Well it took me a few days till I had time to post these recipes, since I’ve been working a lot, I simply couldn’t fit it into my schedule! (You know how it goes.. you get home, cook dinner, discuss the day with your significant other or teddy bear, snuggle up on the couch with said teddy bear, and after that you’re just too comfy, so you don’t want to get up and you put it off until tomorrow.. or is that just me?)
Anyway, my birthday party was good fun. Because of finals week quite a few people unfortunatley couldn’t make it, which meant I could cut down the number of party snacks (so sorry to the people who came, but you missed out on crostini’s with cream cheese, grilled peppers and anchovies, crostini’s with cream cheese, jamon serrano and rocket, salmon rolls, cucumber and red pesto rolls and possibly some other glorious foods I’d whip at the spot).
Nevertheless, the food I did make was a hit, especially the sliders! I can’t really take credit for those though, as I simply used the burger recipe from Jamie Oliver’s America (also available on his website). Obviously, I made it a little my own, so here’s my version of the recipe.
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| They look pretty festive, don’t you think? |
SuperSavory Sliders (makes about 40)
- 500 gram (18 ounces) minced beef, preferably free range
- 500 gram minced (18 ounces) pork, preferably free range (JO uses only beef, but pork gives it a little more flavour, plus you don’t need extra oil or greasing)
- 2 medium red onions, peeled and finely chopped
- 12 Jacob’s crackers (cream crackers)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 heaped teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 large egg, preferably free-range or organic, beaten
- 2 handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
- 2 crunched up pepperoncini (small dried red pepper)
Put a splash of olive oil into a large frying pan on a low heat and add your chopped onions and the pepperoncini. Fry for 10 minutes or until the onions have softened, then put to one side to cool completely. Blitz your crackers in a food processor until you get a fine consistency. Oil a clean baking tray and put aside. Put the cooled onions into a large bowl with the rest of the burger ingredients. Use clean hands to scrunch the mixture together. Preheat your oven to 220 °C (428 Fahrenheit).
Now, to create sliders that are all the same thickness and size, I found this really handy tip online. Transfer half the mixture to a baking tray, and even it out. Use a rolling pin if you must (cover the mixture with some baking paper first, of course), but just make sure everything is completely even and square (or at least rectangular). Fill a muffin tin with paper muffin (or cupcake) liners. Divide the evened out mixture into 20 same sized chunks. Most muffin tins can hold 12 muffins at once, so you will have to make the sliders in batches. Put one chunk in each liner. Grab another paper liner, place it around your hand, and press down upon the slider mixture, to make sure it evens out and the slider is firm enough (so it won’t break up while cooking).
Repeat this until all the chunks have evolved into nice little burgers (and because they’re in the paper liners, you can just stack them in the free corner of your counter or fridge until you want to use them).
Now, do the same for the other half of your slider mixture.
Wash of your baking tray (or get a new one) and place a sheet of baking paper on it. Trust me, you do not need to grease this sheet! I could fit 20 burgers on it, so you should probably be able to do the same! With your thumb, press a dent in the middle of each slider (this ensures that it stays flat instead of curling up on the sides or swelling up in the middle). Bake 3 to 4 minutes on each side, transfer to a plate, tray, dish, whatever and let cool for about 2 minutes.
OPTIONAL: You could add cheddar to make it a cheese-slider. In that case: tear 10 cheddar slices into quarts, so you end up with 40 small cheddar slices. After you’ve flipped the sliders, bake them for 2 minutes instead of 4. After the 2 minutes, remove them from the oven, place a cheddar slice on each slider, and transfer back to the oven for another 1 to 2 minutes (check regularly to make sure the cheddar is melting but not burning)
Now, to make the sliders: You need 40 small (white) dinner rolls (for the dutch people: 20 kleine witte puntjes, halved). Spread some barbecue sauce on the bottom half of the roll (once again, a shout out to Jamie Oliver for his amazing bbq sauce recipe: this too will be posted but it deserves its one post!), or some mayonnaise, or ketcup, or relish, or mustard, or a mixture of those or whatever sauce you like, basically. Though I can really recommend the barbecue sauce (ok, enough promoting for one post..). Next, place the slider on the bottom half, and on top of that place a slice of tomato and pickle, then end with the top half. To keep it all together you can use a wooden skewer (plus, it looks nice).
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| Yum! They slide right into your mouth 😉 |
Enjoy! I can safely say that all my partyguests did!
ps. seeing as how this post is long enough, the cupcakes will get their own blog.. (upgrade!)
