The combination of the smoothness of the fried banana, crispy salty bacon and matured cheddar on top of a spicy burger is just mmmmmmm 🙂
There have been a few ‘challenges’ in my life lately, so what the heck why not try my hands on this one too. Here you go, this was my entry for a competition and still, in my opinion, the best home cooked burger recipe with a Caribbean twist.
What you need (serves 4)
– 600 grams of ground beef, not too lean
– Salt and pepper to taste
– 1 cup breadcrumbs, the Dutch beschuitjes are good for this too
– 1 egg
– 2 teaspoon ground coriander
– 2 teaspoon ground cumin
– 2 dashes of ground nutmeg
– 1finely chopped fiery hot jalapeño, or other hot chilli, seeds removed
– 1 finely chopped onion
– finely sliced romaine lettuce
– 1 plantain /frying banana
– 8 rashes of bacon
– 4 slices of mature cheddar
– 4 hamburger buns, with out without seeds
I’ve chosen Jalapeño chillies for this recipe, as the ones we get here on Curacao are fiery hot and have a fresh taste to them.
Combine all the burger ingredients together: beef, breadcrumbs, egg, spices, chilli and onion. Mush and squash well until all are blended. Evenly divide the meat mixture into 150 grams each, roll each portion into a ball and gently squash the ball flat in your hand. Keep turning the patty while squashing it, so it keeps the round/ oval shape (to fit on your bun later). Put the patties on a plate in the fridge for about half an hour.
While your patties are cooling down, start prepping the rest of the ingredients of your burgers.
Place the bacon on a tray with baking paper, pop it under the grill (broil) until crispy. Make sure you keep an eye on them as the broiler crisps the bacon fast!
Heat up a thick bottom frying pan on the stove, add some vegetable oil (please no olive oil!) and start frying your slices of plantain/ baking banana. Turn once golden brown. Remove them from the pan when they’re done, you can drain excess oil off them by placing the slices on some kitchen paper.
Wash and finely slice the lettuce.
Start toasting your burger buns, only the insides should be toasten, so slice them in half and only toast the insides.
Now it’s time to fry the patties. Remove them from the fridge, heat up a good frying pan and add some olive oil and a knob of butter. Once the butter has melted you can add the patties to the pan on medium heat. When the one side is nice and brown, flip it over and add a slice of matured cheddar to each patty. The cheese will slowly melt over the patty while the other side is browning nicely on moderate heat.
Time to assemble the Tradewinds burger:
– Put some good quality (not sour) mayonnaise on the bottom part of the burger bun;
– add a good dollup of Heinz Tomato Ketchup;
– add some lettuce on top of the ketchup;
– place one patty on each bun;
– add the bacon on top of the burger patty;
– finish it off with some slices of baked banana;
– cover the inside of the top of the burger bun with some Heinz Tomato Ketchup and place on top of the rest of the burger.
As with every burger, this one too should be served with some crispy fries and an ice cold drink! Enjoy!