Fantastic Homemade Burgers

Hello blog fans!  Sorry I haven't been posting as regularly as usual - my friend Bradley has been staying with me this week and we have been very busy having exciting alcohol and shark related adventures.  Hopefully this burger recipe will make it up to you all though, it's tasty and impressive looking but actually really easy to make, perfect for when you have friends over!

To make four burgers, you will need:

• 4 rolls or burger buns
• 500g turkey mince
• 3 slices of bread
• 1 small onion
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (which I did NOT just have to Google to find out how to spell...)
• Parsley
• Toppings of your choice

1. First of all you will need to make your breadcrumbs.  If you're lucky enough to own a food processor, put the slices of bread in this, but if you, like me, only have pathetically basic kitchen technology, make the breadcrumbs with a grater.  It's easier to do this if the bread is slightly stale or if you toast it for about 30 seconds first.

2. Next, dice the onion as finely as possible, because no one wants massive chunks of onion inside their burger, unless they are onion rings.

3. Put the onion and breadcrumbs in a large bowl and add the Worcestershire sauce and a big sprinkle of parsley.  Mix everything together.

4. Add the mince and squish everything together with your hands.  This is quite an odd sensation but I quite like it, it reminds me of playing with Play-doh, that is if Play-doh was made from raw meat...

5. Shape the lump of meaty stuff into burgers.  The quantities given do make four burgers, but as there were only three of us I made three really big ones and had to throw a tiny bit of the mixture away.

6. Heat some sunflower oil in a pan and cook the burgers for 15-20 minutes.  Turn them occasionally with a spatula.  While they cook, prepare your toppings - we had grilled bacon, lettuce, cheese and tomato relish, but be as creative as you like.  You could try jalapenos and salsa for a spicy burger, or cook some battered onion rings for a really tall and impressive look.  I also lightly toast the burger buns at this stage.

7. After 15 minutes, check if the burgers are done by cutting into the biggest one with a knife.  If it's at all pink inside it's not ready yet, you'll know when it's ready when the juices that come out when you cut into it are clear.  Don't worry if the burger begins to look quite dark on the top and bottom, mine were and they didn't taste burnt at all.

Here is the finished burger, it is served with my spicy potato wedges, which I added sweet potato wedges to for the first time, they were delicious!  This is the perfect meal if you want to treat yourself without feeling too unhealthy, as turkey mince has a lot less fat than beef mince, plus roasted rather than deep-fried chips are presumably a lot better for you.  If you are a beef burger puritan, follow this recipe but substitute the turkey mince for beef mince (obviously) and add an egg to the mix, as beef doesn't stick together as well as turkey does.

Turkey Stroganoff

Looking over my blog, I've realised that a lot of my meals are tomato based or have tomato sauces - I know how to cook with tomatoes and I know what goes with them, so I tend to revert back to them maybe more than I should.  This week, I've decided to break free from my tomatoey comfort zone and increase my cooking repertoire, starting with this turkey stroganoff recipe that I found in an Asda magazine that my Mum gave me. I'd eaten stroganoff before at my job waitressing for weddings, as they often did a mushroom stroganoff for the vegetarian option. Believe it or not, you rapidly get sick of the usual wedding main course of chicken stuffed with haggis if you have to eat it every single day...  I'm pleased to say my stroganoff turned out as nice as my work's standards, so I was pretty proud!         

                    

 

 For the stroganoff you will need:

• 1 turkey breast per person
• 1 onion
• 250g mushrooms (this is Asda's suggestion but I feel that weighing mushrooms is going too far, use however many you want)
• 2 peppers
• 1 chicken stock cube, dissolved in 150ml boiling water
• 1 tbsp coarse grain mustard
• 100g soured cream
• 1 tbsp butter

1. Firstly, prepare all your ingredients.  Finely dice the onion, slice the mushrooms and peppers.  Always wash or wipe mushrooms before use as they tend to have dirt on them.  Cut the turkey into strips or cubes.

 2. Heat some sunflower oil in a large frying pan or wok and cook the onion until it is soft.  Add the butter and the mushrooms and cook until all the juices come out of the mushrooms and start bubbling, as in the picture.

 3. Add the peppers and cook over a high heat until the juices evaporate.  Tip all the vegetables into a bowl.

4. Add a little more oil to the pan and cook the turkey pieces for 3-4 minutes.  Do this in two batches if the turkey won't all fit properly in the pan.  Add the stock and mustard and simmer until the liquid has reduced,  Asda suggests this will take 5 minutes but it took more like 10 for me.  I apologise for the terrible quality of the photo of this stage, this is the only one I managed to take that wasn't entirely obscured by dramatic steam.

 5. Return the vegetables to the pan and give them a few minutes to reheat.  Stir in the soured cream and heat until it is gently bubbling.

This meal is perfect served with rice.  I feel that it would be nice with mashed potatoes too, but I eat potatoes with anything so I may be biased!