A taste savior

How often did you find yourself at the end of a busy working day and still you have to figure out what to cook for dinner? In these situations, burgers are often a life savior! The pantry is your loyal companion in this business.
Last night, I was in the mood for tasty burgers and went into my kitchen with all the best intentions of cooking myself the juiciest and tastiest patties ever when, on the peak of the mixing, I run off of breadcrumbs… So here we go; pantry, au secour!! Naturally flour was not an option but I had cornmeal. A little onion here, few green chilies there, hups some lemon fell in too and ta daaaa!

Polenta burgers with green bird-eye chilies and lemon zest

Ingredients (makes 4 patties):

• 200g ground meat;
• 1/2 little tomato, diced;
• 1 little onion, diced;
• 2 bird eye green chilies, sliced;
• 1 strip lemon peel, julienned;
• 1 egg;
• 1tbsp breadcrumbs;
• 2tbsp cornmeal;
• Salt;
• Canola oil to fry.

Procedure:
Mix and match the whole in a bowl. Start with the ground meat, chilies and lemon peel and the egg; mix with a fork. Add the diced tomato, the bread crumbs, the cornmeal and mix well. Sprinkle in some salt and test the mixture by cooking a little bit on a hot pan. Divide the mixture in half and then each half in half again; form into patties and set aside while the oil is warming up.
The oil should be enough to come halfway of the patties height. Fry the patties till nice and crispy.
As an alternative you may always grill the patties or add few mint leaves julienned to the meat mixture.

Hope you will enjoy them as much as I did!