Raymond's Recipes CXVI - Pork, Herb and Dried Fruit Burgers

I spent this afternoon dreaming up a recipe for the visit of a friend who is gastronomically pretty adventurous for a German. I wanted to make something quick yet tasty, and so I came up with this, and it was pretty nice.

Ingredients:

750g minced pork

2 onions, finely diced

A handful of dried fruit (e.g. prunes, apricots, sultanas), sliced

20 roughly ground black peppercorns

A small handful of fresh or dried herbs (coriander or thyme, depending on your taste)

4 tablespoons of of powdered or crushed walnuts

Salt to season

Butter for the frying pan

Instructions:

Put the minced meat in a bowl, mix in the finely diced onions and use a fork or a potato masher to mix in. Then add the dried fruit (I used just prunes, but you can put in dried apricots or sultanas instead if you prefer), herbs, salt and peppercorns and do the same until there is a consistency. Add the powdered walnuts to it - this gives it a little solidity. You can use plain flour, but it does not add to the flavour.

Put it in the fridge for an hour or so, just to allow the mixture to settle. 

Roll the mixture into balls and then flatten them while being careful not to split the sides.

Put them in a hot pan with melted butter; once the surfaces have been seared, turn down the heat and fry for about 20 minutes.

I served it with sautéed potatoes and onions, and an apple sauce.

Recipe III - Devils on Horseback, leek and mashed potato

Ingredients for the DoH:
Italian or South Tiroler bacon (Pancetta, for example)
Dried prunes

Recipe for the DoH:
Take the stones out of the prunes. Put one at the end of a rasher of bacon and roll the bacon round the prune.
Put a cocktail stick through the middle to secure it and place on a grillpan or some baking foil.
Grill them in the upper-middle of the oven until they are crispy. Don't forget to turn them once, and save the juice.
About three to five per person will be adequate as they are quite rich.

Ingredients for the leek and mashed potato:
1 leek
1 onion
Garlic (proportion according to taste)
300g potatoes
150g cheese (Grimbergen, Cheddar, Maasdamer, Gruyère or similar depending on taste), cut into small cubes
20g butter
Milk
Herbes de Provence, oregano, salt, pepper

Recipe for the leek and mashed potato:
Peel and cut up your potatoes and boil them for 20 minutes or until very soft. When it comes to choice of potato, remember red = roast, brown = boil. Drain the water into a separate pot (it will be useful shortly!) and put some butter in the bottom of the same saucepan.
Cut up the leek into small pieces and very gently fry them in the butter with an onion and some garlic.
Put some milk in the bottom and put the potatoes on top. Pour some more milk and add extra butter if you require, depending on how dry/fluffy you want it.
Mash the potatoes into the milk, butter and leek, turning all the time.
Add your cheese.

Sauce and vegetables:
Take the juice from the bacon, put it in a frying pan or small-ish saucepan. Add some garlic and sweat it until soft. Put the Herbes de Provence and oregano, salt and pepper into the pan and stir for a few seconds. Add some of the potato water.
Accompanying vegetables could be steamed green beans, mange tout or broccoli.

Wine:
Serve with a dry white wine. Elbling is a good accompaniment, as it is a kind of neutraliser of the salty bacon and the sweetness of the prunes.
Enjoy!