Decadent Hamburger with Blue Cheese

So I made this as my New Year's Eve dinner and I didn't realise that I haven't posted the recipe for it! I posted on Instagram and some people were surprised that I made burgers from scratch...but yes, I did. What was my inspiration?

Gifts from my bro

Well, first off, I need to thank my bro for finally remembering to bring back the cheeses that I want from Australia and he went on to add a jar of caramelised onions! Oh yummmm....now I don't have to make caramelised onions from scratch (it's honestly not a lot of work but just takes a bit of time). Caramelised onions taste great with meats and so does the smelly blue cheese. As such, I immediately thought of "BURGER"!

My recipe below makes 4 patties that are about 2cm thick and 8cm in diameter before cooking. Feel free to make your patties smaller/bigger because you may want to make it a double patty burger.

Ingredients (for the patty):

• 300g minced beef
• 1 packet Meiji plain crackers, crushed (or ⅓ cup of breadcrumbs)
• 2 tbsp ketchup
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp garlic powder 
• ½ white onion, finely chopped (I prefer to cook it down a bit but you can add it in raw)
• salt and cracked black pepper
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Method (for the patty):

1. Mix all the ingredients thoroughly in a large bowl. I find that wearing gloves and mixing the whole thing with my hands to be the best.
2. Once thoroughly mixed, start to shape the patties according to your desired size. Mine were roughly 8cm in diameter and 2cm thick.
3. Set the patties aside until ready for cooking.

Melted blue cheese slowly sliding off the caramelised onion sauce

Ingredients (to build the burger):

• Wholemeal burger buns
• Truffle butter (you can use normal butter)
• Caramelised onion
• 1 slice of cheddar cheese for each burger
• 1 small cube of blue cheese (or more if you really love the stuff) for each burger
• Spread of your choice. I used chilli hummus but you can use mayo or ketchup

Method:

1. Spread the truffle butter on both sides of the buns and toast them lightly on a frying pan. Once done, set it aside.
2. In the same pan, start cooking your patties until they're cooked. I prefer mine slightly pink in the centre so each patty took about 1.5 min on each side.
3. While the patties are cooking, spread the hummus on the bottom bun and spread the caramelised onions on the top bun.
4. Place the cooked burger on the bottom bun. Top it off with the cheddar cheese first and then the blue cheese. 
5. Finally, place the top bun on top of everything and wait for the cheese to slightly fold/melt before digging in!

Do note that it is important to toast your buns first before building them! This adds to the flavour and also helps prevent the buns from tasting really mushy once you've placed the wet ingredients. 

Feel free to add lettuce/coleslaw or whatever toppings you enjoy in your burger. I'm just showing you what I did on NYE with whatever I had in my fridge! I called it decadent because of my truffle butter (it had real black truffles) and cheese!