I've been doing beef burgers on the barbecue for a while and to be honest I've got a little bit bored of them. Especially as beef burgers are best done as simply as possible, don't mess around with them too much. So I decided instead to mess around with some lamb mince and whatever my imagination could conjure up, and hence my Mediterranean Lamb Burger was born.
I started with some lamb mince, as one would expect. As with beef I went for a 20% fat. Then I just kind of went crazy putting a whole manner of things in with it; my shawarma rub from a previous cook, Pizza Seasoning from Quiet Waters Farm, fresh mint, small clove of garlic, feta cheese in small cubes, sea salt, black pepper and fresh oregano; as with most of my cooks this was all done to taste and not in any specific quantities!
Once this was all mixed in really well I formed patties out of them with my hands and placed them over direct heat. I grilled them for about 5-7mins on each side until they were nicely browned. I actually put the lid back on again whilst they were cooking as I feel this helps prevent flare ups from the fat dripping on the coals. Just to check they were done I did check the internal temperature to ensure they were 71C for medium rare, at which point I took them off the grill and let them rest covered in tin foil. They would have increased temperature again after this which was fine because they would still be nice and juicy!
After a about 3 mins of resting I loaded them up into a toasted brioche bun in and amongst layers of grilled courgette that had been grilled a bit longer than the lamb burgers.
I then served it with a yoghurt-based sauce that had; yoghurt, green chillis, cucumber, salt, pepper, fresh mint, white wine vinegar, lime zest and lime juice.
Verdict? The lamb burgers were absolutely amazing, even though lamb is a great meat it is definitely one that can be a bit more adventurous as a burger than I feel beef burgers can be. The sauce ended up a bit watery but it did need the more liquid ingredients (vinegar, lime juice) to balance it out, perhaps it needs a thicker dairy base such as sour creme or creme fraîche. One to try next time.
