Rich came home from a bidness trip pretty darned excited about this burger he’d had at a gastropub one evening; topped with melted brie, sliced avocado, tomato, sliced sweet onion, and with a honey ginger mayonnaise to pull it all together.
Well, I had a couple of half-pound pub burgers from our local market’s meat case in the freezer, and avocados were on sale, I figured we could mebbe try them out at home before offering to friends and family at various summer cookouts.
And y’know what? They aren’t too, too bad!
I made a few errors, forgetting to buy lettuce and large tomatoes, so we eschewed the greenery and I just chopped some nice grape tomatoes into a quick, fresh relish.
I also made a couple of, ermmm, improvements; turning the honey and ginger ‘mayonnaise’ from Rich’s pub (I’d totally missed the quotes) into a real mayonnaise flavored with honey, ginger, and chopped fresh basil. I then made a marinade for the burgers based on my Ultimate Burger recipe, poured it over the burgers in a zipper bag, and let them rest in that in the fridge overnight. The butter solidified in the cold, but coated both burgers nicely in a kindofa flavor shield that went very nicely on the grill.
All in all, I’d make it again.
INGREDIENTS
Marinade:
•2 tbsp butter
•1 tsp lower salt soy sauce
•1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
•1 tsp hot sauce
•1 tbsp lemon juice
Ginger Honey Mayonnaise:
•1/4 cup mayonnaise
•1 tsp honey
•1/4 tsp ginger
•Fresh basil, chopped
Burgers/Toppings:
•2 to 4 good quality burgers
•Sliced Brie (I removed the rind)
•Sliced avocado
•Sliced sweet onion
•Diced grape tomatoes
Combine the marinade ingredients in a small ‘wave-safe container and press 30 seconds or so on the keypad. If the butter is melted, you’re good, if not, press another 15 seconds or so until it is, then whisk the mixture together and set aside to cool a bit.
Once the marinade is at cool room temperature, pour over the burger patties in a large zipper bag, turning the bag to coat all sides of the meat, then arrange on a flat, rimmed plate and let rest for thirty minutes. You can go ahead and cook the burgers now, or stash ’em in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight. The butter will solidify, leaving the meat in a nicely flavored coating to toss on the grill. Just pull the burgers out of the fridge 30 to 45 minutes before you plan on grilling, and all will be fine.
While the meat is marinating, make the mayonnaise by stirring those ingredients together in a bowl, then cover and let rest for at least thirty minutes to let the flavors blend. I used a good handful of basil leaves, and couldn’t find my fresh ginger, so used powdered, but we were both very happy with how it turned out.
So, burgers marinated, mayonnaise managed, it’s time to put it all together.
These half-pound patties are quite thick, so we ended up grilling them for six or seven minutes per side for medium rare, you may want to adjust your cooking times to the burgers you use, the heat of your grill, and how well done you prefer your beef.
Once the burgers are done to your liking add a couple of slices or brie on top and allow to melt, then slather a bit of the mayonnaise on a lightly toasted bun, top with a slice of sweet onion, the burger, avocado slices and tomatoes.
Fine burger. Just mebbe, next time, we’ll do ’em on ciabatta instead. Or, how about my own French bread rolls? Yeh, that’ll do.