If there is one thing the pandemic has taught me, it is how important it is to support small, local businesses. One business that I’d already been supporting for some time was Donald Butcher’s in Uddingston. This small, family-run butcher sells quality, locally sourced meat and throughout lockdown they made every effort possible to continue serving their customers.

So, when shop manager Kevin asked me if I’d be willing to create some recipes around their black pudding, made in-house in the butcher shop, I was super excited to get creative and support them. My first thought was to make burgers (seeing as I’d already made a black pudding pie) and man, they were the best homemade burgers I’ve had in a long time. I tried it as a cheeseburger and also as a brunch burger, with a fried egg on top, and they were both phenomenal, but the brunch burger was my favourite.

Of course, just because it’s a ‘brunch’ burger doesn’t mean you can’t eat it for dinner, you can eat it any time of day you want. And, if you would rather go more classic, just leave the egg off, add some cheese and swap the brown sauce for burger sauce, or whatever sauce you prefer.

Brioche Breakfast Burgers

Ingredients (makes four patties)
300g steak mince
150g black pudding
(I got both from @donald_butchers)
Half a red onion, very finely diced
1 egg, beaten
Salt & pepper
Brioche buns

To serve:
8 rashers streaky bacon
HP brown sauce
4 eggs
Oil, for frying

Method
1. Put the beef mince in a mixing bowl and crumble in the black pudding. Add the red onion, the egg and a pinch of salt and pepper. Use your hands to mix everything together until evenly mixed. This is all about keeping it simple so that quality mince and black pudding shine. Bring it together to form a ball, then divide into four equal pieces and shape into patties.
2. Put a large, non-stick griddle pan over a high heat and preheat your oven to it’s lowest setting. Slice your brioche buns and toast them lightly in the pan and set aside. Slather them with some butter and some HP sauce.
3. Add the burgers to the pan and cook for 5-10 minutes on each side until cooked through. Pop them on a plate and into the oven to keep warm.
4. In the same pan, griddle your bacon for a couple of minutes on each side until cooked and crispy, and pop them in the oven with the burgers to keep warm. Crack the eggs into the pan and cook to your liking (I like a good runny yolk).
5. Put your burgers onto the buns, add two rashers of bacon to each burger, and then the fried egg. Top with the bun lid and dig in!