[Recipe 2] MINI BURGERS with HIDDEN VEGGIES
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This week Scotch eggs morph into tiny Mini burgers. Scotch eggs have long featured on my ‘kooky UK meals to try’ list (along with Toad in the Hole, Spotted Dick and Bubble and Squeak), and a couple of months ago I gave them a burl. Delicious! As we’re coming up to Easter, I figured now was the perfect time to share them.
Scotch eggs are traditionally coated in sausage meat, but I just can’t bring myself to deep-fry a ball of sausage (easier to just rip my arteries out); so I use a mixture of beef and pork mince, which has more flavour, more iron and much less fat! I also throw in some mustard and onion for extra bite.
I’ve experimented with this recipe quite a bit, and although scotch eggs *can* be baked (lightly oiled at 200°C/390ºF for 25 minutes); they’re really much yummier deep-fried, with that lovely crunchy golden coating. I’m not at all adverse to the occasional deep-fried treat!
Double-crumbing is a technique I learned from the Dutch, and it makes for an extra crispy crust, whilst ensuring the scotch eggs don’t split open during cooking.
By making double the beef/pork mixture for the scotch eggs you can whip up a batch of gorgeous little Mini burgers with hidden veggies later. Look for the ♦ orange diamonds within the recipe, for instructions on how much beef/pork mixture to reserve for the burgers.
My beautiful friend, and Japanese culture junkie, Janet, introduced me to the tiny burger snacks at the ubiquitous Breadtop, an Asian bread/pastry chain popping up all over Australia. The bun itself is like a cross between brioche and a puff of air, and it holds a tiny cold hamburger patty, a smear of tomato sauce, a minuscule slice of cheese and a tiny leaf of lettuce. That’s it! Gone in two mouthfuls, but absolutely delicious. You can so easily make them yourself for the kids lunchboxes. Freeze the patties and little buns separately (you can buy the buns in bags of eight at Breadtop, or in bulk from Costco); defrost them overnight, and assemble in the morning. Two per child should suffice. Such a lovely change from boring sandwiches! They’re also perfect for kid’s birthdays, and adult parties (add a teaspoon of fennel seeds with the onion to ramp up the flavour).
[Recipe 1] Scotch eggs
Ingredients (serves 4 for 2 meals; ie. 6 scotch eggs + 12 mini burgers):
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 brown onion, very finely chopped
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
500g (1 lb) minced (ground) beef
500g (1 lb) minced (ground) pork
2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried, if unavailable)
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper
½ cup dry breadcrumbs
1 egg, beaten
6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
¼ cup plain (all-purpose) flour, for coating
3 eggs, extra, beaten, for coating
1¼ cups dry breadcrumbs, extra, for coating
I litre (34 fl oz) vegetable or peanut oil for deep-frying
Easy spiced tomato chutney (or store-bought chutney), to serve
Heat oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Cook the onion for 4–5 minutes, until soft. Drain on kitchen paper and allow to cool.
In a large bowl, mix together the cooked onion, mustard, beef, pork, thyme, salt, pepper, ½ cup breadcrumbs and 1 beaten egg. Process until well combined; or mix and mash with your hands.
♦ Reserve half the beef/pork mixture (about 2 cups or 600g/1¼ lb) for the mini burgers.
Divide the remainder of the beef/pork mixture into 6 even portions, patting each piece into a flat oval shape, the size of your palm.
Coat each of the 6 peeled, hard-boiled eggs in flour. Wrap each floured egg evenly in a portion of beef/pork mixture, making sure they are smooth and completely covered.
Dip each mince-coated egg into the extra beaten egg, then roll gently in breadcrumbs until well-coated. Double-coat by repeating the egg and breadcrumb stages. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, reserving a couple of eggy breadcrumb lumps for testing the oil temperature.
Preheat oven to 200°C (390ºF).
Heat vegetable oil in a deep saucepan on the stovetop until it reaches 180°C (350ºF). If you don’t have a thermometer, you can test whether the oil is ready by dropping a breadcrumb lump in the pot. It should sizzle as soon as it hits the oil.
Deep-fry the scotch eggs (in two batches if necessary) for approximately 4–5 minutes, until golden brown and crispy.
Remove scotch eggs with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Place on a tray lined with baking paper paper and bake in the hot oven for 7 minutes (this will ensure meat is cooked through).
Serve warm or at room temperature with Easy spiced tomato chutney and a green salad or Green beans and toasted pine-nuts (pictured).
[Recipe 2] Mini burgers with hidden veggies
Ingredients (serves 4, makes 12 little patties):
1 medium carrot, grated on fine zester holes
1 small zucchini (courgette), grated, chopped, liquid squeezed out with your hands
2 tablespoons oat bran (or wheatgerm)
♦ 2 cups (about 600g/1¼ lb) reserved beef/pork mixture
Salt and freshly cracked black pepper
To serve:
12 mini buns or dinner rolls
Butter or baby cos (romaine) lettuce
Thinly sliced cheddar cheese
Tomato sauce (ketchup)
Put carrot, zucchini and oat bran into a large bowl.
♦ Add reserved beef/pork mixture.
Season. Mix and mash it all together well with your hands. Shape mixture into twelve tiny patties, about 5 cm (2″) diameter. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Heat extra oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Fry mini burgers until cooked through, about 2-3 minutes each side. Drain on kitchen paper.
Serve mini burgers in little buns with lettuce, sliced cheese and tomato sauce.
- Cooked patties, and little buns, can be frozen with baking paper between the layers, for up to 3 months. Defrost as required, for lunchboxes.
- Patties can also be frozen uncooked, for up to 3 months. Defrost overnight in the fridge.
- As these patties are tiny, it’s very important to ensure the onion, carrot and zucchini are chopped and/or grated into very small pieces or your burgers will fall apart when cooked. The tiny zester holes on your grater are perfect for carrot. I grate zucchini on the normal grater holes though as it gets too watery. Give the mound of grated zucchini a good extra chop afterwards to make the pieces smaller.
- You can use this mixture to make four large patties instead of mini burgers. Pop them in the freezer for a quick mid-week dinner.
I am trying to get the guys to eat better! Then I found this site ….brilliant . Cuts my lunch prep time in half. The mini burgers were fabulous matched with your easy chutney I serve these on a mini brioche buns and wow !!! heaven .
Taking time to work through your recipe list . Thanks for your glorious recipes!
Thank you SO much for the lovely comment. You have made my week! You’ve also reminded me of these mini burgers – haven’t made them for yonks and my kids love them too! Thanks again.
I saw your comment on Profiteroles and Ponytails and thought I’d check out your Scotch eggs post.
I used a different recipe. My scotch eggs tasted good but were not aesthetically pleasing as yours appear. I baked them, turning half way through and found that the ground meat coating didn’t stay attached to the egg even though I floured the hard boiled egg before coating with the meat as the recipe suggested. Of course, I didn’t add an egg to the meat mixture as you did, just used the ground meat mixture. I also found that the pound of ground meat barely covered 4 large eggs, let alone the 6 or even 8 some of the recipes claimed were possible
Hi there. You’ll have to try my recipe next time! 😉 It works well, I promise!
I’m certain that the beaten egg in the meat coating helps ‘glue’ the ground meat to the boiled eggs.
Thanks for visiting!
I’ll definitely try the egg in the meat mixture. Maybe make it half beef and half pork rather than all pork.
Yes, the half beef/half pork thing works well; also less fatty. Good luck!
Saskia — I feel like you can see inside my head and know exactly what I love to eat. Mine and those of many others, I’ll bet.
Thanks Sandra. Ha, I love the mad Scientist analogy! Feels a bit like a Lab around here sometimes, that’s for sure.
Nice looking buns there Sas, as you know my kids dig them to death. I say down with the lunch time sanga and up with the leftover / plannned over. May have to do a lentil burger option. jx
Mini lentil burgers sound excellent to me, although the husband would keel over if faced with MORE legumes in his diet.
Haaa! Good question! But I think there’s really no need for you to go out of your way to post conversions of the metric measures in your recipes!! Americans are sooo super lazy and spoiled already 🙂 Our measuring cups have both posted on them anyways.
Thanks heaps Kim. That’s all the research I need to do!
these mini burgers are soooo cute! i have never heard of scotch eggs before this post. thanks for opening up a new world of a different kind of burger. i’ll bet they taste fantastic!!! i’ll have to try them out on my family (;
Thanks Kim. Loving your new mobiles too, and your embroidered shoes! Hey, I’ve been thinking I should add American weights and terminology in brackets after all the metric measures in my recipes. Is it annoying having to check the conversion chart? I would love your feedback. Cheers Kim.
Your blog makes me laugh, which rates equal to eating healthy food in the longivity stakes, I have read somewhere.
Thank you for sending your recipes and gorgeous, funny stories into cyberspace.
No, thank YOU for your lovely comment.
You are ruining my life Sas – the ‘print and try’ pile is growing faster than available time…… This needs to go into a hard-covered book for neatness sake.
Very EXCITED!
I’m a little bit excited to have that sentence directed at me Michelle. ‘You are ruining my life’. It’s so B & B.
PS. Enjoy the Scotch eggs!