Restauranteur and chef JP McMahon says “Making your own burgers is easy. Just buy good mince from your butcher or farmer. At Eat, we use both Castlemine Farm and Colleran’s butchers. This way, I know quality is never an issue. We use a Waterford Blaa for our burgers, but you can use any good floury bap. I like to use a flavoured mayonnaise to dress the bun. Just add a spoon of wholegrain mustard to some mayonnaise to make a quick mustard mayonnaise. Finally, making your own ketchup is great fun. The anise and smoked paprika give the ketchup a very distinct pleasurable taste. You can even bottle it and give it to friends if you wish!”
Ingredients
For the burger
- 1kg mince beef
- 3 slices of smoked streaky bacon, thinly sliced
- 2 cloves of garlic, smashed with the back of the knife and finely chopped
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 1 egg
- 100ml of Stout
- Oil for frying
- Sea salt
- Black pepper
For the ketchup
- 3 tins of plum tomatoes
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 red pepper, died
- 1 clove of garlic, sliced
- 1tlbs wholegrain mustard
- 1 star anise
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 50ml sherry vinegar
- 75g brown sugar
- Sea salt
To garnish
- Some Waterford Blaas
- Mayonnaise
- Wholegrain mustard
- Pickled cucumber
- Smoked Gubbeen Cheese (available from Sheridan’s Cheesemongers)
- Local leaves
Method
- For the burger: fry the onion and the garlic in a little oil. Add the bacon and continue to fry on a medium heat for a further few minutes. Remove from the heat. In a large bowl, add the mince, the egg and the stout. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Pour the onion and bacon mix into the bowl and mix well until all is combined. Allow to rest in the fridge for 1 hour. After an hour, remove and shape the burgers by hand. You will get up to 10 4oz or 5 8oz burgers. Grill to your liking.
- For the ketchup: fry the onion, garlic, and pepper in a little oil until soft on a medium heat. Add the star anise, smoked paprika, mustard, sherry vinegar and sugar. Cook for a further 5 minutes and then add then three tins of tomatoes.
- Lower the heat and cook the sauce for 1½ hours. Check the consistency of the sauce with the back of a spoon. It should be quite thick. Blend and pass through a fine sieve. Cool before completely before using.
- To serve: toast the blaa and spread the mustard mayonnaise thinly and evenly over both side of the bap. Place some smoked Gubbeen cheese on top of the burger and melt slightly. Garnish the burger with some leaves and pickled cucumber from the above recipe. For decadence, serve with some duck-fat chips or roast potatoes.
