recipe: a very Polish Burger

For this National Burger Day – 28 May, I partnered with ZoOsh (mayo and dressings brand), to bring you a fun burger recipe.

From the very first second ZoOsh asked me to be a part of this project I had one challenging idea on my mind – could I create a Polish burger? And just like that, a few moments later I had a couple of drawings, lists, notes and the crazy idea was becoming a vision.

–What would you say if I told you, we’re going to eat burgers all day on Saturday? – I asked my husband. – I’m in! – not a single question, no hesitation, we like us some burgers in this household.

Polish burger: recipe development

Polish cuisine is hearty and mostly slow-cooked. It can be quite heavy too. I picked only a few ingredients to give this burger a Polish-taste – sauerkraut, smoked bacon, spicy horseradish, smoked sausage and salty pickles. We tested a few different buns, I was almost certain a sourdough one would work best, but it felt too dense and made the burger heavy and not easy to chew.

A lot of taste testing of the elements, the addition of a fresh green salad, sweet brioche bun and The Great Caesar & 1000 Island sauces from ZoOsh and here it is, my Polish-inspired burger.

 

The result – well-balanced flavours of salty pickles, sour sauerkraut, sweetness from the bun and 1000 Island sauce, smokiness and crunch from the bacon, extra punch from spicy horseradish and freshness of the green salad. It ticks all the boxes of a great burger.

Polish Burger recipe

Ingredients, for 2:

2 brioche burger buns, halved
1 tbsp All Hail The Great Caesar With A Parmesan Punch by ZoOsh
2 tbsp Creamy Dreamy 1000 Island Zingy Tomato Cocktail by ZoOsh
green salad of your choice
4 tbsp sauerkraut, chopped (you can use sauerkraut with added mushrooms)
2 burger beef patties (store-bought or homemade, beef with onion and garlic works best)
2 salty pickled cucumbers/cucumbers in brine, sliced
4 slices of smoked bacon (speck)
2 eggs
½ tsp spicy horseradish

[note: sauerkraut – kapusta kiszona, salty pickles – ogórki kiszone, smoked bacon and spicy horseradish – chrzan, can be bought in any Polish deli and most Euro-deli shops]

Instructions:

1. Place the burger buns under a grill (190C) for 4 minutes.
2. Spread 1 tbsp of The Great Caesar sauce on the bottom and horseradish on the top of each brioche.
3. Pan-fry the bacon until crisp. Fry the eggs (on both sides).
4. Assemble burgers:

• brioche bottom with The Great Caesar sauce spread on it
• green salad leaf
• sauerkraut
• pattie
• Creamy Dreamy 1000 Island Zingy Tomato Cocktail
• pickles
• bacon
• egg
• All Hail The Great Caesar With A Parmesan Punch
• brioche top spread with spicy horseradish

It was a really enjoyable challenge for us – the burger is not only fun to eat but was also fun to create. The ZoOsh sauces we used, helped to bind all the flavours together by adding a little bit of sweetness (1000 Island) and a hint of cheese (The Great Caesar). And all the crazy, somewhat random sounding ingredients, made complete sense when put together.

ZoOSh is a trademark of Mondelez International Group used under license.

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With thanks to ZoOSh Foods for sponsoring this post and providing me with product samples.