What? My freezer? Someone like me who practically lives to cook should never have a quick meal ready to go in the freezer! But the truth is, I love having some things ready to go just in case. Even though being home is my profession, company can still pop in hungry and unexpected, and I can still make last minute plans to be gone all day and then miraculously come up with real, homemade food in minutes. Things like this veggie burger freeze well, pan fry in minutes, and make me feel like a proper British Domestic Goddess and I’ll tell you why.
I have read all of Nigella Lawson’s cookbooks, every word and recipe, beginning to end. I have also done the same with most books of British author Annabel Karmel, a cookbook author who specializes in food for children and picky children. I own several of her books, most recently The Fussy Eaters’ Recipe Book. The food is good homemade food, food that should appeal to children, but for some reason still does not appeal to my picky child. Like I said last week, I’ve given up on making things solely to cater to my boys and their picky ways and even though Annabel’s recipes are aimed at kids, I think most of them appeal to adults as well. I had high hopes that my picky son would devour the version of veggie burger I made today, even if in reality I sadly I found myself dining alone.
before the panko crust…
I made a pale pink dipping sauce out of some cultured heavy cream and (this) homemade ketchup that I canned this summer for the first time, hoping to coax a reaction that would make any food-loving-mama proud. Instead, as the little veggie burgers fried up golden in the pan, my son informed me that he was not going to eat dinner tonight. And it’s true, he’s not. Two can play this game, and he will eat a good breakfast tomorrow morning, as he has already assured me as part of his negotiation involving said veggie burgers. Since our culinary negotiations, I have thoroughly enjoyed a dinner of sophisticated mini veggie burgers, held together with melty French Comte cheese, and stuffed with cold, crispy romane lettuce into pita breads I had made over the weekend.
I won’t kid you that veggie burger making isn’t messy work. I have a number of vegetarian burgers that I love and keep in the freezer for quick meals, and most of them make huge batches and huge messes. I count it as par for the course, and figure that the extra dishes up front save me dishes later on, and really that is true. This recipe made me 13 small sized burgers, 10 of which I froze for upcoming needs. I did most of my chopping, grating and blending with one bowl of the food processor, making my clean up a little less annoying. But when I took a bite of the first toasty mini vegburger, I’d have happily spent the entire day cleaning up after them.
I’m not a very good measure-er when it comes to things like this, and the beauty is, you don’t have to be either. Keeping the relative proportion, you can add more or less of anything, and it will work out most likely. The easy melting Comte cheese holds everything together, so if you choose to substitute that, choose another quick melting cheese like Emmentaler, Gruyere, or Fontina. You can also make this without a food processor, just chop all the veggies finely to a uniform size. If you do use a food pro, don’t wash it until you have processed everything, including the bread crumbs.
After they are formed, you can leave them in the fridge up to a day, or if you would like to freeze them, line a baking pan with plastic wrap or parchment and freeze them in a single layer after dredging them in bread crumbs. If you want to fry them directly from the freezer, start them out over low heat to thaw, or pop them into the toaster oven (or microwave) for a minute to bring them out of their frozen slumber.
Mini Vegburgers (adapted from Annabel Karmel)
1 medium potato, well scrubbed
2 T. olive oil
1 garlic clove, sliced thinly
1 small onion, sliced medium
1 small leek, white parts only, slice medium
1 medium carrot
10 crimini mushrooms, stems removed
Pinch of dried thyme
¾ c. (eyeballed) Comte cheese, grated
1 slice of bread, for fresh bread crumbs
½ t. Worcestershire sauce
1 T. shoyu (or soy) sauce
1 egg yolk (white reserved for breading)
2 t. honey
salt and pepper to taste
cayenne pepper to taste (I omitted in hopes that my picky son would eat it…)
Breading:
1 reserved egg white beaten with 1 T. water
1 ½ c. bread crumbs (dried panko or regular bread crumbs, but panko will be crunchier…)
Grapeseed or other high temperature oil for pan frying
Boil the potato in salted water until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain, and let cool enough to handle. Then, peel it, and grate it into a large bowl.
Meanwhile, in the bowl of a food processor, process onion and leek, pulsing until the mixture is finely chopped. Transfer to a plate and then do the mushrooms, pulsing several times until they look like the photo above and transfer to the same plate. Last, shred the carrots using the large grater disk and transfer. Finally, process a slice of fresh bread, any type, until it is finely ground and fluffy looking (about a half cup of fresh bread crumbs).
Heat the olive oil in a large, non-stick skillet with the garlic over medium heat until it starts to sizzle. Add the onion/leek mixture and saute for a few minutes to soften. Add the mushrooms and carrots, the dried thyme and a little salt and pepper, and continue to cook over medium heat until the vegetables appear fully soft, about 10 minutes.
Let the vegetable mixture cool for a few minutes, then add to the grated potato and add the grated cheese, egg yolk, Worcestershire sauce, shoyu, honey, fresh bread crumbs and additional salt and pepper if needed (and the cayenne if using). If the mixture looks too much like vegetable to fool your child (or you), you can transfer the entire thing back to the food pro and pulse a few times to make a homogenized, Thanksgiving-stuffing-consistency mixture.
the texture should be moist, but not too wet…
Form into 12 or 13 mini burgers, or 6-7 larger burgers. Dredge the burgers first in the egg white/water mixture and then in the panko bread crumbs, and move to a baking tray to freeze or pan fry immediately. You can also hold them in the fridge until dinner time as described above.
To fry, heat the skillet over medium heat until hot. Add grapeseed oil and swirl pan to distribute, then fry the vegburgers, flipping as needed, until evenly brown and cooked through, about 8 minutes.
When I first read Nigella and Annabel Karmel’s books, I thought it was curious that British women cooking for their families used similar tactics and flavors. So much ketchup and cayenne, and methods like the pan frying all seem like the commonalities I wouldn’t figure for English kitchens. But as it turns out, I love the way they complement each other, and the ease with which a meal can come together when food isn’t foremost in your brain.
I have high hopes that my son will begin to like Annabel’s recipes once again. Until he hit age 3, he ate pretty much every variation of her recipes I ever made. From parsnips and beef stew, to chicken and apple puree, it was all real food that I enjoyed myself as well. If you have small children and aren’t already acquainted with Annabel Karmel, she is worth seeking out either at her website or through her books. And, if you don’t have small children, try her recipes anyway. You won’t be sorry you have something stashed in your freezer when hunger strikes, and you just don’t feel like cooking.
