Pop5 - The 5 Most Popular Recipes Right Now..
18 July 2011
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Not long ago I came across an outstanding food and beer blog called, simply, The Good Stuff, written by a chap called Leigh. In particular, what caught my attention was Leigh's Bacon & Cheese BagelBurger. I'd never come across a bagelburger before, but I love bagels and as such couldn't resist making one myself. However, I actually didn't use Leigh's exact recipe in the end, because there was another burger that caught my fancy around the same sort of time: A Red wine onion & Pepper mayo burger, created by the Swedish burger magician Stefan over at Hamburgare (who also inspired my previously posted Juicy Lucy burger). Unable to decide which burger to try first, I decided to combine them into one absolutely mouthwateringly delicious (if I may say so myself!) burger.
The red wine onion was absolutely delicious, so thank you Stefan for the recipe - I will definitely be using it again. It added a really nice savoury note to the burger, almost meaty in a way, while the pepper in the mayo balanced out the salt of the bacon beautifully. As for using a bagel as a burger bun - I don't know why it isn't the industry standard. The texture was spot on, providing both crunch and a nice chewy texture - ten times better than any shop-bought burger buns I've come across.
The result is a burger consisting of crispy bacon, lettuce, tomato, pepper mayo, and red wine onions. All in all, assuming you used shop bought bagels, it takes about half an hour to whip up, and it would go very well indeed with a cold beer - a lager would probably be ideal, though not a cheap and tasteless one. I'd probably go for Nils Oscar's God Lager (available from Waitrose) or perhaps a BrewDog 77.
You'll need:
- 1-2 rashers of Proper Crispy Bacon
- 1 Burger (I used one from Westin Gourmet)
- 1 Bagel
- 1 Red Onion, halved and sliced
- 100ml of Red Wine
- 100ml of Water
- 1 Vegetable Stock Cube
- 1 sprig of fresh Thyme
- 1 Brown Wood/Forest Mushroom, sliced
- 1tsp of Caster Sugar
- 1 Tomato, sliced
- A handful of Lettuce
- Freshly ground Black Pepper
- 2tbsp Mayo
Method:
The first thing you will need to sort out is your red wine onions, as these need to simmer away for a wee while, and you pepper mayo as it needs to rest for 30 minutes. Here's how you do the onions:
1) Put a knob of butter in a medium-hot saucepan. Once melted, chuck in your onion and mushroom. Fry until until they start to gain a bit of colour, stirring regularly.
2) When the onion and mushroom begins to colour lightly, add your teaspoon of sugar so as to caramelise your onion.
3) Once the sugar has melted and caramelised the onions, add water, wine, thyme and the stock cube.
4) Let simmer until most of the moisture is gone, then remove the mushroom and thyme.
For the pepper mayo, simply combine good quality shop-bought mayo with 1-2tsp freshly cracked black pepper and leave main the fridge for about half an hour, or longer.
The rest is pretty straight forward: just cook your burger to your liking, toast the bagel, and assemble!
Comments
Ahh I see, well I will definitely be trying that out someday soon! I love maple syrup so there will most probably be some of that in mine, then.
I guess we would compare bacon jam to a relish or a chutney. It is big in the US and often served with burgers or sliders.It involves a lot of slow cooking, using vinegar and sugar. Some recipes would use also use maple syrup...top tasty treat.I'd love to know how you get on!
Haha, it is indeed quite a niche blog! Nice pun there by the way. ;) Bacon jam?! I've never come across that, nor is it on my long list of future bacon adventures, but I will definitely be adding it! Was it fruit/berry based still? Sounds exciting, thanks for sharing. :)
I've heard a lot about bacon jam. Have you tried that yet?
Cheers Leigh! Glad you approve of the burger and beer recommendations . :) I'm a big fan of Nils Oscar, without doubt one of my top lagers. On the subject of good beer, I was in the BrewDog pub in town the other day and tried their 'Alice Porter' (which seems only to be available on draught at the moment) - I would highly recommend trying it should you get the chance! :)
Thanks! Hope you like it. :) You'd be most welcome to come back with a wee report once you've tried it, would be fun to hear what you thought of it as well.
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