Spiced Burgers

I'm delighted to be able to share the news that I've joined the blogging team for Farmer's Choice foods,  who have a delivery service specialising in free range meats, and also selling a wide range of fresh produce, oils, preserves and even pet foods. They share my own ethos of supporting local independent producers wherever possible but not feeling wracked with guilt if I buy an occasional imported or out of season item (after all, British  lemons and bananas are very hard to come by!)

This week they sent me a pack of  products to try, and to produce some recipes from, and as summer barbecue weather must SURELY be just around the corner, I decided to start off with a simple but slightly unusual burger recipe, using minced beef, Scotch Bonnet chillis and fresh ginger from Farmers Choice.

"Choice" is the perfect word - just look at those lovely chillis! Mark would have ben proud to have grown them himself.

Spiced Burgers  makes 4-6

500g minced beef

1 Scotch Bonnet chilli, seeds removed
knob of fresh ginger, about the size of a walnut
1 small onion
small handful of fresh parsley
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sesame seeds
½ tsp ground coriander
½ ground cumin
oil for cooking

 Chop the chilli, ginger, onion and parsley as finely as possible – a food processor is a great help here! Place the minced beef in a bowl and knead in the chopped mixture and the seeds, spices and seasoning. If you have time, allow to stand for an hour or so to let the flavours mingle.

Shape with wet hands into 4-6 patties, brush with a little oil  then fry, grill or barbecue until cooked.

 

 

Serve on buns, offering mango chutney and cucumber raita instead of the usual ketchup.

 

A side salad of red cabbage, grated carrot, chopped orange segments and raisins dressed with curry mayonnaise is a great accompaniment. And as an afterthought, the salad would be even better with a handful of dry roasted peanuts scattered over it just before serving.

 

 

Despite the fiery Scotch Bonnet chilli, the spice in these burgers is mild enough for the whole family, but you could double the quantity if you are feeding curry-loving adults. The parsley could be swapped for fresh coriander leaf, or you could use a mixture of both.

 

 

A note about the rolls - I would have preferred NOT to use the boring supermarket white rolls you see above, but with less than an hour until we ate, I found that my freshly purchased wholemeal rolls were mouldy and had to dash out to the shops to grab whatever I could get. Lesson learned - I'll make my own next time!