Super French Onion Burger

The secret ingredient is............... ONIONS!!!

This burger idea came from my wife. She suggested that I use the Lipton French onion dip mix in a burger and then cover it with cheese like they do for a French onion soup. The idea sounded great but I wanted to kick it up a notch. I wanted to do an onion burger but really expose the onions as the main ingredient. To start I sauteed two yellow onions in a cast iron pan with some good olive oil. I seasoned the onions in the pan with garlic, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper. After they were a nice and creamy texture I then put them aside for later. The next thing that I needed to do was mix the ground beef with one Lipton Onion dip mix package. It is the same mix that you use to make an onion dip. It has a lot of onion flavor and it mixes well the beef. I then finely diced a half a yellow onion and added that into the bowl with some more olive oil. I mixed it all together by hand and formed the patties. The last burger topping was French onion dip. To make this you mix one package of the Lipton mix with equal parts sour cream. I used the same pan that I sauteed the onions in and the burgers soaked in all of that great flavor. After searing the burger on one side I flipped the burger over and covered with a slice of swiss cheese. About 5 minutes on each side and the burger was done. The last step was smearing the French onion dip on both sides of, of course, an onion roll. The burger was incredible. All of the different onion flavors melted together beautifully. Perhaps I was just looking for an excuse to use an onion roll again but this worked great. The dip and the sauteed onions were creamy while the burger had an outer crunch and the inside was a nice medium rare to rare. When you look at the picture you might think the burger looks too rare but I didn't mind it at all. The contrast of textures created a great burger. Here are the pictures for you to enjoy. See you next week.

Chicken Burger with Bruschetta topping

Ok, so I guess this one isn't a burger as much as it is a chicken sandwich. I just thought chicken would work better for this rather than beef and I was sick of turkey. None of you complained when I did a portabello sandwich so this will have to do. The idea came from Lori Jewell who suggested that I do a bruschetta burger. I love a bruschetta so I decided to run with the idea and after she e-mailed me the suggestion I immediately became hungry so that is always a good sign. Most of this burger consists of pre-made items that I got from the store. I wanted to get either preformed chicken patties or just plain ground chicken and make the burgers myself but I guess since the snow storm the store was very picked over. I did find a nice chicken breast that was already stuffed with mozzarella cheese and spinach. As Lori suggested I put the burger on a nice thick piece of garlic Texas Toast. To start I fired up my cast iron pan with some good olive oil and preheated the oven to 400 degrees. Then I slathered the chicken breast with some olive oil and liberally covered it with parmesan and basil. Then I put it into the pan skin side down and seared the parmesan basil crust for 3 minutes on each side. After the parmesan crusted nicely into a thin flake I put the entire pan into the oven for 10 minutes. Next I used the toaster oven to cook the Texas Toast with a thin slice of fresh mozzarella on each piece of toast. When the toast was nice and crusty and the cheese melted evenly I took it out and sprinkled with some fresh black pepper and a little more basil. After letting the chicken cool for five minutes I put it on the toast and covered it with the bruschetta. This burger really was a nice change of pace. It was salty and just really good. Let's be honest any burger where you use garlic bread as your bun is going to be pretty good. All of the components were equally good on their own and the sandwich as a whole was a success. Merry Christmas everyone! See you all next weekend after Christmas for another burger.

Asian turkey burger with wasabi

Let me start this blog by saying I generally am not a fan of Asian food. Given the choice between ordering Chinese or going to an American Pub or steakhouse I would choose the latter almost every time. However, I do occasionally like Japanese restaurants. A nice selection of sushi or a teryaki flavored beef is always good. Because of my affinity for spicy food I love the flavor of wasabi. For this burger I have to give special thanks to Katie Porter. She sent me a few ideas after reading my blog last week and many of them were very good. This one in particular stood out because it was unique. I also have to give special thanks to my two beautiful sous chefs. My beautiful wife Ann Lopez and my beautiful and very single sister in law Krissy Luciano helped with the knife work. I have included some behind the scenes pictures of the prep in this week's edition. Now for the burger. I started with a large mixing bowl and some ground turkey. I then added one large egg for binding purposes. Next I added the dry ingredients. All of them were diced finely. They included red bell pepper, cilantro, basil, scallions, fresh garlic, panko bread crumbs and red cabbage. Then came the wet ingredients which were sesame oil, low sodium soy sauce,a little bit of the wasabi, and a ginger paste which I bought at the store. You could certainly use fresh ginger as well. For the scallions I cut up both green and white parts and I was pretty liberal with the ginger as well. Then I hand mixed all the ingredients and formed them into a few nice patties. Now that the winter is here I have started cooking my burgers inside on my cast iron skillet. I heated a few tablespoons of vegetable oil and let the iron get screaming hot before I placed the burgers on it. I am still working on my technique for cooking burgers inside. Out on the grill I have it down pretty good but it seems to take a little longer for whatever reason inside. However, The flat iron creates more of a crust on the outside of the burgers that you really can't do on a grill with grates. It gives the meat a totally different texture. Great burger places like White Manna in Hackensack cook on a flat top because of this. The roll I chose for this burger was a sesame seed kaisar. Finally, I made a sauce to put on the bottom bun to further enhance the already moist burger. I used equal parts wasabi and mayonnaise. Then I added two parts sesame oil and one part soy sauce and added some fresh black pepper to taste. Lastly, I added some fresh red cabbage for some crunch on top. All I have to say is WOW. This burger was really good. I could have just eaten the burger with a knife and fork by itself. That is how moist and tasty it was. However, when you added the wasabi sauce it gave it another kick which was great. I always make two burgers every week and I usually only eat one or I sometimes take a bite or two out of the second and then throw it away. I ate both burgers in their entirety. This was exactly what I was looking for when I asked for suggestions. I never would have made this type of burger but it turned out to be a hit. Please keep the suggestions coming.

La Hamberguesa Mexicana

I was in the mood to make some fresh guacamole so I decided to use that for my burger this week. I prepared the guacamole the night before. I learned to make an authentic guacamole on my honeymoon in the Riveria Maya, Mexico. But as my wife always says I never use recipes so I always make it my own unique way. I started with four avocados. Keep in mind that I made more than I needed for my burgers. I halved and pitted the avocados and then scooped out the middle with a spoon. Then I juiced two limes over the avocado and mashed it up into a paste. Then I diced up finely one tomato, one red onion, four jalapenos, and some fresh cilantro. I finished it off with a good amount of salt and pepper. I used two whole limes because you need the juice to counter the effect of the hot peppers. Then today I started with the beef pre-made burger patti and I applied some vegetable oil and covered very thoroughly on one side with sweet smoked paprika and the other side with just a little salt and pepper. I decided to cook inside today because it has gotten very cold. I used a cast iron skillet and heated that up with a couple of pats of butter to coat the pan. Then I placed the burger paprika side down into the hot cast iron. This formed a nice seared in crust and it smelled great. After I cooked the burger for a few minutes I flipped it and put a small handful of grated cheddar to melt. Lastly, I cut the bun in half and covered the bottom bun with a heavy dose of store bought sour cream and a tablespoon of jalapeno and tomato salsa in the middle. After I placed the burger onto the bun I then covered with a healthy portion of the homemade guacamole. The burger was cooked a perfect medium rare and I loved the Mexican flavors of the guacamole, sour cream, and salsa. I also really enjoyed the burger's flavor from the paprika. That was the pleasant surprise in the whole thing. I knew the guacamole was very good but the entire burger was a delicious mess of Mexican delight. Another week down and another success on the burger blog. Keep the idea's coming. P.S. sorry for the late blog.