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Serves
4 Burger-hungry people
Author Notes
Getting creative when it comes to burgers can be tricky because it’s so much you can do. It’s like with everything else in my life: Whenever I am presented with too many options, pushing the creative boundaries AND making sense out of the end result is somehow….impossible.
Luckily I have a wife that makes sense of it all. All we wanted to do this week was to blow some minds. Especially since we had a friend from Stockholm visiting us, the pressure was definitely on. I had played with the thought of fish and chips, and the first debate was whether or not it was considered hand food. “Well, if it isn’t – lets make it hand food”, was my only argument. And while we did find a way to do it, surely we’ll make it and post it one day, the creative process did not stop until we made a burgerized version of this. Yes, burgerize – is this officially a new term as of now?
We had only come across a lot of variations of fish sandwiches and filet o’ fish-style burgers on the web, and especially none where they used traditional, British fish and chips batter. So we went to our local beer store and asked for the best beer to use. The Premium Spitfire Kentish Ale was recommended, which ultimately produced a lovely, light batter.
But the bread was something we saw as key to make this extra interesting. A year ago we had made some delicious black ravioli with squid ink, and we immediately thought of this for the bread.
Adding the traditional soft potato chips in the burger didn’t work because of the texture and the feel when you bite into it. We wanted something crispy when you took a bite into the burger, so the perfect answer to that was crispy, American chips. Or crisps, as the Brits would call it. The avocado lime aioli gave the burger an extra kick of flavor, which will have you drooling. At least our Swedish friend was. —Fernando @ Eating With Your Hands
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Ingredients
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1 cup
warm water
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0.25 cups
warm milk
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2 teaspoons
active dry yeast
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2 tablespoons
sugar
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5 pieces
4g squid ink sachets
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2 pieces
large eggs
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3.33 cups
bread flour
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2 teaspoons
salt
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6 tablespoons
unsalted butter, softened.
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Pinch
black sesame seeds (optional)
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1 pound
cod, or other white flaky fish
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1 cup
India Pale Ale (IPA)
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1.25 cups
All-Purpose flour
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Vegetable oil, for frying
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1
avocado
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1
lime
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1
clove garlic
Directions
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Combine the warm water, milk, yeast, sugar and squid ink in a measuring cup. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, start beating the egg.
Add the flours, salt and 2 tablespoons of butter. Proceed to mix the ingredients until the butter is the size of crumbs.
Stir in yeast mixture and beaten egg. Run the mixer on medium low until a dough begins to form, just about 6–8 minutes.
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Add a tablespoon of butter at a time until all the remaining butter has been incorporated.
Continue to mix or knead the dough until it pulls completely away from the sides of the bowl.
Shape the dough into a ball and place it into a large bowl (it will be sticky and wet, so do not worry). Cover the bowl with a cling film, and let the dough rise until it has doubled in size for about 1 hour.
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Now scrape and divide the dough into 8 equal parts. To shape the dough into balls, gently flatten each piece like a pancake. Pull up each side pinching it together in the center. Repeat until the ball is sealed. Flip the ball over and move to an unfloured part of your board. Place your palm over the top and gently roll into a smooth ball. Transfer to a baking tray, placing them about 5cm apart. Place in a bin bag, or cover loosely with cling film and let the buns rise in a warm place for about 30–45mins, or until puffy and slightly risen.
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To make the egg wash, beat the remaining egg with a splash of water. When the buns are finished with the 2nd rise, gently brush each one with egg wash. At this point, you could add sesame seeds to the top of your rolls if desired.
Pre-heat your oven to 200degrees Celsius. Bake for about 15–20 minutes or until they have a hollow sounds when tapped at the base. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Fill a dutch oven with vegetable oil, so that oil comes up a little less than halfway up the pot. Place over low heat and heat to 375 degrees. Meanwhile, prepare your beer batter by combining the beer, 1 cup of flour, and a teaspoon of salt in a large bowl. Set aside. Place remainder of flour in a resealable bag and set aside with the beer batter.
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To fry the fish, place filets in the bag of flour to lightly coat, then dip into beer batter, and add to the oil. Fry until golden brown, turning fish occasionally, about 6-9 minutes depending on the size of the filets. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel-lined plate for a minute before plating.
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Carve out an entire avocado and put the pieces into a food processor together with the juice from a lime and a clove of garlic. Process them until the sauce has a light green color.
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