Burger Beach Bonanza

Quesadillas; Poblanos; Veggie Burgers!

Susie and Jen both made quesadillas the last couple of days, with various fillings- chicken, beans, salsa. All very tasty. With Jen's, we tried the cheap hot sauces we bought from the supermarket in preparation for my tostielote spin. One chipotle, one 'red'. They were pretty decent, and I think defo the right types I've guessed for what needs to go on this super-snack. Although, I think maybe I need to find out what's going on with tamarind here, as I wouldn't be surprised if that's what the 3rd sauce on the Balandra tostilocos was. I see tamarind pods in all the supermarkets here, so it's time to find out how it's used in Mexican cooking, so that'll be a task for today.

With much help from Susie, Patrick and Jen, we made a bumper batch of my standard veggie burger mix. It is a mammoth effort. The recipe is below, until such time as I've decided upon my solution for storing them. The effort really is in all the grating of the veg and then squeezing the water out. At home, I'm sure a food processor and some other bits n bobs would help. I am going to try another base for the recipe which isn't so labour intensive, but whilst I'm out here, I don't really mind spending the time as the results are pretty epic.

As mentioned before, the idea with this patty- which I generally coat in panko before frying, but can be done without- is that it's versatile. The spicing (cumin, ground coriander, paprika) is designed to be generic enough that we can mix up what we serve it with. I'm planning on making it with some BBQ sauce today, with choose, pickled carrots (courtesy of Susie), and maybe some slaw of some kind, depending on ehat we find on our way South to our next camp spot. It'll be interesting to see how all it gets used in the coming days. It freezes very well, too. This batch looks fantastic. It's all about getting the water out, and a bit of luck with how wet the chickpeas are- sometimes they're too mushy, like beans.

Dinner had to be thrown together sharp after all that veggie burger prep. With the veggie bean chilli from the other day, so stuffed poblano chillies and threw some asadero cheese in there- this is becoming a favourite of mine. Damn tasty, quite light, and uses only about 4 teaspoons of the Chilli so it makes it stretch well which is important in our case. I served it with guacamole, as per the recipe which our Mexican buddy gave me a 10/10 for (with tomato, no cilantro, and some pre-soaked white onion), and some 'red' sauce- slightly grilled tomatoes, dried ancho chilli, lime, cilantro, water.

That all went down a treat. So, even though there's repetition in what we're eating- that will always be the case whilst I'm working on Mexican food and my little variants, plus my old van-food favourites- I can't recall the last meal we had that wasn't delicious. It lets me start to really get a handle on some of the recipes, too, so that I can start to write them up and publish on here.

We heard recently of a couple of other travellers selling vegan meals for 450 pesos from their van- that's nearly $25 USD. I could smash put epic food for half that and make a decent profit. The thought is crossing my mind more often these days. What's to lose?

Anyway, veggie burger patty mix recipe below. This is vegan, depending on your garnish, and gluten free if you choose to use chickpea flour.

Dodgy Dave's Veggie Burger Mix: MkII

Burger mix- makes 8 (I think), maybe more

Chickpeas- 2 tins, drained, crushed and dried as much as possible
Garlic- 2 medium cloves grated
Peppers- 2 grated coarse (red and green ideally)
Courgette/zucchini- 1 large fine grated
Yellow Onion- 2 medium, coarse grated
Small aubergine/eggplant- skinned and coarse grated
Fresh Coriander5Cilantro- 1/2 bunch, finely chopped
Carrot - 2 medium, fine grated
Mushrooms- 200g very finely chopped
Fresh chili- to taste, finely chopped
Fresh lime juice- about 1/2 to a full, to taste, so maybe even more
4 TBSP chickpea flour, +/- to texture and stiffen. Wheat flour can be used, and actually works pretty well.

Spice mix;
2 tsp ground cilantro
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chilli flakes (or adjust to taste)
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne

Serving suggestions;

Classic:  on a bun with:
Mayo
Lettuce
Tomato
Red onion slices

BBQ: on a bun with
Mayo
Dodgy Dave's BBQ Sauce
Red onion, or onion rings

Kinda Med/Persian style;
On a flatbread/wrap with squeeze of lime, pickles, tomato, pepper, yoghurt with lime and cilantro)

Alt option for all variants: dip patties in flour then egg then panko to fry up to a crispy version.

Prep:

Grate all the veg (except mushrooms) and place in a sieve over a bowl. Then, take handfuls and squeeze the water out of it thoroughly, and set it aside. Take a 2nd pass at it if needed. Mix it all together.

Add a little vegetable oil to a non stick frying pan and put on a medium heat.

Fry the veg mix (except the mushrooms and fresh chillies) in batches and set aside- idea is to cook off the water, get rid of the raw flavours and sweeten it, and get a little colour and savoury flavour in there. Get a little colour on each batch, then set aside in a pot. Use a little oil for each batch as needed, but only as much as is necessary, you don't want a greasy burger, hence why non stick pan is ideal.

Fry the mushrooms on a high heat with no oil- they should shrink right down and get colour. Don't be tempted to move them around too much. Depending on the size of the pan, two batches may be required- just make sure and don't have them layered thickly.

Add the cooked mushrooms to the veggie mix in the pan.

Put the pan on a medium heat and add in the spice mix. Stir, and allow the aromas to start coming out of the spices for a few minutes.

Add in the chickpeas and mix well and let it all sweat together for a few more minutes then allow to cool.

Once cooled, add the cilantro and fresh chilli and season with the lime juice and salt to taste- the idea here is to introduce fresh, zingy flavours at the end so that their flavour remains as vibrant as possible in the end result, providing contrast for the deep and warm flavours and textures that's been created in the base patty. You can adjust the level of chilli, cilantro etc as you see fit, but keep it versatile as a patty is my advice.

Make into patties, and put in fridge or freezer as desired.

For final cooking, either coat the patties in flour then beaten egg then panko and deep fry (or shallow fry and turn- make sure oil is deep enough to cover half way up), or just fry gently with no breadcrumb in a non stick with a little oil.

Serve up as you prefer.Read more