Hello everybody out there. I have to apologize for being very busy lately with my boyfriend. Also I had to overcome or at least accept my darker side, which was much more of a challenge than expected.
Speaking of a challenge...
@enlishtchrivy invited me to participate in her culinary challenge, after having told her, that, I already learned how to cook. I skipped the last challenge for being kind of morbid, for I could be considered an "ave" myself. THIS time, I really had to join in. I really TRY to keep my word!
So let´s go and see what we need:
We will be making EVERYTHING ourselves. Mayoneses, the paddies, the bread and the toppings... here we go!
The Maionese
This will be very fastly done. Key is to use VERY fresh and good eggs and a VERY good oil (I chose a native olive oil for me and @pollux and a less tasty sunflower oil for the rest of the family)
You´ll need:
one egg,
100 ml of oil,
one tablespoon of mustard,
some seasalt and pepper
some drops of lemon juice.
This has to be put in exactly THAT order into a high bowl or a glass. Take a handblender and put it carefully into the glass. On highest speedlevel, now move SLOWLY from the bottom of the glass out. This "outmoving" should take about 10 seconds ... AND your maionese is ready. (if you prefer a thicker consistence, you can use 2 egg yolks instead of the whole egg, this will you also give a more yellowish colour)
The result is amazing (and tastes way better than anything you can buy)
now let´s bake some bread...
The Bread
This is the most difficult and time consuming part, but it´s really worth it! Making bread for your ow(l)n will amaze your guests as well as yourself.
For 4 of my burgerbuns you´ll need:
8 heaped Tablespoons of (spelt) flowr
8 Tablespoons of Chia seeds, you cannot heap these.
(If you don´t have a grinder, you can go with 8 heaped Tablespoons Chia flowr instead)
2 small spoons of baking soda
1 big carot
2 eggs
First you grind the Chia seeds and grate the carrot finely. Then you put the dry ingredients into a big bowl and mix them well before adding the eggs and the carrots. Knead it, until you get a smooth dough (you might have to add some more flour for that)
You can´t imagine how hard this can be, barely able to look into the bowl...
| grinding chia seeds | grating and grinding done | mixing done, eggs and carrots added |
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When you finally have the dough finished, you can proceed by forming slmall balls and finally flatbreads out of it. Put them in a coated and covered pan for several minutes each side (Depending how crunchy or soft you want your bread). Personally I like some crunch ... this is really good for my beek... so I gave the flatbread about 5 min on each side with medium heat.
When the bread is finished, you can put them in the heated oven at about 60 degree. The bread tastes best when it is still warm.
As you can see... it does not remain "flatbread" but gets the desired burgerbun-form
Something you could and should do, while the bread is "baking" is preparing the other ingredients:
The Toppings
I chose a variety of things and you are free to choose whatever you like, too.
I chose:
1 Avocado (because Avocado is simply great, it goes very well with the maio and very badly with cheese, which suits our needs perfectly)
3 different kinds of sprouts
red watercress
rucola (rocket salad)
and for the children:
Ognion
3 cherry tomatos
grated carot
cucumber
some green salad
Slice everything REALLY fine (remember... you don´t want a tower at the end)
When you are finished with that, we finally get to...
The Paddies
This is quite easy, but it takes some time. You´ll need pure beef ground meat with at least 25%, but not more than 30% fat. Go to your trustworthy butcher and let him show you the meat. Let him do the grounding freshly! You´ll need about a quarter pound (250 gr) for each person.
In fact... THIS IS ALL YOU NEED.
But you have to knead it for about 10-15 min. Do it with your hands (or wings, which will be a real mess... ). This will give your meat the right consistence and the fat will be nicely spread everywhere. You really need NOTHING else in it.
Form as many paddies as you calculated (in my receipe I had to make 4 ). Make them about 1.5 inch (2 cm) thick. Put some clarified butter in a pan and heat it up to the boiling point. Then you can put the paddies in. You´ll only need 180 seconds on each side to have it perfectly coloured and rose in the middle. Don´t turn it all the time... only once! Else, you´ll risk to loose a lot of juices and flavours (And turning the paddies more than once is only OK for cooking rookies)
You see, what I mean?
NOW you can add some salt and pepper (I chose not to...),
and then start building THE PERFECT CHEESELESS BURGER
Make sure you put some maionese on each half of the burgerbuns first. Then you can start constructing.
TRY to build something stable.
Some hints:
The more solid the ingredient is, the nearer to the bottom should its position be.
Make sure to put the avocado last before the top part of the burgerbun.
Make sure your hot meat gets in direct contact with the rucola (this will activate the essential oils and flavours of the rocket salad.
A toothpic can help to fix the "tower" until someone can grab and squeeze it to a practical (and eatable) size.
The rest is up to you! Enjoy!
| This is my original version WITHOUT cheese | This is the childrens choice version with some cheddar |
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of course this picture at the table was only for posing... I had to leave the table after the photoshoot. I wasn´t really angry, because this way, I had the chance to eat together with my boyfriend... undisturbed. But still, I guess, I have to write an article soon about ostracism and racism against animals at the table.