Land Of The Free, Burger Of The Brave

All through June we’ve been celebrating the greatest food format, the Burger, with Laying The Beef To Rest.

Through no forward planning of our own, its happened that the end of June, coincides with the 4th Of July celebrations by our brothers across the pond.

So here is our tribute to Uncle Sam’s greatest creation.

The 7th Heaven, 4th of July, Brunch Burger

Combing two of the El Food Brothers loves, American food and eggs, this burger features seven tasty elements. From top to bottom:

A waffel ‘bun’
Crispy onions
Fried egg
Corned beef hash patty, with Jack Daniel’s BBQ sauce
Macaroni cheese patty
Pancake
Hotdog infused beef patty

The whole thing is stuck together with 3 slices of our special blend ‘American’ cheese. Oh and theres a second waffle for it all to sit atop.

Build Your Own

BEEF Patty

150g ground beef – 20% fat or greater (none of that lean rubbish for burgers)
1 tsp each of

Mustard power
Onion Granules
Chipotle Chilli flakes
Garlic Powder

Salt and Pepper – a pinch, a sprinkle, a dash or however much you like
1 frankfurter / hotdog / sausage product of your choosing – chopped
Bowl
Burger Press with wax discs

Got all that? Thats the hard bit done. Just chuck everything in the bowl, apart from the burger press. Get your hands in there and mix it all about and you’ll have something like this

Grab that, and then stick it in the burger press, surrounded by the wax discs. Push your plunger down hard, and you’ll have something closely resembling a burger patty.

Leave it to rest for around 30 minutes in the fridge. Then place under the grill on a medium heat whilst preparing the other parts.

Corned Beef Patty

Corned beef from a tin. We ended up with lean, but that wasn’t our choice, I say fatty is better as with the non-corned beef
New potatoes – failing that, old potatoes will do
Jack Daniel’s Honey Barbecue Glaze

Microwave your potatoes so they are soft, and chop them thinly. Leave them to rest.

Now, theres 2 steps to this recipe, but you can skip step one if you wish.

Step 1 – attempt to make a corned beef patty in the burger press.

Take the potatoes and about half the tin of corned beef, mix in a bowl as with the ground beef, and proceed to create a patty in the exact same manner. You will have something that looks pretty good, but ultimately is useless.

Step 2 – Cook your corned beef patty.

Either take your pressed patty, or just your mix from before, add to a frying pan, and quickly realise that the patty mix does not stick together.

Add the BBQ sauce into the mix to make it a bit sticker, and fry in the pan until the corned beef is turning brown and crispy, and then form a patty by hand.

Marconi Cheese Patty

Cheap and nasty tinned macaroni cheese
Optional extra slice of cheese of your choosing
Natural breadcrumbs
Egg cooking ring or similar apparatus

You thought the corned beef didn’t stick together? Wait for the fun of trying to turn liquid into a patty.

Take the egg ring, place in a frying pan on a medium heat, then pour the macaroni cheese into the ring, about half a tin will do.

Cook for a good few minutes, you have to play it by eye. You want things to turn less liquid, at this stage you can add your cheese slice to make things a bit cheesier and stick together better. Add some breadcrumbs for good measure.

Once its looking a bit more solid, get a spatula under the ring, and then attempt to flip the patty, and place it back into the ring. Good luck with that.

Add more breadcrumbs at this point. A further few minutes and another flip is a good idea. After a bit of messing around, you should have something fairly solid that looks like this. Better than you thought right?

Waffles, Pancake and Crispy Onions

Not going to lie to you. Go pre-made on all these. Its going to make your life easier. Making your own is not going to give you any benefit. You can’t compete with things labelled ‘America’s #1 Brand’ can you?

You’ll just want to stick the waffles and pancake in a toaster for a few minutes to warm. Careful with the waffles. Ours went a bit ‘caramelised’ which actually didn’t prove to be a problem, but some may not like the overall look.

Fried Egg

Look, I’m not going to teach you or your grandmother how to fry eggs. But pro-tip – use the egg ring that we used for the patties to create the perfect size.

Build It

In this order:

Waffel one
Cheese slice one
Beef with hotdog patty
Cheese slice two
Pancake
Macaroni cheese patty
Cheese slice three
Corned beef patty
Fried Egg
Waffle two – spread the BBQ sauce on and sprinkle with crispy onions

Serve

Yeah its got a stick it it. But the stick has hotdog slices in that fell out of the burger, so are dripping with burger fat. You could also add a slice of bacon to the mix for good measure.