Ever since seeing the stuffed burgers that  Amanda made on What We’re Eating, I’ve been wanting to have a go myself. I’m not usually a burger person (I’m more taken by fried chicken ) but making stuffed ones looked fun. I also quite fancied the idea of home made chips.

Last night was supposed to be the first time I cooked in my new flat but as usual things didn’t go to plan. So I ended up back at Latymer Court to make my burgers with goon there to help. For some reason no one objected to me trying some deep frying either.

So we started with the burgers. A week or two ago I’d found packs of venison mince at Borough and I’d picked them up with this project in mind. The mince got mixed with some finely chopped fried onion and garlic plus a tablespoon of minced rosemary leaves. I added some beaten egg for binding and then made them into thin patties which I topped with the burger stuffing.

A few slices of brie and a good dollop of cranberry sauce went on. Then I covered these with the rest of the mince to make some massive burgers.

While the burgers were in the oven, we dealt with the chips. I’d already got goon to chop the potatoes. I parboiled them for 5 minutes in salty water, drained them thoroughly and then dropped 5 or 6 at a time into hot vegetable oil.

As the chips turned golden brown I fished them out of the pan with a slotted spoon. I tasted one and was very impressed by its texture. It was really crispy on the outside but soft and floury inside. This was absolutely perfect but for some reason they didn’t seem to have as much flavour as I expected. I dusted them with flour, black pepper and a touch of cayenne but for some reason that didn’t help either. I wondered whether the oil was to blame. 

Soon the chips were done and the burgers came out of the oven. There had been a bit of leakage from one but nothing too serious. I topped them with some extra brie and let that melt. We would have put them in buns but the burgers were too big to fit!

As goon poured the wine I had a nibble on a rocket leaf from our salad. It was strangely bland, not like rocket. Then it dawned on me what had happened. The cold that had been bothering me all day had bunged up my nose to the extent I couldn’t taste ANYTHING at all. That’s why the chips seemed to have no flavour. My suspicions were confirmed when I tried the wine. Bland chianti? Unlikely.

So I have very little idea of what the burger tasted like. According to the goon the flavour was milder than normal venison but still a bit gamey and the cranberry came through really well. The brie added creaminess and a mild flavour. Apparently my malfuntioning tastebuds causd me to overseason the chips a bit but they were still damn good. I think the brie stuffing worked pretty well although it leaked a little.

For ten minutes before we ate I tried everything possible to decongest my nose, but nothing worked. We tried mustard, chilli powder and even inhaling ouzo! I’m going to have to make these again just so I can find out what they really taste like.