Hearty homemade beef burgers stuffed with mozzarella

love beef burgers, especially hearty homemade ones! This recipe is simple but delicious... especially when you bite into the burger and get a mouthful of oozing, melting mozzarella!

 

Ingredients;

 

 

The burger.....

 

 

1 packet of good quality beef mince

Handful of thyme

1 gherkin (chopped very finely)

Table spoon of Worcester sauce

Table spoon of wholegrain mustard

Rocket

2 rashers of bacon

Slice of cheddar cheese

Sesame burger bun

The stuffed mushrooms.....

 

2 large mushrooms

Handful of breadcrumbs

Tablespoon of grated parmesan

Teaspoon of chopped thyme

Knob of butter

Place the beef, chopped thyme, wholegrain mustard, Worcester sauce, finely chopped gherkin, salt and pepper into a bowl. The best way to mix this is to get stuck in with your hands and massage the whole mixture together. For each burger you will need to make two thin patties, this is because you are going to place a slice of mozzarella in between the two layers then seal the edges. Once you have done this, pop the burgers into the fridge for about 10 minutes to set.

 

While your burgers are in the fridge, take your mushrooms and cut the stalks off. Melt your butter in a pan, add the breadcrumbs, parmesan, thyme, salt, pepper and sauté for a few minutes, until the cheese starts to melt and the mixture becomes sticky. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

 

Take a tablespoon of this mixture and spread over each of your mushrooms. Drizzle with olive oil and place in a medium oven for about twenty minutes (or until the mushrooms are cooked through).

 

In a pan, cook your bacon, and once it's almost done turn the heat up and add your burger. Depending on how you like you burger cooked, this step is simply to seal the burger so should take a minute each side. Take your sealed burger, add a slice of cheddar cheese and your bacon to the top then pop into the oven to finish with your mushrooms.

 

Place your rocket on the bottom of your bun, add your burger with the cheddar cheese and bacon then spread your tomato relish on the top of your bun and your done. Serve with your mushrooms and a little salad on the side - enjoy!

 

Note: you can use store bought tomato relish or make your own. I oven roasted some tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper. Cooked on a medium heat for about 20 minutes then transferred to a pan. I added basil, garlic, salt, pepper and tinned tomatoes. I cooked this on a very low heat until the mixture had reduced and was very thick. Simple but extremely tasty.

 

Re-use or abuse:

 

I loved this burger and, when I cooked the leftover burger the following day I made a few changes which I think made this even better. Instead of adding the bacon and cheddar (which I think dominated the flavour of the first burger) I added rocket, tomato relish and some caramelized onion (cooked slowly with a little maple syrup) and actually think this allowed the mozzarella and thyme in the burger to shine through!

Done