Za Recipes

Showing posts with label burger. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Olive Burger

My friend at work, who specifically insisted on remaining nameless, mentioned a few days ago that her favorite thing is an olive burger. I had never heard of an olive burger before, certainly have never tried one and, honestly, I was not sure whether it was a burger that I wanted to experience or not. However, after looking at some photos (I dont know about you, but sometimes I can sort of figure out if I am going to like something new by the way it looks), listening to her describe the proper technique like how you must pile up the olives high and top it with Hellmans mayonnaise (and absolutely, positively not Miracle Whip...which I would not eat anyway) and sending out a tweet to my fellow foodies, I decided to give it a go.

Fortunately for me, because I was starving, I loved it. The salty, briny nature of the olives plays perfectly against the richness of the meat and the mayonnaise. I was undecided about the cheese situation; whether to include it or not and, if so, what type of cheese, American or Swiss. I received recommendations for both and ultimately decided on the American. My rational was that I like green olives on my nachos and the cheese on nachos is most similar to American (very profound). I will not give you the excrutiating details on how to cook a burger except to say that I made mine from about 1/4 pound of ground round and browned it really well on both sides in cast iron skillet (my friend says that it is actually a million times better when cooked on the grill but its still not grilling weather here yet). Make sure to melt the cheese on the burger and then place the olives on top. The melty cheese will help the olives to stick better. I slathered both sides of the bun with mayonnaise, yes, Hellmans mayonnaise and shredded crisp iceberg lettuce. Very delicious for something different.

After talking about the olive burger for several days while at work, my friend decided she could not longer resist and made one for herself last night too. I encouraged her to take a picture so I could include it here. So here is the cheeseless olive burger made by my unnamed work friend.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Garden Burger

"Garden" Burger, because the lettuce comes from the garden, the tomatoes and jalapenos did too, and the deer likes to spend time in it... :-)
Our biggest complaint about wild game burgers is that they can be dry. Without the fat, wild game tends to lose a lot of that rich, juicy flavor that we know and love so much about regular beef burgers. It can also pose a challenge when assembling. You can always add pork fat when grinding up your wild game, but we didnt do that the last time with our deer. To give our burgers its structure and flavor, we decided to incorporate lots of shredded Monterey Jack Cheese into our ground venison. Not only did this give our burgers great flavor, but the cheese also helped to keep our venison burgers deliciously moist.

Servings: 4

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10-15 minutes

Ingredients:

- 1 lb. ground venison

- 1 tsp. garlic powder

- 2 tbs. canned diced jalapeno, or to taste

- 1 bunch of scallion (about 6-8 stems), white and light green parts thinly sliced

- 1 cup of shredded Monterey Jack Cheese

- kosher/sea salt, to taste (about 1/2 tsp.)

- freshly ground black pepper, to taste

- 4 soft hamburger buns

- Spring Mix salad

- sliced tomato

- and all your other favorite fixings

1. First, chop and slice white/light green parts of scallion . Discard dark green parts.

We also chopped 2 tbs. of the diced jalapenos even further. The pieces were a little too big for our liking, but thats up to you.

You wont need the whole can. Unless if you like the feeling of your mouth catching fire.

2. In a large bowl, combine 1 lb. ground venison, 1 tsp. garlic powder, 2 tbs. diced jalapeno, sliced green onion, salt and pepper to taste.

Then add 1 cup of shredded Monterey Jack Cheese.

With your hands, combine all ingredients.

3. Shape venison mixture into 4 patties. Make sure to shape them well so that the patties stay together.

Prepare the grill. While you wait, drink some booze.

We made margaritas and drank them from granny glasses... Because were too poor to afford real margarita glasses. Still good!

4. When the grill is ready, cook burgers about 5-7 minutes on each side, or until burgers are just cooked through and juices run clear. Do not overcook, because venison dries out quickly. Melt additional cheese on top of burgers, optional.

And for the love of all that is holy, dont press down your burgers. This will not make them cook any faster and whats worse, will dry out your burgers. Notice all the steam coming out? Thats moisture youre losing. Like a steak, leave the burgers alone until youre ready to flip.