LAFF Series #2: "The Major" - a burger full of Wow

The Locavore Artisan Food Fair - spring edition is tomorrow and as I promised last month I will be making burgers before and after to highlight some of Ottawa's great artisan food producers.

This burger is full of said "Wow".

Today's creation highlights Major Craig's Chutney, 613's premier chutney producer since 2009. Chutney is a condiment, snack or side dish of chopped and stewed fruits and vegetables mixed with spices that must master a balanced flavour profile. The North India chutney is based on a recipe by owner Andrew Craig's great-great grandfather, who developed an appreciation for this delightful meld of flavours while working for the East India Trading Company in the 1880s. Then, he boarded a DeLorean, set his chronometer for 2009 and with a tizzy of the flux capacitor travelled to the future to bestow his secret recipe to his descendant Andrew. I might not have all the details correct. Needless to say we've all been richer ever since.

I set out to craft a burger around North India's rich, chunky texture and sweet and spicy balance, and ended up with something fairly conservative. I went right back to Indian food for inspiration and the result is a burger I fondly call "The Major." It's a 125g (4.5oz) lean pork patty with Indian spices, onions and garlic, topped by a slice of caramelized fennel bulb, yogurt and Major Craig's North India chutney on a white bun. It was awesome.

The Major at attention

You can buy Major Craig's chutney online through their website or at numerous fine food boutiques across Ottawa. The preferred means of purchase of course is to come out to the LAFF this weekend.


I wasn't surprised at how well the flavours came together. When you're that good, they call you Major.

Instructions after the break

The Booth Street Binary

Amy and I were invited for dinner to our friends Christine and Ron's on Saturday night. They too are fledgling bloggers on their own bloggific adventure. Of course, you didn't come to this blog to hear about our social life, you came for the burgers.

I'm not going to give a BurgerDAR score to burgers made by friends out of a desire to keep them as friends, even if they insist. I feel that the BurgerDAR is both an analytical tool and one that implicitly imposes judgement, which is fair game for a restaurant but a little much for a civilian. Eating burgers at friends - especially given how many of our friends are foodies - should be about the exploration of food.

Now let's get down to the burger. It was a mix of ground pork and turkey, grilled/smoked on a Big Green Egg with a bit of onion and garlic in the meat. It was topped with a smoky homemade traditional barbeque sauce and two-year old cheddar, and served on a flat bun. I added lettuce, a thin slice of red onion, and Christine's homemade red onion marmalade.

Ron didn't name it, so I did: "The Booth Street Binary;" Booth Street for their neighbourhood, and binary both because the burger is made of two meats and Ron works in computers. So it works on three levels (meats, computers, and two references), creating a paradox that invalidates the wittiness of the name. I won't dwell on this paradox; after all, this blog is not called "Mike Likes Paradoxes."

Because of a low fat content relative to typical lean beef, turkey can get pretty dry. The pork helped somewhat, and the barbeque sauce took care of the rest. Top it off with the marmalade, moisture was not a problem. The wood chips at the bottom of the Egg imparted an incredible smokiness to the meat that was highlighted by the sauce and matched perfectly by the salty cheese. Raw onion and the marmalade balanced the burger out.

I have a soft spot for flat buns. While they don't soak up juices as well as a thicker bun, for a thicker, drier meat combination like the Booth Street Binary, it was a perfect choice.

All in all, I would say it was a successful first burger step in my journey of a thousand burgers.