Published with permission from COOKED IN THE KAROO by Justin Bonello, www.justinbonello.com. Photography Louis Hiemstra and Cooked in Africa Films. All rights reserved.
Instead of me doing all the hard graft, the plan was that everyone creates their own burgers, and what started as a lazy summer’s evening, quickly became a typical Cooked party. As much as I love my motley bunch of friends, I couldn’t entirely trust them to make the star of the show – the actual lamb mince patties, so I did that part. And from there everyone made their own burger by adding whatever weird concoction they could come up with to their lamb patties.
FOR ABOUT 10 PEOPLE YOU’LL NEED THE FOLLOWING :
-
2 kg Lamb Mince
-
about 2 cups of breadcrumbs
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2 Eggs
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a couple of cloves of crushed Garlic
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a handful of Fresh Basil, chopped
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a handful of toasted & crushed Coriander Seeds
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a couple of pinches of Salt and Black pepper (to taste)
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Roosterkoek, made on the braai
First up, put the mince in a bowl that’s big enough to fit both your hands into so that you can work the meat. Crack in an egg, add the breadcrumbs, all the garlic, herbs and spices. Using your hands, mix it thoroughly. Now leave it centre stage, with jars of whichever spices you have, plates of fresh herbs and a selection of cheeses and other goodies. Think of those winning flavours of mint, tzatziki, and rosemary … you get the picture when it comes to lamb.
Then sit back and enjoy the show.
I’m not sure if it’s because of their dismal spice knowledge, but some of them held up spice jars, sniffed at it (some of them a little too hard, getting red pepper up their noses) shook it (as if it would somehow reveal itself), stared at (for really long) all in an attempt to figure out what they were and what they would use them for. Then they would simply shrug, and make vague comments like “hmm, that smells nice so I’ll use it.” And of course, they did.
I sat back, sipped my brandy and coke and took mental notes. Some of the burgers were really scary, but the rule was if you made it, you had to eat it.
THIS IS WHAT MY FRIENDS DID:
Add a few pinches of ground coriander.
Tania:
The Karoogirl Burger
Loads (and LOADS) of ground coriander, black pepper, salt, cloves and rosemary
Louis:
Sweet Rosemary Jane
About half a chilli (chopped up, seeds and all … she’s hard-core like that), loads of crushed garlic and a thick slice of Camembert folded into the centre of the patty. She topped her burger with chilli sauce.
Megs:
The Roaring Megs
A big chunk of camembert folded inside, topped with another big slice of cheese once it was on the bun. I’ve got to admit, her burger looked pretty sweet.
Sunel
:
Die Kaasbroek
To his patty he added fancy rosemary and lime infused sea salt, ground coriander, chilli, mustard seeds and black pepper.
Brad
:
The Megatron!
She added black pepper, salt, fresh mint, rosemary, chilli then mixed it all together and folded a big chunk of blue cheese into the centre of the patty.
Helena: The No Idea Burger
Darren kept it quite simple and added chilli, rosemary, coriander and fresh mint.
Darren
:
The Rogering
I believe when you have really good meat, you should do as little as possible to spoil the taste of it. So all I did was add a bit more salt and some fresh mint.
Justin
:
The Winnnnaaaa! (Of course)