gambia burger recipe

Posted on March 17, 2012 by linda

Chicken Burger with Spicy Tomato Peanut Sauce and Peanut Rice

I may have said this before, but it bears repeating, there are a lot of countries in Africa!  Republic of the Gambia is our next stop on our culinary adventure around the world.  The Gambia (as it’s commonly known – and no, I have no idea why “the” is included) is located the central west coast of Africa.  It’s a small country surrounded by Senegal on three sides with a small (50 mile) coastline on the Atlantic on the fourth side.  One of the most interesting things about The Gambia is the geography – that’s right, geography is interesting, I was as surprised by this as you

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

The country’s borders run along the Gambia River (know to the natives simply as “The River”).  Literally the borders hug the river with about 10 miles on either side.  The widest point of the country is only 30 miles!  From what I can tell this oddity of geography basically was created by the colonial powers that really wanted to control the river.  Gambia River extends pretty far into the continent and is deep and navigable – that makes/made it strategically pretty important, especially during the height of the slave trade.  The river was used to transport millions of slaves from within the continent to the coast for shipment to America and Europe.  The mini-series Roots was set in The Gambia, (that’s where Kunta Kinte was from) but was filmed entirely in the US.

The Gambia achieved independence from Britain in 1965.  Today the Gambian economy is dominated by agriculture with agriculture accounting for one third of GDP.  The largest crop is peanuts and peanut processing is also an important industry for The Gambia.  Which is a pretty good segue to the food of The Gambia.  Given the geography of the country, there is a lot of movement of people through The Gambia from all around Central Africa (especially Senegal).  Because of that, the food is pretty typical of the region.  Obviously peanuts are an important staple, so I wanted to lean into peanuts pretty hard for this recipe.

By Radosław Botev (Own work) via Wikimedia Commons 

Gambians eat a rice dish that is pretty simple and just involves putting chopped peanuts in with the raw rice and cooking it.  I didn’t think that peanuts would make much difference in plain rice but, ever willing to experiment, I gave it a try.  The result was more interesting than I thought it would be.  There is the obvious addition of a firmer texture to the rice, but also the nuttiness blends really well and gives plain rice a richness that it doesn’t otherwise enjoy.  It is better than plain rice and I think it would go with a lot of dishes, African, Asian and maybe even Latin.  I think if you added a little bit of red pepper flake, it would be even better – but I like my spice!  For The Gambia, I kept it traditional and stuck with peanuts and rice.

For the burger I went with chicken.  Gambians eat all different kinds of meat and fish from the river.  I chose chicken because this is not a prosperous country, so beef or other meats seemed wrong, and frankly I wasn’t in the mood for a fish burger (I’m still recovering from live worms in the cod from Whole Foods – this is apparently common and harmless, but YUCK).  Because agriculture and livestock is relatively plentiful, I splurged on the sauce and added chicken to enhance the richness and flavor of the dish – this also made it great as a leftover, hearty enough to slather on naan and call it lunch (my husband loves the lunches he gets from this project).

This burger is simple to make but rich and complex tasting.  You can adjust the heat to your liking, but Africans tend to like their food spicy.  What I love most about this food is that it’s rich enough to seem perfect on a cold rainy day, but it isn’t heavy and the flavors and the spice make sense on a warm summer day too.  Our family is forever changed by the addition of spicy tomato and peanut sauces.  The only detractor is my dad, he is still not a fan of food from this region, I’ll keep trying!

The Gambia Burger
1 pound ground chicken
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground pepper
1 Tablespoon peanut oil
Peanut Rice (recipe below)
Baby spinach leaves
Sliced tomato
Tomato Peanut Sauce (recipe below)

In a large glass bowl combine chicken salt and pepper and mix with your hands until the spices are evenly distributed.  Form four patties from the mixture.  In a large non-stick skillet, heat the peanut oil and fry the patties until cooked through.

To serve spoon a generous helping of the Peanut Rice on each plate, layer on sliced tomato then the cooked burgers and spinach leaves.  Top with a big scoop of Tomato Peanut Sauce and enjoy while it’s hot.

By the way, here is what my burger looked like the night we first tried it.  Just to keep it real, I thought you’d like to see the “real” thing.  My glamour shots are not retouched, just carefully arranged, but this is how we really eat.  I had forgotten to put the tomato on, so I had to put it on top (no one’s perfect)

 

Peanut Rice
1 cup unsalted peanuts
2 cups long grain rice
Kosher salt
4 cups of water

Pulse the peanuts in a food processor just until roughly chopped.  Combine both with water and salt (I usually use about a ¾ teaspoon of salt, but it’s up to you) in a medium saucepan.  Bring water to a boil then reduce to low and cook covered for about 15 minutes until rice is tender.  You can also do this in a rice cooker (an amazing appliance that has simplified my life dramatically).  Just use a 2:1 rice to peanut ratio and you’ll be fine.

Tomato Peanut Sauce
1 cup chopped onions
2 bone-in chicken thighs (with skin)
Kosher salt
Ground pepper
2 large garlic cloves chopped
2 habanero peppers halved and seeded (substitute jalapenos if you don’t like food too hot)
2 cups chicken stock
½ cup creamy natural peanut butter (you can use crunchy instead, your choice)
6 ounce can of tomato paste

In a large sauce pan, heat peanut oil over high heat until smoking.  Generously salt and pepper the chicken thighs then place them in the hot oil skin side down.  Turn heat to medium high and brown the chicken for about 3 minutes until skin is crispy and golden.  Turn chicken and sear on the other side for about 2 minutes.  Reduce heat to medium, add onions and stir.  Cook for 3 minutes.  Add garlic and cook for 2 minutes.  Add habaneros and chicken stock, bring to a simmer, cover and simmer for 1 hour over low heat.  After it has simmered for an hour I remove the habaneros in order to keep the dish from being too spicy for my taste – you can remove them earlier or later, or not at all according to your taste.  If you’re going to leave them in, you should chop them smaller; you don’t want anyone to get half a habanero on their burger!

Add the peanut butter and tomato paste and stir until well combined.  Uncover the dish and cook over low for about 45 minutes until you get a nice thick sauce.  Adjust salt and seasoning to taste.

When the sauce is done, shred the chicken and remove the bones and any large pieces of skin.  Serve hot.  This can be made ahead of time and refrigerated until ready to use then just heat it up in the microwave or stovetop.

 

The Gambia burger recipe

 

©Copyright 2012 Linda Monach

Posted in african recipes, chicken burgers | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Gabonese burger recipe

Posted on March 10, 2012 by linda

Chicken Burger with Spicy Mustard Greens and Black Eyed Peas

The Gabonese Republic (Gabon) is located on the west coast of central Africa.  It’s bordered by Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo.  It’s a country about the size of Colorado with only around 1.6 million inhabitants, making one of the least densely inhabited countries in Africa.  It’s largely urban with 86% of the population living in cities and 600k living in the capital city of Libreville.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

It’s interesting to be back to Africa at a time when Africa is being mentioned in the news more than I can ever remember.  I am so glad that someone has managed to break through western media and get them to actually pay attention and really report on something going on in Africa.  I think that the problems of Africa are so overwhelming, that we sometimes find it easier to just not think about them, maybe this approach of one issue, one bad guy at a time will start the world moving toward actually engaging in the plight of Africans?  Let’s hope.  All of that has nothing really to do with Gabon though, so back on track.

Gabon has one of the highest GDPs per capita in this region because they have oil.  Everything I read mentioned the poor income distribution and how despite this high GDP so many Gabonese live in poverty.  Interestingly the fact that 20% of the population of Gabon has 90% of the income is not that different from the US where the top 20% have over 80% of the income.  Ten percent is a decent size difference, but doesn’t it seem like it should be more different for us to be so judgmental?  The other difference is at the bottom end, in Gabon about 30% of the population lives in poverty, here it is only 15% – I still kind of question the US feeling of superiority given the closeness of those numbers, but I’m that kind of gal anyway.

So, it isn’t all bad news.  According to most of the things I read, the current government is trying to improve conditions for all Gabonese, and is making some progress.  They are also working to encourage foreign investment and travel.  The government has declared a lot of land as national parks and is working to build an eco-tourist business.  And, when you check the US State Department web site, there are no major safety/security issues in Gabon – the only warning they have is to watch for pick pockets and be careful at ATMs (pretty much the same advice they give if you’re travelling to New York).  So perhaps the world can make a difference in this country by going there, seeing the amazing country side and enjoying the big city and spending some much needed cash while we’re there (it’s a mainly cash economy, so leave your credit cards at home).

copyright besttourism.com

copyright guideforafrica.com

And now you ask, what about the food?  The food of Gabon is similar to other countries in the region.  In the city you can get many different world cuisines, but the food of the average Gabonese is simple and, of course, spicy.  Because Gabon was under French control until 1960, you do see some French influence in the cuisine, but due to limited resources, the traditional food is still pretty basic.

Black-eyed peas are a popular staple providing a relatively inexpensive source of protein that is really versatile and easy to cook.  I used the black-eyed peas to create the starch for the burger and just spiced it up a bit with onion and garlic.  As a side note, I haven’t found a country yet where they don’t eat onions and garlic – thank goodness!  For the meat I stuck with chicken as another abundant and inexpensive protein source that is a staple in this region.  Because of the French influence, the one thing I found that was a little different in Gabonese food was the use of mustard.  I love mustard with chicken so I added it into the meat and then sautéed some mustard greens for a topping.  I hadn’t tried mustard greens before, but I will again, they have a great flavor, spicy and peppery, delicious.

Because the flavors of this burger are pretty clean and simple, it gave the overall effect of being a vegetarian dish, but not in a bad way.  It was light and fresh tasting with just the right amount of spicy and starchy balanced with the savory chicken.  It’s easy to make and a healthy alternative to a more western style burger.  It pairs great with a crisp white wine like a sauvignon blanc.  Enjoy!

Gabon Burger
1 pound ground chicken breast
1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon peanut oil
Black-eyed Pea Mash (recipe below)
Spicy Mustard Greens (recipe below)
Tomato

Combine the chicken, Dijon mustard and salt.  Form the chicken into four patties.  In a large non-stick skillet, heat peanut oil over medium high heat.  Cook the chicken patties until completely cooked through.

To serve, spoon the Black-eyed Pea mash on each plate, then add a slice or two of tomato, the burgers, then top with a spoon full of the sautéed greens.  Serve while hot.

Black-eyed Pea Mash
8 ounces of dried black-eyed peas
Water
3 cloves of garlic minced
½ cup diced onion
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 teaspoons peanut oil

Place dried peas in a medium to large sauce pan and cover with cold water to about two inches above the peas.  Heat the water to boiling over high heat.  Once the water boils, turn off the heat and let the peas sit in the hot water for 2 hours.  Cool the beans before proceeding (you can do this step a day or two ahead and just put the peas in a covered container in the refrigerator until ready to use).  Put the peas in a food processor along with the onion, garlic and salt.  Pulse gently until you get a chunky mixture.  Put this mixture in a bowl and add the eggs.  In a medium non-stick skillet, heat the peanut oil then add the pea mixture and cook until lightly browned stirring occasionally.  The end mixture will resemble a hash and should be loose rather than dense like a patty.

Spicy Mustard Greens
2 cups of mustard greens roughly chopped
1 large jalapeno diced
1 Tablespoon peanut oil
Kosher salt to taste

In a medium sauté pan heat the peanut oil until shimmering.  Add the greens and jalapeno and cook for 1 minute stirring continuously.  Cover and cook over medium low heat until wilted (just a couple of minutes).  Salt to taste.

 

Gabonese burger recipe

©Copyright 2012, Linda Monach

Posted in african recipes, chicken burgers | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

French burger recipe

Posted on March 3, 2012 by linda

Burger with Foie Gras and Braised Chanterelle Mushrooms

I’m sorry it’s been so long between posts.  We just put my youngest into day care in December and have had five viruses rip through our house since then.  It has been a crazy few months with someone sick ALL THE TIME!  Which leaves very little time for cooking and even less for writing.  But the good news is that the baby is sleeping and I have a moment or two to get this recipe down on “paper”.

On our adventure to create a burger inspired by the cuisines of every country in the world (alphabetically of course), we have finally reached the much-anticipated France burger.  I’m pretty sure most of you have heard of France and many of you know more than I do about the country, so let’s just keep the background simple.  France is located in the heart of Europe.  It shares a land border with Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Spain and Andorra, and it’s across the English Channel from Great Britain.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Not only is France’s location central in Europe, it’s cuisine is also central to much of modern day Western cuisine.  The French have been foodies since before the United States was created.  Their chefs are some of the most famous and influential in the world (or at least they were until the US created the Food Network and manufactured the “celebrity chef” phenomenon).  If you’ve eaten Western style food, odds are at least part of what you ate was influenced by the French, and you can be sure that there isn’t a Frenchman alive who wouldn’t be willing to point it out to you.

I have a love/hate thing with French food…I can’t help but love the flavors and admire the technique, but some times I really hate the complexity and fussiness of classic French cuisine.  Of course the French have an answer for that too, rustic French cooking takes simple classic ingredients and cooks them in non-fussy ways to create delicious food that is far better than it has any right to be.  So, maybe I really have a love/love relationship, but please don’t tell the French, they’ll never let me live it down.

The biggest challenge in creating this recipe was in choosing a direction.  There’s just an embarrassment of riches to choose from.  The French love cheese (and if you’ve been paying attention, you know that I do too), they love mushrooms and truffles (ditto), sauces and foie gras.  All yummy ingredients, but they don’t necessarily go together.  The other problem is that many of these ingredients are extremely expensive, so save your pennies, this is a luxury burger.

I managed to take all of the input, all of the research, and my various experiences eating French food and I narrowed it down to two burgers.  The first option was a beef burger with asparagus, Camembert, Béarnaise sauce and shaved truffles.  The second was a beef burger with foie gras and braised chanterelle mushrooms.  Both were crazy good, I mean crazy good.  After careful consideration, and lots of finger licking, we decided that the foie gras burger was better and it was easier to make, which always wins for me.  Paul and my mother both preferred the foie gras burger, my dad liked the asparagus option better, but his quote for this burger was that it had “no redeeming qualities”.  He ate every bite however.  Despite that, we’re over ruling him and going with foie gras – at $70 for 6.5 ounces, it’s a good thing that it is so good.

Splurge this once, you won’t regret it.  The flavor is simple and clean, but rich and decadent.  It went perfectly with a nice Chateauneuf-du-Pape.  I also made some Potatoes Dauphinoise and roasted Brussels sprouts.  It was a perfect dinner; even a Frenchman would have trouble debating how good this burger is 🙂

French Burger
1 pound ground sirloin
3 small shallots, minced
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
8 slices of French bread cut on a diagonal
Butter
3-4 ounces foie gras (Bloc de Foie Gras de Canard) sliced into 4 pieces
Braised Chanterelles (recipe below)

Combine the ground sirloin, shallots and salt and pepper and form into four patties.  Grill the bread in butter until lightly browned.  Remove from skillet, then add the patties to the pan and cook to desired temperature.

Plate the grilled bread then top with the burgers and a slice of foie gras on each and lastly a scoop of mushrooms.  Top with the second slice of grilled bread.  Eat it while it’s hot!

Braised Chanterelles
4 ounces chanterelle mushrooms roughly chopped
1 Tablespoon butter
¼ cup Madeira wine

Roast mushrooms in a dry skillet over medium high heat for two minutes.  Add butter and toss until butter is melted and mushrooms are coated.  Add Madeira and simmer over low heat until the liquid is evaporated, spooning the liquid over the mushrooms periodically.

French burger recipe

©Copyright 2012 Linda Monach

 

Posted in beef burgers, european recipes | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

Finnish burger recipe

Posted on February 12, 2012 by linda

Lindstromin Pivhit Burgers with Butter Eggs, Braised Mushrooms and Buttermilk Dill Sauce

We’ve finally made it to Finland another country with special meaning for me.  As I’ve mentioned before, my roommate in college was Finnish so I felt a special obligation to get this one right.  So let’s start with geography.  Finland is bordered by Sweden, Norway and Russia and is across the Gulf of Finland from Estonia.  It is by all accounts a beautiful country with thousands of lakes and islands.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

 

Author Untitled, via Wikimedia Commons

The language of the Finns is crazy sounding – kind of musical, but extremely odd and difficult (at least for Americans) to pronounce.  It always seemed to me like every Finnish word had too many syllables.  But I do remember one swear phrase from my college days, I just can’t remember is it’s the one that translates to “smell a flower” or the one that translates to something really nasty about your mother, so I don’t really get to use it in conversation.

Finland’s economy is strong with the 34th highest GDP per capita in the world.  The Finns enjoy a really high standard of living, with solid education system, great access to health care and relative prosperity for its citizens.  What Finland is not however, is Scandinavian.  If you want to annoy a Finn, refer to them or their country as Scandinavian.  Or you could assert that the Swedes invented the sauna, they really hate that J

What they love is food and drink.  Although Anu never made us “Finnish” food, she was a really good cook and we loved to make big dinners for all of our friends.  Traditional Finnish food relies on hardy vegetables and seasonings very typical for the region.  While the final recipe below uses dark rye for the starch, I did try something a little more traditional in the recipe development phase.  I tried making Karelian Pasties (or pastries, or patties depending on the translation you find).  Karelian Pasties are made from a really thin crust of rye dough filled with rice that’s been cooked in cream.  It is usually served with hard-boiled eggs that are mixed with butter.  The egg mixture is like a hit of almost pure fat, and it’s tasty.  The pastie and its filling were strange and rich and creamy and worked really well with the burger, but they were so much work to make that I really didn’t think it was worth it.  If you want to go hard-core, do a search for recipes online and give it a whirl, but if your life is a little too busy, just use the dark rye, it’s delicious and you can buy it already made at your local grocery store.

I also tried making a chutney type of concoction with lingon berries.  Lingon berries are a classic in Finish cuisine, but I had no luck making them into something that would go with the burger.  They taste to me a lot like cranberries, very tart.  Check them out if you ever come across them, and if you can make them into a burger topping, let me know!

Now I know I am going to get some grief about the burger itself.  Lindstrom Steak is actually a Swedish recipe, but it has been widely adopted by the Finns and is eaten regularly there.  And, I couldn’t resist – adding pickled beets into the ground beef?  I mean that’s just genius, and crazy, and cool – we end up with a pink burger, how fun is that?  The resulting burger is moist, falls apart easily and reminds me of a really well seasoned meatloaf.  Interestingly you only get a hint of the pickled beet flavor, but it’s a really nice accent to the other rich flavors in the burger.

Buttermilk and mushrooms top off the key flavors in the burger adding a great earthiness and a little bit of tartness to the mix.  The final burger is rich and delicious, lots of creamy flavors with just enough tartness from the beets and buttermilk to balance it out.  We didn’t have any Finlandia vodka, but enjoyed a great Zin with our burgers.  It was a perfect cold weather meal that the whole family enjoyed (even my Dad ate the whole thing and pronounced it “probably pretty good” – that’s practically a rave review from him!).

One note, because of the added ingredients in the meat, this recipe makes approximately 6 normal sized burgers, or 4 gigantor burgers if you prefer – I don’t judge…

Finland Burger
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
½ cup heavy cream
1 cup pickled beets
1 chopped onion
1 teaspoon kosher salt
½ pound ground pork
½ pound ground beef
Butter
12 slices of dark rye bread
Eggs with Butter (recipe below)
Braised Mushrooms (recipe below)
Dill Sauce (recipe below)

Soak the bread crumbs in the cream until the liquid is absorbed.  Place the soggy bread crumbs in a food processor along with the beets, onions and salt.  Pulse until you get a smooth mixture.

Add this mixture to the ground pork and beef and mix until thoroughly combined.  Form 6 patties.

Grill patties in butter in a large non-stick pan (note, because of the sugar that is naturally in beets, you get pretty heavy caramelization, i.e. burger looks black, just keep the temperature at medium and don’t worry about it, as long as you don’t actually burn the burgers, it won’t taste burned).  Cook to desired temperature.

Grill the bread lightly in the buttered pan.  To serve, start with one piece of grilled bread, then add some Eggs with Butter, the cooked burgers and Braised Mushrooms.  Spoon on a little Dill Sauce and top with the last pieces of grilled bread.

Eggs with Butter
2 hard boiled eggs, still slightly warm
1½ Tablespoons softened butter

Dice the hard boiled eggs then mash together with the softened butter.  Refrigerate until ready to use, bring to room temperature before serving.

Braised Mushrooms
½ cup buttermilk
1 Tablespoon salted butter
8 ounces cremini mushrooms sliced

In a medium sauté pan, heat the buttermilk and butter until the butter melts.  Add the mushrooms and cook over medium heat until for 3-5 minutes until just beginning to soften.  Drain the excess juice and use the mushrooms while they are warm.

Dill Sauce
½ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon dried dill
Kosher salt to taste

Add all ingredients together in a glass bowl and refrigerate for a least an hour before using.

Finnish burger recipe

©Copyright 2012 Linda Monach

Posted in beef burgers, european recipes, pork burgers | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Fijian burger recipe

Posted on February 7, 2012 by linda

Halibut Burger with Miti Sauce(coconut, onion and pepper paste) and Pineapple/Papaya Salsa

We’re having a pretty mild winter here in New England, yet I can’t help but long for sandy beaches as I write about Fiji.  Gorgeous Fiji, I think I’m in love.  The Republic of Fiji is located in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of Australia and north of New Zealand.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Based on the pictures, it looks to be right about in the center of the most beautiful place in the world, this one goes on the future vacation list.  Speaking of photos, it was suggested by several of my friends/readers that I should add photos to my blog.  This sounds simple, but copyright makes life complicated, and I’m a big fan of copyright laws.  So here are a couple of photos that will inspire you to add Fiji to your vacation list and hopefully no one will be upset at the use of their photos.  Check out the websites – there are even more great shots on the sites.

Copyright flightaustralia.com

Copyright bestfijideals.com

The Republic of Fiji is comprised of somewhere between 300 and 333 islands (depending on the source you go by).  Only around 100 of the islands are inhabited.  I found it difficult to get really interested in the history of the islands because really folks, did you see that beach?  Next stop Expedia to check out flights!

So let’s skip right ahead to the food.  As you expect from an island nation, fish is an important part of the local cuisine.  Mahi mahi is one of the popular fishes and I really wanted to use that for this recipe.  Unfortunately, no luck locating mahi mahi, so I had to make due with halibut.  Fortunately, I really like halibut, and they had some at my local Whole Foods – success!  Fijians cook their fish in coconut milk which gives a nice creamy flavor, so I used coconut milk to create a marinade and to cook the fish.  It gave a wonderful tender creaminess to the fish cakes but didn’t give an overpowering coconut flavor to the dish.

Given the location of the islands, you get the wonderful fresh fish and tropical fruits, but they also enjoy curries and touches of spice.  I added a little Madras curry powder into the fish marinade and a little jalapeno into the salsa – neither gave strong flavors, just back notes that feel in keeping with Fijian cooking.

Lastly, I read in so many places that Fijians use a sauce called Miti traditionally with fish.  It’s made from coconut cream and ends up really being more of a paste.  Make sure you use the cream that is on the top of the can of coconut milk; don’t use the milk (it’s too runny).  Also, don’t buy sweetened coconut cream; it’s too sugary and completely cloying.

The final burger is a lumpy cake with subtle island flavors that all blend beautifully.  The family enjoyed the burger – even Dad said that it “isn’t bad”.  As you are probably getting a sense, my dad is not one for effusive praise – he is a truly frustrating person to cook for.  Luckily we’ve had some really good moments on this burger journey, so I’ve learned to watch what he eats and doesn’t eat and appreciate it when he’s willing to try crazy new foods for the sake of my insane project.

Fiji Burger
Milk from 13.5 ounce can of coconut milk
Juice from 1 lime
½ teaspoon Madras curry powder
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 pound halibut
1 Tablespoon butter
2 Tablespoons flour
Olive oil
Naan cut into 8 pieces (warmed)
Pineapple/Papaya Salsa (recipe below)
Miti Sauce (recipe below)

Whisk first four ingredients together in a glass bowl.  Portion the fish into 4 chunks and marinate them for 1 hour.

Heat butter in a large non-stick pan then add the fish and brown slightly.  Add ½ of the marinade into the pan, cover and cook until fish is cooked through.  Cool the fish slightly then add the flour and form the cooked fish into patties.  Clean out the pan and heat a small amount of olive oil.  Then fry the patties until lightly browned.

To serve placed the fish patties on the warmed bread, add a scoop of the Miti Sauce then top with the Pineapple/Papaya Salsa and another piece of warm bread

Pineapple/Papaya Salsa
1 cup fresh pineapple diced
½ cup papaya diced
½ jalapeno minced
Pinch of kosher salt

Combine all ingredients in a glass bowl and refrigerate for at least one hour until ready to use.

Miti Sauce
½ jalapeno minced
1 spring onion diced (about ¾ cup)
Cream from 13.5 ounce can of coconut milk (don’t use the milk, just he thick cream)
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a glass bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour until ready to use.  The consistency of this sauce is paste-like.

 

If you like this burger you’ve got to try the Belize Burger, it is another amazingly fresh fish based dish but this one adds an amazingly tasty rice and bean cake, and avocado, I do love my avocado!

Fijian burger recipe

©Copyright 2012 Linda Monach

 

Posted in fish burgers, pacific islands countries | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Ethiopian burger recipe

Posted on February 2, 2012 by linda

Chicken Burger with Spicy Red Pepper Sauce

Our last stop in the E’s is Ethiopia.  If you haven’t read the Eritrea burger recipe, you should, as it’s really part of this same story.  Ethiopia is located in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya and Eritrea.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

It is the oldest independent country in Africa and, in fact, it pretty much avoided being colonized by Europeans except for a brief time from 1936-1941 during which the Italians were in charge.  But the Ethiopians got rid of the Italians and have been independent ever since.  Ethiopia was a founder country in the UN and the current government is relatively stable.  But that’s about the end of the good news.

Ethiopia’s economy is largely based on agriculture.  Unfortunately the 20th century brought several wide spread draughts to the country and even today many of the almost 91 million Ethiopians depend on foreign food aid for survival.  When feeding your family is a daily concern, other things tend to become less important and almost two thirds of Ethiopians over age 15 are illiterate.  Add to all of that frequent and still not completely resolved border disputes between Ethiopia and Eritrea and the basic picture is of a hard life in one of the poorest countries in the world.

But of course we can always find joy in food.  On the plus side, Ethiopians embrace flavor and spice.  In a land where food is scarce and where people need to stretch ingredients, spices can make up for a lot.  But to be honest, as I mentioned briefly in my write up about Eritrea (the cuisines of the two countries are very similar), I don’t like Ethiopian food.  Admittedly, I’ve only tried it once, but it was really not pleasant.  I promised the whole story, here it is.

When I was in college, my roommate decided she wanted to try Ethiopian food for her birthday.  She was (and still is) Finnish, so she was more open to exotic experiences than some of the rest of us – after all, she ate pickled herring and you all know how I feel about that.  So, we all hoped on the Metro and headed up to Adams Morgan and the Red Sea Restaurant which we had heard was a great Ethiopian restaurant.  I was 19 and still thought of hummus as an exotic food, but still, I found the dinner unpalatable.  I hated the family style of dining where they put my dinner on a plate with three other people’s dinners (and they are all stew like, so they run together).  It’s not that I have problem with foods touching, it’s just that at the time I didn’t eat fish or lamb and did not appreciate having fishy and lamby flavors contaminating my chicken.  As it turned out that was the least of the problems.  The next issue was the color – everything looked like baby poop – it was all green or brown or mustard yellow/brown – as a girl who still hadn’t discovered the joy of curries, this was quite off-putting.  Then there was the bread – injera, the spongy texture just didn’t seem like a food texture to me, it seemed too literally spongy.  But the worst part was the flavor – the spice level just blew out my pallet.  Ethiopian food is hot, really hot and spicy, and I felt the spice level drowned out all of the other flavors.

Looking back on it, I really wasn’t ready for Ethiopian food at 19.  I really think you need to ease in to the flavors that are most different from your home country.  For me, those are the African flavors; they seem the most exotic, the most difficult to adjust my palate to.  So it’s good that Ethiopia wasn’t the first of the African countries that I had to tackle.  I’ve spent so much time playing with African flavors and the varied cuisines of this continent, that Ethiopia wasn’t that hard.  It still isn’t my favorite cuisine, nor is it my favorite burger, but if you like your food super spicy with lots of complex flavor, you will enjoy this burger.

I have created yet another Berbere seasoning, I think that brings us to three, but I have not idea if they are different from each other (I didn’t look back to check), it is representative of how many versions of this “basic” spice there are.  I also tried a store bought Berbere, which was good – really good, so if you don’t have a pantry full of crazy spices, just buy a package of pre-blended Berbere.  I used Seasoned Pioneers brand (they did not pay me, nor did I get the spice for free).

Ethiopians have a chicken in red sauce (Doro Wat) that is pretty traditional and this is where I took my inspiration.  The red in the sauce is from the spice blend (yeah, it’s hot), then after you cook the chicken you take hard-boiled eggs and finish them in the spicy red sauce.  It seems the fates are conspiring to bring hard-boiled eggs into our lives – I admit I was dubious at first, but I’m a believer now.  Fried eggs are even better, but hard-boiled eggs are a lot easier and more versatile.  First Estonia, now Ethiopia – hard-boiled eggs rock.

I tried making homemade injera – here’s what that looked like…

It was work that didn’t pay off.  I still preferred the sourdough bread.  If you want make injera, there are lots of recipes out there – they all pretty much come down to teff flour, yeast and water – ferment for a day or five (depending on the recipe), then make a pancake out of the dough.  It’s not that hard, so try it if you want a more authentic experience.  I’ll stick with the spirit of the cuisine and a little less work myself  🙂

Overall this burger is full flavored and spicy (did I mention that it’s spicy?).  The sauce would work great with a veggie patty, so I’m calling it veggie friendly.  Paul (my husband) and I both thought it was good and represented the flavors of Ethiopia well, but both of us would have liked it better a little less spicy.  My parents both found it way too spicy and really didn’t like it at all.  So you be the judge – try it out and let me know what you think.

Ethiopian burger
1¼ pound chicken breast cubed (or 1 pound ground chicken)
1 lemon juiced
1 inch of ginger root grated*
2 large cloves of garlic minced
2 Tablespoons Berbere seasoning
8 slices of sourdough bread
Seasoned Butter (recipe below)
Red Chili Sauce (recipe below)
Hard Boiled Eggs (recipe below)

In a large glass bowl, combine chicken, lemon juice, ginger, garlic and Berbere.  Marinate for 1 hour then grind the chicken and form patties out of the ground chicken.  In the meantime, grill the bread in seasoned butter in a cast iron pan.  Add 2 Tablespoons of the Seasoned Butter to the pan and grill the burgers until cooked through.

To plate, start with 1 slice of grilled bread, add the cooked patty then top sliced hard-boiled egg and finish with Red Chili Sauce.

*Note: I buy ginger root then put it in a plastic bag in the freezer – it keeps almost indefinitely while only losing a little bit of its potency from fresh ginger.

Seasoned Butter
1 stick butter
2 sticks cinnamon
1 Tablespoon fenugreek seeds
10 whole cloves
½ teaspoon whole allspice

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over med-low until butter melts.  Skim off foam, then pour the clear part of the butter into a glass bowl and use for the recipe.

Red Chili Sauce
2 chopped onions
½ inch ginger root chopped
3 cloves garlic peeled
2 Tablespoons Seasoned Butter
2 Tablespoons Berbere seasoning (recipe below)
juice of 1 lemon
½ cup water
salt to taste
2 hard-boiled eggs peeled (slightly under cook these so that they can finish cooking in the sauce)

Combine onions, ginger and garlic in a food processor and pulse until you get a paste.  Sauté paste in Seasoned Butter over medium high heat for about 5 minutes stirring regularly.  Turn heat to low then add Berbere, lemon juice and water and sauté for another 5 minutes.  Salt to taste.  Add the lightly hard-boiled eggs and cook for another 5-10 minutes over low.  Serve hot.

Berbere Seasoning
10 dried bird chilies
6 whole allspice
10 whole green cardamom pods
3 whole cloves
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon pepper corns
½ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
2 Tablespoons ancho chili powder
½ teaspoon cayenne

Place all of the spices in a dry pan and roast over low heat until fragrant.  Place spices in a spice blender and pulse until you get an even mixture.  I used this version for the sauce and the store bought version for the chicken marinade.

 

©Copyright 2012 Linda Monach

Ethiopian burger recipe

 

Posted in african recipes, chicken burgers | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Estonian burger recipe

Posted on January 23, 2012 by linda

Bacon Cheeseburger with Hard-Boiled Eggs and Horseradish Mustard Sauce

Keeping things interesting, we’re heading to Estonia now.  The Republic of Estonia is located in Eastern Europe between Latvia and Russia and across the Gulf of Finland from, well, Finland of course!  It’s a small country with a population a little less than 1.3 million.  But Estonians take their history and their culture seriously.  Despite having been occupied/ruled by Denmark, Sweden, Russia, USSR and Germany, Estonians have held on to their culture and heritage and even their unusual language.  And through it all, they’ve built up a strong economy with an emphasis on modern technology.  In fact Skype was created by Estonians – pretty cool.

courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Courtesy of CIA World Factbook

Before we move on, I highly recommend you do a Google image search on Tallinn – go ahead, I’ll wait…Tallinn is (according to several sources) one of the most intact medieval cities in Europe.  The Old Town of Tallinn is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The original layout of the city is unchanged, many of the houses and major buildings are intact and restored consistent with the original designs from the 13th and 14th centuries.  It is beautiful, picturesque, quaint, just pick and adjective.  I’m a fan of any group of people who keep their old buildings and maintain them, so I’m now officially an Estonia fan.

So…cool town center, interesting history and funky language – now how about the food?  Traditional Estonian cuisine is based on seasonal foods (aren’t most traditional cuisines?).  Because their growing season isn’t all that long, Estonians have become fans of pickling as a way to preserve vegetables for the long winter.  So far, I was with them – I love pickled stuff.  Then I discover that in addition to pickled veggies, they like to eat pickled herring and pickled eel.  Now, I’ve never had either, but I’ve smelled pickled herring and that was reason enough to never eat it.  I know, there will be comments extolling the virtues of pickled herring, but you can forget about me incorporating it into a recipe.  At the end of the day, there won’t be a single recipe in this collection that I can’t honestly say I enjoyed eating.  They may not all be burgers that I crave, but they’ll all be burgers I like, and so far many of them are burgers I love.  So no pickled fish.

What about meats?  A classic favorite in Estonia is blood sausage.  I have tried blood sausage (in Cologne on a rather dreadful business trip – imagine hanging out in Germany with a bunch of drunk co-workers while you’re allergic to beer and it’s 90 degrees, not fun), and I’m not a fan.  I also don’t have a local source for blood sausage (Americans are a little squeamish about their food, so it isn’t a popular item here).  So regrettably, no blood sausage.

There’s also a traditional Estonian dish that involves boiling down pork bones and making a jelled substance out of it – can we just say yuck and move on?  I have to admit, I was beginning to despair at this point.  So far I had a pretty gross list of possible ingredients.  But, never one to give up hope, I kept researching.  Luckily Estonians like pork, so do I, they like horseradish sauces, so do I, they like bacon, dark rye bread and hard boiled eggs…wait a minute, hard boiled eggs?  That’s right folks, hard-boiled eggs.  What a riot, I thought that the eggs were kind of gimmicky, but man they made a really nice counterpoint for the pickles and pickled beets.  I also finally conquered my inability to make perfect hard-boiled eggs.  I always over cook my eggs and end up with that green-ish color to the egg yolk.  This time I put four eggs into cold water, enough to have an extra inch of water above the eggs.  I turned on the heat and got it to boiling, then boiled for 6 minutes, let sit in the hot water for 4 minutes, then I immersed the eggs in ice water until they were completely cooled.  It worked like a charm.

So the final burger is a bit of a hot mess, lettuce, pickles, pickled beets, onion, Gruyere, egg, bacon and horseradish sauce.  It is a pain to eat, very messy, sauce and stuff dripping everywhere.  But the flavor is so worth the mess.  Somehow all of these ingredients come together in a rich, tangy scrumptious feast.  My mother suggested I make my father’s burger without pickles or beets because he generally doesn’t like those things – but that would kind of thwart the whole idea of the project don’t you think?  We all ate the burgers as is in the recipe and I wrote down my father’s comment “it isn’t spectacular” that was all he would say.  But, he ate the whole burger and didn’t pick off any of the ingredients, so I’m calling it a win!  Paul and I loved this burger and my mother did too – I hope you’ll try it out and let me know what you think.

Estonian Burger
4 slices of bacon
1 pound ground pork
Kosher salt
Ground black pepper
¼ cup diced onion
Gruyere cheese sliced
8 slices of dark rye bread
1 clove of garlic sliced in half
Olive oil
Bib lettuce
1 whole dill pickle sliced into thin rounds
Pickled beets
2 hard-boiled eggs sliced
Horseradish Mustard Sauce (recipe below)

Cut the bacon slices in half and cook in a medium pan until crispy.  Set aside on paper towels until ready to use.  Do not clean the pan.

Form the pork into four patties.  Generously salt and pepper each side of the patty.  Heat the bacon grease over medium high heat.  Press the onions into one side of each patty and place onion side down in the hot bacon grease.  Cook until browned then flip over.  Cook until pork is almost cooked through then add slices of Gruyere and cover until cheese melts.

While the burgers are cooking, rub the garlic over one side of each piece of bread, then brush that same side with olive oil.  In a large dry pan, grill each piece of bread until lightly toasted (you’ll probably have to work in batches unless you have a large grill pan).

To assemble your burger start with a piece of grilled bread, grilled side up.  Add a piece of lettuce, slices of dill pickle, pickled beets, the cooked burger, the cooked bacon and a couple slices of hard boiled egg.  Put a nice dollop of the Horseradish Mustard Sauce on the grilled slice of the second piece of bread and serve the extra sauce on the side.  As I said in the intro, it’s a messy burger – here’s a picture of what you get when you add the sauce – YUMMY!

Horseradish Mustard Sauce
½ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup sour cream
2 teaspoons horseradish
1 teaspoon coarse mustard
4 teaspoons white wine vinegar

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

 

©Copyright 2012 Linda Monach

Estonian burger recipe

Posted in european recipes, pork burgers | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments