Thanksgivukkah Latke Burger!

24 Nov

Hey Buzzfeed readers (and everyone else)!  Thanks so much for the amazing response! We had a great time making this burger and we’re so excited it got picked up.  Please come back and visit us here at NYCNomNom as we cook and dine throughout NYC (and beyond).  And come on over and join us on Facebook or Twitter to get updated posts and fun food stories.

Now, without further ado (nor more unabashed blog promotion), here is the latke burger…

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We love our Franken-foods, and now we have a Franken-holiday when the first day of Chanukkah falls on Thanksgiving Day (aka Thanksgivukkah).  Mike, being the Domestic Divo that he is, came home on Friday with an idea: let’s make a Latke Burger!

The plan: latkes in place of buns, a turkey burger with some brisket in there to add flavor, and cranberry ketchup

After his last successful project at our very own Ramen Burger, I was excited.  We went to Brooklyn Fare and picked up all the ingredients, and then Mike got to work.

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He started first with the cranberry ketchup, boiling fresh cranberries.

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Then using an immersion blender to blend it while hot (if you don’t have one of these magic tools, you can also let the sauce cool and then use a regular blender).

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The ketchup came out a little bit tart and a little bit sweet.  A great balance of flavor (that wound up cutting nicely through the fried potato, meat, and watercress).

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Next up, the latkes!  Mike grated the potatoes (and I used about 10 paper towels and a dish towel to get them as dry as can be… my #1 tip for latkes, get them as dry as you can!  The dryer they are, the better they fry.)

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And since our store didn’t have matzo meal, we made our own.  Just a piece of matzo in a food processor and voila, matzo meal!

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Then he combined the potatoes and matzo meal with eggs and onions.

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We then lined a round ramekin with plastic wrap and pressed the potato mixture into the bottom, about 1/2 an inch thick (a trick we learned from the Ramen Burgers).  This makes a much rounder “bun” than we could do by hand.

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Then you fry it up until golden brown.

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If you don’t have ramekins, you can form your own by hand (we wound up doing these with the remainder of the potatoes).

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And that little gadget is one of my favorite new kitchen accessories. It’s technically meant for flipping fish, but we use it for placing and flipping just about everything in the kitchen these days. It worked perfectly for the latkes and the burgers.

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If you do use the ramekins, you will wind up with uniformly round and uniformly thick potato pancakes that work just like a bun.

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As for the burgers, I find turkey burgers far too dry on their own.  So we combined the ground turkey with ground brisket to add some Chanukah traditional meat and some flavorful fats to the turkey. A bit of fresh sage also really added great flavor.

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Then we sizzled up the burgers.

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And put them onto the latke buns.

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Then spread the cranberry ketchup on top.

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And added a bit of mildly bitter watercress for freshness and depth of flavor.

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Then the second latke on top and voila!  A latke burger!

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A perfect Thanksgivukkah meal!

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Thanksgivukkah Latke Burger!

Rating: 51

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Yield: 2 burgers (4 buns and 2 patties)

Thanksgivukkah Latke Burger!

A Thanksgivvukah Franken-food

Ingredients

    For the latke bun:
  • 3 large yukon gold potatoes, grated
  • 1/2 Spanish onion, chopped
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 cup matzo meal (or ground matzo)
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • Safflower oil (or your preferred frying oil)
  • For the burger:
  • 1/4 pound of ground turkey
  • 1/4 pound ground brisket
  • 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
  • 3 leaves of sage, chopped
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • For the cranberry ketchup:
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup fresh cranberries
  • 1/4 cup chopped onions
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/8 tsp lemon zest
  • Pinch of cardamon
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • Green garnish of your choice (we chose watercress)

Instructions

    For the latke bun:
  1. Strain and dry grated potatoes thoroughly (wet potatoes don't fry well)
  2. Add onion, eggs, matzo meal, salt, and pepper to potatoes and mix (with your hands)
  3. Line round ramekins with plastic wrap (to be used as a mold)
  4. Pack potato mixture tightly into bottom of ramekin, roughly 1/2 inch thick
  5. Chill for 5-10 minutes in refrigerator
  6. While chilling, heat oil in a deep skillet
  7. Remove ramekins from refrigerator and carefully turn over into hot oil
  8. Fry each side until golden brown (3-4 minutes per side depending on thickness)
  9. For the burger:
  10. Thoroughly mix together ground meats, breadcrumbs, sage, salt and pepper
  11. Form into patty
  12. Cook burger to your liking in a medium heat skillet or on the grill
  13. For the cranberry ketchup:
  14. Simmer onions in water until tender (about 10 minutes)
  15. Add cranberries and simmer until berries collapse
  16. Add lemon zest, salt, and pepper
  17. Use immersion blender (or wait until cool and use regular blender) until smooth consistency with a few lumps
  18. Add brown sugar and mix thoroughly and let it simmer to thicken up
  19. Let sauce rest off the heat for 10-15 minutes to cool
  20. Assemble using latkes as buns and layering on the burger topped with cranberry ketchup and green garnish of your choice
http://nycnomnom.com/2013/11/24/thanksgivukkah-latke-burger/

 

 

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