Campsite cooking: Basque burgers with raspberry and beetroot ketchup

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For a taste of the Basque country, serve your home-made burgers with Ossau-Iraty cheese and a spicy ketchup made from locally grown Espelette peppers.

If you’re struggling to find the ingredients you could use any hard cheese made from sheep’s milk and any mildly hot chilli pepper.

Ingredients (for six burgers)

For the ketchup
10g butter
120g frozen raspberries
1 small cooked beetroot, diced
60g brown sugar
10cl raspberry vinegar
1 tsp paprika
1 bay leaf
1 pinch Espelette pepper 

For the burgers
6 x 150g portions of minced beef
6 bread buns
One small onion, sliced
200g Ossau-Iraty cheese
A few basil leaves
1 small jar of preserved tomatoes
A few baby spinach leaves
Salt and pepper

Method

For the ketchup  
Prepare the ketchup the day before or even before you leave home. Melt a knob of butter in a small saucepan. Add the frozen raspberries, diced beetroot and brown sugar. Cook for two to three minutes. Add the raspberry vinegar, paprika, bay leaf and Espelette pepper and let stew for 15 minutes, making sure to stir often so the mixture does not stick to the pan. Blitz everything with a hand-held blender (you’ll need electric hook-up if you’re doing this on site) then pass through a sieve into a bowl to get rid of the raspberry seeds and leave to cool. Store in a fridge or coolbox until ready to use.

For the burgers
Finely slice the Ossau-Iraty. Toast the inner side of the bread buns for a few minutes by placing them on top of the grill. Shape the beef into six equal patties and lightly season both sides. Melt a knob of butter on the grill and cook the burgers to taste. Place the burgers on the buns, add the preserved tomatoes, basil, and ketchup and top with the sliced cheese.