Homemade Burger with Fish patty ~ 4th of July special !

It was holiday for us, for the 4th of July. We had a plan to go see the fireworks. We had already seen a firework couple of days back. It was more kind of walk-in to the firework venue. We were exactly on time when the firework started, which kind of lasted for say 15 minutes and we were done. But, having seen others who were there already, I got all nostalgic about the little picnics in parks that we used to have as kids. So Jacob offered a plan for the picnic on the 4th of July.

But this time we wanted to go prepared. May be pack up dinner and take it along with us and to be at the venue much before the fireworks start. We waited for the sun to go down but at the same time started earlier to be there much before the fireworks started. But seemed like many others had planned it better than us and were lucky to get a parking space, leaving us with none.

We spent most of the time figuring where to park and finally landed up at the venue just 30 minutes in advance. There was hardly any time to waste. We picked up a spot, laid our mat, opened our baskets and started eating whatever we had taken with us. After we were done gobbling, it was time for the lights to be shut off and fireworks to begin. 

It was just awesome and we enjoyed every bit of it as we were already happy to have our stomach full :D. What did we have? Well, we had some store bought snacks and homemade burgers with fish patty. Oh and the fish patty had an indian touch to it. We loved it and had been meaning to share it with you. So this is how we made it.

Ingredients

For the Burger Buns

1. 3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour/maida
2. 1/4 cup of sugar
3. 1 1/4 tsp of salt
4. 1 tbsp of instant yeast
5. 1 large egg
6. 2 tbsp of butter/ vegetable oil
7. 3/4 cup of luke warm water
8. Egg wash as required

For the Fish Patty

1. 1 Fish fillet
2. 1 small potato
3. 1/2 tsp of sliced green chillies
4. 1 tsp of grated ginger
5. 1 cup of diced onion
6. 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder
7. 1/2 tsp of kashmiri chilly powder/paprika
8. 1/2 tsp of garam masala
9. 3 tbsp of bread crumbs
10. 2 tbsp of oil
11. Salt to taste

Method

Making of burger buns

• Mix all the ingredients for the bun in a large mixing bowl to form a smooth dough. If your dough tends to be sticky, add all purpose flour little by little to make it non sticky. 
• Drop the dough on your kitchen countertop and knead it well. 
• Grease the bowl with a little oil and place the dough in it. Cover it and let it rest untill it doubles in volume.
• After the dough has doubled, gently divide the dough and form smooth balls out of them. These balls must be about 3/4th the size of the bun that you are wanting to make. Place them on a greased baking sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart from each other and let it rest for about 1 hour. They would puff up again. 
• Preheat the oven to 375 F.
• Brush the dough balls with egg wash and pop it into the oven. Let it bake for 15-18 minutes or untill they turn golden brown. 
• Remove from the oven and let it cool.

Making of Fish Patty

• Wash the potato and boil it untill tender. You could cook it in a pressure cooker as well. In a pressure cooker you would need to cook it to about 3 whistles on high heat. Remove it from heat and let it cool a little. Peel of the skin and mash it using a fork. Keep it aside.
• In a sauce pan, add the fish fillet, turmeric powder and salt and about 1/2 cup of water. Cook it. Once cooked, drain of the water and mash the fish fillet.
• In a pan, pour in the oil. Once hot, add ingredients 3 to 5. Saute it untill the raw smell disappears. 
• Add the kashmiri chilly powder and garam masala and give it a mix. 
• Add the cooked fish, mashed potato and bread crumbs and give it a thorough mix. Adjust the salt to taste. Let it cook for about 3-4 minutes and remove it from heat.
• Let it cool before you mould them to a patty.
• This is what I did to mould the patty. Take the lid of a round tiffin. Line it with plastic wrap and stuff the patty mixture in it. Remove it from the lid and cover the patty in the plastic wrap and refrigerate it for atleast an hour.
• After an hour of refrigeration, heat a skillet and grease it with oil. Once hot, turn down the heat to medium high and cook the patty in it. Since the patty mixture is already cooked, we need not cook it long. 

Assembly of the Burger

• Slice the burger into half horizontally.
• Place the patty on the bottom half of the bun. Add additional layers of fresh veggies  like tomato, cucumber, onion, lettuce and anything else of your choice. You could also add sauces - tomato, barbecue, mustard, mayonnaise etc.
• Place the top half of the bun on top of all layers and serve it with chips and coke.

Tips 

1. You could sprinkle few sesame seeds over the buns before you bake them.
2. Do remove the buns from the oven as soon as they are done to let them stay soft.
3. You could lightly toast the cut sides of the buns having spread some butter. It would taste good and at the same time help the bun to have an even surface and the crumbs from falling off the cut potion.
4. You could use any kind of fish for the patty, provided you remove all the fish bones from them. 
5. Potato and bread crumbs are the glue factors that keeps the patty in shape. So they are unavoidable.