Burger, Round 3 – The Breakfast Burger

Ok, even I’ll admit this burger is over the top.  But it certainly was delicious!  I had been wanting to do a burger with an over easy egg on it, and so I decided to craft it around a kind of “breakfast” theme – burger, bacon, over easy egg, and a maple coffee BBQ sauce.  My original plan was to put it on an English muffin, but somehow I forgot about that small detail at breakfast that morning and ate it then.  Oh well – buns worked out fine.

I think I can actually hear this burger calling my name!

Breakfast Burger with Bacon, Over Easy Egg, and Maple Coffee BBQ Sauce

Serves 2

• About 10-12 ounces hamburger meat (I prefer 80/20 ratio) split into two patties
• 6 slices bacon
• 2 eggs
• 2 buns or English Muffins
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 can crushed tomatoes
• 1 cup fresh brewed coffee
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup chicken broth

Generously season patties on both sides with salt and pepper.  Grill over a hot grill about 5 minutes per side for medium to medium rare.

Lay bacon on sheet pan and cook in 350 degree oven for about 12 – 14 minutes, or until just crisp.  Place bacon on paper towel to drain off extra grease.

To make BBQ sauce, sweat onion in a medium sized sauce pan for about 10 minutes.  Add crushed tomatoes, coffee, mustard, maple syrup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and chicken broth.  Season also with a little salt and pepper. Thoroughly whisk together and let cook over medium heat for about 30 minutes.  Once sauce has cooked down and thickened up some, remove from heat and use either  a blender or an immersion blender to puree it up.

While burgers are finishing up on the grill, brush them with a bit of BBQ sauce during last minute or two of grilling.  Toast buns on grill.

Cook egg in non stick skillet over medium high heat.  Season with salt and pepper, and cook just until whites are set.  To help cook whites and yolks evenly, add a teaspoon or two of water to pan and cover with a lid during last 30 seconds of cooking.

Place burger on bun and add bacon and egg to burger. Slather top bun with more BBQ sauce, top burger with it, and serve.

Round 2 of Burgers – Mushroom Swiss Burger with Balsamic BBQ Sauce

I have been continuing on my quest for the ultimate burger.  Saturday evening was supposed to be a nice evening on our brand new deck, grilling, drinking, and enjoying ourselves.  However, junk weather of two straight days of rain with the temp dropping about 20 degrees prevented that idyllic scene.  However, troopers that we are, we did manage to grill, but just had to eat inside.   I copied this burger idea from our trip in Nashville to Burger Up, and just kind of winged a Balsamic BBQ sauce.  I wanted to use Gruyere cheese, but ended up going with Baby Swiss because that was all the store had and I did not feel like running all over creation tracking down ingredients.  Oh, and somehow I completely forgot to take a picture of my burger.  Sad face.

Mushroom  Swiss Burgers with Balsamic BBQ Sauce

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 and 1/2 pounds assorted mushrooms, sliced (I used cremini and shiitake)
• 5 kinda thick-ish slices Swiss cheese
• 5 buns (we used kaiser buns)
• Balsamic BBQ sauce (recipe below)

Form beef into 5 equal sized patties.  I like to make a little divot in the middle of each pattie because it seems to help them from getting that weird convex shape burgers sometimes get.  Thoroughly season each burger (both sides!) with plenty of kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper.  Put burgers back in fridge for about 15 minutes before grilling them, as this seems to help them hold a better shape.

While burgers are cooking, heat 2 tablespoons of olive in large skillet over high heat.  Once heated, add mushrooms, season with salt and pepper, and let cook about 2 minutes.  Give mushrooms a big shake and let cook another 2-3 minutes.  Remove from heat and set aside for later.

Cook burgers over fairly high heat for about 5  minutes per side.  Don’t mess with burgers as they are cooking.  Just flip them the one time, and you are good.  With about 2 minutes left of cooking time, add cheese so it has time to get good and melty.  After removing burgers, let them rest at least 5 minutes.

To assemble burgers, add burger with cheese, sauteed mushrooms, and add a good slathering of the Balsamic BBQ sauce to the bun.

Balsamic BBQ Sauce

• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 can stewed (or just diced) tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Heat sauce pan on medium heat with 1 tablespoons olive oil.  Add onions and cook about 5 minutes – you want them to develop some color and start to caramelize (versus sweating where the vegetable does not get any color.)  Add garlic and cook about another minute.  Add balsamic vinegar and let reduce by half, about 3-4 minutes.  Add tomatoes, brown sugar, Dijon mustard, spicy brown mustard, and Worcesterhire.  Cook about 15 minutes to let all flavors come together and reduce down a bit, stirring occasionally (and feel free to kinda mash up tomato chunks.

Using an immersion blender or regular blender, blend up BBQ sauce until fairly smooth.  Left-over BBQ sauce should keep in fridge for a couple weeks.

My Notes

• We used grass-fed beef that we picked up at the farmers’ market.  It was really lean, so I added an egg white to help bind it together.
• Our burgers were each a little over 6 ounces and that seemed pretty close to a good size.

Perfecting the Ultimate Burger – Round One

My goal is to make the most ultimate, mouth-watering, who-cares-if-I-have-a-napkin-to-wipe-the-ketchup-off-my-face-it’s-so-good burger this summer.  I felt good about Round One, but I think there is always room for improvement, so this summer I’ll be documenting my burger escapades.  I think a really great burger is the sum of it’s parts.  It’s not just about the meat (which is very important), but also the bread and the fixings.  For today’s, I’m doing a bacon cheddar burger with pickled onions and a sweet and spicy ketchup. As a side note, when I went to the butcher store to get the meat and the bacon, the guy behind the counter asked me if I bought bacon every time I came in.  I’m not sure what it says about me that the butcher has noticed the large quantities of bacon I buy…