camemburger & chocolate cupcakes

The boyfriend came over for dinner last night so I made some delicious stuffed burgers from scratch. They were really, really, really good and in retrospect the only thing I would change is to put a bit more salt in the burger patty mixture. I got the idea from Pinterest, but made it entirely from my own thought-out recipe.

Also, the picture does not exactly do the burger justice, but I was so anxious to taste it that I just did a quick point and shoot picture.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil on medium high heat. Add 1 onion, very finely chopped, and fry until soft (5-6 minutes). If it looks like the onions are cooking dry, add some more olive oil. I added approximately another tablespoon of olive oil while the onions were frying. Sprinkle the onions with a pinch of salt while they are frying. Add 1.5 tablespoons of caramel/brown sugar (normal sugar would probably also do the trick if you don't have fancy sugar at home). Reduce the heat and simmer the onions with the sugar for a few minutes until caramelized. Stir it regularly to make sure the sugar doesn't get burnt. Set aside to cool.

In a food processor, add a handful of fresh Italian/flat leaf parsley (I used the stems as well) and one egg. Process until the parsley is very fine. Add 3 crackers (I used Pro-Vitas which are quite fiber-ey), 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon mustard and a pinch of both paprika and pepper. Process until the crackers are crumbly. The mixture will be pretty thick.

Combine the mixture with 400 grams of mince meat and the onions (once cooled). Mix with your hands. If the mixture seems to moist, add some more crushed up crackers (I added 5 more). Form balls with the mince meat mixture and wrap in cling film. Press down to form a burger patty, about 1 centimeter in thickness. I got 5 patties from my 400g of mince. I suppose it all depends on the size of your burger. Refrigerate or freeze the patties until they are cold and firm (not frozen).

Take the patties out of the freezer (I used only four of the patties and left the other one in the freezer for a quick lunch in the future). Unwrap them. To make one stuffed burger, layer one patty with torn basil leaves, some camembert cheese slices and thinly sliced cherry tomatoes. Cover with another patty and "mend" on the sides.

To cook the burgers, heat some vegetable oil to medium high heat. Fry both sides of the burgers off and then bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius  Toast burger buns, spread with butter. Once burger patties are cooked (no more visible pink), put them on top of the buns. Top with rocket leaves (or any other desired burger topping). I suppose you could add mayo or ketchup, but the camembert from my burgers made the meat quite saucy.

I served the burgers with microwave potato chips (no oil and SUPER crispy!)

For dessert I made chocolate cupcakes with a twist: after the cupcakes came out of the oven I cut out a piece of the center and then put a Lindt Lindor dark chocolate ball in the hole. Let it cool and cover with tinned caramel. I was so excited to try one that I forgot to take a picture...they pretty much look like average chocolate cupcakes though, but taste like THE BEST CUPCAKES EVER. Also, the recipe only makes two cupcakes so there will be no temptation to eat leftover cupcakes for the rest of the week :)

Time to fry a left over burger patty for lunch!