The Rookie Burger that went places

We decided to grill a few weeks back when there were a few days of spring like weather. The gas ran out and I had to wait for another bout of spring to start grilling. It was only last year that I got a grill after 10 summers in this country. Last spring the town I have made my home held a burger contest. I was up against a professional chef and a guy who called himself the Big Daddy of burgers. For a week before the contest, the dinner at home were burgers.Some days it was too spicy, other days it was too dry. After numerous trial and errors, a new burger was born. I called it a Tangy Curry Burger for my American friends, as one thing they know about Indian food is "curry". I am proud to say that I won the second place competing against people who had years of experience behind the grill.

I have cooked this burger with lamb and chicken and in both cases,it turned out real juicy. The Masala Burger has a combination of Indian spices topped with caramelized onions and yellow peppers and a cilantro-cumin yogurt sauce.

Ingredients:

Hamburger buns -6

Ground chicken– 1 lb

Chopped onion – 1 cup

Chopped green pepper – ½ cup

Ginger – 1/2 inch

Garlic – 4 cloves

Chilli powder- 2 tsp

Turmeric – 1 tsp

Garam Masala – ¼ tsp

Hot sauce – 2 tbsp

Salt –To Taste

Chopped yellow onion – ¼ cup

Chopped yellow peppers – ¼ cup

Yogurt sauce – 4 tbsp

• Process pink onions, green peppers, ginger, and garlic in a food processor into a coarse paste.
• Mix the processed paste with the ground lamb.
• Add chlli powder, hot sauce, salt, turmeric, garam masala and mix.
• Make 6 patties.
• Grill the patties until cooked medium to well done.
• Sauté the onions and yellow pepper with a pinch of salt until caramelized.
• Toast the buns on the grill .
• Top the buns with patties.
• Top the patties with caramelized onions and yellow peppers and yogurt sauce.

Recipe for the yogurt sauce:

• Toast a tsp of cumin and grind it.
• Whisk a cup of plain yogurt with a pinch of salt and a tsp of sugar.
• Add a tbsp of chopped cilantro and toasted cumin powder to the whisked yogurt.

Its a quick weeknight meal with oven baked red potato fries. The spices and the vegetables in the burger make it juicy. If you want to do a Greek flavored one, use lamb and substiute rosemary and feta cheese for the ginger, chilli powder and turmeric.