You know me. I tend to be wordy.
I tend to go on and on telling you why I like something. Or what it means to me. Maybe I’ll feel the need to thoroughly explain every little detail in making a particular dish.
I can’t help it. It is just the way I am.
But today may be a bit different.
My brother Grant (Sip!) sent me one of his burger recipes to include in my weeklong (yearlong?) tribute the great American burger.
He is Sip! as you know, so he came up with a very cleverly named “Wine & Cheese” Burger. Which at first kinda irritated me. I mean I like to be the brother who is clever with words.
The reason it turns out this name is so clever is because it is a burger that really does pair up wine and cheese as ingredients. Red wine and blue cheese. One in a “jam” topping. The other “infused” in the meat.
He has taken his cleverness a step further and done another excellent wine pairing for this burger.
So I thought, “he went to so much trouble. The least I can do is make the damn burger”.
So, I did. I think you’ll see why I have chosen to shut up and eat! GREG
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 red onions (halved and thinly sliced)
- 1 cup red wine
- 2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- ½ cup raisins
- 2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme leaves
- salt and pepper
- 2 ounce blue cheese (softened, plus a bit more for topping the burger)
- 4 tablespoon unsalted butter (softened)
- 1 ½ pound ground sirloin
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 Kaiser rolls (split)
- 4 ounce fresh arugula
Directions
1. Heat the oil in a medium saute pan on medium-low heat.
2. Add the onion and cook until soft, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
3. Add the wine, vinegar, honey, raisins and thyme and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the liquid has evaporated, five to seven minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. The jam can be made two days in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving.
5. In a small bowl, blend the roquefort with the butter.
6. Scrape the butter onto plastic wrap and roll into a 4‑inch cylinder. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Slice the butter into 4 disks.
7. Gently shape the ground sirloin into 4 thick patties. Using a spoon or melon baller scoop out a small amount from the center of each burger. Then with your thumb, make a clean, smooth depression in the center of each patty and fill with a disk of Roquefort butter. Return the scooped out meat to the indentation. Then press and fold the meat over to encase the butter completely. Gently pat the burger into a plump rounded patty.
8. Season the burgers with salt and pepper and grill over a medium-hot fire until browned and cooked through, about 6 minutes per side.
9. Brush the cut sides of the rolls with the olive oil and grill until lightly browned, about 10 seconds.
10. Set the burgers on the rolls, top each with the ¼ of the wine-braised onion jam and arugula. You may also crumble a bit more blue cheese on top if you are so inclined. Serve hot and juicy!
Never would have thought to put lemongrass with potatoes. Sounds good. Great info again. Love learning new things.
…and the comments are as entertaining…
I dunno.…Garlic New Potatoes with Lemongrass, Mint, Ginger, Cayenne Pepper, Cumin, Paprika and a Big Squeeze of Lime kind of sounds catchy to me!
I would have loved to had some of those last night as my “new” potatoes were more like “eligible for Medicare” potatoes.
Yum! Mint and lemongrass should add such wonderful flavors not to mention the spices! I am definitely trying this soon!
Ooooh, taters. However they come, we support them. All the way from fork to mouth.
I’m not a huge potato person. Actually, I can go as far as saying that I don’t like them (nope, not even french fries).… but these look delicious! I only “discovered” new potatos last year (oh, the sheltered life of a foreigner) and they’re growing on me, they lack the starchiness that makes me dislike the fully-grown variety. The name of this dish seems appropiate 🙂 And you’re so lucky to have gardener friends, where do I get me some of those?!
… my loyalty to rice is being seriously shaken by potato.
I have one question: after adding the stock and half the water, do I let the liquid be completely (or close to fully) absorbed/evaporated before adding any more as the potatoes cook? From the photos, your dish has that wonderful crisp look all around, not just from the first step of browning one side. Look at all those lovely bits and pieces clinging to the potatoes …
let the liquid completey absorb. The potatoes will be brown from the first cooking and then a slight glaze will form from the liquid from the liquid making all the bits of fried lemongrass etc stick to it. GREG
It’s new to me! I enjoy the delicate ingredients you chose in order to showcase the potato instead of going crazy. Let the potato be the potato and nobody gets hurt.
Great job Greg!
Eric
…I really do. But you and I have totally different ideas about not going crazy! I considered this recipe to be the outer fringes of what was acceptable as a new potato preparation. You kids today! You all wanna be rock stars. GREG
You’re starting to sound like the American version of Daily Spud. =) That’s really cool. I’ve gotta try that recipe. Hopefully I can find some new potatoes at the farmer’s market.
The addition of lime at the end sounds fantastic! Love the color from the paprika too.
…is that it caused me to stumble the post 🙂
I will have me some new potatoes from my own patch real soon now and, while the first thing I’ll do will probably involve butter and parsley, I think I shall have to give your Garlic New Potatoes with Lemongrass, Mint, Ginger, Cayenne Pepper, Cumin, Paprika and a Big Squeeze of Lime a whirl too!