It is perfect spring weather in Coffs Harbour at the moment so I intended to make the sunshine and enjoy a sunset picnic at the beach with a bottle of wine and some nice food. What would be better for a picnic than a Muff Burger!
My mum had also given me a recipe which showed a lovely Antipasto Cob. For once in my life, I was organised with the recipe for my website which would suit my picnicking intentions.
Then, as I was perusing my favourite food recipe sites, what do I see staring out at me? The perfect Muff! My cob was really called a muff and it was done to perfection. Seems the layered cob goes by two names, and probably the truest to its origins is the Muffuletta or “muff” for short.
The epiphany which led to the creation of the “Muff Burger” was my three-year-old daughter’s meltdown when I told her that she couldn’t have hamburgers for breakfast. The only way to stop the tears and get her to pre-school was to promise hamburgers for dinner, and that’s when the light bulb went on in my head. I would make a Muff Burger and Mini Muff Burgers for the kids so they could have the fillings they liked, (meat, cheese and coleslaw).
Aussie Muffuletta “Muff Burger”
Ingredients:
- 1 Lg Cob
- 3 large lettuce leaves
- 1 bunch rocket or endive leaves
- 8 slices beetroot
- 1 tomato
- 1 cup caramelised onion
- 10 slices Jarlsberg cheese
- 1 cup coleslaw
Meat Patty Ingredients:
- 750gm beef mince
- 250gm lamb mince
- 1 lg onion (finely chopped)
- 3 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
- 1 cup bread crumbs (use the inside of the cob)
- 2 eggs
- 1 t/s cumin
- 1 t/s salt
- pepper
- ½ cup tomato paste
- 1 T/s Parmesan cheese
The meat patty recipe is inspired by my [easyazon_link identifier=”0714873802″ locale=”US” tag=”gourmetgetaways1-20″]Greek cookbook[/easyazon_link]. It is similar to a Greek meatball dish which is just delicious. You will find you will have enough meat leftover to make meatballs to freeze for another meal.
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 160C/320F.
- If your cob isn’t crusty and hard, bake the cob for about ten minutes until it is crisp. Remove from the oven and cut the top off the bread.
- Scoop out the insides on the cob, leaving about 1cm of bread to support the filling.
- To make the breadcrumbs for the meat patty, place the bread which was removed from inside the cobb onto a baking tray. Cook until golden brown and dried out.
- Place the bread pieces into a [easyazon_link identifier=”B008J8MJIQ” locale=”US” tag=”gourmetgetaways1-20″]food processor[/easyazon_link] and process until the bread resembles breadcrumbs.
- In a bowl add all the meat patty ingredients and mix by hand until well combined.
- Grease a small round dish which is a similar size to the cob. The meat patty needs to be cooked as one piece and make one complete layer across the cob.
- Push the meat firmly into the dish and bake for about 15-20 mins.
- Allow to cool a little.
Assembly:
- Because the fillings for my muff are quite moist I started with a layer of lettuces leaves (from my garden) to protect against a soggy bottom.
- Next, I added a thick layer of coleslaw and spread it evenly over the lettuce.
- The following layer was the meat patty which took a little manoeuvring to get it in the smallish opening. Once the layer was in place I pushed the fillings down to ensure there were no spaces.
- Spread a layer of caramelised onion over the meat. My aim was to alternate between a solid layer and a softer layer for texture and to allow the fillings to compress more easily.
- The next layer was tomato, then rocket and then the sliced beetroot.
- I finished with a layer of cheese to protect the top layer of bread from any soggy fillings.
The muff layers were bulging about 2cm beyond the cob.
I covered the muff in plastic wrap and put a book on top to compress the filling. When I placed the bread lid on the muff I realised that because I had taken the soft bread from the lid as well, I could have added another layer to the muff. You can see in my photos there is a gap between the lid and the last layer.
I served the muff about 2 hours after making it, at room temperature. It was moist and delicious and a great picnic food. Much more special than plain burgers! I used tiny dinner rolls for the kids which were an ideal size. Plus the design of the muff means the filling won’t fall out! Win!
There something pretty great about watching your kids running around on the beach as the sun goes down.