Lamb-tastic

Alright vegetarians this post is NOT for you.

grilling it up! naan ready to be toasted

Adam once upon a time bought me a book by Ted Allen, called "The Food you want to eat"  I've made a couple recipes from this book and I remember reading this one several times, "The ultimate burger is a lamb burger" and I thought 'riiiiiiiiiiight'

Anyway, the last time I had a lamb burger was at one of my favourite pubs and i didn't like it, it was lamb burger sliders, the seasoning wasn't good the taste was far too strong, almost inedible.  So what possessed me to make one?



I have something of a motto or way of being, I prefer to order things that I can't do or haven't done myself. in other words, I often order new foods, or order things that aren't my strongest methods or styles of cooking (or even cooking I would probably never do - like sushi for instance).   So I had this less than stellar lamb burger, and I keep reading lamb is the ultimate burger...conflicted, I took this s**t on and I WON GLORIOUSLY!

The lamb was from Aubrey's meats in the market, and it was good.  real good.

Inspired very heavily by Ted Allen's ultimate lamb burger

INDIAN SPICED LAMB BURGER



(with cucumber sauce on naan)



some of the spices used...



INGREDIENTS:

1 LB of ground lamb

2T finely diced green onion (white parts too)

1/2t garam masala

1/4t of cumin

1t of coriander seeds, crushed

1/2t turmeric

1T fresh grated ginger

1/4t salt

1/4t pepper

1/8t cayenne pepper



METHOD:

Crush your coriander with a mortar and pestle with all of the other dry spices (or do it in a coffee grinder).  Place that, your ginger, salt and pepper in a large bowl with your lamb.  Shape into 4 patties.  Refrigerate until needed.



Cook on a medium high greased grill like you would any other burger, about 4-5 minutes a side or until juices run clear.  Don't press on the damn thing! 



TO SERVE:

I made NAANBURGERS! you got it.  Use a homemade cucumber dip or a store bought one (Raita) and serve on toasted naan wedges.  I cut up a couple of loaves to act as buns.  I also used tomato and lettuce for garnish.

COOKS NOTES: 

What's missing here?  Egg?  breadcrumbs? Yeah, I could have added that but Ted did not and I wanted to test this out.  What happened was a cleaner taste - the flavour of the lamb just shone right through and it was frikking good.  Probably the best homemade burger I have ever had.  ever.