FLOWER POT KITCHEN: CHEESE STUFFED CHUCK STEAK BURGERS

8 May 2021

CHEESE STUFFED CHUCK STEAK BURGERS

Juicy Lucy Lucifers

My favourite kinda burger, juicy chuck steak, I like to mince a 80/20 ratio of meat to fat, I also use three cuts of beef, two thirds chuck steak, one third fore ribs and short ribs, these are minced twice along with some red onion, streaky bacon and jalapeños for the patties, then a generous ball of creamy cheddar cheese stuffed in the centre, chargrilled over coals for that added smoke flavour, if you want a Lucifer then add hot sauce to the cheese centre for a lip smacking burst of buffalo hot sauce and choose to swap out the cheddar cheese for blue cheese.

These burgers can be made the day before and stored in the fridge until ready to cook.

WARNING: THE CHEESE IN THE CENTRE CAN BE EXTREMELY HOT !

Serve these juicy Lucy’s in a toasted buttered brioche bun with your choice of fixings, I like crispy iceberg lettuce, red onions slices, sliced tomatoes, buffalo hot sauce mayonnaise and sometimes crispy fried onion strings.

Prep time 20 minutes / Grilling time 10 minutes

Ingredients

(makes 4-6 burgers)

700g diced or ground chuck steak

300g diced or ground fore rib and short ribs

6 rashers of sweetcure streaky bacon chopped

1 red onion rough diced

2 fresh jalapeños rough diced

Himalayan sea salt

Fresh ground black pepper

6 slices of burger cheese or blue cheese

1 bottle of buffalo hot sauce optional

1 bottle mayonnaise

6 brioche buns

1 stick butter

Light your BBQ coals 30 minutes before your ready to cook. If your mincing your steak yourself mince twice, on the second mincing run the red onions, jalapeños and bacon through with the chuck. Season with salt and pepper and mix throughly. Divide the meat into 4 for 225g/8oz burgers or 6 for 167g/6oz burgers. Form in to balls and press your thumb down in the centre to make a well.

Fold or squish the cheese slices so they are the compact enough to fit in the centre of the pattie, bring up the sides of the pattie and mould over the top of the cheese, press slightly flat so the pattie is a even thickness.

BBQ to your likin, I like medium so I grill for 2-3 minutes on each side, a great tip is to move the patties to the warm area of the grill to rest and ensure that cheese centre is fully melted. Warning: The Cheese Centre Can Be Burning Hot !

Ice berg wrapped juicy Lucy for those times when I’m being low carb but still want to enjoy a great burger.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.