יום שלישי, 22 בפברואר 2011

bulgur and chicken burgers

I know the picture (scroll down below to the former hebrew post) probably doesn't whet your appetite as much as the actual burgers will, but believe me-if the picture is what stops you from making this recipe...the joke's on you!basically, don't judge a recipe by its picture
So where were we?food!let me tell you about my moms kitchen:it's really good and really healthy.Whole wheat,no frying, no more than two eggs per dish...you get the idea.Great stuff, but when I got married I kind of rebelled and decided to do things my own way-that included a 7 (!!!) egg sponge cake,fried tuna croquettes,chicken fritters and margarine-ladden cakes and cookies like there was no tomorrow.I had a great time trying new things and rejoicing in my newfound independence.The turning point came when we were invited over to the neighbors for a meal,I was asked to bring a side dish.I found a recipe for a triple layer potato and sweet potato bake covered with fried onions.Oh, and there was also 100 grams of margarine-didn't I mention that?despite all the compliments I recieved, I couldn't taste anything but the margarine because I wasn't used to having so much at once.That's when I realized that things were going to have to change and I became much more of a healthy cook.I haven't quite reached my moms level of healthy yet, but I'm getting there:I drastically sliced the amount of margarine, lowered the eggs to 4 per dish and cut out frying (among other things).I also realized that baking instead of frying has other benefits in addition to health related ones:there's the time issue (instead of shmoozing around the stove waiting for each fry\fritter\whatever to be ready you just send them all off into the oven and can do a million different things while they bake),the safety issue (how traumatic is it to have sizzling oil jump out at you??) and the smell issue(I don't know about you, but after every frying excursion of mine I would have to air out the house for an hour at least,things in the oven smell good and not oily).
Ok,enough lecturing,let's move on to the recipe:
I found this recipe in Phyllis Glazers (a big health food and organic\free range products advocate) cookbook.Despite the authors health food advocacy, the recipe originally calls for frying.I converted it to baking but besides that tried not to make too many dramatic changes.The bulgur here sticks the ingredients together and eliminates the use of eggs, which is perfect for people with egg allergies/

Ingredients:
half a kilo (500 grams) ground chicken (I recommend freshly ground chicken and not the frozen kind.It costs a little more but the quality,consistency and taste are really worth it)
one cup uncooked bulgur
one red onion, chopped (white onions are okay too, but the red ones really add color and flavor)
four crushed cloves of garlic
salt,pepper,paprika and parsley to taste

Wash the Bulgur and transfer it to a small saucepan. Add 2 cups of water and cook on low heat for 10 minutes or until the water evaporates and the bulgur is cooked through and soft.Bring to room temperature.In a seperature bowl combine chicken with onion and garlic, adding the bulgur once it has cooled off.Season with salt, pepper, paprika and parsley.Roll into flat patties and place on a cookie sheet covered with greased baking paper.Bake at 350 f\180 c for about 25 minutes of until burgers are golden.

By the way-they taste great cold.
Write me and share how they came out!

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