BBQ pt 1

So we had a bbq at the weekend to celebrate S's birthday. I helped out by making burgers (meat and veggie) and a veggie side dish. There were a couple of strict vegetarian guests so we had to make sure that there was enough non-meat food. Turns out there was more non-meat than meat!

I went to town on the burgers as I didn't fancy just plain slabs of meat again. First off were the veggies which was very simply a couple of cans of chickpeas drained and processed until fairly fine with a chopped red onion, some chopped coriander, mint and parsley (from my garden), a grated clove of garlic and a teaspoon of the North African spice mix, baharat. In lieu of baharat a little ground cinnamon, cumin, coriander would serve just as well. A good pinch of salt and pepper and we were done.

The meat ones were full of seasoning. We started with a red onion and about 100g chestnut mushrooms finely chopped, which were gently fried until soft and a clove of garlic grated in right at the end of the frying. That was cooled in a bowl and I added 4 cornichons finely chopped, about a tablespoon of thyme (from the garden again), a good grind of black pepper, a splash of Tabasco and 2 anchovy fillets very finely chopped, almost to a paste. For some reason a little anchovy makes meat dishes a little richer, perhaps it enhances the savouriness of it all. I don't know why it works but it does. Apparently so does star anise which Heston Blumenthal recommends adding to meat ragus (such as good old spag bol) to boost the flavour - although not enough to give a full anise hit. Anyway, the burgers - to the cooled seasonings mix in an egg and a couple of pounds of good steak mince then just shape and cook. I made 12 burgers out of that lot.