Beef Burgers with Blue Cheese

22. July 2008 Beef 0

Burgers are burgers, right? It’s summer and you’ve gone to your fifth barbecue this season and yet, you really haven’t had a decent burger. There must be something you can do to make it more than just a burger. Over the weekend, the Dr. and I invited several people to upstate New York where we rented a house. We drove the night before bringing with us a cooler full of meats I ordered from my CSA share, or Community-Supported Agriculture. I ordered them ahead of time from Lewis Waite Farm in Greenwich thinking of the lamb chops, pig’s trotters and beef burgers we could grill for us and our friends.

Cameron volunteered to make patties out of the grass-fed ground beef with smoked Gouda cheese and the prerequisites: garlic, onions, parsley. Two days later, I couldn’t help but recreate them at home. I used my grill pan and turned the vent on high to absorb the smoke and the smell. Instead of smoked Gouda, I used the blue cheese I’ve kept fresh in the fridge using Press’n Seal. The flavor is more fierce than the ones Cameron made because of the cheese, but man, did I have an excellent dinner for a Monday night.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
a small chunk of blue cheese, crumbled
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
half a bunch of parsley, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red chile, seeded, finely chopped
oil, salt, pepper

1. Combine all ingredients, except the oil, in a bowl with a dash of salt and pepper. Form extra large golf-sized balls with your hands to help them stick together and then gently flatten them out with your palms to form patties.
2. Heat some oil on a grill pan over medium-high heat. When almost smoking, add the patties to fry. I was able to fit 3 of the 5 patties I made. Using an iron grill press, put on top of the patties to weigh them down. Remove press and flip the burgers slowly using a heat-resistant spatula. Replace the press to cook the other side of the patties. Each side can be cooked medium-rare in about 3 minutes. Remove to a plate and finish cooking all the other patties.
3. Serve sandwiches in toasted buns with some hot pickles and mustard.

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