The basic savoury minced beef recipe has many delicious uses, from patties for home-made hamburgers, to meatballs or meat loaf. Also see the recipe for Home-made Hamburger Buns.
Multi-purpose Savoury Minced Beef Mix
500 g lean beef mince
1 slice of white bread, processed or 50 ml wholewheat flour
50 ml milk
5 ml salt
2,5 ml barbeque spice
2,5 ml paprika (not peri-peri)
5 ml mustard powder
2,5 ml mixed dried herbs
5 ml baking powder
1 large egg
10 ml tomato sauce
10 ml chutney
125 ml onion, finely chopped
- Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix well to combine.
- With floured hands, shape the mince mixture into 10 patties that are 80 mm in diameter.
- Brush the patties with oil and grill about 5 minutes on a side for medium-rare or 7 to 8 minutes for medium-done. Do not cook the meat too dry.
Phyllo “Buns”
2 sheets phyllo pastry, defrosted overnight
50 g butter, melted
Hamburger Ingredients
lettuce, torn
2 tomatoes, sliced
cooked hamburger patties
salad dressing, e.g. blue cheese, greek, italian
- Fold the 2 sheets of phyllo pastry simultaneously in half, unfold and cut through the fold line.
- Place the 8 wide strips on top of each other, fold in half again and cut in the same way to obtain 16 strips.
- Stack the strips. Fold the strips simultaneously in half lengthways, unfold and cut in half on the fold line.
- Pile the shorter strips on top of each other and fold and cut once more to obtain 64 squares.
- Stack the squares and cover with a cloth or seal in an airtight container.
- Place as many of the squares as will fit comfortably, onto the baking tray.
- Brush lightly with melted butter, cover each square with a second square and brush again.
- Continue until all the squares are used – stacking up to 4 on top of each other.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Bake at for 4 t0 5 minutes or until pale golden.
- Cool and set aside or pack carefully and store in an airtight container until required or up to a month.
- To assemble the hamburgers, place one multi-layered baked phyllo square onto a serving plate and top with lettuce.
- Place a hamburger patty on the lettuce and drizzle a little salad dressing over it.
- Top it with a slice of tomato and some more lettuce.
- Finish of with a second multi-layered baked phyllo square.
- Do the same with the rest of the ingredients and serve immediately.
Variation: Meatballs
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 °C.
- Form the mixture into balls the size of a golf ball.
- Transfer the meatballs to a greased ovenproof dish and roast for about 30 minutes until well-browned and cooked.
- Turn the meatballs after 15 minutes.
- Serve the meatballs with the sauce of your choice or with condiments like tomato sauce, mustard, mayonnaise, etc.
Recipe by Carolié de Koster from Art Of Cooking page 249.
