Venison smash burger

It's not a widely known fact that venison is actually a pest in some parts of Australia. The meat is nutritious and makes for an excellent substitute for beef mince in this cheeseburger.

Venison smash burger Credit: Kitti Gould

• serves

  4

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  30 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

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Ingredients

• 2 kumera (sweet potato)
• olive oil, for cooking
• salt and black pepper
• 1 brown onion
• 400 g venison mince
• 50 g cold butter
• ½ tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• 4 American cheese slices
• 4 brioche buns, halved
• chipotle mayonnaise, to serve
• 1 head cos lettuce
• 1 truss tomato, sliced
• truffle oil, to serve
• Pecorino cheese, finely grated, to serve

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 220˚C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Cut the sweet potato into fries and place in a bowl. Drizzle the sweet potato fries with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss to combine. Transfer to the baking tray and bake, turning once, for 15-25 minutes (depending on how thick the fries are).
3. Meanwhile, heat a grill plate on the stove. Slice the onion into rings and cook on the hot plate with a drizzle of oil, until tender and sweet.
4. Break the venison mince up into a large bowl and grate the cold butter into the mince to help provide fat and binding.
5. Divide the mince into 4 equal sized balls and place onto a sheet of baking paper. Top with a second sheet of baking paper and flatten to shape 4 burger patties. Season the burger patties with the onion and garlic powder, salt, pepper and then drizzle with olive oil.
6. Heat a second hotplate or skillet over high heat until smoking and cook the burger patties for 2 minutes to sear. Flip and the cheese slice to the top of each patty and cook to your liking.
7. Spread the bottom half of the brioche bun with chipotle mayonnaise. Top with the cheese-topped venison patty, caramelised onion, lettuce, tomato and the burger top.
8. Drizzle the sweet potato fries with truffle oil and sprinkle with pecorino cheese. Serve alongside the burger.

Note

• You can use wholemeal buns and blue cheese if you prefer.

Photography by Kitti Gould.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

Stream free On Demand

Hot Lunch

Watch The Full Episode Here

PG

Watch The Full Episode Here

PG