Having said I might start with a veggie or fishy option I reverted to type and went for a beef burger instead, mainly because it took a bit less thinking about... a good option after what felt like a long day in the office. I had a go at the Blackened Burger, served with a rocket salad and a salsa that was extremely loosely based on the suggested side of 'pico de gallo'.
The recipe suggests it's a traditional Cajun style burger - a marriage of beef and spicy sausage (I used a hot cooking chorizo from local deli), perked up with some herbs and spices. The book says that in the Deep South a burger will always be well dressed and well seasoned. I opted for a least faff maximum flavour combo with a salsa made from tomato, red pepper, celery, cucumber and a finely chopped green chilli... Even having deseeded the chilli it packed enough punch for the overall effect to be suitably Cajun. The burger itself was not super spicy - the chorizo imparted an impressively smokey flavour to the meat but I think I would maybe use a bit more chilli powder next time (it is almost unheard of for me to adhere to a recipe for spice levels, and this was a reminder of why).
Served the burger on a toasted roll which I think was described as a Viennois in the French place that sells the best bread in Perth. There was a good layer of salsa under the burger, so the jalapeño gave it a boost and for a bit of extra 'dressing' I put a mix of pesto and mayo on the bap as well. This ridiculous cacophony of competing flavours actually combined in a very satisfying way - this is just as well as the freezer is now loaded with spare burgers; spare burgers! Who knew that was even possible?
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wow - that looks like a feast of a burger. I'm the opposite with chilies and spicy flavours, tending to take them down a bit form what's suggested. Great start to the gourmet burger journey if your freezer is stocked already! Totally impressed you pulled it out the hat on a week night too.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to get into one of the veggie ones from the list you sent me this weekend hopefully. Also found another source for recipes - the yoga workshop I was on was catered by yoga kitchen - brilliant vegan/veggie food - and they have some recipes on their site for veggie stuff - so might also have a bash with them at some point. Hoorah, we're on a roll! ('scuse the pun!)