Portuguese Piri Piri Pork Burger with Aioli

I was very excited to be asked to put together a football themed burger for Waitrose.com, and having been given a choice, I chose Portugal as my country to represent.  There are some fab recipes on the page, and I will certainly be having a go at some of the others!

When you think of tastes for Portugal, Piri Piri chilli springs to mind, along with other herbs and spices, and definitely pork over beef,  Also, my lasting memory of Portugal was a garlicky mayonnaise they served with bread with each meal.  So I settled on a Portuguese Piri Piri Pork Burger with Aioli.

Armed with my shopping list I popped down to Waitrose to get said ingredients.  My first problem was that I couldn’t find any Piri Piri chillis.  However, I did find a pre-prepared rub in the Waitrose Cooks’ ingredients” section, which saved me from buying all the spices individually.  I did consider one of the many sauces you can get, but settled on the rub as it had the perfect blend I was looking for. 

I was also going to make my own Aioli, but again Waitrose already produce a garlic mayonnaise, so didn’t feel the need to re-invent the wheel.

Ingredients – makes 4 good size burgers

500g Waitrose lean, minced free range pork

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 free range egg yolk (we have our own chicken)

2 tsp Piri Piri Rub

(salt and pepper is already incorporated in the rub, so didn’t add any further)

Iceburg lettuce leaves

Vine tomatoes

Crusty rolls

Waitrose Garlic Mayonnaise

Small Portuguese flag – optional!

Method

With your hands, combine the free range pork with the onion, free range egg yolk and Piri Piri rub.  If you’ve time to marinade then I would, but will still taste delicious if not.

When you are ready to cook, pre-heat your grill, or fire up the BBQ, and cook for around 6 minutes each side, depending on the thickness of your burger.

Load your roll with the burger, lettuce, tomato and garlic mayo, and serve with some spicy wedges and salad.

Will of course be cheering on England, but will also look out for my new second team Portugal.  Força Portugal!!!!!

Thanks for reading.

Annie