Beet-beef burgers

I've been reading Nigel Slater's book, Tender, that Virginia gave to Ed for Christmas, and while sometimes Nigel's writing is a bit over the top flowery, I think it's a really interesting look at vegetables one by one, and what base flavors marry best with each veggie.  I've gotten as far as beets as of yesterday, and since we had some Westminster ground beef in the fridge (yay Ogden beef!), and a giant beet, this seemed like the perfect combo.  While Nigel Slater may have used ground lamb instead of beef, I'm all for improvisation, and basically ignored his entire recipe after getting the spark of an idea from it.  Because that's how I roll around here...

I put in what I thought were a lot of spices, but it wasn't quite enough, and in the end, the burgers were a bit bland for my tastes.  I'd double all the spices, next time.  As for the Ed-rating, at first he was all critical of putting beets in a burger, but later admitted that these were "delicious".  So, they get a good Ed-rating, if a reluctant one.  He tends to prefer his burgers just beef.  That post is coming...





Beet-beef burgers
Made lots and lots, probably enough for 4-5 people

~1lb ground beef
3/4C dry Bulgar wheat (also known as cracked wheat)
1 medium to large beet, raw
3 large cloves of garlic, diced
1 onion, diced very fine

Spices:
(I already doubled them compared to what we'd done)
4 cardamom pods
4 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp pepper seeds
4 cloves
4 tsp kosher salt

Boil 1.5C water, and pour it over the bulgar wheat.  Cover and let it sit for 5-10min, to absorb the liquid.  Peel the beet, and grate it, with the big holes on a cheese grater.  Preheat your oven to 400F.

Put everything into a big bowl.  Use your hands to thoroughly mix it together and distribute all the spices.  Let the mixture sit for 10 minutes to meld the flavors, then heat some oil in a frying pan, and form the meat mixture into golfball-sized balls.  Flatten them to burger shapes, then fry, about 3min to a side, to get a crust on each side.  Transfer to a baking sheet and bake for 15-20min, continuing to fry the patties in batches and add to the baking sheet.  You can't tell if they're done just by looking, since the beets turn everything pink, but 15min yielded medium-rare-ish meat, and 20min was well done.

We ate these with some broccoli in an anchovy/lemon/butter sauce, which gets a whole post of its own.  Very delicious!