Making yer own hamburger

You've probably heard me talking about the €35 hamburger craze in Paris.  OK, aside from Jessica, Chris, Christy and Scott, who were over that one time I mentioned it, you haven't heard me talkin' 'bout it.  But I wanted to make a burger that might be worth €35 to a sucker in a restaurant.

I did a little hamburger making research, its pretty simple, as you probably guessed.  You need some meat to grind, and a little fat to add. You don't need a meat grinder, though, just chop the meat with your chef's knife.  (it can also be done in a food processor, but that sounds like a hassle)  I used sirloin, pork loin, and ground chuck as the meats, and pancetta, and beef marrow for the fats.  I also added an egg and covered it with a little flour before I cooked it.  The topping is piquillo peppers and Manchego cheese.

I'm not going to give an explicit recipe, just some general principles.

1) Choose 2-3 meats that you like.  I consider sirloin to be a fancy-hamburger staple.  Add another beef cut, or pork, or even duck or goose if you can find it.  You'll want to make a 1/2 lb burger per person.

2) Cut the meat into 2-3" chunks, and put them in the freezer for 20-30 minutes in order to firm them up and make the chopping easier.  Chop the meat into little pieces.  

3) Choose a fat, or a fatty meat: about 10% of the burger should be fat.  The Pancetta was great, and the beef marrow was a bit of a hassle.  Consider using chorizo.   Use any rendered poultry fat you've been keeping in the fridge.  Also, you can use butter.  Use about 1 tb butter per lb of meat.

4)  Put the chopped meat, and the fat into a bowl, add 1 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper per lb of meat.  (There is a lot of room for variation in this step: a chopped clove of garlic, some thyme, cayenne...)  mix it up.

5)  Optional step, add an egg and mix that up, too.  I used 1 egg for 1 lb of meat, and that was plenty of egg, I think that 1 egg would be enough for up to 3 lbs of meat.

7)  form your patties and put them into the fridge - or a few minutes in the freezer - until you cook them, to firm them up.

8)  optional step: dredge them in flour just before cooking.

9)  Melt a tablespoon of butter in a pan and cook them about 5-7 minutes on each side, then place them in a 180 degree oven to rest for at least 10 minutes.

Now for the buns, I just bought a baguette and sliced a couple of pieces off, and sliced those in half.  Use whatever you like, I find than buns intended for hamburgers are too heavy.

You'll want some kind of topping.  Let's talk about piquillo peppers.  These things are great - if a little expensive.  They are 2-3" long, and are fire roasted and peeled, and then stuffed into glass jars.  They have a soft texture, and an intense flavor that's sweet, not at all spicy.  I like to keep a jar around, they were great for these burgers, and I have used them on homemade pizza.  They are also good as an appetizer with a piece of Manchego stuffed into them, and sautéed for about a minute.  Keep your eyes peeled for a jar of piquillo peppers!

I also served a side dish of sautéed peas and shallots so we had a vegetable.

enjoy!