Nothin’ Better Than Burgers

Many, many years ago, when I first got out of culinary school, people used to ask me all the time “if now that I am chef, do I still like burgers and dogs?”  ABSOLUTELY!  Especially when they are good burgers and dogs.  The sad thing though, is that it is getting harder and harder to find good burgers, unless of course, I am willing to spend an arm and a leg for them, which I am not.  So, we make them at home.  Yes, you need good beef, but you can doctor them up anyway you like to make them even better too.  About 6-8 months ago, we went in with some of my husband’s siblings and bought a quarter cow.  We have it stored in the freezer, and pull it out when we need it.  With this quarter cow, we got A LOT of hamburger meat too.  So …. burgers are on the menu fairly often.  We also like bold and flavorful burgers, which are hard to find when dining out, but then we like bold and flavorful foods no matter what they are.  Today’s burgers were served with bacon and sauteed mushrooms and onions that I sauteed in the bacon grease, along with some garlic fries.  Yummy!

I mixed the ground beef with all these seasonings to make them delicious gourmet burgers.

Spicy Gourmet Burgers

2 lbs ground beef

1 TBSP garlic

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 TBSP dried onions

1 TBSP steak seasoning

2-3 whole roasted chili peppers, skinned and seeded, chopped fine

 

Mix everything together well.  Using your hands and really mashing everything together is actually the best way to get all the flavors incorporated into the meat.

Once everything is incorporated together well, form the meat into patties to your desired thickness and size.  I made the patties about 1/3 lb each.   The higher the fat content of the meat, the higher the shrinkage rate will be when the burgers are cooked.  This beef has a higher fat content than what we usually like, at about 80%, so the burgers did shrink a bit more during the cooking process.  Usually we like leaner beef, but these sure were tasty burgers.  Fat does taste good!

Once the burgers are shaped, slap them on the grill and cook to perfection.  I love mine on the medium rare side, with just a touch of pink left on the inside.

For the fries, I tossed them with parsley, salt and garlic immediately after I took them out of the fryer, while they were still hot.  The best garlic fries we have ever had were from Gott’s, a chain of restaurants in Northern California.  We have been trying to re-create them ever since.  I think we are very close, if not right on.

 

***On a different note ….  Thank you to all who wished me good healing thoughts.  I am almost back to 100%.  I still have a cough, but nothing like it was before, and all the other symptoms are almost completely gone as well.  I think it was the good healing energy coming from all of you that really helped.  Fortunately, I am normally very healthy, and I rarely get sick.  On those rare occasions, because I am normally so healthy, I do not take long to recover.