I imagine this must be what J.R. Ewing used to have for breakfast. But with a pile of hot baked beans alongside, a mountain of bacon, and some grits. Whatever they are.*
Instead of all that, I served them on a bed of wilted spinach and feta, piled some golden brown onions on the burger patty, and topped them with a fried egg. Note that this is a burger patty breakfast, not a hamburger. There’s no bun.
On seeing the spinach, J.R. may have yelled to Sue Ellen, “Darlin’? Whut thuh heeyell is this? You bin drinkin’ again?” And asked for some sausages on the side.
The burgers came to me from Shoprite Checkers, when they sent the Thor’s Hammer that I cooked and wrote about recently. The package label has a subtitle: “Make Burgers Great Again”. I froze them for another time, and this week the moment arrived, like a politician bouncing back. ?
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I picked some fresh young spinach leaves from the garden, shredded them and cooked them down with a touch of lemon juice, a sprinkling of grated nutmeg, salt and pepper, and stirred in some feta at the end.
An onion was sliced and cooked until its own sweetness turned it caramel brown. It was crying out to be topped with a fried egg, and of course I only ever cook them in butter.
The Checkers/Shoprite product is called the Traditional Texas Style Burger and they come in packs of two. I’m not sure if they are precisely 200g each, but when I weighed the unopened pack, the scale registered 500g. I deducted 100g for the weight of the pack, which left 400g divided by two. There’s room for error. (Either way, they’re big enough.)
Tony’s Texas Burger Breakfast
(Serves 2)
Ingredients
Cooking oil, as needed
2 x 200g Texas burgers, give or take
1 large onion, sliced
2 cups shredded spinach, spines removed
1 small wheel of feta, chopped
A squeeze of lemon juice
A few grindings of nutmeg
2 fried eggs (1 per serving)
Butter for the eggs
Salt and black pepper
Method
In a broad pan (big enough to hold both patties later), fry the onions in a little cooking oil, stirring and turning, until evenly browned. Remove.
Rinse the spinach leaves, shake off excess water, cut away the spines, and shred the leaves with a sharp knife. Put all the shredded spinach in a pot.
Put the pot on a moderately high heat (no oil, nothing but spinach) and cook, stirring, until all the spinach has wilted. Add nutmeg, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes more, stirring, then add the feta and stir while it melts.
In the pan in which you fried the onions, add more cooking oil, heat, and fry the patties on both sides, turning, until they are cooked through. This should take about 8 to 10 minutes as they are quite thick. Season the patties with salt and black pepper along the way.
Fry the eggs in butter.
To serve, spoon a mound of the spinach and feta on to a plate, top with a patty, pile on half the onions, and top with a fried egg. Repeat. DM
*I do know what they are. It just amuses me to say that.
Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the year award, in 2021 and 2023
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This dish is photographed on a very orange plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.