Buffalo Burgers

Sun 3 Sept 2006

The first Sunday of the month means the first Leeds farmers' market of the month, and we usually make an effort to pick up something interesting for our dinner. The problem with Sunday is that it's a pretty lazy day so we try not to pick something outrageously elaborate - so things like crab cakes usually hit the spot.

We hit upon another cracking Sunday dinner with Peak District Water Buffalo burgers. I am not joking.

So - water buffalo - it's lower in fat, lower in cholesterol and higher in protein and calcium - bit of an all round super red meat (apparently) - but is it any good? We didn't dive into this exercise blindfold - the burgers were available to sample and were very tasty - so all that was left to do was source suitable toppings ...

We made our own tomato sauce - heat some oil, dice some onion and sweat it down, add some garlic and chilli, some chopped tomatoes and some red pepper. Cook the sauce so that it thickens.

We also fried up some sliced onion until it was well done and getting black.

The burgers went into a hot griddle pan. A testament to the leanness of the buffalo meat - they only shrank a little!

The tea cakes were split open and we were ready to go ... burger, onion, tomato sauce, lettuce and sliced tomatoes ... that's probably even a healthy burger!

To add to the healthiness of this meal, we opted for some antioxidant full, cholesterol reducing red - 2003 Norman's Lonegum Shiraz Cabernet from South Australia (also available from Oddbins for about £6 a bottle). It was a cracking, full flavoured, jammy complement to the meat - a perfect BBQ red!


While I doubt water buffalo is native to the Peak District it's obviously doing well. While the producers don't have a website you can apparently pick up their products at various farmers' markets as well as from their farm shop. While they're not the cheapest burgers (it was about £3 for 2 6oz burgers - one burger is plenty for one person) they are probably amongst the healthiest and tastiest.

Water Buffalo - Nether Rod Knowle Farm, Eastmoor, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S42 7DB, tel: 01246 566151

tagged with: water buffalo, burger

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