Burger Blues

18 April 202218 April 2022 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

It was with a bit of a start that I discovered I’ve been making these hamburgers for just short of twenty years. The original recipe came in the Good Taste magazine published by the Wine of the Month Club which I’d joined in about 1998. The publication is now defunct – gone the same way as many other printed publications. However, I digress, but indulge me a little longer: I realised that it had been more than fifteen years because I made them in Cape Town; we’re in our eleventh year in McGregor. Among other things, these burgers have featured as an offering for more than one Christmas market.

In March, I began my ninth year as a stallholder at the McGregor morning market. I now realise that I’m a die hard, now. A fixture. In more ways than one!

Regular feature

Folk who follow my social media – especially Instagram and Hive will know that burgers – meat and plant-based – are a pretty regular feature on our menu. Going through my photos, I discover that I had shared this recipe before: around October and in 2014; to be precise. That post, along with a body of preceding work disappeared into the ether when my erstwhile host disappeared, effectively killing my blog. On reflection, it was one of my very early posts and will only benefit from what I’ve learned – both blogging and in the kitchen – in the intervening eight years.

The Blues

Restaurants in Camps Bay, Cape Town | My Guide Cape Town — Blues – late 80s into the 2000s Cape Town iconic spot

When the recipe was published in 2003, it was part of a series of articles on – and recipes from – iconic restaurants around the country. This one was from Blues. For about twenty years, it was the place to go: real live sea views – from glossy magazines – and food to die for. I remember going there for the first time in 1990, and not long after Nelson Mandela was released and during my first “grown up” visit to Cape Town. I had to try the recipe. I did, and have both never looked back and have, of course, tweaked it to our taste and – to be honest – budget.

Making the best of the “blues”

One of the joys of being married to a former stock farmer (and being of a certain vintage) is that we both understand and value ~~cheaper~~ less popular cuts of meat. That means I’m not averse to using venison or ostrich mince (ground meat) if I can get it. I also don’t insist on sirloin or whatever was in the original recipe. On The Husband’s advice, and that of our Country Butcher friend, for a batch of patties I made for one of those pre-Covid Christmas markets, was to include 10% sheep’s fat.

Those were the best burgers I’ve ever made: moist and flavourful. Alas, that Country Butcher’s given up meat for mud.

Ahem…he now moves earth. Really!

In addition to exercising my right to budget-friendly, flavourful meat, I have also ditched the dried herbs in favour of fresh. I have not looked back.

The best hamburger patties

1,2 kg beef mince ((ground meat))
2 onions (chopped)
4 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
sunflower oil for frying
60 g mixed fresh herbs (or half if using dried) (chopped)
10 ml soy sauce
20 ml Worcestershire sauce
dash Tabasco
1 egg
salt & pepper

To serve – all optional

6/12 burger buns
Mayonnaise
rashers bacon – sufficient for the number of burgers
cheddar (grated)
sliced tomato
sliced onion
gherkin or pickle of choice
potato wedges

Finely chop the onion and garlic and sauté these in a little sunflower oil untiltranslucent.
Removefrom the heat; add the dried herbs and leave to cool.
Put the mince into a large bowl and season with the soy, Tabasco and Worcestershiresauces. Add the cooled onions and fresh herbs if using, along with the egg; season with salt and pepper.
Divide the burger mix into six (or 12) even balls and shape into patties. For bestresults, allow the burgers to sit in the fridge for at least 1 hour prior to cooking.
Grill the burgers to the degree you prefer them over hot coals or in a pan.

To serve

Grill or fry the bacon rashers until they are nice and crisp.
Place on a warm burgerbun with some sliced onions and juicy tomatoes.
Place the bacon on top of the burgers; then smother with grated cheese.

I use a range of different meats: venison, ostrich and have also introduced 10% mutton fat.
I make 12 patties (measured using a half-cup measure).
Adapted from: Good Taste No 168, November/December 2003

American

burgers, fast food,

If you’re on a platform that doesn’t give you the print recipe option you are welcome to download it here. If you do, buy me a coffee. Or better yet, a glass of wine ….?

As there are only two of us, I freeze what we don’t eat – in pairs. They store well and play equally well with potato wedges and lightly grilled sourdough buns (and, of course, commercial hamburger buns).

Until next time, be well
Fiona
The Sandbag House
McGregor, South Africa

Post script

I am participating in @traciyork‘s twice-yearly Hive Blog Posting Month.

If this post might seem familiar, it’s because I’m doing two things:

re-vamping old recipes. As I do this, I am adding them in a file format that you can download and print. If you download recipes, buy me a coffee. Or better yet, a glass of wine….?
and “re-capturing” nearly two years’ worth of posts.

I blog to the Hive blockchain using a number of decentralised applications.

From WordPress, I use the Exxp WordPress plugin. If this rocks your socks, click here or on on the image below to sign up.

Join Hive using this link and then join us in the Silver Bloggers’ community by clicking on the logo.

lastly, graphics are created using partly my own photographs and Canva.

Thai – African Style

1 February 2016 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

Twelve or so years ago, when Thai cuisine was viewed as a relatively novel ethnic cuisine, and one which we enjoy, we happened on a very useful publication from Australian Women’s Weekly. Page 32 has recipes for red, green and massaman curry pastes. This last, I have made often, although, I confess, not for a while.

ThaiCurryPasteRecipesJan2016 — This is for blog pal, Peggy, who I’m sure, is familiar with Australian Women’s Weekly, and who also shares fabulous recipes – tried and tested – and all from page 32.

But I digress. One of our favourite summer suppers is based on the beef salad in this book.

I have made this with beef, and not, I might add, with rump, but rather with a hunk of stewing steak which when rare, and cut across the grain, works just as well. Some (i.e. The Husband) would say it’s better because it’s more flavourful. That said, we have this salad most often with ostrich.

TheHusbandSupperJan2016 — No, contrary to popular opinion, The Husband doesn’t starve when I’m away – he’s a dab hand in the kitchen. His photographic evidence.

At the time we discovered aforementioned book, ostrich meat was cheaper than beef. That’s changed. For two reasons: flocks took a serious knock with the avian flu pandemic, but more importantly, ostrich is a not a “red” meat: like chicken, it is lean. Which brings me back to The Husband who, as regular readers know, is a dedicated, salad-eating carnivore who has been both a beef and poultry farmer. Early on in our relationship, my suggestion that we have ostrich was met with, “Why would I want to eat ‘big chicken’? Chicken isn’t meat!”

He and the local boere* are of a mind: chicken is amper vleis.* *

To cut a long story short, he was persuaded to try it – at least once – and although not immediately a convert, was game to try it again. Preferably disguised as something else. This salad does exactly that.

What I do

Having followed this recipe to the letter, I discovered that the inclusion of the chopped herbs in the dressing, which is actually the basting sauce, was a mistake. If you’re searing the meat on a smoking hot, cast iron griddle, the herbs (and garlic) char. The salad ends up full of unsightly, unpleasant-tasting black bits. Instead, I combine the first four ingredients for the dressing-cum-basting and reserve the fresh coriander and mint, and depending on my mood, either leave them whole or chop them to add to the salad when I assemble it (not always in the dressing).

On this occasion, I decided to serve the meat separately from the rest of the salad. The sliced, seared ostrich was presented on a bed of coriander and mint, with a mixed salad.

Where I’ve needed to include a starch, I’ve also served this on a bed of rice noodles, making it a great summer supper.

* farmers

* * almost meat

Roasted Red Pepper Pasta

28 October 201412 April 2020 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

This is a warm pasta salad with roasted peppers, cilantro and ginger – another of my “made-up” dishes. I had not made it for a while when I saw Jamie’s recipe for roasted red pepper and walnut spread. This prompted me to make it again.

Ingredients:

Sweet bell peppers. I generally use robot peppers as that gives great colour variation, but go lightly on the green peppers because they have much stronger flavour. This time I used red peppers with yellow (small and end-of-season) ones.
Fresh ginger, grated
Fresh cilantro (coriander and, in South Africa, also known as Dhanya). We still have some in the garden which is flowering – so I used the feathery leaves, green seeds and flowers for garnish
Clove of garlic (I add it to the water in which the pasta cooks and after I’ve drained the pasta, I squeeze out the creamy flesh, mash it and add it to the cooked pasta).
Cheese – this time I used lovely Labneh made by a McGregor resident, but cheddar and/or another mild cheese works equally well)
Pasta (commercial or home made)

Here’s what I do: Roast the peppers, cool and and then peel them, removing seeds and any pith. The peppers release juice – I reserve that – the flavour is wonderful. Slice or tear the peppers into slivers. Once the pasta is cooked and drained, and a little olive oil tossed in, the rest of the ingredients, except for the cheese and some of the fresh dhanya, are equally unceremoniously tossed in and about. Plate in a pasta bowl and garnish with the cheese and reserved cilantro. Serve immediately (on hot plates if the weather is cold; in summer I don’t bother).

Bountiful broad beans

18 October 201414 April 2020 ~ Fiona ~ 1 Comment

Next to the pea patch, we had a bed of broad beans. Broad (or fava) beans are another childhood memory: picking them during a sunny winter afternoon and then shelling them in front of the fire for supper. We had another bumper crop this year, I am delighted to say, so some are safely stored in the deep freeze.

Ever since I lived on my own and had a patch of ground, I have grown vegetables (or tried to). The Husband happily tells friends that when he met me, and I had a tiny terrace cottage with an equally tiny back garden, he discovered a couple of enormous tomato plants among the ornamentals. I have yet to loose an almost childlike excitement with which I greet the first picking or pulling of any vegetable that privileges our garden. Then I set to thinking about what I’m going to do with it. Usually, the first pickings are the sweetest and most tender so they get the least amount of “treatment”. So it was with our first broad beans: lightly boiled (not to death like my English mother would have cooked them) and as an accompaniment to supper. However, that gets really boring …

So, in addition to that way, I also use them in salads: blanch the beans and pop them out of their grey skins and toss the beautiful, bright green cotyledons into the salad. This salad, in addition to the broad beans, and as the flavours seem to work well together included mint and chives, as well as pepino. For a little extra colour, a scattering of calendula petals topped it off.

I have mentioned my love affair with Katie Caldesi’s Italian Cookery Course, and in it, discovered a traditional Italian dip made with broad beans and mint. I had never thought of including mint with broad beans. Mint is for peas – or so I had been brought up to think (by that same English mother….) Anyway, I looked at the recipe and gave it a bash: essentially, it’s broad beans (popped out of their skins if they’re big – I didn’t with this batch as they were still tiny), mint, finely grated Parmesan cheese, garlic leaves (or a small clove if you don’t have the leaves), all of which are whizzed or pulsed together into a course mixture. Serve on crostini drizzled with olive oil.

We enjoyed it so much that I now make it quite often and have also used the basic idea, mixed with parsely pesto, as an accompaniment for home made pasta.

Like this week, which has gone in a flash, all to soon, the bean plants are spent and the bed liberated exposing the artichokes we weren’t sure would survive the winter……… More of them, anon….

Here today, gone tomorrow!

12 October 2014 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

Here today, gone tomorrow just about epitomises last week.

Summer arrived with a vengeance on Monday and the thermometer hit 38 degrees Celsius (just over 100 Fahrenheit). Overnight, a little swarm of bees took residence in our Cotoneaster. We were delighted because a couple of months ago, a local beekeeper had put an empty hive on our plot and we’ve been waiting patiently for a swarm to occupy it. Bee man said to leave them alone. “They’ve already decided where they’re going….”

Wednesday dawned: cool and blustery and got progressively more blustery and cold. By evening it was pouring with rain. After Monday’s heat, this was all a bit much, so I persuaded The Husband to light the fire; I know he thought I was being extra dramatic. Wonderful man: he indulged me.

When Pearli thundered home, bang-crash-wallop through the cat flap, she was very glad to discover a lovely warm fire. And the sofa, with its pristine throw, was just the place to dry off. Of course.

I had planned omelettes and salad for supper, but with the cold, I thought that something more warming and stew-like would be in order. But what? Whatever I made would have to have egg or cheese as the protein, and whatever else was in the kitchen, garden, or the fridge. Thursday is shopping day, so the proverbial pantry was rather bare.

Fortunately, and don’t ask me why, we had a large number of tomatoes and in the fridge I found courgette, sweet bell peppers and mushrooms (these we would have had in the omelette, anyway). In the garden there is fennel, oregano and parsley, all of which go well with both eggs and tomatoes. Fortunately we both like egg and tomato. My dad didn’t, and nor do a few other people I know…

So, in the wok, I made a tomato stew with sautéd onions and garlic to which I added chopped peppers, mushrooms and courgette, with some fennel. I let all of that brew for a little while – not too long so that the vegetables keep some crunch. When it was all bubbling nicely, with a good bit of liquid, I made four “wells” in the stew, and broke an egg into each. I put the lid on the wok and let the eggs poach in the tomato stew until they were ready.

Boy, did we need that warm stew. It was a cold night and we woke to snow on Thursday morning – summer was gone – and our little swarm of bees had huddled themselves into a tiny little ball.

And by Sunday, winter had retreated. And our swarm of bees, still here yesterday, was gone. Our empty hive is still empty.

Veg-ing out

17 August 2014 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

I have flirted with vegetarianism on and off for about thirty years, particularly when I lived alone – which I have done, not unhappily, on and off, until I finally settled down with Tom. One of the first, if not the first, recipe book I bought, was the A – Z of Vegetarian Cooking in South Africa. And two of our favourite quiche fillings (leek & onion, and spinach & feta) are based on recipes from this book. I do confess that I work very hard at not thinking about the journey that meat must take to reach my kitchen.

Consequently, entertaining friends who are vegetarian is fun! Well, I think so, anyway. For some, it’s a challenge, so I thought I’d share with you what I did when our neighbours joined us for a long overdue dinner, a few weeks ago.

It was a Friday evening and Fridays are my day in the kitchen, preparing for the market. This particular Friday, I was really in the mode, so it was in for a penny, in for a pound. The broccoli was ready to pick and we had ripe gooseberries, so there were two ready ingredients.

That said, it was cold and miserable and had the makings of becoming even more so, and what is more warming than cottage pie, I thought. So, instead of the beef mince, I used beautiful green lentils, soaked and cooked, that were added to sautéd onions and mushrooms. This was seasoned with chopped garlic, some tomato paste, a twig of fresh rosemary and a good glug of red wine. A lesson I learned, and which I had forgotten, was that it’s really easy to let this mixture dry out – watch it and add water and/or vegetable stock so that it stays nice and moist as the flavours develop. Transferred to an oven proof dish, this was topped with a potato and butternut mash, dotted with knobs of butter and baked in the oven for about 20 minutes to half an hour. The butter is what gives you the crispy, caremelised crust on the cottage pie which was served with a garden salad.

So, we started our dinner with broccoli soup, made with the first picking, and discovered to my delight, that not only does Ant enjoy soup, but particularly loves creamy ones.

For dessert, we had a gooseberry tart with jam I had made earlier in the day.

No meal is complete without wine. We don’t really do the wine-pairing thing. Although we do take the menu into consideration, we choose what we like, and what we think our guests will like. As usual, we chose beautiful wines from our valley: Tanagra‘s Heavenly Chaos (isn’t that a wonderful name for a wine?), a lovely red blend, which is beautifully different every year, and Springfield’s Life from Stone, one of my favourite Sauvignon Blanc wines.

Pat and Ant, it was fun – we’ll do it again!

Beetroot: it’s beautiful – and delicious

4 May 2014 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

We have a bumper beetroot crop at the moment and although it’s easy to bottle, it’s also great doing new things with it. Freshly pulled, beetroot cooks more quickly than when shop bought, and is beautifully tender and sweet – another reason not to just pickle it. Besides being delicious roasted or simply added to a leafy green salad, here are two salads that have become firm favourites with us.

This first one is often requested by our friends, so I suppose it has become one of my “signature” dishes. The other is a new addition to the repertoire. More of that in a mo….

Beetroot and plum salad

The original recipe for this salad comes from Fruit & Veg City’s range of recipe books which I have adapted (Not that there’s an outlet anywhere near McGregor…). I’ve served it on a large platter for a buffet meal, and this Christmas, served it plated, as a starter – either way, the presentation is the same, just the scale varies – and it’s very attractive.

In terms of quantity, I usually work on one beetroot (cooked and sliced) and plum per person and then work the leaves and other bits accordingly. Make sure that you select beetroot of similar sizes so that when you assemble your plate or platter, you don’t get all balled up because things don’t look right.

The salad consists of fresh plums, pitted and quartered, red onions, thinly sliced (or chopped spring onion leaves), all marinated, in a lemony vinaigrette for about an hour.

To assemble: if you’re using a platter, place a circle of overlapping slices of beetroot around the edge and then pile salad leaves in the centre (the original recipe says baby spinach), top with the plums, reserving some of the marinade, and sprinkle crumbled feta over these and then drizzle some of the remaining marinade over the plate.

Rocket, beetroot and goat’s cheese salad

We recently went to see the magnificent gardens at Babylonstoren. There is also a restaurant, Babel. The menu is based on seasonal fare with much of the produce from the garden and surrounding area. Although we didn’t eat there, we did get the book about the garden and its produce, and also some of the recipes they use. The approach is interesting, in that it talks about a particular vegetable, and what other ingredients compliment it. On the way home from our visit, we also passed Fairview and had bought some of their fabulous goat’s cheese.

So given both the glut of beetroot and my reluctance to use rocket (which, I think can be overpowering), I gave one of the combinations suggested a bash – beetroot, rocket and goat’s cheese. This is what I came up with: Beetroot on a bed of rocket, with slices of black pepper chevin, drizzled with lemon and parsley pesto.

It was delicious – the sweet beetroot is a fantastic counter to the peppery harshness of the rocket and the textures work beautifully.

And then, there’s more…

Remember that if you’re growing your own beetroot, the leaves are a wonderful addition to salads and stir fries. The flavour is rather earthy, like spinach, and young leaves add lovely colour variations.

Turn a simple breakfast into a stunning one

28 March 2014 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

I’m not a morning person. This is mostly why, over the years, Tom does the breakfast. There are, however, times when I get in on the act. Usually it’s because I have a bee in my bonnet about something – and it’s over a weekend or a holiday, so I’m a bit more capable of engaging my brain………

So, here are two breakfasts. One is very simple and the other involves some standard and not-so-standard breakfast ingredients that are used in combination. I’m sure you have made all of these things before – what makes these breakfasts stunning are the combinations and the presentation.

Gooseberry glasses

This a continental type breakfast, consisting of fresh gooseberries from the garden, Greek yoghurt and honey, followed by toast accompanied by great coffee. It was a public holiday Friday and I didn’t want our boring week day breakfast. There was also a rugby match to be watched; we needed a table in front of the couch. We have a butler’s tray which can sometimes be a little awkward, because of the depth of the edges. So I turned it over and put a pretty cloth over it: a practical little breakfast table.

For the breakfast you can, of course, just plonk the yoghurt and gooseberries into bowls. Or you can celebrate the time out doing something different and layering gooseberries and yoghurt in beautiful glasses. Put a drizzle of honey over the top layer and if you like, add a sprinkle of cinnamon…

How difficult is that, and how appetising does this look?

As an aside: The crystal glasses were a silver wedding anniversary gift to my parents, in 1986. Oh, and the plates – the original ones – I bought from the OK in Yeoville, the same year……

Breakfast stacks

The second breakfast was cobbled together the morning after we had returned from a short trip and hadn’t had time to shop. I ferreted in the fridge and wandered round the garden and discovered eggs, bacon, spinach and tomatoes, as well as fresh chives and parsley.

On our trip, I had found the most beautiful, brightly coloured, grass table mats and wanted to use them – instantly.

Having been away from home and stayed in a hotel and bed and breakfasts, I was itching to get back into the kitchen.

After a week of hotel breakfasts, I wanted something different. I made a thick, rich tomato sauce starting with onion sauted in the fat from the crisply fried bacon which had been set aside to drain. Once the bacon and sauce had been sorted, a batch of creamy scrambled eggs followed and then I wilted a small bunch of young spinach leaves.

While all that was going on, plates were happily warming and waiting to have the breakfast bits piled on them. First the wilted spinach and then a dollop of the tomato mix, followed by the scrambled egg and, finally, the crispy bacon. Before garnishing with a sprig of parsley and a fresh chive flower, I chopped some chives and sprinkled these over everything, making sure that some scattered on the plate, itself. And there you have it: a Breakfast Stack.

Of course, there are other wonderful things that you can use in a breakfast or brunch stack – black mushrooms, crostini, cheese, grilled tomatoes, or whatever rocks your socks, and which is “stackable”.

….and not just for breakfast….

Of course, the Gooseberry Glasses also make a fresh, healthy and delicious dessert; presented this way, they will impress. The Breakfast Stack could equally be a stack of lunch or supper!

Taking simple breakfast fare and using crystal glasses, or arranging the elements differently, turned ordinary breakfasts into stunning ones.

Autumn – preparing for spring (and winter!)

17 March 201413 April 2020 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

Although the grape harvest in our valley seems to be later this year, autumn seems to have arrived early. Along with this, we have had a wonderful experience: a pair of swallows building a nest in preparation for the spring. Jack and Jill are Greater Striped Swallows, indigenous to Africa, and they summer south of Namibia, and winter in Northern Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. They will leave us in two to three weeks’ time. Their nests are characterised by a tunnel which they will build when only when they return in the spring.

Clever little birds, planning for the future, I reflected as I made basil pesto on Sunday.

Basil pesto

You will need a very, very generous picking of sweet basil, leaves stripped from the stems and the damaged leaves discarded.

Rule of thumb: about two-thirds more basil than nuts and Parmesan or Pecorino cheese, coarsely grated.

About the nuts: traditional (and the best) pesto is made with pine nuts. They are expensive so I substitute them with cashews which also have a high oil content. To enhance the flavour, toast them in a dry pan, allowing them to cool before you crush and add them to the other ingredients.

One or two cloves of garlic. Be careful with the garlic: even if you like lots of garlic, remember that combining dairy with garlic makes the garlic flavour stronger. I’ve learned this the hard way…..

Then, of course, the ubiquitous pinch of salt which is optional if you’re not using a pestle and mortar (which does make the best pesto…), and because the salt does help with the maceration of the leaves and the garlic. Enough olive oil to make a thick paste. I usually add it as I go along.

Bung all the leaves into the food processor, with the garlic cloves and whiz for a few seconds – not too long; then add olive oil and the other ingredients and whiz or pulse until you have a good, thick paste, adding more olive oil as you need.

Bottle as you would other preserves, in sterilized jars and top with olive oil to keep it fresh.

Make a caprese salad, enjoy on pasta, sandwiches, as a dip with yoghurt for crudites or as an accompaniment to whatever you please!

A twisted Vicheysoisse, among other things…

24 February 2014 ~ Fiona ~ Leave a comment

For the last year or so, I have been making and selling seasonal soups at our local pop-up market. A soup that I made on a whim, and which we enjoyed, didn’t take off, so I didn’t make it again. In my recollection, there had been no sales. Then, imagine my surprise, two Saturdays’ ago, a regular, who has been stocking up on soup, said, “What about that one you made with spinach and sweet potato?”

So, at Jean’s request, I made it again – this time in the height of summer. Consequently, we tried it chilled: it was as delicious cold as it was hot. So, this is my twisted Vicheysoisse:

Roast the sweet potatoes – with onion and garlic if you like – for about 45 minutes. Add to a large soup pot and then add roughly shredded spinach (including all the stalks – why waste them when you’re going to puree the soup anyway?), followed by vegetable stock to cover the sweet potato. Bring to the boil and simmer for about half an hour, until all the vegetables are soft. Puree with a hand blender and season to taste. Serve with a swirl of plain yoghurt and a grating of nutmeg.

And, of course, the soup-making was accompanied by more seasonal quiche fillings – this time, with the addition of beautiful peppers from the garden. Two different fillings – first, leeks with red pepers and then roasted vegetables (butternut, sweet potato, garlic, baby tomatoes, onions and peppers).