Sly Burger

It was half nine on bank holiday Monday morning, I didn't quite know how my loose change had ended up in my sock drawer but what I did know was that I had no hangover and that last night I had attended an awesome party a premier four star hotel. I employed my usual cure for a night out involving, although not as much these days, alcohol by having a cup of green tea, a spot of muesli and an eight mile walk in the late summer heat with my dog.

When I returned home I felt completely human once more and set about making some burgers from scratch and I resolved to stretch myself by making cobs to put the burgers in as well. The procedure for making the cobs has been covered in my blog article on making olive cobs (see http://cookeryisthetruth.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/cob-of-olives.html for how to make the cobs) except I did not include any filling or seasoning in the cobs for this blog entry.

Once I had cooked the cobs I left them to cool on the side and began to prepare the burgers. As I had traces of a headache and a slightly sore left shoulder, perhaps as a result of sampling Talisker Whisky and indulging in some strenuous exercise on the dance floor the night before, I opted for some calm music to cook to in the form of Roy Harper's 1971 masterpiece Stormcock. The album is a mellow acoustic record comprising of four long songs with tuneful singing, challenging lyrics and powerful harmonies. Roy Harper is, much like James Brown, his own genre and his music is best described as progressive folk rock of which he is the only practitioner. Whether it is his own genre or not it certainly fitted the mood.

To prepare the burgers I sliced six spring onions, after first washing them and topping and tailing them, into two centimetre long strips and fried them lightly with 6 grams of fresh parsley, 8 sliced chives and two finely sliced garlic cloves. I fried these ingredients until they were soft and only slightly browned and then added half a teaspoon of paprika and half a teaspoon of chili flakes that I mixed into the fresh produce.

While the contents of the frying pan cooked steadily I poured eight hundred grams of Cannelini Beans and Flageolot Beans into a colander and poured cold water on them to remove the excess fluid that was contained in the cans they arrived in. I then added the beans to the frying pan and after mixing them thoroughly into the other ingredients I took the pan off the heat and mashed the contents up with a potato masher.

Next came the difficult part as it involved shaping the bean and herb mixture in the pan into twelve small balls. Once I had overcome this tricky task I put the newly formed burgers on a greased baking tray and place them in the fridge for around twenty five minutes so as to allow them to set.

Once the burgers had set I placed them under the grill and cooked them on each side around five minutes while always making sure that they did not burn. Once the burgers were ready I sandwiched them in the cobs, which I halved first, with some mayonnaise and fresh slices of tomato.

Although the cobs were not quite flat enough to keep the filling contained within them the taste made up for this as strong and rich taste of them coupled with tangy and pleasant taste of the burgers was a winning combination. The tomatoes and mayonnaise contributed a freshness to the meal that was accentuated by enjoying it on the back garden in the evening sunshine.