Minichefs: hamburgers and salsa
With eight children in the se7en +1 family, you’d think a Minichef cooking session would be chaos but, like a well-oiled machine (who we believe had practiced making burgers almost a hundred times before we arrived), they set to work, even shunning bought-rolls for freshly-baked buns of goodness. Here’s how to make burgers in your own home.
Time taken: 1 1/2 hours
Ages involved: 2 to 14
Number of children: 8
Makes 12 small burgers
Ingredients for your burgers:
1 packet of cream crackers
1 tbsp finely chopped onion
A few sprigs of finely chopped parsley
1 tbsp crushed garlic
500g mince
1 tbsp mustard
1 egg
Salt and pepper
A dash of olive oil
Ingredients for your salsa:
1 cup of chopped colourful peppers
1 cup of corn – fresh or frozen (defrosted)
1 peeled and chopped cucumber
1 chopped pineapple
Coriander leaves, chopped
For your dressing: lemon juice, olive oil and balsamic vinegar
Optional burger toppings:
Fresh lettuce, sliced
Fresh tomatoes, sliced
Gherkins, sliced
Fried onions (approximately 3 large onions, a dash of olive oil and a tbsp brown sugar)
Method:
Whether you’ve got four little hands involved or sixteen, you may like to let each Minichef take control of their own station and be ‘in charge’ of preparing an ingredient or aspect of this recipe.
1. If you are making your own rolls, now’s a good time to get started. Here’s the recipe we used for freshly-baked rolls.
2. Now for the burgers, crush the cream crackers. Empty them into a clean dish cloth, close the cloth up to prevent biscuit fall-out and smash with a rolling pin. You can open the dish cloth up to make sure you’ve smashed all the big bits.
2. Finely chop the onion. If little eyes get sore whilst onion-chopping, make sure they aren’t tightly closed!
3. Finely chop the parsley and crush your garlic.
4. Put all the burger ingredients together in a large bowl and mix them thoroughly.
5. Divide your mixture in half and half again until you have the right number of burgers.
6. Roll them into balls and flatten them gently. Damp fingers help to get the burgers smooth. We made 12 small burgers.
7. Cover your burger tray with Cling wrap and pop them in the fridge until you are ready for them. Now’s a good time to make your salsa and prepare your toppings.
8. For your salsa, chop all of your ingredients and whip up a quick dressing.
9. Prepare your burger toppings. Chop your gherkins, lettuce, tomato and fry your onions over a very low heat until they have caramelised.
10. When you are ready to cook your burgers, sprinkle them in olive oil and pop them in a medium-hot pan to cook. Use a griddle pan to get those impressive lines.
11. And that’s all there is to it. Your rolls should be beautiful and ready to be filled with a gourmet burger deluxe.
A hearty thanks to the se7en + 1 family. We had a ball cooking with your eight Minichefs and were truly inspired by what a family, all pulling together, can achieve.
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Until next time…