So – what are our options?

• Forget it. What’s the attraction anyways, it’s just some fast food joint?
• Make a trip to the States just to try one.
• Be entrepreneurs and bring the franchise to Australia.
• Make replicas at home of what we’d imagine White Castle burgers to be like.

Hmmm…

Forgetting it wouldn’t be much fun now, would it? There’s something really intriguing about their burgers…

Taking a trip to the States just for a burger? Sounds a bit extreme doesn’t it. Even more so is trying to set up shop here.

Making our own replicas? Yep – Scott & Makiko are off to White Castle…

I’ve been inspired lately by some posts on the Web from others raving about how great White Castle is. Harold and Kumar didn’t help either. Then, I came across this recipe that someone claimed to be faithful to the real thing. I tracked down some other “Castle Clones” – but this one looked like the simplest to make – so now we had our game plan.

Step 1 – Smoosh out about a pound of extra lean ground beef on wax paper with a rolling pin…

This was surprisingly easy. It’s almost like making ground beef cookies.

Step 2 – Put it in a baking tray and cut it into ~3 inch squares, and puncture each patty with 5 pen sized holes…

These holes will come in handy later – trust me.

Now this is honestly the sexiest looking tray of burger patties I’ve ever seen. Be sure they’re seasoned with a bit of salt pepper. Whack the tray in the freezer for at least 30 mins to firm up the meat. That’ll help maintain the classic square shape we’re looking for during cooking.

Step 3 – Prepare your buns and condiments. The only condiments required are cheese, onions and pickles.

The buns should ideally be your basic square dinner rolls – sliced horizontally. We had trouble finding some, so we bought hot dog buns instead and halved them:

Step 4 – Cook the onions and patties. Drop some clumps of diced onions on a heated frying pan – flattening them as best as possible. Next lay a patty down on top of each onion clump to steam it…

Ideally – you shouldn’t have to flip the burgers. That’s the magic of the holes – to steam the patty all the way through. Did it work? Well…

… you be the judge. The onions started burning while the top still looked like this. In favor of not burning the onions further (and avoiding tape worms), I decided to flip them to brown both sides. Perhaps over time I’ll learn how to perfect the burger cooking process.

Step 5 – Make your burger! Ensure that the onions are on top of the meat – followed by the cheese (optional) and pickle(s).

Not bad, not bad…

From what I’ve seen, that’s a reasonable facsimile.

Step 6 – Eat!

How was it? Not the best burger I’ve had – but pretty good. Perhaps I needed a bit more seasoning in the burger meat – who knows. I’ll say this much: they’re freakin’ small! I had to eat 4 to feel full! I would expect that to be the same story if you go to one of their stores.

Now – I just need a means of trying the real thing to see how ours stacked up.

Hmmm…

half a cup of butter
150 grams of marshmallows (about one bag)
teaspoon of green food colouring
teaspoon of vanilla
3-4 cups of Cornflakes – depending on how green you like ‘em

And now for the directions. Again – Mike said follow the steps on his site. Me being a stickler for following the rules – that is exactly what I’m going to do. So, let’s begin…

Step 1 – assemble all said ingredients for a group photo:

Check. Damn – those are some fine looking ingredients. Apparently you need to have a mobile phone (preferably recharging) underneath your marshmallows. I suppose this is to do some pre-melting, or – better yet – to grow some marshmallow tumors for added gooeyness. I don’t question these things – Mike’s the master.

We did cheap out and not get real Cornflakes for these though – which I suppose alters the taste dramatically. We had these Vita Weeties from good ol’ Uncle Toby sitting in the cupboard just waiting to be eaten, so I thought I’d use them up in a tasty way.

Step 2 – melt the butter and marshmallows:

Check. Unfortunately, as you can see – we have some pink and white marshmallows. Pure white marshmallows are next to impossible to find in Australia. This is due to the pink marshmallow movement of the 1960′s, requiring all bags to include both white and pink ones. You know – equal marshmallow rights and all. Who said you don’t learn a bit of history on genfab.com?

Step 3 – add green food colouring to make a big green ugly mess:

Check. Goddamn that’s green!

Step 4 – add flakes to the green goo:

Check. Now it’s looking like someone’s lost their lunch consisting of granola bars and Mountain Dew into our pan. Ah well – I’m sure it’ll taste better than it looks! For whatever reason, ours turned out a more earthy green than Mike and Kumi’s radioactively green ones. I suspect our liquid food colouring and darker flakes have something to do with that.

Step 5 – toss your cookies (i.e.: make single serving sized green bits):

Check. It’s all coming together now…

Step 6 – top with something red:

Check. Mike said the originals were topped with cinnamon candies that no one liked. Now he’s improvised / improved the recipe with strawberry jam. Our new twist on it – raspberry jam for some added roughage.

Step 7 – admire your creations:

Check. Nicely done if I do say so myself. Mike and Kumi made 15 on their go at it. We made 16. Does that make us better than them? Yes, I believe it does.

Step 8 – take a photo of the first apprehensive victim:

Check. Mmm – mmm! While the recipe is dangerously close to Rice Krispie Treats, it’s way tastier with the extra butter and red topping. And how could you possibly get a more Christmas-y looking treat? You’d swear these were turds from Santa Claus himself (or at least his reindeer).

Thanks Mike! They rock.

Serves: 3-4 people

Ingredients:

Chick Peas – 350g (canned or dried)
Oil (vegetable) – 100 ml
Onions x 2
Tomatoes x 1 1/2
Salt – 3 tsp

Cumin – 4 tsp
Garlic – 1 clove
Turmeric – 3 tsp
Paprika – 1 tsp
Curry Powder – 2 tbsp
Coriander (fresh) – 3 tbsp

Directions:

1. Wash chick peas until the wash water runs clear.
2. Boil the chick peas in a pot of water, cooking them until they’re soft.
3. Put the oil in another pot and heat it on low heat. Add the cumin to the oil, and heat it gently while being careful not to burn it. Cumin is the most important spice in curry making – this step is essential to a good curry.
4. Once the cumin has been cooked a little bit, add the following ingredients one at a time to the pot: garlic (thinly sliced), onions (minced), tomatoes (minced), turmeric, paprika and curry powder. Add salt to taste (3 tsp or so).
5. After cooking the mess for a few minutes, add the softened chick peas. Heat until boiling.
6. Done! Let it sit for a while to let the flavors work themselves throughout. Serve in bowls with the fresh coriander on top.

Makes: ~4 30 cm long naan breads

Ingredients:

All purpose flour – 300g
Sugar – 1 tbsp
Dry Yeast – 1/2 tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Water (room temp.) – 100 cc
Plain Yogurt – 3 tbsp
Vegetable Oil – 1 tbsp
Egg (beaten) x 1

Directions:

1. Put everything in a mixing bowl (except the water), but put the yeast and sugar on one side of the bowl, the salt on the other. The salt will prevent the yeast from working – so this is important. Pour the water on the side with the yeast / sugar.
2. Mix well by hand into a dough.
3. Knead the dough, stretching and folding it until smooth – like your earlobes (seriously – the recipe says that)!
4. Let the dough rise in a bowl (covered with saran wrap) until it has doubled in size (maybe 30 mins – 1 hour, depending on the time of year).
5. Punch the dough to get the air bubbles out.
6. Cut the dough into four pieces, and shape them into four round smooth balls.
7. Let the balls rise for another 10-15 mins covered lightly with a cloth to prevent drying.
8. Shape / stretch the dough into the classic naan bread (egg like) shape, with a rolling pin. Ideally the thickness will be between 3-5 mm.
9. Heat a frying pan on high heat with very small amount of cooking oil. Reduce to medium heat and chuck your naan bread shaped dough on it.
10. Let cook for a bit, checking the bottom every so often – once lightly browned, flip and cook the top. Repeat for the 3 remaining balls. Optionally add a bit of butter or ghea to the top of your naan bread.