Week 1: Comfort Food - Chipotle Mac and 'Cheese' Burger with Portobello Fries

When I think comfort food I think of three things: lasagne, mac and cheese, and burgers. As I was already eating leftover lasagne when I discovered the theme for the first week, and didn't want to eat lasagne for most of the next week, I thought I'd go with mac'n'cheese or a burger for my comfort food... or better yet, mix mac and cheese with a burger for something like comfort squared. All burgers need fries and portobello mushroom fries are a good choice to provide a facade of healthiness to part of the meal.

There are four main parts to this meal... making the vegan mac and cheese, forming and crumbing the burger patties, making the fries and assembling the burgers.

Vegan Mac and Chipotle Cashew Cheese (Makes enough for six burger patties)

• 250g Macaroni
• 1/2 Cup Raw Cashews
• 1/4 Cup Vegetarian Stock
• 3 Tbsp Savoury Yeast Flakes
• 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
• 1 Tsp Ground Chipotle
• 1 Tsp Salt

1. Soak the cashews in water for at least two hours, but preferably overnight. Soaking the cashews ensures they blend more easily and create a creamier sauce consistency.
2. Cook the macaroni noodles as per the instructions on the packet.
3. While the macaroni is cooking, strain the cashews and combine with the rest of the ingredients in a blender, and blend until the cashews are creamy... about 3 minutes in my blender.
4. Combine the sauce with the strained macaroni and stir to combine.

To make the burger patties I use egg rings as shown in the picture below, but something like round cookie cutters would also work. Refrigerate in the egg rings for about an hour so the cashew cheese sauce sets and the patties hold their shape.

Once the patties are set, they need to be crumbed. The standard crumbing technique involves coating things with three ingredients in order: flour, egg and bread crumbs. Instead of eggs I used a half cup of leftover vegetarian stock mixed with two teaspoons of cornflour to thicken. As the cashew cheese is not very solid at room temperature care should be taken when flipping the patties so they don't fall apart. The crumbed patties should be set to one side, to be cooked later when the portobello fries are baking.

Portobello Mushroom Fries

• 3 Portobello Mushrooms
• 1/2 Cup All Purpose Flour
• 1/2 Cup slightly thickened liquid, such as vegetarian stock with 2 tsp cornflour
• 1 Cup Panko Breadcrumbs
• 1 Tsp Rubbed Oregano (optional)

1. Slice the mushrooms into chips about 2mm thick.
2. Season the breadcrumbs with salt and pepper, and add the oregano if you are using it.
3. Crumb the chips by coating them with flour, liquid then breadcrumbs.
4. Bake in a single layer on a cookie tray at 200C/400F for 15-20 minutes, turning once.

Before the fries go into the oven, they should look like the picture below. They're done once they've gone golden brown around the edges, which should take just over 15 minutes.

While the fries are baking shallow fry the patties over a medium heat, and assemble the burgers with any further ingredients and/or condiments you wish. My burgers, from the bottom up, go: burger bun bottom, hot sauce, rocket/arugula, mac and cheese patty, sliced avocado, tomatoes, more hot sauce and the burger bun top.

What really makes these burgers for me are the hot sauces. Here in New Zealand we have a fantastic hot sauce company called Fire Dragon Chillies that makes great hot sauces with home grown organic chillies. The sauces I used in my burger are pictured below. The NZ Chilli Eating Champs commemorative sauce provides a great chilli kick while the smokiness of the Sh!thot Chipotle sauce works really well with a creamy cashew cheese sauce.

Note:

The most important thing to me is the savoury yeast flakes. I use the Lotus brand Savoury Yeast Flakes below, as I can order them online from a New Zealand source at a reasonable price.

If I don't have any of these yeast flakes my only other option is a local organic food store which has a nutritional yeast they package themselves which is an entirely different beast. I once bought a bag of their nutritional yeast and made a 'cheese' sauce with it, and promptly discarded the unused yeast after tasting the sauce. The lotus flakes smell and taste cheesy, while the stuff from my local organic store smells and tastes like Marmite which is definitely not what I'm looking for in a cheesy sauce. If you're not aware of what marmite is, it's a yeast extract spread which many New Zealanders love on toast... but it most certainly doesn't taste like cheese.