I'll tell you upfront, this is going to be a lot of work – but I will promise you the results will be worth it so give it a go.
Ingredients
Burgers
100 g chana daal, soaked overnight
500 g mince beef
1½ tsp cumin seeds (powder is fine too)
1 tsp coriander powder
½ tsp chilli powder
Filling
2-3 spring onions
1 handful fresh coriander
1 green chilli
1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
Rinse and wash the chana daal.
Add the mince, chana daal, salt, cumin seeds, chilli powder & coriander powder to a pot and cover with water.
Boil and then simmer for approx 45 minutes or until the water has reduced completely and you're left with something you can mash.
Mash up the mixture thoroughly, there shouldn't be any water. if your mixture is not completely dry you need to put it back on the heat.
We need to work with the mixture so we need to cool it, place mixture in the fridge for an hour or so. If you want to do this over a couple of days this would be a good place to take a break.
Once your mixture is cold we need to really grind it up with a pestle and mortar so it forms a thick paste.
We're going to make 2 fairly small burgers, put the filling in the middle and squash them together to make 1 burger. For the filling, use your creativity. I would suggest: – – a handful of finely chopped coriander – a finely chopped chilli – a couple finely chopped spring onion – a little lemon juice.
A good way to do it is to make a small ball and flatten it between your hands to get it roundish. At this stage it should be approximately 5cm in diameter. Spoon a little of the filling onto it and cover with a second little burger. Now gently press them together and pinch the edges to close it up.
Try to keep it as even in thickness as possible and finish up sealing it by rolling it on its edge applying a little pressure. Sounds harder than it is.
That's the hard part done with. At this point, you can cool the burgers and freeze them for later.
Now whisk an egg in a bowl, coat the burgers in the egg and fry in really shallow oil in a pan. It should only take a few minutes each side as everything is already cooked.
