Laab Burgers

Do you ever get a culinary idea in your head which you can't seem to let go of?  This happened to me recently after a barbecue we went to on New Year's Day.  We took along some home-made beef burgers which we really enjoyed, but it got me thinking about doing something a bit more unusual.  As we're still fairly preoccupied with cooking Thai food, I decided to use some of these flavours to make a burger loosely based on one of our favourite dishes, Laab. 

Pork mince, toasted ground rice, chopped mint leaves, spring onions, lime juice, chili and a splash of fish sauce, all squelched together in a bowl.  I also added some finely chopped lemongrass and some shredded lime leaves, because I had some in the fridge, and they seemed to be a positive addition.  We have a burger-press which makes short work of the job, and neat round burgers to boot.

Because I had toasted and ground rather too much rice, I ended up using some of it to make a kind of crispy coating for the burgers, pressing it into the surface of the meat just before they hit the hot pan.

I fried them until they had a golden crunchy crust, but kept checking to see that they were still juicy - but not pink - inside.

A soft white bread roll, some Chinese leaf and a generous dollop of sweet chili sauce.  Delicious.