Saturday, June 09, 2007

More Burgers (Tex Mex, Caesar, Greek and Indian)

Yesterday I did my annual burger making. This is where I take 4 lbs of ground meat (usually half extra lean beef or pork and half ground chicken or turkey) and make our burgers for the summer. I've been doing this for as long as I can remember. Then we can just throw them on whenever we want. If we are having a crowd around then I usually do up a separate batch so we can keep these for ourselves for convenience.

This year I did Tex Mex, Indian (huge hit last year), Greek (always popular) and I thought I'd try something new with a Caesar burger. I used 2 lbs of extra lean beef mixed with 2 lbs of ground turkey. It works out to 4 burgers of each type, each 1/4 lb.

For each mixture I started with 1/2 cup of freshly made bread crumbs. I used some ends of whole wheat bread I had frozen and even one old whole wheat bagel. I put them in the food processor. I swear this is the secret to moist burgers. Last year I made buffalo burgers which are quite lean and can easily be dry but mine were really moist.

Okay, back to the burgers. I then added one egg for each mixture. And that is where the similarities end.

Tex Mex
1 tablespoon Ms. Dash Southwest Chipotle seasoning but you could use chili powder or chipotle powder
1/2 cup grated cheddar (monteray jack would be nice here too)
1/2 cup salsa
(you could also add either Tabasco sauce, one canned chipotle diced or cut up a jalapeno if you want extra spice)

Mix and freeze

Greek
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried mint
2 tablespoons diced red onion
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
juice of half a lemon (about 2 tbsp)

Indian
2 tablespoons diced red onion
1/2 cup yogurt (I used fat free)
2 cloves of garlic, minced (or about 2 tsp bottled)
1/2 inch of ginger, minced (or about 2 tsp bottled)
2 tablespoons of curry powder (I used Madras Curry powder from the Asian market)

Caesar
30 dashes of the Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup grated parmesan
juice from half of a lemon (1 tbsp is enough)
2 tsp of minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
2 tsp of anchovy paste

I haven't tried these Caesar burgers yet but I will have one tomorrow night. If they didn't turn out well, I'll edit this post! (I came back to edit this... the lemon zest in the Caesar burgers was too much so just use 1 tbsp of juice)

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