Balti lamb burgers

I've been trying to prepare extra food and freeze it for the impending birth of my first little one, as everyone tells you you should. However, it taunts me there in the freezer, yummy lasagna, curry sauces in little containers.

So needless to say we've nearly eaten it all, already. But I have a few weeks to replenish it. One of the things I have stashed in there are quantities of a basic curry sauce that can go several different ways quite easily by adding ground almonds and cream for korma, chopped tomatoes and some spices for balti or rogan josh. I had defrosted a container for a chicken curry that didn't quite happen, and then happily decided to get some mince lamb from the Ginger Pig the other day. The balti lamb burger was born. 

I would definitely make the curry sauce at some other point, freeze it in batches, and then whip one out for the burger recipe. Making it just for this might be just too much faffing. Follow the basic curry sauce recipe here at delicious. magazine, definitely worth using a frozen then defrosted one for the intensity of flavour. I split my curry sauce into 6 quantities as there's only two of us I usually cook for.

Balti lamb burgers with quick cucumber raita

Makes 5 burgers

For the burgers

1/2 medium onion

2 garlic cloves

1 quantity of basic curry sauce, defrosted

1 tsp of garam masala balti (mine comes from Seasoned Pioneers and I'd highly recommend them)

500 grams good quality lamb mince

Groundnut oil

For the cucumber raita

(These quantities are approximate, taste as you go)

plain Greek yoghurt

cumin seeds

cucumber

Pitta breads and halved cherry tomatoes to serve

1. Whizz the half an onion and the garlic cloves in a food processor until they're essentially finely chopped, whatever size you're happy to find in a burger. 

2. Add the onions, garlic, curry sauce and garam masala balti into a bowl and mix it with your hands until it's well combined. Form into 5 burgers and leave on a plate to settle down. Put a grill pan on high heat.

3. Chop the cucumber into small chunks and add to the plain yoghurt in another bowl. Dry fry the cumin seeds until they smell fragant, tossing them often - this should only take two minutes or so, so don't wander off. Add cumin seeds to the yoghurt and cucumber.

4. Your grill pan should be nice and hot by now. Pour some groundnut oil into your palm and massage the burgers gently. Brush them if you're squeamish about this kind of thing. Put them on the grill pan and leave them alone for a good 4 minutes. Flip once, leave them for another 3-4 minutes. Cooking time depends on the thickness of your burgers, so adjust as necessary.

5. Take the burgers off the heat and let them rest for a couple minutes, and use the flaming hot grill pan to heat up the pitta breads, push them down on the pan using your hand if you're brave or whatever tool is to hand. You'll have to do this in batches. 

6. I served this with a pitta per burger, with cherry tomatoes and the cucumber raita in two bowls and we went at it. Make sure you have plenty of napkins to hand, these are messy.

Comments

[Christopher]

These were soooo good! Very good balanced taste, with both the good lamb and the spices coming through without being overpowering. And I always love the raita sauce.
Happy happy Christopher.