Quintessential Americana - the burger

Every year I look forward to the Glastonbury Festival.

This year we marvelled at the shortness of Lady Gaga's dress (really, how did she not expose herself), wondered why people listen to Kasabian and decided to do something tenuously food related in honour of Bruce Springsteen*.

Something quintessentially American. Something straightforward and honest, no nonsense, down to earth, but possessing a certain style and timeless appeal.

So, I made burgers.

Great, big, massive burgers. Nothing fancy, nothing elaborate, just a burger, in a bun with salad and a spicy relish. A huge piece of Americana on a plate.

Many people claim to have invented the burger, but Charlie Nagreen of Wisconsin has the most plausible hold on that title. At the local fair in the town of Seymour in 1885, Nagreen had a stall selling meatballs. Business was slow, so he decided to shake things up a bit. He realised that people couldn't really eat his meatballs and walk around the fair at the same time, so he squashed a couple of meatballs between two slices of bread, making his snacks portable and the hamburger was born.

The 'ham' part comes from the original provenance of a ground beef patty as the 'Hamburg steak', a German idea dating from the eighteenth century.

The hamburger gradually gained in popularity through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, becoming a diner staple, before receiving a huge kick start with the founding of McDonald's.

McDonald's revolutionised the way in which hamburgers were produced, making the process slicker, more cost effective, and above all else, fast.

Fast food, for better or for worse, was here to stay.

These burgers aren't fast food at all. They'll take you at least three hours to make, if you do things properly.

To start, the bread. A burger bun needs to be large, flat, floury and soft. A hard roll, or anything with a crust is no good here, neither is anything too sophisticated, like a ciabatta. A simple bread roll is what's needed.

Making a burger bun is easy. Start by weighing and sifting 450g of strong white bread flour. Add a generous tablespoon of olive oil or melted butter, two teaspoons of salt and a sachet of fast acting dried yeast.

Add two teaspoons of sugar to 275ml of warm water and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Make a well in the flour and tip the warm water into it. Use a knife to gradually cut the flour into the water, until you get to the stage where a dough starts to form, then use your hands to form and knead the dough for a good five minutes, until it's smooth and elastic.

Cover and set aside for an hour or so until the dough has doubled in size.

After the dough has risen, knock it back and knead it again for a minute, before dividing it into four equal pieces. Shape each piece into a round and place on an oiled baking sheet. Cover, and let the dough rise again for about half an hour.

Bake in a hot oven (200c) for about twenty minutes.

Next, the relish. A burger needs a little bit of fire, something to set it alight and lift it, something to make it tasty. A relish needs some heat, some chilli.

The relish is easy. Cheat by opening a can of good quality chopped tomatoes, pour into a pan and add two finely chopped cloves of garlic, half a teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, cumin and coriander, a teaspoon of salt, a tablespoon of tomato puree, four or five chopped spring onions and a small red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped. Season with black pepper and let the sauce simmer, uncovered for half an hour. Add a handful of chopped parsley, or better still, coriander towards the end.

The sauce is good hot or cold and will sit quite happily in the fridge for a few days.

To the burger. I like my burgers to be substantial, to be a proper meal. 250g of the best beef I can find goes into each burger. They're half pounders. Anything less is cheating, and it isn't a proper burger.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's advice on burger making is simple and true - use the best quality beef you can, don't add anything else, season just before cooking and just after, cook until still pink in the middle. Use a frying pan, not a griddle, and cook on a medium heat. That's all there is to it.

The exact composition and assembly of a burger is very much down to personal taste. I like mine to prompt comparisons to a Scooby snack. Add things like sliced tomatoes, lettuce, mayonnaise, wholegrain mustard, dill pickles, chutney, caramelised onions, etc. as the mood takes you.

Serve with salad, chips, beer and The Boss.

*For the record, I'm a latecomer to Springsteen, having grown up on a diet of indie, some grunge and a bit of hip-hop. I discovered Springsteen through The Killers, and now I'm hooked. Devils & Dust shows Springsteen at his poetic, political and enraged best, but my kids like The Seeger Sessions the best.

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Mussels, chips and mayonnaise

A few years ago, we had a long weekend in the vastly under-rated Belgian capital of Brussels, famous for beer, waffles, a statue of a little boy having a wee and mussels.

I ate mussels three nights out of four, and on the other night I had a lobster, which came with a starter of mussels anyway, so really four nights out of four.

Aside from the statue and the waffles (both over-rated), we had an excellent weekend. Brussels is a surprisingly vibrant place, with some great cafes and bars. Everything they say about Belgian beer is true, and it's magnificence is only amplified by drinking it outside on a warm night, watching people go by.

Back to the food. Mussels. Tricky little devils. Delicious, but could cause you untold harm if handled improperly. Mistreat a mussel and it'll mistreat you.

Here are the rules:

• make sure the mussels are fresh. Ask the fishmonger how fresh they are, and look carefully for any nervous twitches or obvious signs of lying when he replies
  
• tip the mussels into the sink and throw out any that have broken shells (they'll kill you) any that don't shut tightly after a sharp tap or when plunged into water (they'll kill you) and any that look a bit lacklustre or under the weather (they might be OK, but if in any doubt at all, treat them as if they'll kill you)
• Wash in several changes of water and scrape the barnacles away with a knife
• Each mussel has a 'beard', a little tuft that once attached it to a rock, or more likely, a rope especially set up by a mussel farmer. You don't want to eat this, so remove it with a sharp tug
  

Cleaning mussels might be tedious, but they're cheap and the cooking is quick and easy.

Start by frying a finely chopped onion in olive oil in a very large pan. Add a diced carrot and a couple of stalks of diced celery. A few cloves of roughly chopped garlic add a depth of flavour too. Season well.

Fry the vegetables until they start to take on colour, then add a few bay leaves and all of the mussels, quickly followed by a generous glass of dry white wine. Put a lid on the pan and bring to the boil as quickly as possible, then turn the heat down a little and let the mussels steam in the wine for about five minutes.

The mussels will have opened up like flowers, each shell revealing a golden nugget of flesh. Some won't have opened. Don't eat them (they'll kill you).

Stir in a couple of tablespoons of cream or creme fraich to finish the sauce, add a very large handful of chopped flat leaved parsley, then serve straight away.

There are other ways. Steaming in beer is excellent, as is using a tomato based sauce, but for me, moules mariniere is the best way.

The only appropriate accompaniment for mussels are chips and mayonnaise. Maybe a baguette, but nothing else.

Eating mussels is always a messy business. The best way to eat mussels is to use an empty shell as a makeshift pincer to pinch the flesh out.

It's easier than using a fork, and makes you look like an expert.

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Leeds Loves Food

The Leeds Loves Food festival kicks off this Thursday in Millennium Square, Leeds.

The festival covers the whole weekend with a range of foodie events across the city. Leeds' best restaurants are involved, showcasing throughout the event.

There's plenty on, including:

• Salvo's have a six course dinner in conjunction with Crag House Farm in Cookridge, focusing on caring for livestock, caring for life
• Toast are cooking with the best of the day's catch from the magnificent fish stalls in the market
• Org Organics are holding an organic tasting session
• Harvey Nichols are running a whole programme of events, from a celebration of decadent desserts, right through to a summer fete with some of their best suppliers. Not to be missed.
• Tequila at the unsurpassed Mojo's
  

Plenty of restaurants have pitched special offers as part of the festival - there's an offer for everybody.

The festival is also holding a competition for the best micro restaurant posted to Twitter during the event. Just set your phone up in Twitter and text your 140 character review to +447624801423 with the tag #LLF. Be as complimentary, witty or cutting as you like.

Leeds Loves Food is shaping up to be a huge event, and it's a great way to celebrate Leeds' rich food scene.

Make no mistake, Leeds is a superb place to eat.

Leeds Loves Food 2nd -5th July, 2009.

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Little Valley Brewery's Hebden's Wheat

Hebden's Wheat is a light and lively wheat beer from the Little Valley Brewery in Hebden Bridge.

The beer is bottle conditioned, with a distinct lemon taste, tinged with coriander. It goes perfectly with a curry or other spicy food.

Little Valley's beers are organic, certified by the Soil Association and overseen by the brewery's owner, Wim van der Spek, a Dutch born, Bavarian trained master brewer.

Little Valley's range covers an IPA, bitter, stout, blonde as well as this quite superb wheat beer.

More soon, but a great start.

Little Valley Brewery


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Grozet - Scottish gooseberry beer

Grozet is a gooseberry flavoured beer from William Bros. Brewing Company, a Scottish brewer based in Alloa who specialise in the historic or slightly esoteric end of the market.

William Bros. brew a range of unusual beers, Grozet being the prime example. It's a heritage beer, based on a 16th century beer brewed at harvest time for the labourers, who wanted something refreshing after working the fields. A beer cut through with the sharp citrus taste of the Scottish 'hairy grape' - cheap and plentiful in the summer - fitted the bill perfectly.

This is a modern interpretation, closer to a continental beer than a 16th century Scottish ale. Grozet is light and has a clear citrus kick, a little like a Belgian fruit beer. The gooseberries make the beer distinctive and tangy, with a fresh taste and the flavour of wheat.

Very good indeed.

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Bhuna Gosht, or lamb bhuna

'Bhuna' is a particular Asian cooking style where a sauce is reduced and reduced until it is so thick that it just clings to the meat, making the meat appear 'browned'.

Dishes cooked in the bhuna style are rich and pungent, the flavour of the spice mix concentrated down by the fierce reduction of the sauce. Bhunas tend to be hot for the same reason.

This recipe is from Madhur Jaffrey. Her recipes are outstanding.

To make a lamb bhuna, start by gently browning a heady mix of spices.

Add two teaspoons of cumin seeds, four teaspoons of coriander seeds, two teaspoons of mustard seeds, two or three dried chillis, and finally two teaspoons each of fennel and fenugreek seeds to a large, dry, medium hot frying pan. Keep the spices moving for a minute or two until they brown slightly. Empty the pan into a bowl and let the spices cool slightly before grinding them to a fine powder in a coffee grinder of with a pestle and mortar.

Next, finely chop three large shallots, a four centimetre chunk of ginger and five or six garlic cloves in oil in a large pan until they turn golden brown. This will take maybe four or five minutes.

Add a couple of medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped to the pan, along with about fifteen curry leaves. Feel free to use canned tomatoes instead of fresh. Cook until the sauce thickens.

Add the roasted spice mix to the pan and stir well. The dry spice powder will cause the sauce to seize and thicken. Cook for a minute or two, taking care not to let the sauce catch on the bottom of the pan. If it does, add a splash of water and quickly stir.

Now add a kilo of boneless lamb or mutton shoulder, cut into large chunks, and a teaspoon and a half of salt. Stir and cook for five minutes, making sure that the meat is fully covered in the thick sauce.

Let the curry down with 250ml of water, bring to a gentle simmer, put a lid on the pan and cook on a very gentle heat for about an hour and a half.

After this time, check that the meat is tender. If it isn't leave it for a while longer. When the meat is ready, remove the lid from the pan and turn up the heat to reduce the sauce until it almost disappears. The aim is to create a dry dish, where the highly concentrated remains of the sauce cling tightly to the tender meat.

Finish with a sprinkle of garam masala and a handful of chopped fresh coriander.

Serve with naan bread, rice and cold beer. This is no place for wine. Beer only, please, something light and very, very cold.

More curries and Indian food:

Gosht Achar
Rogan josh, a king amongst curries
Naan bread
Aagrah, Shipley
Lamb curry with onions and raisins

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