Janice Tripepi

This is very much a tried and tested Tripepi favourite. Whenever I can get my hands on some Kudu fillet I make burgers. Burgers are more of a summer dish in our house though – my mind expects not only to smell a wood fire burning but the summery aroma cocoa butter suntan lotion, Savanna Dry and my skin must be blushing pink from a day in the pool.  The burgers get the requisite flip flop on the braai to add that essential charcoal smokiness and MUST be accompanied by Max’s favourite, Oom Jan’s Monkeygland Sauce. The two together are like a ‘Brad & Angelina’ combo – sizzling hot and sexy!

 

Italians really do love to hunt so we are often gifted nice cuts of Venison. I always age the meat in my fridge despite the controversy surrounding this. Safe to say though, that Kudu is noble meat – yielded from animals who have never suffered the stress of a long journey to the slaughter house. They roam free developing lots of healthy muscle, forage for food that is organic and we are extremely fortunate to have access to such wonderful meat in South Africa, our dinner tables are much the richer for it!  So here we have my contribution to the Food24 burger competition ….

 

B*gger King Steer Burgers ….. Step aside for …..

 

The King Kudu Burger

 

 

 

 

King Kudu Burgers

 

Ingredients

 

 

400g kudu fillet – age it for about a week in your refrigerator

200g pork mince

1 slice of stale bread – made into bread crumbs

1 large handful of basil leaves roughly chopped

2 onions chopped

4 cloves of garlic chopped

1tsp coriander powder

1tsp allspice powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

Salt

Black Pepper

1 fresh jumbo free range organic egg

Olive oil

 

 

Try this Variations – chop in 1 cup of fresh coriander, add 1tsp of cayenne pepper

 and 2 fresh chillies … reds chillies will add a fabulous dash of colour.

 

 

 

 

First things first – chop your onions and garlic and fry until lightly browned in some olive oil

– set it aside to cool down.

 

Cut slices of kudu (or your choice of Venison, lamb or beef)

fillet and chop into a small dice –

 don’t be tempted to be lazy and bang this meat into a food processor –

you run the risk of the over processing it and ending up with a slimy paste instead of

nice little chunks of meat.

 

 If you have a mincer – I pretty much think that would work well ….

 I just don’t have one so am limited to ‘girl powa”!

It takes a wee bit of time – I usually enjoy a glass of vino whilst chopping –

this method is well worth the effort.

 

 

You also want to have some texture in your patty –

 this is Africa – and fortunately we haven’t forgotten how to chew our food as it comes off the fire.

 

Put the diced meat into a bowl big enough to take all of the ingredients.

Add the pork mince, bread crumbs, roughly chopped basil,

whole fresh free range egg, plenty of salt and freshly ground black pepper,

coriander powder, allspice powder and the cooled browned onion and garlic.

 

 

Like meat balls – a burger needs LOTS of seasoning –

so rather add more than less seasoning as the meat is eaten inside a bread roll –

and you need bags of flavour to give you a really punchy, tasty mouthful of grub!

 

Get your hands into the bowl and give it a good mix to evenly disctribute the

herbs, onion and seasoning.

 

 

Wash your hands and pour a little olive oil into your palms and pretend that you

are putting on hand cream.

 

Once your hands are well coated with the oil – grab a handful of the meat mixture

and roll it into a ball. Like you did when you were making mud pies as a kid –

 

Make a ball – pat is smooth and then flatten into a patty.

 

 

Place the patties onto a tray and refrigerate them for about an hour.

This is important because it ensures that your patties stay in one piece when they are on the grill.

 

 

Now – good burgers are all about smoky ‘chargrilled-ness’ –

either light a fire or stoke up your gas braai and cook the patties.

Rare – Medium or Well done (Grrrr ….. criminal) is your choice.

 

A burger MUST have crunch so cut your hamburger rolls in half and lightly

toast the insides on your grill and then butter each side.

 

On the bottom bun place a nice fresh leaf of lettuce.

Top with a few slices of juicy tomato

Then add your awesome chargrilled King Kudu patty

Then add a slice of your favourite cheese.

Finally – knight the whole enchilada with some sauce if you like.

 

 

This is a bowl of the Oom Jan’s Ooooober – awesome Monkeygland Sauce!

 

 

My boys like Monkeygland sauce and there is ONLY one recipe to use for this and that’s

Oom Jan’s recipe that I got off his website

 

 http://www.johan-potgieter.com/recipes/archives/000062.html – click on this link

to go and get Oom Jan’s amazing Monkeygland Sauce recipe!

 

It’s the bomb!!

 

Oh I CAN’T WAIT for summer!!!!!

 

Then put the lid on and bite in to a piece of pure South African Heaven!

 

 

Enjoy the bounty of our very own paradise

South Africa!

 

VIVA KING KUDU BURGER VIVAAAAAAAAAAA!

 

As always

Buon Appetito

Xx

jan