Beef Burgers, Homemade Buns and Wedges
You can't really go wrong with beef burgers! There are some days when my boys are so hungry they have this great cavernous hole that needs to be filled with a lot of food and nothing does that job better than burgers and chips. My boys will have two of these to take the edge off their hunger before appreciating the individual components - burgers with the onions, potatoes with mayo and finishing off with buns, butter and jam. When I make these they will graze the entire evening on them. Oh, they're so good.
To make this dish: First we make the dough. Set that aside to rise while we make the patties and prepare the potatoes. Next, we bake bread and then the potatoes. Last of all fry the patties, assemble and serve it.
Notes on burgers:
I've used beef mince which has about 15% fat. I've combined this with pork mince. The reason I do this is to make sure that the patties are soft. Beef mince can become quite hard otherwise. Do chop the onions and the garlic very finely because you don't want lumps in your burger. If you use a chopper, what will happen is so much water will come out that the burgers will boil.
This patty mixture requires no bread crumbs or egg. It will just come together as you fry it. Since the recipe had pork, you need vinegar to cut through the ammonia smell. You can add any vinegar of your choice.
Notes on bread:
Making bread from scratch is really satisfying. This is my fail-safe recipe to make dough and I make all sorts of breads with it. It's a combination of chapatti flour, and plain flour and extra virgin olive oil.
The temperature of the water should be hot enough that you can feel it when you dip your hands inside but not scalding hot. I add the yeast and sugar into the water and let it bubble that way I know if my yeast is dead or alive. This is useful otherwise the dough won't rise.
You should be quite precise with the amount of water you use. Even if it's a little bit over the dough will remain sticky and then you would have to add flour bit by bit to get the right balance.
The dough needs to rest in a fairly warm place. If you live in a cold country, then turning your oven to about 50 degrees C is the perfect temperature for the dough to rise.
The way to cook these buns so that you have a nice soft roll is to cook them from room temperature. This is unusual I know, but trust me it works.
Juicy beef & pork mince burgers with spicy potato wedges and homemade wholewheat buns. These wholewheat buns are super-soft, the combination of beef and pork makes really juicy burgers and paprika spices up the potatoes!
- 300 g Atta (chapatti flour)
- 200 g plain flour
- 7 g instant yeast
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil (extra virgin)
- 320 ml hot water (at 45C)
- 50 g salted butter (to rub on baked buns)
- 100 g sesame seeds (to sprinkle on buns)
- 750 g beef mince (15% fat)
- 500 g lean pork mince
- 3 nos medium onions (finely chopped)
- 8 clove large cloved garlic (finely chopped)
- 1.5 tbsp mixed italian herbs
- 1.5 tbsp hot chilly flakes
- 2 tsp pepper (coarse ground)
- 3 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (or any other vinegar)
- 50 g ghee or high temperature fat (for frying)
- 1 kg red potatoes or other large potato (thickly sliced lengthwise)
- 50 g lard/goose fat/coconut oil/ghee (any fat that heats without smoking)
- 2 tsp pepper (coarse ground)
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tbsp mixed italian herbs
- 2 l boiling water (to parboil potatoes)
- 3 nos large onions (thinly sliced)
- 350 g plum tomatoes (thinly sliced)
- 50 g salted butter/mayonnaise (to spread on buns)
- 100 g cheese (sliced)
Measure out your ingredients and mix hot and cold water to get the right temperature, about 45c. I have used double recipe to illustrate the bread-making process so it will appeargreater than the proportions mentioned above.
Add yeast and sugar to water and let it bubble. This should take a few minutes.
Combine flours with salt.
Using a dough hook combine wet and dry ingredients until you get a sticky dough. You can do this by hand too. Make sure you combine well so that there are no pockets of dry flour.
Now knead the sticky dough by hand until it turns smooth. This should take about 5-7 minutes or duble that if you are using double recipe.
The dough should feel moist but should not stick to your hand.
Seal it with olive oil to prevent a crust from forming.
Cover and place in a warm place and let rise to double. It should take 50min to 1 hour. While the dough is rising, we can prepare patties and wedges.
Assemble your ingredients.
Chope onion and garlic finely to make sure there are no lumps in the patties.
Add the 2 meats, the chopped vegetables and all the rest of the ingredients.
Massage the meats with the flavour ingredients so that it is well combined.
Weigh the mixture and divide into 125gm balls. I got 12.5 balls. This is a good portion size.
Roll each ball, then flatten on a glass tray to a palm sized disc (approx 10cm in diameter) making sure there are no cracks on the side.
Set aside to rest while we make wedges.
Assemble your ingredients. Bring a large pot of water to boil.
Wash and dry potatoes and cut into large chunks lengthwise, about 1.5 cm thickness. Leave the skin on.
Add potatoes to boiling water with salt and parboil for 5 minutes. Melt fat in a roasting tray until spluttering hot.
Tip the parboiled potatoes potatoes into the hot fat. It should sizzle. Coat well.
Add the rest of the ingredients and toss to coat the potatoes. Set aside while we make buns.
By this time the dough should have risen to double. Punch down gently and fold together. Weigh it.
You should get approx 850gm of dough. This makes 8.5 balls of 100gm each. Double recipe gives 1700gm dough for 17 buns.
Dust a tray with flour. Roll the measured balls tucking the rough ends in. Arrange on the tray leaving enough space for the dough to rise to double. Flatten the top by pressing gently with the palm of your hand.
Return to the warm place for 20 minutes and let rise to double.
Place the tray in the oven and set the temperature to 180C. Set a timer for 15 minutes.
The buns will warm from room temperature and cook when the oven reaches 180C. This method gives you soft golden buns.
Brush the hot buns with melted butter and sprinkle sesame seeds on them.
Set aside to cool while we bake potatoes and fry patties.
Pre-heat oven to 240C. Place the wedges in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
Flip over and return to the oven for another 10 minutes. You should get wedges that are crisp on the outside and soft in the middle.
While the potatoes are baking, add ghee to a frying pan and let it heat up. Add the patties 3 at a time and fry for about 3 minutes. The patties will shrink a bit.
Flip the patties and fry for another 2-3 minutes.
Check if it is cooked to the desired colour by slicing through the middle. It should look pale grey.
After all the patties are fried, add sliced onions to the same pan and a bit more fat and fry in the patty juices till golden and translucent.
Now that everything is ready its time to assemble and serve.
Slice the buns in half. Spread butter or mayo on them.
Place patty on the bun and top with onions, tomatoes and sliced cheese. Serve with wedges and tender celery stems or lettuce.
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