Jonnie’s burger

Prepare a star chef’s burger at home? You absolutely can, with this recipe from Julius Jaspers’ The Ultimate Hamburger Book.

It does take a little time: you make the buns yourself, as well as the mayonnaise, and you won’t get away with using ready-made burgers either. A weekend project, then, but one that produces an incredible burger.

The book says the following about this ultimate burger: “The chef known for his love of local produce makes his mark here with a hamburger based on local beef, zolderspek from John van Broekhuizen, Olde Remeker from Lunteren, and pickles from Oos Kesbeke in Amsterdam. Baharat is of course not exactly local, but the blend was put together by the chef himself.

Perhaps a simple burger for a chef with three Michelin stars, but of course it’s all about balance, and the sensation of the lightly melted cheese in the burger, a variation on his much-loved Austrian Kasekrainer (a sausage filled with pork and lots of cheese).”

Brioche buns (approx. 20 buns)

A super-delicious bun, though a touch rich.

Mix the flour, sugar, yeast and salt with the dough hook in a food processor, add the eggs and milk and mix until you have a homogeneous dough. Regularly scrape the dough from the sides of the bowl and off the dough hook, then mix again. Mix for approximately 5 minutes in total.

Now add half the butter and wait until the dough has absorbed it all before adding the rest. Regularly scrape the sides and hook clean and mix for another 5 minutes in total, until the dough ball ‘slaps’ against the sides of the mixing bowl.

Remove the dough from the mixing bowl, knead it a little more by hand, shape it into a ball and leave the ball in a warm place for an hour, until it doubles in volume.

Knead the dough again, shape it into a round, flat disc, fold the ends inwards and shape it into a ball again. Place the ball upside down and leave it to double in volume again (this takes approximately 12 hours in the refrigerator, but it improves the flavor; if you have left the dough in the refrigerator overnight, take it out 2 hours beforehand).

Beat the 2 eggs with the egg yolk.

Divide the dough into 12 to 20 portions and roll them into balls, grease brioche molds* with butter, fill the molds with the dough and let them rise a third time (1 hour). Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Brush the brioches with beaten egg and bake them for 18 minutes, until done.

* If you don’t have brioche molds, you can also shape the dough into balls and let them rise on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Mayonnaise – basic
Fill a tall, narrow measuring jug with the eggs, mustard, vinegar and oil—in that order.

Place the immersion blender* at the bottom of the jug and blend on the highest setting. As soon as the mixture at the bottom is uniform in color, slowly move the immersion blender upward while it is still running. Season with salt and pepper.

It’s best to thin mayonnaise that is too thick with a little water; this also improves its
stability.

* No immersion blender? Make a mixture of egg (egg yolk only), mustard and vinegar, then add the oil drop by drop while whisking (you can switch to a thin stream once you see that the mayo is emulsifying). Season with salt and pepper.

NB With this method, you can use a little more oil per egg yolk, but be sure to adjust the other seasonings accordingly.

Beef – zolderspek cheese patty

JONNIE BOER***

Grind the meat through the coarse plate, then mix it with zolderspek*, Olde Remeker, onion and Tabasco, and season to taste. If you don’t have a meat grinder, you can also ask the butcher to grind the meat for you.

Cook the burgers on the barbecue, grill or in a pan for a few minutes per side. If you have a meat thermometer, aim for a core temperature of 52 degrees.

* Zolderspek is intensely smoked and then dried bacon. Butcher John van Broekhuizen from Dalfsen is a master of it. It is also available from a number of good butchers throughout the rest of the country. Can’t find it? Then use the best breakfast bacon available to you.

Stacking
Now it’s time to start stacking. Place all the ingredients on top of one another in the order below.

– 1 brioche bun, inside toasted in garlic oil*, top
– 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, seasoned with baharat**
– 2 slices Olde Remeker, shaved with a cheese slicer
– 2 slices tomato
– 3 slices Kesbeke sour pickle
– a few basil leaves
– 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, seasoned with baharat
– 1 brioche bun, both sides toasted in garlic oil, middle
– 1 beef-zolderspek-cheese patty, cooked in brown butter
– 3 basil leaves
– 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, seasoned with baharat
– 1 brioche bun, inside toasted in garlic oil, bottom

* Garlic oil is simply sunflower oil in which you first fry a few pieces of garlic, then toast the bread in the oil.

** Baharat is a spice blend from the Middle East. Jonnie Boer created a blend for Euroma that you can buy at the supermarket.

The Ultimate Hamburger Book
Julius Jaspers
€19.99
Carrera Culinair