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.
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