mock burger

Aha! The title to this post intrigued you, didn't it? Who is to say what is "mock" and what is not "mock"?

Lately, Da and I have been trying to cut down on our consumption of meat. However, every now and then, I do give in to temptation and buy slices of ham or turkey from the supermarket, in order to make sandwiches.

I have discovered that if you make your sandwich as substantial as you like, the end result is a sandwich that tastes as good as, if not better than a burger that you buy from the fast-food restaurant.

This mock burger would taste best with burger bun (preferably a foccacia bun or a wholemeal bun). When I made this mock burger, we did not have any buns at home. As such, I improvised with slices of wholemeal bread instead. For the recipe in this post, I have provided for burger buns instead.

Ingredients

1 burger bun (preferably foccacia bun or wholemeal bun)
butter / margarine
1 slice of black pepper ham
1 wedge of light Laughing Cow cheese
parsley flakes
freshly ground black peppercorn
dijonnaise mustard
1 egg
fresh milk / low-fat milk
4 baby butthead lettuce leaves

Method

1. Slice the ham into small bite-sized pieces. Set aside.

2. Crack an egg into a bowl and beat the egg well. Add the sliced ham. Break the wedge of cheese into small pieces and add to the egg. Add about 2 tbsp of milk. Sprinkle parsley flakes and freshly ground black peppercorn. Beat the mixture, making sure that the cheese is well blended.

3. Cover the bowl with a saucer and microwave on HIGH for 2 1/2 minutes.

4. Slice the burger bun cross-section. Spread butter / margarine onto the burger bun.

5. Arrange the burger in the following manner (from bottom to top):-

(a) burger bun

(b) 2 leaves of baby butthead lettuce

(c) mustard

(d) cooked egg mixture

(e) mustard

(f) 2 leaves of baby butthead lettuce

(g) burger bun

When you have prepared the burger, pull up a chair and sit down to savour the burger. As Da and I were eating the burger, we realised that the more we ate it, the more we enjoyed it. It was substantial and very satisfying.

As I made two burgers (ie. one for each of us), I doubled the portion of the ingredients above. However, instead of cooking the egg mixture (for two persons) in one bowl, I used two bowls, ie. one for each of us. That way, as each bowl was removed from the microwave oven, I simply slid the cooked egg mixture from the bowl directly onto the burger. Easy as A-B-C.

If you do not like the tangy taste of dijonnaise mustard, you can replace it with sweet mustard.

What are most burgers sold at fast-food restaurants served with? French fries, right? In some fast-food restaurants, your sandwiches / burgers are served with potato chips. Why not try something different? We ate our burger with vegetable chips.

Nowadays Da will buy vegetable chips instead of potato chips. I find that they are not as salty as potato chips.

As a certain renowned chef likes to say in his cooking programme aired on our local cable television, everything is about flavour and balance.