Yesterday we made hamburgers for our Sunday dinner. The first step was to make some buns, because the ones they sell in the supermarkets aren't so good. We have a good recipe for buns — hotdog or hamburger — if anybody wants it.
The second step was to grind some beef and form it into patties. We had just over a pound of beef (beef chuck steak, basse-côte, is what I prefer), so we made four quarter-pound (120 g) patties. We could buy the beef already ground, but when you do it yourself you can be more confident about what it contains.
Tomatoes from the garden make the burgers that much better, and now is our tomato season. We also had lettuce and mayonnaise on our hamburgers, and we made them as cheeseburgers using some French Comté cheese. The tomatoes we picked look a little green in the photo, but that's the variety's color at full ripeness.
Finally, there's lunch. We made potato chips by slicing the potatoes thinly using a mandolin and then frying them in peanut oil. Walt grilled some slices of zucchini along with the hamburger patties. The burgers were tall, but we still managed to pick them up, squeeze them a little, and eat them with our hands rather than with a knife and fork.
Bon appétit !
Drooling
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely yumschious!
ReplyDeleteAnd I am in full agreement about the "Burger Buns"...
They can only be described as "pappy"...
I think that they may be steamed bread, rather like commercial sliced loaves?
I needed some rolls the other day and found some mini-pavé at Intermarché...
they were more like ciabatta, though, but suited my purposes.
I started using shin of beef for burgers many, many moons ago....
mainly 'cos 'twas all I could afford... in the UK jarret is about the cheapest cut of beef...
skirt being the cheapest... but useless for all but long slow stews.
What variety is that tomato, please? It looks like Ananas, but greener... our big toms are getting bigger by the day...
but the only ones showing any ripening are the ones with blossom end rot!
The little varieties are flowing off the plant at an even.... and manageable rate, tho'.
The plated-up food looks as well presented as the burger you had the other day....
with a more traditional splodge of ketchup.
And I love the look of your home-made krinkle-kuts.
T
Would love your burger bun recipe as we also find the supermarket buns too pappy and tasteless. I do make my own bread for slicing so that I've always got some ready in the freezer for those toast and Marmite moments.
DeleteWe think the tomato variety is Aunt Ruby's German Green. Our friend Keir who lives down the road gave us the plants, which I think she grew from seed.
DeleteI think you've got a cross-breed there...
Deleteall the images for Aunt Ruby's show a lemon yellow centre...
but even there, I think that might be wrong, too:
http://www.gardenguides.com/2994-tomato-aunt-rubys-german-green-seeds-bulbs.html
But, if you like that one save some of the seed...
easy to do...
keep back some of the thick juice and seed...
leave it in an old jar to ferment for a week...
add some water and shake very well...
pour through seive...
spread seed out on a paper towel to dry...
put another sheet on top...
when dry put seed in a small packet / envelope and re-use seed next year.
Given that you've grown it with others, you can't guarantee it will be exactly the same....
but it is always fun trying...
and, who knows...
there might be a Ken&Walt tomato out there some day!
Your tomato picture looks just like "Ananas Noir" in the Baumaux catalogue. The skin is described as "vert bronze nuancé de rouge noir" and the flesh as "verte nuancé de rouge et brun". Aunt Ruby's is just green. Both varieties are said to have an excellecnt flavour. Pauline
DeleteThanks Pauline. I'm sure you are right.
DeleteWould love to know how to make soft rolls,like these. I have read that you put vinegar in the mixture or brush with butter, but so far haven't tried it. Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteThere is a recipe here, Christine. I made a double recipe for our hamburgers on Sunday, but instead of making 12 buns I made just 8, making them larger. Each ball of dough that I shaped into a bun weighed between 140 and 150 grams. One key to keeping them soft is to cover them with a kitchen towel when the come out of the oven and let them cool under the towel. That way the steam they are releasing keeps the buns soft and moist rather than just evaporating and letting the buns dry out and crisp up.
DeleteI have just written that tea-towel bit against the bread rolls recipe in my bread book.
DeleteT
How 'bout reposting the bun recipe? Looks like a mouthwatering meal. We've just come back from the southwest and could use a break from duck and lamb.
ReplyDeleteEllen, see above.
DeleteAh, I missed the link.Thanks.
DeleteLove the photos. Have just eaten porridge for breakfast but you have my mouth watering again.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about food words often being of French origin in Britain. I've always assumed it to be about 1066 and the Norman conquest. From then on, the English peasants raised the cows and sheep while the Norman nobles ate the mutton and beef.