Comforts of summer

What a week it's been!

​From work to appointments to coaching, it's been one of those weeks where it seems I was always playing catch up.  The weather has actually been sunny and decently warm, and it really only took a turn to what we are more used to here on the west coast over the past 24 hours: rainy, damp and darker days.  These rainy days definitely have me missing summer, especially burgers on the patio.

Fret not - Thermomix and Sous Vide to the rescue! 

---

 As a matter of fact, these were probably some of the best burgers I've had in a long time.  The key to a delicious and healthy burger is the quality and type of protein you choose to use.  I do love turkey burgers, but nothing beats a satisfyingly juice grass-fed grass-finished bison burger.  One thing I absolutely love about my Thermomix is that I can throw the meat into the mixing bowl and with the magic of the Turbo setting, can turn chuck style meat into minced meat, to the exact consistency I desire.  Not only that, all of the spices and ingredients are evenly distributed.  But since I already had ground meat, I was able to skip this part.  

As for the rest of the burger making process, I just threw everything into the mixing bowl:  onions, garlic, parsley, breadcrumbs, egg yolks, mustard, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and ground meat.  After 15 to 20 seconds of mixing, I had my burger mixture ready to form 6 patties about 160g each.   They then went into a freezer ziplock bag and into the fridge to rest.

Time for Joule to heat up the water to an optimal temperature of 56ºC (133ºF)!  The burgers ended up taking a 30 minute long hot bath to cook to an optimal but safe medium rare. Please note - I would only ever recommend cooking beef burgers to a medium-rare if you source the highest quality fresh protein available.

---

While the burgers were cooking, I also made some delicious BBQ caramelized onions, prepared my homemade truffle aioli and toasted up some delicious homemade brioche buns I had made the night before. And yes, these were also made in my Thermomix.  

The patties were given a quick sear in a hot cast iron pan and basted with some sizzling hot free-range duck fat for an additional burst of flavour!

---

And voilà - lunch/dinner was served - the process was simple, the meal was satisfying, and the flavour bombs were exploding in my mouth, left, right and center! For less than $20 and maybe 20 minutes of hands on work, I've got myself 6 servings of delicious, clean, healthy burgers.  Bye bye Skip the Dishes! 

Side note - when I formed the brioche buns, I was not thinking about the size of the burger patties. So my meal ended up being more of a deconstructed burger.  Less mess - same amazing taste!