Burger of the month: May

I used to design a new burger in my bistro every month. I just miss a bit of creative romping around, so I just decided to make a great burger for my blog every month. The recipe now looks quite complex with all the components, of course, but they can all be prepared well if you want to start the day before or swap for purchased ingredients. Since summer is almost around the corner, I wanted to make a burger that already makes you hungry for beautiful summer evenings and is also easy to prepare for grilling.

That's why this burger consists of a brown ale bun with various grains, lamb's lettuce, red coleslaw, tomato, orange-thyme mayonnaise, tender seitan steaks in a Dijon & Herb marinade and grilled peaches.

Duration: around 5 hours

Difficulty: medium

Makes 6 burgers

Ingredients:

Seitan steaks

150g cooked rice

2 cloves of garlic

10g yeast extract

40g red wine

4g paprika powder

Pinch of oregano

130g water

5-7g vegetable stock powder (or vegan beef stock)

5g tomato paste

4g apple cider vinegar (or dark Chinese vinegar)

10g yeast flakes/nooch

1g mustard flour

1g onion granules

1g white pepper

4g beetroot powder (optional, only serves for some color)

10g oil

10g soy flour

175g gluten powder / seitan fix

Steak broth

1000g of water

10g yeast extract

150g red wine

25g vegetable broth (or vegan beef broth)

25g tomato paste

some rosemary

Dijon & Herb marinade

40g Dijon mustard

50g Italian frozen herbs

50g oil

5g yeast extract

15g agave or maple syrup

10g salt

3g pepper

2g paprika powder

3g onion granules

10g water

Brown Ale buns with grains

21g fresh yeast (1/2 cube)

200g malt beer/brown ale

10g sugar

400g wheat flour

20g butter alternative

5g salt

About 50g seeds or grains, I used the following:

15g linseed

5g hemp seeds

5g chia seeds

20g sunflower seeds

5g sesame seeds

Orange Thyme Mayo

250g mayonnaise

75g orange juice

1g paprika powder

3g thyme

20g oil

5g sugar

Pinch of turmeric

optionally a little grated orange peel

Red Coleslaw

300g red cabbage

40g chopped onion

10g salt

10g sugar

100g orange juice

80g mayonnaise

10g Dijon mustard

optionally a little grated orange peel

Everything else

Lamb's lettuce

2-3 tomato

3-4 peaches (if possible firm)

some oil or melted butter alternative for the buns

Preparation:

For an optimal consistency, the steaks should be made the day before, on the one hand because the marinade has a little more time to soak into the seitan and on the other hand because the gluten can set properly when it cools. For this, the rice is first mixed with the garlic, yeast extract, paprika powder and the other ingredients except for the gluten and the soy flour to form a smooth mass. Then the gluten powder and the soy flour are added and the whole thing can then be mixed with a food processor with blades at the highest possible level. If you have the feeling that your machine cannot do this, mix all the ingredients by hand and then put the dough in the machine in several small runs for 2-3 minutes. The power of the food processor that acts on the dough gives you a really nice consistency later. Kneading by hand is unlikely to produce as good a result, but a kneading machine could produce a similarly good result in 7-10 minutes. If the seitan steaks are too expensive for you, you can of course simply boil TVP steaks and put them in the marinade.

While the seitan is mixing, the broth for the steaks can be mixed and boiled. When the seitan is ready, it can be divided into 6 equal parts. If you roll it out into a sausage, knot it and press it flat so that it has the shape of a steak. The individual pieces may look a bit small, but they get significantly larger when simmering in the broth. When the steaks are all shaped, add them to the broth and let them simmer for 70 minutes. Then you can take it out of the broth and let it cool down. When they are completely cold, you can mix the marinade ingredients together and rub the steaks with them and then leave them to rest in the refrigerator overnight. The rest of the broth is perfect as a base for a gravy, so you don't have to throw it away.

The buns then take the longest the next day. You can mix the yeast with the sugar and malt beer in a bowl. I put the beer briefly in the microwave so that it loses some carbon dioxide and so that the yeast, which feels more comfortable in a warm environment, can start right away. Then add the flour, the butter alternative, salt and the seeds. You can of course vary the mixture completely with whatever you like.

Now knead the dough with a machine for about 8-10 minutes. It takes a lot longer by hand and you will probably need around 10-15 minutes. If you absolutely cannot handle the dough, you can of course still add a little flour little by little until you get a smooth dough and can make a "gluten window". If you can separate a small part of the dough and pull it apart with your fingers until it becomes very thin, almost transparent like a "window", without tearing directly, then the gluten in the dough has developed well enough. Then the dough can rise in a lightly greased bowl, covered, for about 45 minutes in a warm place until its volume has roughly doubled.

That gives us enough time to mix the orange-thyme mayo. I just used a purchased mayo for this, of course you can also just make one yourself according to your favorite recipe. However, the mayo should be as firm as possible so that the orange juice does not make it too runny.

Simply mix all the ingredients together and let the mayonnaise steep in the refrigerator for at least half an hour so that the thyme taste can develop properly. If you don't like thyme, other herbs like basil or rosemary will of course also work.

The Coleslaw can also be made now so that it can pull through a little. Cut the red cabbage into as fine strips as possible, chop the onion very finely and knead it with all the other ingredients (except for the mayo). Knead for 1-2 minutes and then let the red cabbage stand for 10 minutes. The acidity of the orange juice helps it to be a little softer. Then the liquid is poured off and the red cabbage mixed with the mayo (and optionally with grated orange peel for a little more orange note). The Coleslaw is then allowed to wait in the refrigerator for its use.

The dough should have risen properly in the meantime and can now be divided into 6 buns of the same size and then shaped. The dough pieces can then rise again for 45 minutes in a warm place, covered, until their volume has roughly doubled.

Then you can preheat the oven to 150 ° C and brush the buns with a little soy milk. They are then baked in the oven for about 17-19 minutes until they have a nice color.

Then all the main components for the burger are actually ready. Now quickly the salad of your choice, I recommend lamb's lettuce, wash, cut a little tomato and cut the peaches along the core into not too thin slices. Of course, you can also remove the remains of the peach from the core and then cut it into strips.

Then you can go to the barbecue. I actually really wanted to turn on the grill, but because of the weather I decided to use a grill pan and my stove. A normal pan will of course also work if you neither have nor available. First I heated the pan as much as possible and then seared the peaches without oil. The grill pan gives you this beautiful grill pattern.

Briefly wipe the pan with a damp cloth (careful, hot!) So that the sugar from the peach does not burn too much. Then the sliced ​​bun halves are brushed with a little melted / soft butter alternative or simply with a little oil and also briefly grilled.

Then it's the turn of the steaks. They pulled through really nicely during the night. Since the marinade already contains enough oil, it can simply be grilled or fried in a pan without additional fat.

Then it's time to build together. The halves are coated with some of the orange-thyme mayo and then covered with lettuce. On the underside is some of the Coleslaw (maybe squeeze it out a little so that the whole thing doesn't get too much "sauce") and the tomato slices. I halved the steaks so that they fit a little better on the burger and then topped them with the peaches.

Now just combine the two halves and enjoy these delicious burgers.

Guten Appetit!

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