Sorry that I have been harping on about burgers for some time. I do actually cook, eat and write about other things, but I haven't had time lately. I'm simultaneously doing a bunch of contract work for a local software company, looking hard for a full time job and trying to launch my fledgling publishing business. So I don't have a lot of time left over.

But I can't call myself a blogger if I don't blog and I can't call myself a food blogger if I don't blog about food and since I mostly blog about food I cook, I also have to cook something. Which brings us back to burgers. Regular readers will remember that I am vaguely aiming to enter a competition for the best burger. I fear that they really mean the best American traditional hamburger, in which case I will lose and anyway, that all comes down to the best cook and the best meat, not the best recipe.

So I am going ahead with my alternatives. Today I worked on the Kashmiri burger. I switched to turkey and that seems to be about equal with beef. Guess I should try lamb as well. I made it with mango chutney, onion, kashmiri masala paste, cumin, coriander. The kids decided it was better with lime pickle than ketchup and I quite agree. We had it with oven fried potatoes (organic but from a frozen packet I'm afraid) and with a really nice vegetable stir fry from a mix of home and organic box vegetables. I used zucchini (box), yellow squash (box), tomatillas (home), red gypsy peppers (box), garlic (box), basil (home) and salt and cooked until the tomatillas started to caramelize on the bottom of the pan. Really, really good.

For the weekend's IMBB I'm going to go with gnocci and I have potatoes in hand and am going to make a few kinds. We'll have sage and parmesan gnocci and spinach gnocci and plain gnocci and a selection of sauces (well - butter and sage, olive oil and garlic, something exotic with lemon and probably plain old tomato). I may not make all these the same day though. Time pressure is still there...