A sad farewell cheese and bacon burger
I can’t believe I’m writing this but I’m giving up meat for lent. Partly as a challenge from a colleague, partly as a challenge to myself to give up something I’ll actually find (very) hard and partly to challenge myself to cook with vegetables more. I’m going away next week so this was the last chance I had to cook meat. Time was scarce to I thought I’d go out with a huge half-pound bacon & cheese burger - a glorious celebration of meat.
I eat meat pretty much every lunchtime, every dinner and at the weekend for breakfast as well. My whole approach to cooking starts with deciding what sort of meat I’m going to cook and then what I’m going to do with it. I think pizza and pasta are pretty much the only vegetarian dishes I can cook and even then I usually put some meat on or in them. My attitude to vegetarians is, well, perhaps I shouldn’t say. However very soon I shall become one, and whilst it will most probably be only temporarily; I’m hoping the experience will change my attitude to vegetables. I’ll be tracking my progress right here so if you have any exciting vegetarian dishes you think I should try then don’t hesitate to let me know!
The burger by the way was absolutely delicious and made me question why I’m doing this! I used my new grinder to mince the meat, which was infinitely better than trying to use the food processor. I also used a skillet rather than a griddle and used Heston’s constant flipping method to get a good charred crust but leaving the inside nice and rare. I cooked the streaky bacon on some baking paper on a baking tray in the oven for 10 minutes on 190ºC till it was crispy, which added texture and fantastic flavour. I also added some emmental cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, onion and mayonnaise. A little bit extravagant perhaps but it was a sad special occasion. The bun still wasn’t right - when I become carnivorous again I really need to have a go at making my own.
