The addition of the japanese soy is a real game changer here. The rest of the recipe is my standard burger mix which I’ve always been perfectly happy with but the addition of the soy sauce takes them to another level.
500g minced beef [ I use a cheaper mince ]
1 large onion diced up fine
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp dried parsely
½ tsp garlic granules
½ tsp freshly grated black pepper
pinch of cayenne or chilli – more if you want them spicy.
3 tbsp of panko or other breadcrumbs
1 tbsp of japanese soy sauce.
1 egg
Mix everything up thoroughly and leave to rest for an hour.
Form into patties either using a press or, as I do, a pastry cutter and a suitably sized jar. I cut squares of parchement paper and form the patties onto those as it makes handling them a lot easier and also helps keep them separate if you are going to freeze them.
I prefer my burgers to be quite thick but not very large around but you can shape them as you like. If you do a thick burger you can add a piece of cheese in the middle which makes for a nice variation.
For me this yeilds 6 burgers. These freeze well . Layer with pieces of baking parchment to allow you to get them apart when needed.
BURGER PARCELS
The nice thing about doing burgers this way is that everything stays moist and doesn’t dry out and everything is neatly contained and you can add whatever you like to the filling.
You can omit things like the bacon, mushroom, cheese and gherkins if you prefer to. You can also add things like Jalapeno. It’s entirely your call but you do need the slices of tomato, onion and ketchup and of course the burger.
Anything that gives of liquid when cooked like mushrooms and bacon need to be cooked first to ensure that the whole thing doesn’t become too soggy.
Using the burger mix as above I would make patties that are about 150g in weight for each of the parcels.
1 or 2 packets of ready rolled puff pastry [depending on how many parcels you want to make. You can usually get just two parcels out of a single sheet]
Sliced tomato – 1 large slice per parcel or 2 if the tomatoes are smaller.
Sliced onion – 2 rounds of onion per parcel
Tomato ketchup – approx 1 tablespoon per parcel
Sliced cheese
Sliced cooked mushrooms – approx 1 tablespoon per parcel
Cooked bacon
2 or 3 slices of pickled gherkin per parcel.
1 beaten egg for glazing
Firstly you need to cook the mushrooms and bacon and then allow them to drain, You don’t want the parcels to be soggy.
Slice the tomatoes into rounds, sprinkle lightly with salt and leave on a plate to drain a little.
Slice the onions into rounds.
You can use whatever cheese you prefer or no cheese at all depending on what you like.
Lay out the pastry and cut into two halves. I usualy make the cut slanted so one end of each half is wider than the the other. This allows you to cover the filling without having a lot of extra pastry on the bottom.
Lay the pastry narrow end towards you. Spread a tablespoon of the ketchup on the lower half of the pastry, put a slice of onion on top followed by the burger patty, another slice of onion and then the mushrooms [if using] then the tomato. Follow this with the bacon, cheese, gerkin and jalapeno [again if using].
Fold the pastry over the top of this and then seal. Crimp the edges to ensure that there are no leaks.
Make a couple of small cuts in the top to allow steam to escape.
Glaze with egg [ unless you are freezing these in which case omit it as you will glaze them once you defrost them ]
Place on a shallow roasting dish and into an oven at around 200c / 400f / Gas 6 for around 40 to 45 mins.
Serve with salad, mayo, chips [fries for the americans that read this] and any other accompaniements you like.
The parcels also freeze well.
mortsmorsels 