This is a Mr. Salt’s burger recipe, but written by Ms. Sugar. We learnt this recipe from a colleague. When I tried it for the first time from my colleague’s home, I felt it was so delicious, so juicy, tastier than any burger I ever had. (To be honest, I didn’t eat a lot of burgers before. I am not really a meat lover.) The combination of the meat, veggies, burgers…is just right. This is so yummy that I have to ask my colleague for her secret recipe, and request Mr. Salt to make it at home again.
Before cooking the burger, it’s better to have all the veggies and sauces prepared. You want to give a BIG BITE right when the burger is ready. I guarantee you don’t even want to wait for 1 more min. So it’s important to be ready. We also make our own Pesto for this burger, but you can definitely buy the ready made ones! (But I think the home-made one is always more delicious, if you have time making it.)
Makes 3 burgers
Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Ingredients:
- 600 g Minced Beef
- Rucola/Rocket Salad (Handful)
- 1 Tomato
- 1 Mozzarella Cheese
- 3 Hamburger Buns
- 1 Onion
- 2 Cloves of Garlic
- Black Pepper
- Salt
- Sugar
- Oregano
- BBQ sauce
- Pesto
- Olive oil
1. Prepare the sides
Wash and dry the Rucola/Rocket Salad with some kitchen paper, cut the tomato into dices, cut the hamburger bun into half horizontally, and slice the mozzarella cheese. This is optional, but I toss some olive oil, little bit of minced garlic and salt for the diced tomatoes.
2. Prepare the burger meat
Roughly chop the onion and garlic, put them in to an electric mixer and blend them into puree. In a bowl, put the minced beef inside. Add pinch of oregano, sugar, pepper and the onion-garlic puree, mix them with the meat until just combined (don’t overmix!). Divide the meat equally into 3, lightly toss them from hand to hand to shape them into balls, don’t over do it so it will keep the moist. Flatten it a bit so that it will be the same size as your hamburger bun (we bought super-size hamburger buns, so our patties are a bit smaller), try to keep the patty around 3/4 to 1 inch thick. Season with salt on each patty.
3. Grill the burger 😀
Preheat the BBQ Grill/put the grilled pan on medium-high heat. Put some olive oil on the surface. Carefully put the patties on the grill, leave it for 2-3 mins, flip it to the other side for another 2-3 mins if you want it to be medium rare. Put some BBQ sauce on 1 side of the patty, flip it and do it for another side. (Mr. Salt usually likes to overcook the meat patty, so if you are the same, just cook it as long as you want to make sure they are fully cooked!)
4. Assemble the burger
Put the bottom part of a hamburger bun on a plate. Spread some Pesto on it, put some Rucola/Rocket Salad, and a slice of mozzarella cheese. Put the just ready burger bun on top now, then some tomatoes. Spread some pesto on the inside of the top part of the hamburger bun, put it on top of the tomatoes. Enjoy!
Pro Tips!
Don’t forget the ‘dimple trick’! After you toss and flatten the patty into shape, use your thumb to lightly press the middle of the patty. It will help keeping the patty in its size and not shrinking.