The Tasty BBQ adventures of Josh De La Dique

For the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere, summer is upon us! And screams summer like a mean barbecue. 

There are several barbecue classics, but today I'm going to focus on THE classic. The best fail proof BBQ Burger. 

First of all I'm going to to start with how to start your barbecue. Patience is the secret! Buy briquettes instead of charcoal and build a pyramid in the middle of the barbecue and put some starter bricks amongst the briquettes. Light them up and let the waiting game begin. Open a can of beer and let nature do it's thing for at least half an hour. When the briquettes are hot enough and start to glow instead of burn, only then you can break up the pyramid and make sure that the whole barbecue is covered with a layer of briquettes. Then put the grill on the barbecue. Again, patience is the secret. Put meat on a cold grill and it will stick like a fly on a dog turd. 

The grill will be hot enough in a few minutes, but please do take that bit of extra time. It's a summer barbecue, everything should be laid back, you're not a chef trying to serve food as fast as possible. 

Now the barbecue is ready to go, so I can start talking meat! 

Do yourself and your guests a huge favor and don't buy prefab supermarket burgers. Just don't. 

We're going to make our own fail proof, but amazing burger. I'm a big fan of buying local, so start by going to your local butcher shop. If the butcher is as passionate about meat as I am, he will gladly help you out. Ask him if he wants to grind up some fatty beef and pork for you. Neck meat is perfect! The secret to a juicy burger is fat. The secret to a tasty burger is fat. Fat is good! The ratio should be 70% beef and 30% pork. If you don't eat pork, you don't know what you're missing, but that's not a problem, but make sure that the meat is fat enough. Coming home it's time to prepare your patties. Put the ground meat in a bowl and just add some salt and pepper. That's it. You want to be able to taste the gorgeous meat you just bought. When you mix the salt and pepper through the meat, DON'T knead it over and over and over again. You want to make sure that it's not a solid ball, but a structured mixture. Divide the meat into portions of the size you want your burger to be. Make sure it's flat enough, you want to make a burger, not a meatball sandwich. A little secret, when you put your thumb in the middle of the patty, it won't become as thick while grilling, the extra volume will grow into the small hole instead of rising upwards. 

Now it's grilling time! Put the patties on a HOT grill and grill each side for about 3 minutes at each side for a perfect medium rare 150 grams burger. I can't see what the temperature of your barbecue is, so the grilling part is up to you. When you squeeze the burger it shouldn't feel mushy, then it's still raw, but when it feels like a hockey puck, it's an offering to the gods and well done… 

You can buy a simple bun at your supermarket, but you will thank me for an eternity when you go to the local bakery and get yourself some brioche buns. The combination of the sweet bread and the savory burger is divine! 

And don't you ever put Heinz ketchup on the burger! That's a red sugar paste with some tomato added. Just chop up some tomatoes, add some garlic, salt and pepper and a little bit of sugar and put it on the stove for a few hours on a low heat. Put this in the blender and you'll have the best ketchup ever, that tastes like actual tomatoes and you'll be the king/queen of the neighborhood, because nobody will ever be able to make a burger as perfect as yours. 

Enjoy!

A major shout out to Chef Jos van Dijk for blessing us with some well needed BBQ tips. 

You can find him and his tasty adventures on Instagram under @joshdeladigue. Go follow!