As some of you may be aware, I am starting the Weight Watchers program this Thursday.
I have set a personal goal to lose at least 20 kilos. I must admit this has made me rather panicky the last few days. I am determined to stick with it and I will, it’s just starting to dawn on me that my diet will basically be completely different to what it is now. No more spades of butter, cheese and sugar. In the end just like everything else it is just something to get used to, bad habits take a bit of effort to break.
I have decided to make this a public challenge, you can follow my progress on my facebook page here Drop I’ll give you 20 Be sure to read the Info -> Biography section.
I did feel like I need to pig out one final time before “doomsday” and as luck would have it Food24 is running a Burger Competition! I thought about going with all sorts of weird combinations but in the end I stuck with the basics and put down the following three rules.
- Make ’em BIG
- Make ’em JUICY
- Make ’em AWESOME
So without any further adieu, I give you the Big Boy Burger!
Ingredients (makes 8 rather large burgers)
For the patties
- 1 kg beef mince
- 300 gm pork mince
- 250 gm very finely chopped onion
- 1 cup choppped parsley
- 2 tblsp sea salt
- pepper to taste
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups breadcrumbs
- a cup of your favourite basting sauce
The rest
- 8 breadrolls
- 2 onions, thinly sliced, fried with some balsamic and sugar until caramalised
- 1 block of Emmentaler cheese, thinly sliced
- 3 tomatoes, sliced
- 1 bag of Cos Lettuce
- 1 jar of pickled cucumbers (gerkins)
Method
Combine the meat, onion and parsley in a mixing bowl and mix together well. Using your hands is best, t is a messy afair but get stuck in!
One properly mixed, spread the mix out in the bowl so you can get salt and pepper spread out evenly. Don’t add you salt in one heap as it sticks to the meat and is difficult to spread out, so rather spread it evenly from the start. Lightly beat the eggs and chuck it in there.
Mix that through so the egg is incorporated, then add the breadcrumbs and mix again!
Next you need to decide how big you want your burgers. I went with “As big as I can get em boss!”.
I use a pattie press machine thingy that I bought at Freddy Hirsch. They are in the Butchery Supplies business, I have bought a couple of neat things from them over the years.
I made the burgers as big as my pattie press allowed, a wopping 210gms. I prefer using the press as the patties end up a bit sturdier and do not fall apart so easily. Once you have your portion size sorted, roll the rest of the mixture into meatballs of that size.
Here is a pic of my pattie press thingy, on the left is the press itself and on the right is a stack of the plastic discs that go on the top and bottom of each pattie to make them easier to handle and freeze without them sticking to each other.
Place a meatball between two of the plastic discs and then bring down the press over it. Make sure the edges of the press do not lift up from the work surface and press down on the handle.
Lift up the press, the pattie will most probably still be stuck inside. No worries, just hold the press in one hand and give the handle a quick whack with the other and it will pop right out. Take a look at this beauty, thicker than a pack of smokes I tell ya!
Repeat this process and lay your pattied out on a cutting board. When you are done, put them in the fridge for a while to set.
Phew that was quite a bit of work, so let’s go chill for a bit and have a drink by the fire.
Right, back inside with you! Let’s get the final prepwork done so we can braai these babies.
I like to toast the rolls in the over to crisp them up a bit, otherwise they might lap up too much of the juices and become soggy. I just cut them upen and pop them under the grill for a while until they are lightly brown.
Slice the tomatoes (always sprinkle tomatoes with a bit of salt, it brings out their sweetness), slice the cheese and wash the leaves.
That’s it, quick hey! Ok lets get back outside and braai these masterpieces over a medium high heat.
About 4 mins before they reach your desired level of “doneness”, give them a dash of basting sauce and spread with a brush.
There we have em, beautiful man sized burgers on the braai!
Assemble them as you wish and good luck, these things are HUGE!
There is no civilised way of eating a burger of this magnitude, just grab it with both hands and start stuffing your face.
You may want to look up every now and then, grab a breath of air and look at the smiles on your guests’ faces :)
O gosh, dit lyk heerlik!!! Sterkte met die dieet!! Ek behoort jou voorbeeld te volg!
Thank jou Dankie! En baie dankie, ek is seker ek gaan dit nodig hê! Maar genoeg is genoeg, here goes!
Jong ek is seker ek moet seker ook jou voorbeeld volg en op ‘n ernstige dieet gaan siende dat ek ook maar net te lief is vir lekker eet en nuwe disse uitprobeer. Well, die burger sal beslis vannag in my drome ronddans tot ek swig en dit ook probeer!
Good luck met jou dieet en met die kompetisie, ek hou duim vas!
Nadia, hou bietjie vas, ek gaan probeer om nou kos te maak wat in Weight Watchers se reels bly wat darem eetbaar is, as ek dit reg kry sal ek nou goed begin post wat gesonder is om te eet maar darem nie soos cardboard smaak nie. Dankie vir die goeie wense!
Oh wow, I love those grill lines from the fire – wowzers. They look delicious! Good luck with your challenge!
Hi Linda! Thanks, they were pretty amazing I can tell ya that much. Thanks!
leke fritz!
Dankie Kleintjie!
Fritz, ek LUV daai sigaretboks agter die mooie ou pattie’tjie! Priceless! Altans … dink dis ‘n sigaretboksie..? LOL en well done! Wens so meer mans will blog ook!
Thanks Anne! Ek moes iets in die foto kry om die size van die burger op scale te kan wys hehehe. Dankie!
Wow Fritz, I love the look of these and certainly the best way to ‘pig’ out before “Drop”.
S x
Thanks Sammy!
Thanks Fritz, nom nom nom, Best wishes for diet
You are most welcome Lynette, and thanks so much!
They look great Fritz! And good luck for the challenge!
Thanks Lori!
Perfect – I have a Tupperware hamburger press thingy – will be sure to make these ASAP.
:-) Mandy
Great stuff Mandy, let me know how they turn out!
Oh Fritz ! I’m so glad to see your blog making regular appearances on my Google Reader again. I missssssssssssssssssssed it.
Fantastic burgers ! I really love how gourmet they are, yet still so SOLID. They have not lost their burgerness as most other homemade burgers have. I am still trying to convince the Boyf to go natural; he is hooked on I&J’s ones. He’s used to homemade burgers with minimal meat and maximum carrots. I think with a point towards this post he might begin the journey to my taste bud’s happiness.
It’s Thursday today. Thinking of you. It’s going to be tough but I know you can do it. Good on you for letting everyone know. I look forward to seeing what creations you make…
Hi Caylee! Yea sorry I get frantically busy at work from time to time and blogging has to take a back seat, but never fear, I shall prevail!
Thanks hun, they really are friggen awesome. I & J? SERIOUSLY? Ag nee sies man!
And thanks, first meeting tonight and then the journey begins, I am amped! :)
Looks awesome. Except that I think gherkins should be banned. Horrible stuff ! Good luck with the diet – I also need to do it.
Thanks Demetri! Woah, I love gherkins! To each his own though, diet is going well, lost 6kgs in 2 weeks so far!
Hi Fritz, great burger ! I think my wife and I have tried every weight loss program but the one that really worked for us with minimal pain was Dr Dukan’s. Google it. He is a French doctor and believe me it works. Whatever route you go, good luck.
Hi Jim
Thanks! Weight Watchers is going great, have lost 13kgs so far. I will check out the diet you mentioned, cheers!
Masterpieces! You missed one important pic: cut that baby down the middle. I want to see the pink of the meat and the juice running out.
Hi Karel, that aint a bad idea! I’ve had some comments from people that it doesn’t look meaty enough, but that is just because the salad leaves and cheese be hiding the patty! Next time I make these I’ll take some more ‘revealing” photos!
HI FRITZ, I WILL CERTAINLY TRY YOUR RECIPE; I ALSO USE THE TUPPERWARE
THINGY AND IT WORKS GREAT.
TO HELP LOSE WEIGHT STOP ALL SUGAR. I MEAN ALL SUGAR AND HAVE LOTS OF
SALAD WITH SOYA SAUCE AND SESAME OIL FOR TASTE. IT WORKS WONDERS!!!
Thanks for the tips Mike, yea I am trying to cut back on the sugar, going well so far :)
Hi guys
I tried this recipe (re-printed on food24) on the weekend thinking it’s make a great bonding experience to do it with my sons and we’d have great tasting burgers after.
While they looked great they were simply inedible.
The problem?
Too much salt?
When I read this (and yes, I’m probably this clueless) I see 2 table spoons of salt – and being clueless I just went with it.
Surely that’s wrong?
tbsp. tablespoon
tsp. teaspoon
Hi Denis
Firstly, thank you so much for your honest feedback. Like I explained in our email correspondence, the issue was with the difference with between coarse / sea salt as specified in the recipe, and table salt, which is what you used.
Due to the difference in crystal size, you can pack a lot more table salt onto a spoon than you would be able to do with coarse / sea salt. A general guideline is that you should use half as much table salt as a substitute for coarse.
I am used to cooking with coarse salt, but I realised that most home cooks will probably be using table salt. This incident has highlighted to me that I need to explain the difference more clearly, and I will do so in an upcoming article very soon.
Thanks again for pointing it out to me, I value all feedback (good and bad) from my readers, it enables me to iron out the kinks and make this site better and better.
Cheers