So for date night I decided to pull out all the stops and make some gourmet burgers.  With the burgers I wanted to try the jalapeño and pistachio sauce I made here, but I decided to revamp it a bit.

Ingredients for the patties

• 600g beef & ostrich mince (500g)
• 280g pork mince (250g)
• 10ml black pepper corns
• 20ml whole coriander seeds
• pinch dried chillies
• 1.25ml fine cloves (can be less if you do not like cloves)
• 2.5ml cumin
• 3 large fresh garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 7.5ml fine table salt

The amounts between brackets are what I actually asked the butcher for, but I ended up using the indicated quantities. The beef and ostrich mince can be replaced with lean beef mince. This will make 2 huge patties or 3 big ones.

Roast the pepper corns, coriander and dried chillies together in a dry pan until the coriander seeds turn brown. Put it all in a pestle and mortar and grind until fine.

Add all the ingredients together in a bowl and mix well.

Make 2 or 3 patties and fry in a pan with oil until brown, but still pink in the middle.

Ingredients for the jalapeño and pistachio sauce

• 100g pistachios with shells
• 100g jalapeños
• 400ml coconut cream
• Black pepper and salt to taste

Remove the shells from the pistachios and fry them together with the jalapeños in a pan with a bit of oil until the nuts are golden brown.

Liquidize all the ingredients together.

Other ingredients necessary to complete 2 burgers

• 1 ciabatta roll (use half a roll per burger)
• 2 fresh medium tomatoes, sliced
• 4 pieces of bacon fried in a pan
• 2 large brown mushrooms fried with the bacon
• 2 cherry tomatoes
• 4 jalapeños de-seeded and cut into rings
• 2 potatoes cut into wedges (with skin on). These can be fried with the patties.
• 2 gherkins for garnish
• Rocket for garnish
• Freshly ground black pepper corns and sea salt
• Paprika
• 2 wooden skewers

I served the burgers on top of a bed of rocket using a ciabatta which was briefly toasted, topped with fresh tomato slices, fried bacon, a whole fried brown mushroom, the sauce and fresh  jalapeño rings on top with a cherry tomato. I pegged it all together with a wooden skewer. On the side there were potato wedges which were fried in a pan with the patties and covered with freshly ground black pepper, sea salt and paprika.