Burger Five: Tandoori Burger

Burger Number Five: Tandoori Burger

Page: 207

I was looking forward to making this burger; Darren and I have a mutual love for Curry and this 'spicy chicken' burger looked delectable. This time around, Anna, Dave and Nadia came over to sample some of Ted's special meaty treats!

The recipe was divided into sections; Ted suggested the burger to be served with Cucumber Mint Raita and a Tandoori BBQ sauce ( which would go on to become a stable in our kitchen). 

In preparing the burger mix, I added Tandoori Burger Seasoning to ice cold ground chicken. 

I then combined this with garlic, green chillies ( minced) plain yogurt, oil, lemon juice and fresh coriander ( cilantro).

We left the mixture in the fridge to rest and absorb all the fabulous flavors. The raita wasn't quite as successful... I combined peeled and chopped tomato, cucumber, garlic, fresh mint, cayenne, cumin, lemon juice, yogurt, sour cream and red onion ( diced) and popped the mixture in the fridge to cool. Unfortunately I mustn't have got the combination of flavors exact and it tasted rather like onion flavored yogurt ( but not in a good way) and was rather runny. I will be more vigilant with the recipe next time.. 

 Darren cracked on with the Tandoori BBQ sauce; he heated oil in a pan over very high heat and added some more of the fabulous Tandoori seasoning. He then added some minced scotch bonnet peppers  *** beware these peppers are super hot, garlic, onion and sauteed until the onions were browned. Darren then reduced the heat and added apple cider vinegar, ketchup and honey.

He then started to improvise and added some of Ted's Pineapple Rum sauce which turned out to be a stoke of genius; we have used this marinade time and time again since on virtually everything!

Here are a few snap shots of Darren making the sauce; after all the ingredients were combined, he pureed the mixture to form a thick paste and kept it warm while waiting to cook to burgers.

By then, the burger mix was ready for cooking and we made up ( several) mini patties and threw them on the BBQ. They had a lovely consistency from the yogurt and spices and smelt fabulous on the BBQ. Darren made sure to continually baste the burgers with the Tandoori sauce throughout the cooking process which also maintained the moisture in the burgers. 

Darren gently toasted some naan on the BBQ after brushing them with oil and soon everything was ready to eat! 

We served the burgers in the Naan with more sauce, shredded lettuce and the Raita *gulp*. Despite the raita being a little off, the burgers were amazing! Such an unusual treat and a great success. Nadia even asked for the recipe!