Burger night

Two weekends ago Elliot and I had Kel and Will over for dinner. Kel and I lived together way back when I first went flatting in 2003. Despite a string of weird and psychotic flatmates, Kel and myself, along with our friend Kylie, managed to live together and have a blast doing so for a couple of years. We did part ways, as you do, but through the joys of Facebook managed to at least check out where each other's lives had taken them.

I learnt Kel had travelled to Canada (amongst many other fabulous places), met Will, fell in love and got married. They stayed living in Canada until late last year when they decided to return to Kel's home land.

Also through the joys of social media I learnt Kel shared the passion for food and cooking that I did - she writes a great blog about all things food and I have been inspired by it on a number of occasions - check it out at http://arumblytummy.blogspot.co.nz/.

It also seemed her husband was somewhat of a food lover. As long as it had meat. And ideally in a burger.

So when the latest Cuisine magazine came out and had a section on burgers I knew this was the chance to stop just saying we would catch up for dinner - and actually do it.

I decided on two different burgers - the one that immediately caught my eye in the magazine - pork burgers with kimchi mayonnaise and my own version of a Hawaiian chicken burger using the pineapple pico de gallo recipe from the mag.

That along with homemade onion rings, slaw and gherkins ought to please any boy I am sure (and hopefully a great cook and someone who critiques food on a regular basis).

And the great thing about these recipes is you can do all the prep work in advance and then just have to cook the meat and onion rings and assemble.

Pork burgers and kimchi mayonnaise 
(these are the halved quantities I used and they made plenty)

• 1/2 bunch of coriander with roots and leaves
• 500g pork mince
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 Tb gochujang paste (a Korean chilli, soy bean paste which is delicious and I've made good use of the rest of it)
• 1/2 Tb soy sauce
• 1/2 Tb grated ginger
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup kimchi (pickled spicy cabbage - sounds revolting but it is so very not)
• 1/4 good mayo
• 1/4 cucumber, deseeded and cut into fine matchsticks
• 1 1/2 cups savoy cabbage, cut finely
• 1/2 Tb rice wine vinegar
• 2 spring onions, cut very finely length ways
• 1/2 Tb peanut oil
• Buns (the recipe used steamed but I'm not a huge fan plus I was making mini ones using slider buns)

• Cut the roots and stems off the coriander and chop finely. Reserve the leaves.
• Put the coriander roots and stems in a bowl with the mince, garlic, gochujang, soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil and half the salt.
• Using your hands, mix well.
• Shape into patties then cover and refrigerate until ready to cook.

• Put the kimchi and mayo in a blender and process until combined.

• Put the cucumber, cabbage, remaining salt and vinegar in a bowl and mix well. 
• Put the spring onions and coriander leaves on top but do not mix in.

• Heat the peanut oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Fry patties until cooked (I, well Kel, browned them and them finished them off in the oven while the chicken and bacon cooked and I did the onion rings).
• Toss the spring onions and coriander through the cabbage salad.
• Fill each bun with a patty, some of the green mix and a dollop of kimchi mayo.
• Eat a few (the joy of sliders is you can eat more than one and not feel too bad).

Pineapple Pico de Gallo

• 1 cup finely chopped fresh pineapple
• 1/2 red onion finely chopped (a regular red onion and not our ones the size of a baby's head)
• 2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
• 3 Tb chopped coriander
• 2 Tb lime juice (do not use bottled, it is rubbish)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tb olive oil

• Put all ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine.

Add chicken and bacon to a slider bun for a mini Hawaiian chicken burger.

Fennel and hazelnut slaw

• 2 Tb orange juice
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 2 Tb extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large fennel bulb
• 2 carrots, grated
• 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley
• 6 Tb roasted hazelnuts, chopped
• 3 Tb capers

• Whisk together the orange juice, mustard, olive oil and season with salt and black pepper.
• Remove fronds from fennel. Chop and set aside.
• Remove the course outer layers from the bulb then cut the fennel as thin as you can (use a mandoline if you have one, or borrow one if your Mams has one).
• Add to the bowl with the dressing and toss to combine.
• Put the carrot, parsley, hazelnuts, capers and fennel fronds on top of the dressed fennel. 
• Cover and refrigerate.
• Just before serving mix everything together.

Cuisine served this slaw in a bun with gurnard fillets. Sounded delicious and might be the next one to try.

Onion rings
These are super easy and passed on from Mams who passed on from Rachael Ray.

All you do is cut the onions into rings, dip them in buttermilk then into flour then back into buttermilk then back into the flour. Can deep fry them but I just shallow fried in really hot canola oil. Drain on paper towels and grind some salt over the top. Do them in small batches so the oil temperature doesn't drop too much and they stay nice and crispy.

Before

After

The verdict
Pretty successful all round. Everything seemed to go down a treat. My personal favourite was the pork burgers and the kimchi mayo was divine. The gochujang paste really made these burgers and I think they were El's favourite too. And it's not often he will eat anything that has something in it that he can't pronounce and there was a proud moment when I realised he had eaten the kimchi mayonnaise and not only did so without a grimace on his face, but quite possibly a smile. I'll knock that "bland westernised palate" out of him yet (his phrase, not mine).

The spread

The onion rings were salty and crispy and the Hawaiian burgers yummy too - was a nice twist having the pineapple as a salsa with chilli and coriander. Worked well with with the chicken and salty bacon. Mmmmm.

For dessert we were treated to Kel's spicy cookies - a cakey chocloately creation with ginger, smoked paprika, chilli chocolate and some other yummy things (sorry Kel I think at that stage I had had four or so glasses of wine).

Anyway, they were delicious (and we got to keep the leftovers)!

Pair all of the above with some lovely Pinot Gris (or Chardonnay which I think the second bottle was) or Dark Tui or Tsingtao (ok, so any wine or beer goes with burgers), some fabulous conversation and you've got yourself a good ol time.

Oh, Kel and Will also share our love of spicy food and I was super impressed Will even tried the killer jerky which was ridiculously hot... while Kel and I snacked on the milder and less wanting to rip your tongue out version.

I look forward to many more dinners, recipe trials, drinks and laughter.