Lamb burgers with giant chips and a cucumber, mint and onion relish

I've been making my own burgers for years now and rarely eat a burger from a takeaway as they are so easy to make!  If you're a student you can make them in advance, freeze them and cook them after a night out and save a lot of cash this way:-) As an alternative to the ubiquitous beef burger, I occasionally make lamb burgers for a change.  Here is my recipe.

Ingredients

For the Burger:
500g lamb mince (if you have a food processor, make your own by blitzing 500g cubed lamb)
Some leftover mint sauce drained to remove the liquid
1 medium onion chopped finely

For the giant chips:
2 large potatoes - I use red King Edwards by choice
Olive oil for baking
Salt

For the cucumber relish:
A dash of olive oil
1 medium onion chopped very finely
1 three inch piece of cucumber diced as finely as possible
A pinch of sugar
A tablespoon of leftover mint sauce including the mint and vinegar

Method

Cucumber relish
First make the cucumber relish.  Heat a frying pan and add a small dash of olive oil, the add the chopped onion and sauté over a medium to low heat until the onion is softened but not coloured.  Now add the mint sauce and a small pinch of sugar and reduce almost to dryness.  At this point the mix should be sweetish but you should still be able to taste the vinegar from the mint sauce.  Put the cooked onion and mint aside and leave to cool.  Once it's cooled fully mix in the cucumber and serve this with the burger and chips as an alternative to tomato ketchup.

Giant chips
Preheat the oven to 200°C.  Peel the potatoes, rinse and then cut them into either four or six lengthways - you should aim to serve three or four chips per person!  Boil them for 5 minutes in salted water then drain and leave them to stand without covering.  Add them back to the dry saucepan an cook them over a dry heat for 1 minute to drive off as much moisture as possible.  Drizzle them with olive oil and put them in the oven on a pre-heated baking tray.  Roast for 30-45 minutes turning once until golden and gorgeous!  You can make these ahead and turn the oven off before serving to keep them warm in the oven.

Lamb burgers
As lamb is very fatty it's best to use as lean a lamb mix as you can get - supermarket extra lean is good, but it's even better to mince your own if you can.  Use as little oil as possible to fry the onion off until softened.  Now add the onion to the minced lamb in a large bowl along with the drained mint and a generous helping of salt and mix together well.  Shape them into burgers and grill under a high heat until cooked to your liking.

Serve the burger with the relish, chips and a burger bun if you like and add veg or salad of your choice.

Puréed spinach

I have been inspired by Master chef to do this one, they are always puréeing vegetables!  Must admit I'm not entirely taken in by this craze and I just can't understand why "foam" has lasted for so long as to my mind it's the easiest way to make sure the food comes to the table cold, but hey, I'm not a five star cook so what do I know?  Anyway, back on track, I've always been ambivalent about spinach, it's a great idea and full of iron and good things but I find it tastes too bitter, so I'm experimenting with spinach puree.  It's still got some work to do but this seems to work pretty well...

Ingredients
300g spinach
1 dessertspoon of double cream
1 teaspoon butter
A pinch of salt
A pinch of allspice

Method
Rinse the spinach well to get rid of any grit then put it into a heatproof bowl.  Boil a kettle and pour the boiling water over the spinach making sure you put the leaves under the water with a spoon of fork.

After a few seconds drain the spinach and squeeze out the water with the back of a spoon, then add it to a liquidizer bowl.  Add the slat, allspice, butter and cream.

Whizz it up until it's as smooth as it will go then transfer to a heatproof serving dish.  Taste and adjust for seasoning.

Just before serving, put it in the microwave and blast it for 30 seconds on high to get the heat into it then serve immediately.

When in Switzerland...

Well, not really, but as Rowena went to Geneva last weekend, Naomi and Suzanne both wanted a cheese fondue so I had to cook one.  We rarely eat fondue as it's so fatty, but every once in a while it really can't be beaten!

Rowena commented that the fondue she had in Geneva seemed less "winey" and more creamy than she remembered mine being, so this might be a series of recipes as I develop the creaminess.  Going on historic data the next one will be in about four years time!

Ingredients
1 garlic clove
375ml dry white wine
A dash of Lemon juice
190g Conté cheese
170g Swiss Emmental cheese
170g Swiss Gruyere cheese
100g Abondance cheese
4 teaspoons cornflour
A dash of brandy
2 Batons bread

Method
Peel and crush the garlic clove, then wipe around a cast iron pan.  Ideally use a fondue pan for this.  Add the wine and lemon juice and bring to the boil for 3-4 minutes to drive off some of the alcohol.

While the wine boils, grate all the cheeses roughly and add them to the pan making sure you stir the mixture constantly.  Keep the heat under the wine but make sure the mixture doesn't boil or the cheese will burn on the bottom of the pan.

Once the cheese is thoroughly melted, mix the cornflour with either a dessert spoon of Kirsch or Cognac, even water is fine, then add this to the cheese and wine mixture making sure you stir constantly or you'll get lumps.

Now cut the batons into bite size chunks ready to serve.  While doing this leave the cheese and wine to simmer on the lowest possible heat, ideally you should just keep it warm with no bubbles, and make sure you stir every couple of minutes to stop a skin forming.

If you've feeling romantic, serve in front of a log fire in  a room full of candlelight and dip the bread into the cheese and wine on a chilly wintry evening.

Do let me know what your best fondue recipe is...