Wendy's Burgers

Do you remember when you were a kid and you woke up on Christmas morning and you knew you'd find something wonderful under the tree?  That's how I felt when I opened my email from Angela at the Secret Recipe Club and found I'd been assigned Wendy's blog. The Weekend Gourmet.  I've never been a regular reader of Wendy's but have enjoyed her blog when I've checked it out.  Now, I do believe I'll be a regular reader.  She's got a lovely style and is one of those folks I'd just love to meet.  Choosing was tough.  I narrowed the choices down to four recipes.  I was thinking I'd do an appetizer for the Super Bowl.  Something that could be split in half since Connie would be rooting for his Patriots in the living room and I'd be rooting for Eli in the family room.  Then, I got the flu.  Cooking wasn't happening.  Fine, I'd choose something else.  The next set of choices was narrowed down to three.  Decisions, decisions.  Ok, I'd make the hamburger.


What did we think?  The burger was fabulous.  Moist, flavorful.  I loved the little kick from the cajun seasoning.  The onions?  A bit too sweet for our taste.  I'd cut the maple syrup way down and increase the white wine.  We tend not to like sweet things so I wasn't surprised at our reaction.  So, here's the deal:  If you like sweet things, make the recipe as written.  If you're more of a savory foodie, decrease the  maple syrup to 1-2 T and increase the white wine commensurately. I made a couple of tweaks along the way.  Instead of using ground steak seasoning, I used Andria's Steak Sauce.  It has less salt and really moistens the burgers.  And, for the onions I cut the butter to one tablespoon from two.  Just cutting out 100 calories!  Now, the really good news?  Connie plays bridge one evening a week.  This recipe makes three burgers.  One burger is in the freezer awaiting his next bridge evening.  It's mine.  All mine :-)

A couple of housekeeping notes here... The Secret Recipe Club is a group of bloggers who are assigned a blog on a monthly basis.  We're to visit that blog and choose a recipe to make.  Then, on our assigned Monday we blog about it.  Now, I've gotten REALLY lucky on my assignments.  I've met some wonderful bloggers and tried some incredible recipes.  My mouth is watering thinking about a few of them.  And, the best news?  Every Monday a group of bloggers has their reveal date.  You can go to Secret Recipe Club and check out the blogs.  It's typically the best collection of recipes I see. 

Last, but not least, THANK YOU Wendy!!  I can't wait to try your most recent post - potato pancakes with cheddar.  And, I'm still going to make that clafouti and hopefully the lemon blueberry rolls.  And, about a dozen other things that had me drooling.  I'm so glad I can finally become a follower!!!  Yes, I know you had a different name for these burgers but I thought anything this good deserved your name :-)

Wendy's Wonderful Burgers

Ingredients:

for the burgers:
1 lb ground sirloin
2 T grainy Dijon mustard
4 slices cooked, crumbled bacon
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 T flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 t Cajun or Creole seasoning
1 T steak sauce (I use Andria's)
salt and pepper (I didn't use salt because of the steak sauce)

for the onions:
1 large sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 T butter
1 T olive oil
2 T - 1/2 c maple syrup (the real stuff!!!)
1/2 c - 2/3 c white wine
2 T Worcestershire sauce

for serving:
3 kaiser rolls or onion buns
3 slices of cheese of your choice (I used a mix of cheddar and gruyere, grated)

Directions:

Make the patties.  Gently combine all of the patty ingredients and form into three patties.

You can grill them or use a grill pan or saute pan.  They'll take about 10 minutes to cook so start them when you've added the liquids to the onions.  When you flip them to cook the second side, add the cheese so it's nice and melty when you serve the burgers.

Make the onions.  Saute the onions in the butter and olive oil for about 15 minutes. 

You'll want them nice and browned. 

Add the maple syrup, white wine and Worcestershire sauce. 

Cook for 8-10 minutes.  The mixture will caramelize and you'll have a lovely glaze in the pan.

 

Assemble the burgers.  Toast the rolls or buns.  Top each with a burger and 1/3 of the onion mixture.  Enjoy!

Bymark Hamburger

I had a date tonight.  With my favorite boyfriend.  Well, ok, he's my hubby too.  We went to see Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory at Civic Theatre.  What a production.  We loved it.  It's fun when you've attended enough theatre that you recognize some of the actors.  Tonight we got to see Jim Trofatter who is the playwright for the Benjamin Harrison House and their mystery theatre.  And, Ed Mobley who we've seen in many plays and whose wife, Catherine, was in one of my all-time favorites - Menopause the Musical.  We've got season tickets to Civic which forces us to find the time to go.  It's one of the smartest moves we've ever made.  I'm not a fan of movies but love, love, love live theatre.  So, we got to take a break from all the party prep and all of the year end fun at the office. 


Early last weekend, I'd realized we were going to have a pretty hectic week.  That meant planning my meals well so I could get them made in the time allotted.  I'm infamous for not leaving enough prep time and eating late.  That wasn't happening tonight.  We walked in from the office and Connie started feeding the furry critters.  I put the grill pan on the stove and turned it on, then started getting the food out of the fridge.  We had an hour to prepare and eat dinner.  As usual, I didn't follow the recipe exactly.  I added some Andria's Steak Sauce.  And, a bit of black truffle salt.  And, some morel mushroom dust. 


What did we think?  We loved these burgers.  Connie took one bite and said, "You can make these again!"  I'd have to agree.  They were very simple to put together and the flavors played really well together.  I had to substitute portabellas for the porcinis the recipe called for.  That's why I ground up a morel and added the morel dust.  To amp up the mushroom flavor.  The brie was perfect.  It needs be put on the burgers when they're hot off the grill.  But, don't totally melt it. 


Bymark Hamburgers


Ingredients:


1 lb 90% lean ground beef
freshly ground pepper
Andria's steak sauce (or a few dashes of Worcestershire)
1/2 t black truffle salt
1 dried morel mushroom, finely ground
two portabella mushrooms, sliced
4 slices brie cheese
onion rolls
1/4 c mayonnaise
1 t white truffle oil
1/2 t lemon juice


Directions:


Heat a grill pan or heat a skillet for the mushrooms and light the grill for the burgers.  Mix the ground beef, truffle salt, ground pepper

and steak sauce.  Form two burgers.


Grind the dried morel very finely.

To cook the mushrooms either grill them on the grill pan or saute them in olive oil in the skillet.  I found they cooked better when cooked on my grill pan at the edges so they'd get some of the olive oil I'd put in the pan.  Pat the morel dust onto the burgers.  Grill the burgers until they're your desired temp.  

We typically aim for medium rare but these wound up at about 140 and were still moist and juicy thanks to the Andria's Steak Sauce.  (nb: you can order the steak sauce directly from Andria's.  It's worth it to order it because it's fabulous.  I use it in about anything that I put hamburger in.)  Be sure to put the cheese on the burgers just as you remove them from the grill.  You want it to soften but not run.  While the burgers are grilling, mix the mayonnaise, truffle oil and lemon juice to make the spread for the buns.  Broil or grill the buns until they're golden brown.  Slather them with the truffle mayonnaise, the put on the hamburgers and mushrooms.

adapted from Burgers by Paul Gayler

Sommer's Italian Burgers

Sommer posted this on A Spicy Perspective last week and I immediately took something off the menu and put this on.  It sounded that good.  And, it was.  It's also a very quick meal.  We got home from the office about 8:15 and even with feeding the furry people and messing around with the new/old computer in the kitchen we were eating my a couple of minutes before 9:00.  I made a few tweaks and wished I'd made another, but that's pretty typical of my following - or not - a recipe. 

Actually, that's a good debate.  Should you follow a recipe exactly the first time through - out of respect for the writer or just because you should?  Or, should you follow your instincts and tweak?  I almost always come down on the tweak side for two reasons.  One, there are so many recipes out there that I'll in all likelihood never get back to one unless it's spectacular (spinach/blueberry/almond salad, chicken elegante.)  And, two, a different ingredient may well suit our tastes better OR more often, be in my pantry or refrigerator. 

So it was here.  I didn't have arugula but did have spinach.  We happen to much prefer spinach to arugula.  So, I substituted.  I also added to the actual burgers.  The tweak I wish I'd made was to switch out the mozzarella for provolone.  I didn't have smoked mozzarella and didn't see any at the grocery.  So, I used regular fresh mozzarella.  Bad move on my part.  I was matching the texture and not the flavor.  The grocery was also out of ciabatta buns so I bought ciabatta bread and sliced it to make "buns."  That worked out perfectly.  Next time we'll probably mince some salami and add it to the ground beef to see if that brings out the Italian a bit more.  And, I might use a little Italian dressing in the burgers. See, what I mean?  Lots of potential tweaks - even with a spectacular recipe like this.  That's part of the fun of cooking.  Figuring out what you like and what goes together.  So, try this and see what you think.  Here's my take - Sommer should enter this in a burger cookoff.  It's that good!!!

Sommer's Little Italy Burger

Ingredients:
for the burgers:
1 pound ground beef
1 t tomato paste
1 T Andria's steak sauce (or other steak sauce)
2 t dried shallots
4 slices pancetta

for grilling the burgers:
1 red onion, sliced in thin rings
smoked mozzarella or provolone, sliced

for the tomato paste:
3 T butter
2 t tomato paste
1 t anchovy paste

for assembling the burgers:
ciabatta buns
1/2 c basil pesto
sliced tomato
fresh spinach or arugula

NB: the wine in the photo is indeed an ingredient - for the cook :-)


Directions:

Oil your grill grates.  Heat your grill.

Mix the ground beef, shallots, tomato paste and steak sauce. 

Form into four patties.  (Yeah, I know there are only three there.  They were too thick so I'd do four next time.)

Top each with a slice of the pancetta and firmly press the pancetta into the patty.

Soften the butter and cream in the tomato paste and anchovy paste.  Spread the tomato butter on the cut sides of the ciabatta rolls. 

Now it's time to schlep things out to the grill.  You'll need the burgers, onion, cheese and ciabatta rolls. 

Grill the burgers with the non-pancetta side down first.  Put the onions on the grill at the same time.  You'll want to flip the onions when the first side of the burger is about halfway done.  Flip the burgers, top with the onions then the cheese. 

You want the cheese to be able to melt here. 

Put the buns on the grill, cut side down.  They'll only take a few minutes to get lovely grill marks.  One the buns are warmed through and have grill marks, remove them from the grill. 

When the burgers are done, you get to assemble the sandwich.  It's pretty much a Dagwood so count on needing lots of napkins :-)  Here's how you do it:  Slather the cut sides of the buns with pesto. 

Put a burger on a half bun, top with a slice of tomato then the spinach or arugula.

Then the other half of the bun. 

Adapted from A Spicy Perspective.  If you're not already a follower of Sommer's please head over to her blog and check it out.  Everything we've tried has been fantastic. She's obviously a wonderful cook!!!