Halalalalala Burger!

Holidays can be stressful sometimes, when you just have nothing to do! But the sound of some good food makes us all very bright and cheerful. The story of this burger, began on such a boring, lazy holiday. The evening became an interesting one when we treated ourselves to this yummy juicy burger. And thanks to my nephew, Viv who suggested this name “Halalalalala Burger” (It's similar to the howling sound of African tribes; but sadly there is no connection of this burger to the tribe!)

The preparation could need some helping hands as they are many different layers, but once you prepare them for assembly, it hardly takes time to be ready to be dug into!

Treat yourselves to this goodness and let me know your reviews. And guys please forgive me for not posting any pics, because I have made this much before I started writing this blog. Will post some step-by-step pics soon.

Difficulty level: Average

Quantity: 10 very hungry people

Prep time: 15-20 mins to cook each meat patty and assembly additional

Can be served as: An evening snack or at a party if you use small size buns

Ingredients

For the Burger patty:

Minced lamb or Beef – 1 kg

Seasoning – Thyme, oregano, rosemary – 1 tbsp all mixed together

Salt and crushed pepper – as per taste

Garam Masala – ½ tsp

Red chilli flakes – as per spice required

Vinegar – 1 tbsp

Chopped Green Chillies – 2 or 3 less spicy ones

Ginger Garlic paste – 1 ½ tbsp

Olive Pomace oil for frying – as per usage

For Potato spread

Potatoes – 1 kg cooked and mashed

Seasoning – Thyme, oregano, rosemary – 1 tsp all mixed together

Fresh cream – 20 ml

For the Veg topping – as per the topping required

Tomatoes

Onions

Jalapeños

Lettuce

Button Mushrooms (cleaned well; ensure there is no dirt on them)

Bell Peppers- Any colour

For Sauce

Cheese spread -  

Fresh cream – 50 ml

Bread – this makes close to 10 burgers

Burger buns - 10

Optional:

Bacon Rashes

It may seem like too many ingredients, but most of them would be available in your pantry; for some of the others you may have to visit a supermarket or the butcher. 

Preparation:

Prepare the patty: First, drain all the excess water from the meat. Take a big bowl and marinate the minced meat with all the ingredients mentioned for the patty and leave it for at least 1 hour. The longer it stays in the marinade, the juicer it is.

Prepare the cheese sauce: Take 50 ml of fresh cream and add thick cheese spread to it (Keep aside some of cheese spread as well.) Cook this mixture in a hard bottomed pan till it mixes well , be careful not to burn it. Add little powdered pepper and salt as required. Once the cheese spread has mixed well with the cream, remove from flame and keep this sauce aside to cool.

Cook the patty: It is important to cook the patty in a shallow pan. Take a saucer no larger than the diameter of the burger bun and fill the patty mixture tightly. Heat pan, pour Olive Pomace oil and invert the meat filled saucer in the pan once the oil is hot. Leave the saucer on so that it cooks in the steam. Start with low heat and wait till the meat lets out some of its amazing juices. Don’t be worried if the patties let out lot of water; just carefully drain excess out in a bowl; this will come in handy later. Once you feel that the patty is cooked half way through remove the saucer. Now increase the heat a bit and cook on both sides. Now you will see juices will start reducing adding a nice brown colour to the patty. Once the juices completely dry up remove from heat. It should take 15-20 mins for each patty and depending on the size of the pan you could cook 2-3 patties at once. 

Preparing the potato spread: Take mashed potatoes in a bowl, add salt, cream and mix until it forms a smooth spreadable consistency.

Preparing the veg topping: Chop mushrooms, peppers and jalapeños julienne. Cut Tomatoes & Onions into thin rings. Heat a pan and throw in the mushrooms when is really hot and add a little olive oil. Sauté them on high flame with a little bit of salt and pepper. Remove from flame once it cooked and dried in all of its juices.    

Tip: Always cook mushrooms in a wide shallow pan and on high flame. The mushrooms tend to let out a lot of water and cooking it in low flame will not let it dry quickly. 

Assembling the burger: Cut the burger bun into half and spread some thick cheese spread on the top and pour 1-2 tsp of liquid cheese sauce on to the base of the bun. Place the meat patty then pour 1 tbsp of liquid cheese sauce on top. Place the lettuce then onions, tomatoes, jalapeños  then spread a good dollop of the Potato spread, sautéed veggies on top. Pour 1 tsp of the reduced meat juice on the veggies and close with the other half of the bun.

If you like, you may add pan fried bacon rashes right on top of the veggies. 

Heat burger in microwave before serving; serve the burger hot with some thick cheese spread and tomato ketchup in small bowls. Crisp fried potato wedges or fries will be a great add-on. 


Reality check:

• I won’t term this as easy but it’s simple if you follow the recipe.

• It’s definitely not junk since it’s home-made!

• The fat content used is healthier since we have used cheese spread instead of mayo and olive oil instead of regular refined oil or butter.

• You may use many oil if you are not very keen on cutting down fat.

• Feed your young ones, the goodness of veggies, protein, carbohydrate and good fat which makes it a complete meal.

• If you feel red meat is too high in calories, then you could use minced chicken instead, but taste will definitely differ.