The recipes on the blog here are all for home cooking. I’ve tried to avoid overly tricky dishes – the idea was to give you something a little different to the usual cook book standard choices. I hope you enjoy them.
Yeah yeah, I know, this is burger, chips and my own posh take on MacDonald’s style sauce. Burgers seem to get a raw deal these days in Scotland, over used and under classed. I wouldn’t go near a processed burger, made with parts of animals that even scientists didn’t realise existed. To me, a homemade burger is one of the best ways to enjoy the flavour of great meat. You can use cheaper cuts – that’s where the flavour is – legs and shoulder are always tastier than the expensive fillets and loins. Always trim the meat of fat and finely dice with a sharp knife, takes a little more time than unwrapping some lifeless grey mince but no reward without effort in my recipes and best of all you can keep it rare for that lovely texture.
Venison gives the traditional beef a twist and the blue cheese and celeriac heightens the flavour. I’m sure even Ronald the clown would surrender to this!
Serves 4
350g seamed venison haunch meat or diced haunch finely diced
4 button mushrooms peeled and finely diced
1 clove garlic minced
1 heaped teaspoon grain mustard
2 free range egg yolks
½ slice of white bread grated
1 shallot peeled and finely diced
1 teaspoon of capers (in your cupboard from last month’s recipe!)
1 dessert spoon of tomato ketchup
½ teaspoon of salt & several turns of pepper
1 celeriac peeled and shaped into chips
1 tablespoon of mayonnaise
1 tablespoon of tomato ketchup
½ dessertspoon of American mustard
50g blue cheese
50g unsalted butter softened
1 tablespoon of chopped soft herbs such as parsley and chives
Preheat your oven to 180oc
Combine the first 10 ingredients into a bowl and get your hands in there to give them a good squish! Shape into 4 large burgers. Set your deep fat fryer to half and gently and slowly blanch the chips in the oil till the soften, remove and turn the fryer up to maximum. Combine the mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard and season the sauce to taste. Mix the final 3 ingredients to make the butter, roll in cling film to shape and set in the fridge then slice equally into 4.
Pan fry the burger in a little oil till browned on both sides, place on a baking tray and roast in the oven for 10 minutes so it remains slightly softened in the middle, remove and keep warm. Gently place the blanched chips in the hot oil and fry till golden, remove and season, place the butter on top of the burger and serve as shown. Food of the Gods!