Burger

Pork and egg burger

Dear Reader,

I hope you are well and eating well. 

I feel well myself and am enjoying the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet. When I weighed myself this morning, I noted that I had lost 5.2 kilograms since commencing the program. 

My jeans and some of my T-shirts now feel loose. 

While TWD is more than a low carbohydrate approach to eating and living, reducing unnecessary carbohydrate consumption and replacing it with lean protein is crucial. 

I’ve been eating a small portion of granola with unflavoured and unsweetened yoghurt most nights and still losing weight. 

This is a photograph of Gary after he weighed in on Saturday morning for the CSIRO TWD.
Saturday’s TWD weigh-in photograph

I thought this week, I would explore some low-carbohydrate bread options. 

Recipe

Special equipment

  • Water bath
  • Water heater and circulator

Ingredients

  • Pork scotch fillet steak – I found some steak that was about 150 grams. 
  • Salt – Iodised salt because I support the ongoing need for it. Iodine supplementation prevents cretinism. Anyone who tells you that products like Himalayan rock salt are good for you may not have had enough iodine in utero and during their early childhood. 
  • Pepper – I like using whole peppercorns, and with some of the salt, pound it with a pestle in a mortar. Freshly pounded pepper is superior to pepper which has been cracked or ground and then packaged and sold. 
  • Coles 85% lower carb rolls – One roll has 751 kJ, 19.5 g of protein, 8.4 g of fat, and 2.8 g of carbohydrate. 
  • Egg
  • Tomato
  • Lettuce
  • Praise whole egg light mayonnaise 

Instructions

Pork

  • Season a piece of pork with salt and pepper. 
  • Place the pork into a bag, apply a vacuum, and seal it. 
  • Cook the pork at 54 °C for 2 hours. 
  • Remove the pork from the bag and pat dry the surface with absorbent paper. 
  • Sear the steak in a hot cast-iron skillet. 

Burger

  • Cut the bread roll transversely. 
  • Spread some mayonnaise on the bottom piece of bread. Make it a thin smear; too much is too much. 
  • Toast the bread in a hot skillet until it takes on some colour. 
  • Layer some lettuce leaves on the heel of the bun. 
  • Add some slices of tomato. 
  • Add the pork scotch steak to the tomato. 
  • Lay a poached egg on the steak. 
  • Complete the burger with the top of the bread roll and gently compress the top to break the egg yolk’s membrane so that the egg yolk oozes over the pork to form a rich, luxurious sauce. 
  • If I were still doing YouTube videos, I’d cut the burger in a coronial plane and then pull apart the halves to reveal the cross-section. I did it so you have a still shot in the photographs.
  • Give thanks to the Lord. 
  • Eat with your hands. 

Final thoughts

This pork burger is a basic sandwich. It has minimised the carbohydrate component by using specialty bread. It is high in protein, and therefore it is filling. What it is not is lean. I did not remove the fat from the pork, and while I did use “light” mayonnaise, it is still mayonnaise. 

The Coles 85% lower-carb bread is pretty good. It toasted nicely, and it tasted good.

Photographs

Slow cooker beef cheek burger

I haven’t made burgers for a while. I have been thinking of a burger for dinner tonight throughout the week. Initially, I was going to grind my meat and make a smash burger. 

My Saturday dinner is a burger made with a sourdough roll, Gary’s special sauce, iceberg lettuce, Coon™ burger cheese, Heritage triple cream brie, slow cooker beef cheek, Roma tomato, and Shepard avocado.

The weather for today was looking gloomy, and my mind went to slow-cooked meat.

That’s when I got the inspiration for beef cheeks!

Ingredients

  • Beef cheeks
  • Barbecue sauce
  • Red wine
  • Beef stock
  • Sourdough bread roll
  • Butter
  • Iceberg lettuce
  • Roma tomato
  • Mayonnaise
  • Tomato sauce
  • Worcestershire sauce
  • Dijonnaise mustard
  • Coon burger cheddar cheese
  • Avocado
  • Heritage triple cream brie

Instructions

  1. In a slow cooker vessel, add the beef cheeks, beef stock, red wine, and barbecue sauce.
  2. Cook for eight hours.
  3. Remove the cooked beef and slice off enough for a sandwich/burger.
  4. Make Gary’s special sauce with mayonnaise, tomato sauce, Dijonnaise mustard, and Worcestershire sauce.
  5. Bisect a sourdough roll.
  6. Toast the soft cut surfaces of the bread roll.
  7. Liberally apply Lurpak butter to both halves of the bread roll.
  8. Trowel a layer of Gary’s special sauce on the heel of the bread roll.
  9. Add shredded iceberg lettuce and then the Coon™ burger cheese and Heritage triple cream brie.
  10. Now is when you add the cooked beef cheek.
  11. Atop the meat, add the sliced Roma tomato and thinly sliced Shepard avocado.
  12. Complete the burger with the top of the bun.
  13. Bisect the burger and get your laughing gear around it.

Final thoughts

  • The burger tasted great. It took quite a bit of effort to make.
  • Would you go to this much trouble to make a burger?
  • Do you like slow-cooked beef cheek?

When Twitter confounds @NotQuiteNigella

On Sunday, Lorraine Elliott, aka, NotQuiteNigella, posted about “Salmon and Bear” in Zetland.

Her first food photograph on that NotQuiteNigella post (apart from a photograph of a deer mounted on a wall) was a salmon burger. I managed to beat all the fans of NQN and get the first comment in and mentioned I would make a salmon burger.

Well yesterday, I was thinking of said salmon burger. Being Monday and being a salmon day I pondered the burger and all the yeasty foods I’d enjoyed over the weekend. Should I go with more bread or just salmon and a salad?

Ask Twitter and your questions will be answered

So I asked Twitter. Salmon burger or salmon salad?

 


 

I received a 3:1 response, salad over a burger. It was also a three women to one man response with the bloke from England suggesting I make a salmon burger.

This is the link to the full Twitter conversation Have a read

Well, last night I made a quick and simple salmon salad.

Salmon and mango avocado limey lummy salad Gary Lum
Salmon and mango avocado limey lummy salad

Salmon burger

Tonight I still had a piece of salmon, so a burger it is.

Because my bread roll was three days old I thought I should toast it, and rather than just shoving it into my little benchtop oven for a browning, I put some olive oil into a frying pan, heated it up and then liberally coated one side of the bread roll with warm oil. I then took both halves off and allowed them to cool while I cleaned off the frying pan.

Lash that roll

Then I applied a good lashing of garlic aioli to each half of the bread roll. On the bottom half I then added some rings of red onion.

Fill the hole in the roll

I then built the sandwich with the salmon that I’d baked for 13 minutes at 200 °C in my benchtop oven, some crispy iceberg lettuce and a couple of slices of vine ripened tomato.

I added a pinch of curry powder to the tomato as well as a good grinding of black pepper.

Which is better?

The burger of course. What could be better than a burger?

Baked salmon burger with lettuce, curry tomato, red onion, and aioli Gary Lum
Baked salmon burger with lettuce, curry tomato, red onion, and aioli

Can anyone tell me what a quoll tastes like?

Do Canberra quolls taste better?

I wonder what Canberra quolls taste like on a toasted ham, cheese, and tomato roll with Dijon mustard Gary Lum
I wonder what Canberra quolls taste like on a toasted ham, cheese, and tomato roll with Dijon mustard

What do you think of when you see the word pussy?

 

Last night’s podcast was on pus. Go on, have a listen. Let me know what you think. You can also read it on the blog

 

Heart shaped chicken schnitzel burger with lime avocado butter

For Sunday lunch I enjoyed a chicken schnitzel burger with a lime avocado “butter”. When I say butter, I didn’t use any real butter but mainly avocado, some lime zest, lime juice and a little olive oil. 

Purchasing a heart-shaped chicken schnitzel

After a morning walk around Lake Ginninderra, I stopped off at Coles and bought a piece of chicken schnitzel, a bread roll and an avocado. I am always amused when I see the chicken schnitzel pieces in the display case of the delicatessen section. The crumbed pieces of chicken are shaped into a ‘romantic’ heart shape rather than a real heart shape. I think a real heart is so much more attractive. Especially if it’s beating. It would have been great if I could by a piece of crumbed chicken in the shape of a beating heart 😂

One of the nice things about Brazilian cuisine is their love of chicken hearts. I don’t like eating a lot of them, one or two is enough, but they make for a great addition to a barbecue lunch or dinner. 

'Heart' shaped chicken schnitzel Gary Lum
‘Heart’ shaped chicken schnitzel

Avocado preparation

I chose a just ripe avocado. I prepared the avocado by dicing it, smashing it with a fork and then adding some lime zest, lime juice and olive oil. This makes for a very tangy and smooth “butter”.

Making the chicken schnitzel burger

I cooked the chicken by pan frying one side, flipping it over and then placing the frying pan with the chicken into a hot oven for 10 minutes. Once the chicken is cooked, I let it rest for five minutes. 

The bread roll can be spread with the avocado and then the chicken laid on top. To the chicken, add some aioli and a couple of slices of pickled jalapeño pepper. 

Portion control. Chicken schnitzel with limey avocado and jalapeño peppers. #lunch #yummylummy #foodporn #yummy #delicious #instafood #nikon Gary Lum
Portion control. Chicken schnitzel with limey avocado and jalapeño peppers.
#lunch #yummylummy #foodporn #yummy #delicious #instafood #nikon

I really enjoyed this burger. If you don’t have a nearby Coles you may not be able to get a “heart”-shaped chicken schnitzel but so long as you can get some crumbed chook you’ll be okay. 

If you’re interested in something to listen to that isn’t food related please check out my new podcast, Medical Fun Facts. I hope you enjoy it. 

Grease Monkey Double Deluxe burger

Introduction to Grease Monkey

On Wednesday evening I went out to dinner with a mate from Darwin. I’ve known Drapes for a long time. He worked out of Katherine, Nhulunbuy, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs while I was the Supervising Pathologist for the Northern Territory of Australia. He was down in Canberra for a meeting.

We’d arranged to catch up and thought a burger meal would be the way to go. I did a little on-line searching and thought it would be worth trying out Grease Monkey in Braddon.

Grease Monkey

The restaurant is at 19 Lonsdale Street in Braddon and it opens from 11 am to 10 pm.

 

They have chairs, stools and tables inside and outside. Drapes and I sat on moulded stools at the front window looking out onto the sidewalk. It was good for watching people walk by. Mostly young Canberrans, the blokes with beards and women in summer wear.

The menu can be downloaded from the website and I’ve made the current one available here.

What did I eat?

If you follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram you’ll see over the last couple of days I’ve been trying to be mindful of portion size. So I limited myself. I didn’t get fried chicken, mac and cheese, jalapeño poppers or hot wings. I had just one burger and that was the Double Deluxe.

Photograph courtesy of Anthony Draper
Photograph courtesy of Anthony Draper

The Double Deluxe

This burger consists of double beef, double cheese, bacon, grease monkey sauce, grease monkey relish, onion and pickles. The bread roll was pretty good. It wasn’t sweet and it wasn’t too much. It was just right. The burger itself was nice, I’d happily do it again. The burger is also served with chips. The chips were cooked really well and nicely salted but they come with extra seasoning. So now I’m going to sound like a food wanker but I reckon on their own the chips would be awesome, but coupled with a nice burger, they’re too much. There is too much competing flavour.

Sorry about the backlighting on this photograph
Sorry about the backlighting on this photograph

What else?

Check out the comment from Kate on Instagram. You need to click on the image and it will open the page in Instagram and you can scroll down to see Kate’s comment. Kate is a friend who avoids animal flesh, so I’m guessing the mushroom burger is really good. 


Next time I’ll try the mushroom burger.

Final words

For $20 the Double Deluxe is not cheap. Is it worth $20? Not really. You can make a similar burger for less. What about the experience? It’s a good experience and I reckon Canberrans should check out Grease Monkey and have a burger or two. I’ll go back but it’s not a place I’d go to regularly.