Black Bean Burgers.muse

   1 * Ingredients
   2
   3 Combine the basic bean patty with a binder of your choosing, and add a
   4 spice blend. Quantities for the binder and spices here are based on
   5 one unit of bean patty mixture.
   6
   7 ** Basic Bean Patty
   8
   9  - 850g black beans cooked (2x425g cans no salt added black beans),
  10    - 816g after draining
  11    - 689g after drying in oven
  12  - Sesame oil (for frying patties)
  13    - For coating patties, mix 3 tbsp sesame oil with 1 tsp toasted
  14      sesame oil
  15
  16 or
  17
  18  - 700g cooked from dry beans
  19
  20 Makes six to eight patties.
  21
  22 ** Binder
  23
  24  - 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
  25  - 1/2 cup panko flakes
  26  - Optional, for grilling or flavor: 4 tbsp tahini
  27
  28 Mix panko flakes and vital wheat gluten together.
  29
  30 Tahini can be added if you want to make these a *lot* fattier. I leave
  31 it out when pan frying because I am trying to eat a bit lighter and I
  32 don't find that it has an earth-shattering effect on flavor. However,
  33 when grilling the tahini is essential as it also makes the patties
  34 extremely sticky and robust, and without it they are just slightly too
  35 crumbly to cook directly on a grate.
  36
  37 ** Spices
  38
  39  - 1/2 large white or red onion
  40  - 2 Serrano peppers
  41  - 1 habanero pepper
  42  - 1 Sweet bell pepper (red, orange, yellow -- doesn't matter)
  43  - 8 cloves garlic
  44  - 1 tbsp cumin
  45  - 1/2 tbsp maras biberi flakes or aleppo pepper flakes
  46  - 3/4 tsp dried ground ginger
  47  - 1/2 tsp MSG
  48  - 1/2 tsp fine grained sea salt
  49
  50 If you want this to be less spicy, either the habanero or Serrano
  51 peppers can be left out (If I had to choose, I'd drop the Serrano
  52 peppers as I find a habanero pepper complements the sweet bell pepper
  53 more, unless you can get ripe Serrano peppers).
  54
  55 The MSG really puts these over the edge. Without it, they can be a bit
  56 "thin" tasting.
  57
  58 * Directions
  59
  60 ** Prepare Canned Beans
  61
  62 Stolen from [[https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/03/the-best-black-bean-burger-recipe.html][Serious Eats]], canned black beans should be dehydrated a
  63 bit.
  64
  65  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (convection oven to 325°F)
  66  1. Drain beans, discarding liquid. Don't rinse.
  67  1. Spread beans on half sheet pan lined with foil or parchment.
  68  1. Place in oven for ~15 minutes
  69
  70 I use a convention oven at 325°F and the beans dry a bit more
  71 consistently than with the convection fan off. The beans usually take
  72 about 15 minutes to dry on a darkish pan, but I found with a brand new
  73 (shiny and bright) aluminum pan I had to increase the drying time by
  74 around five minutes.
  75
  76 ** Prepare Vegetables
  77
  78  1. Dice white onion
  79  1. Dice bell pepper
  80  1. Mince hot peppers and garlic
  81  1. Separately wrap onions and bell pepper in paper towels and gently
  82     squeeze to drain some excess moisture. Too much moisture from the
  83     bell pepper especially can make the burgers a bit soggy.
  84
  85 Since these are just getting mashed into a patty and don't need to be
  86 pretty, I just run the onions and bell pepper through a few pulses in
  87 a food chopper.
  88
  89 ** Combine!
  90
  91  1. Mix dry spices before and beans in bowl **before** mashing (this seems
  92     to help diffuse the spices more consistently).
  93  1. Mash beans to desired consistency in a mixing bowl. Mostly paste
  94     with some partially mashed beans is good.
  95  1. Mix in minced garlic and hot peppers
  96  1. Mix in onions
  97  1. Mix in bell pepper
  98  1. Mix in panko/gluten binder
  99  1. If using tahini, mix in last
 100
 101 Grab a ball of the mixture and form into a patty, making sure to work
 102 it a bit (which I think makes the gluten link into strands and binds
 103 things together better). It should be almost as robust as a murder
 104 burger so should be able to handle being squished into whatever shape
 105 by hand.
 106
 107 ** Cook
 108
 109 *** Pan Frying
 110
 111  1. Preheat pan with a couple tablespoons of sesame oil
 112  1. Brush one side of patty with sesame oil + toasted sesame oil
 113     mixture
 114  1. Placing oiled side down, pan fry over medium-high heat for ~3
 115     minutes.
 116  1. Oil top of patty, flip, pan fry additional three minutes
 117  1. Flip patty, add more oil to pan (1Tbsp should be enough), reduce
 118     heat to low, cover. Cook two minutes per side.
 119
 120 *** Grilling
 121
 122 It is important to make these with tahini when grilling.
 123
 124  1. Build decent charcoal fire
 125  1. Brush one side of patty with sesame oil + toasted sesame oil
 126     mixture
 127  1. Brush grate with vegetable oil
 128  1. Placing oiled side down on grate, cover grill (with vents open, to
 129     keep high heat) and cook for two minutes
 130  1. Oil top side of patty, flip, cook additional two minutes covered
 131  1. Flip patty, cook additional two minutes per side covered
 132
 133 Internal temp should hit around 180°F and the patty should develop a
 134 nice char.