I hope you all had a wonderful Race/St. Patrick's Day weekend. I spent my birthday weekend playing golf with the family and going out to lunch on Sunday.
This week I want to talk burger. There are so many ways to make burgers that it could make your head spin. You can even find Kobe beef burgers these days and if you haven't had one, they are worth the few extra dollars to try one.
When I worked in Montana we made a burger called The Mountain Burger which had ground lamb, bison and elk and it was topped with huckleberry ketchup. As first I thought, "really?" Then I tried one and that was the one I ate most often when I was in the mood for a burger.
At the hospital we offer four different kinds of burgers everyday in our Café. The first is your traditional beef burger made of ground chuck. There is also a turkey burger, a black bean burger with chipotle and finally a Boca burger, which is our vegan offering.
I have the black bean burger more often than any of the others and that is because it has a little spice and smokiness in it from the chipotle, which are smoked jalapenos.
I know there are some of you of there that love to have your burger topped with crumbled bleu cheese, and I couldn't agree more. But I have a twist on that combination. I have included a recipe that uses a black bean burger instead of beef, so I hope you enjoy it.
Cheers, Chef.
Bleu-Topped Black Bean Burger
1-1/3 tbs. Cajun blackened seasoning
4 meatless chipotle black bean burger, 4.25 oz
4 whole wheat hamburger buns
4 oz. fresh, shredded Romaine lettuce
8 fresh red onions cut in 1/4-inch rings
4 tbs. bleu cheese crumbles
Coat each side of black bean burger with one-half tsp. blackened seasoning (1 tsp. total) and grill to create a blackened black bean burger. Toast bun on grill. Build sandwich as follows:
-- Bottom of toasted bun
-- 1 oz. shredded romaine
-- 1 black bean burger
-- 2 red onion rings
-- 1 tbs.. (1/2 oz.) blue cheese crumbles
-- Top of toasted bun
Tim Spain is System Executive Chef with Florida Hospital Heartland Medical Center and Morrison Healthcare Food Service. He can be reached at tim.spain@ahss.org/. Guest columns are the opinion of the writer, not necessarily those of the News-Sun staff.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013 - www.newssun.com/col-032013-spain