Our front deck has been the focus of construction and these beef and blue cheese burgers were brought in to feed the delightful volunteers. Dear friends and family have all offered to pitch in which makes the job not only fun, but go so much faster. Hungry workers require feeding and these burgers totally hit the spot in the middle of a hard days work.
Sauces are the vital element to every burger and for these I like to jazz up store bought aioli. We use Heinz as its flavourful, rich and at a great price point. By adding in extra mustard to a store bought aioli, you can build a beautiful creamy mustard sauce that is great with roast pork. Or you can add a herbed oil for a heady herby aioli that is beautiful with fries. For these burgers, I want to add a little touch of luxury by stirring through a splash of truffle oil to the aioli. I also like to boost the aioli by crumbling through some creamy danish blue cheese. What results is a rich, decadent sauce that you will want to slather on everything…
As for the blue cheese, you want something that is creamy and not incredibly strong. If you feel like splashing out, the Kapiti Kahurangi creamy blue is divine. Alternatively, Puhoi has some great, tasty and affordable options available at most supermarkets. The apple slaw helps cuts through the richness of truffle and the cheese. These burgers are all about balance and to combat the rich sauce and meat, I like to serve these on MacKenzie’s burger buns. Full of wholemeal goodness and full of great-for-you grains, they’re large enough to satisfy the hungriest of crews. We served these beef and blue cheese burgers with home made herb laden potato chips; but serve these with the sides of your choice. In winter, kumara chips would be great too as would a huge spinach salad.
And last but not least; a huge thank you to all the beautiful friends and family who all helped out with the rebuilding of our deck and stairs…
Ingredients
- 800gm beef mince
- 150gm danish blue cheese
- 1 tbsp hot dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup wholemeal breadcrumbs
- 1x egg
- Salt and pepper to season
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1x green apple
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 125 mls of aioli, we like Heinz
- 100gm danish blue cheese, crumbled
- 1 tbsp truffle oil
- 6x burger buns
- Lettuce to serve
- Tomato relish to serve
Instructions
Put the beef into a large mixing bowl and crumble through 50 grams of the blue cheese. Add the mustard, breadcrumbs and egg. Season well with salt and pepper and mix well into the beef, keeping it light. Line a baking tray with paper and dampen your hands with water. This helps prevent the mixture from sticking together. Cup your hands and loosely shape the mixture into 6 even sized patties, they should nearly be falling apart. Overworking and compacting the meat will only lead to a denser, drier patty. Cover and place the tray in the fridge for half an hour or so so they firm up.
While the burgers are in the fridge, slice the apple thinly with a mandolin. Toss together with the parsley and lemon juice. The lemon juice is needed to stop the apples from turning brown. In a seperate bowl, mix together the aioli, remaining blue cheese and truffle oil. To cook the burger patties, heat a little olive oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add the patties and cook for 8 minutes either side. You can do this in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan.
To assemble, smear the bottom half of your burger buns with tomato relish. Top with some lettuce, the burger patty and a wee pile of the apple slaw. Dollop the mayonnaise on top and add the buttered top bun. Repeat for the rest of the burgers.
