Smoked Beef Burger

An Italian friend is staying. She brought a kg of Parmesan. Jesus Christ, I almost died of excitement. I had a delicious cheap cut of meat from the butcher. A bag of fresh coals. And an (imitation) Weber. What to do? Burgers. Hickory smoked, then stewed beef. Crisp apple. Rocket. Parmesan. Beautiful, crumbly parmesan. The recipe is just for the meat. Super easy and delicious. Here goes.

Ingredients

Fatty cut of Beef Brisket (around 1.5kg) or Topside/something similar

2 Teaspoons of Oregano

2 Teaspoons Garlic Powder

2 Tablespoons Red Wine Vinegar

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

1kg Hickory Chips, soaked in cheap red wine

1 Beef Oxo Cube

1 Teaspoon Brown Sugar

1 Red Onion, roughly chopped

1 Bulb of Garlic, peeled and roughly chopped

Method

Make a tinfoil bath for the meat. Get your coals lit and white in the weber. Have them stacked to one side so there is an area of indirect heat.

Mix together the oregano and garlic powder, then turn into a paste with a couple of lugs of olive oil. Rub the paste all over the meat. Coat is a generous amount of salt and pepper.

Scatter all of the hickory chips on the coals. Put the tinfoil bath in the bbq, then put the meat in the bath. Cover with the bbq lid. The hickory will start smoking. Leave for about an hour. Make a little lid for the meat with some more tinfoil - this will circulate the moisture without drying it out. Once done, check on the hickory chips. If they've stopped smoking/completely burned out, put the lid on - we've got a smoke taste in the meat by this stage.

Cover, and cook for a further two hours, away from direct heat.

After time is up, the meat should be well cooked/juicy. Depending on the quality of the cut you purchased, you could stop here if juicy/tender enough. If not...

Carve the meat up into thin slices, then put into a pot along with the juices from the boat. Crush in an oxo cube, then add the brown sugar, garlic and red onion. Simmer for 30 minutes until the onion is tender and the meat is on the cusp of falling apart, if it isn't already. If the sauce gets too sticky, add a splash of water to loosen it up and give you some gravy for the end. If you want it really saucy, just add more stock, a touch more sugar etc. Play with it! Add a generous amount of pepper.

Serve the burgers with a drizzle of the gravy and whatever you see fit. Also, if you can get your hands on some liquid smoked, this could take the effort out of all of this. I might give it a go at some stage. Watch this space.

Enjoy!