SATURDAY’S KITCHEN: THE SHAMELESS BURGER
Guest blogger
Karehma is back and tempting us with her recipe for a yummy-licious ” GOURMET TURKEY BURGER” I don’t know about you, but after reading this post…guess what I wanted to eat?
My burger craving has been off the charts lately. I live in the Pendleton / Over-the-Rhine neighborhoods of downtown Cincinnati. Crafted burger joints constantly tempt me. From Nation’s burger of the month, to Americano Burger Bar in the business / hotel district. The hand pattied in-house ground beef burgers, are worth the $10 – $12 you spend on one.
The cheapest burger that will still knock your socks off, is at one of my favorite burger joints Kreuger’s and it is $9. This is still before fries, folks.
So what if you are jonesing for a craft burger all week? Do you want to be out of 30 to 70 bucks until you kick your craving? I pride myself on good dining. I pride myself even more on the cheap-fat-girl-challenge. Sometimes the only win is the fantastic meal, not the bill. But when I do both It. Is.Awesome!
This weekend I knew it was economically infeasible to have as many tasty burgers from these places as I’d like, especially if I knew I wanted a beer and fries with it. Plus, I don’t necessarily like the idea of feeding these machines with my hard-earned money, even if I had it to blow. So this past Saturday I decided to make my own juicy burgers.
Turkey Burgers
I leave the beef to the restaurants. It helps me lower my red meat intake if I know the cost is a deterrent. I try to embrace the leaner turkey route, but I had to master it first. Ground turkey with a lean point of 93/7 (7% fat), needs a little love before it hits the skillet. If not, you’ll get a burger that tastes like your Berber carpet. Use one egg and some Panko breadcrumbs for one pound of ground turkey.
Spices are simple in selection because I intend to get obscene with my toppings. In this batch, however, I tried some fresh rosemary. I plucked the herb and chopped further to add to my poultry. This is optional, but it gave the burger a fresh flavor.
Toppings
The toppings were truly the fun part. I had a craving for a “bacon burger”. Bacon is another one of those things I leave to restaurants, for the reason I mentioned in Saturday’s Kitchen: Beating the Hangover”. Instead, I opted for turkey pastrami deli meat…that I could fry up like bacon. A basic brand will do. Brands like Boar’s Head are too lean and good of grain quality to convert to bacon. Get off the high horse this once and go with a cheapo deli meat. You will not need to add oil to fry up this quality.
Everything from this point on is whatever was in my condiments section of the fridge. I topped the burger with the following: pepperoncini, hamburger pickles in a garlic brine, chunky tomato salsa, hot sauce, stone-ground mustard, olive tapenade, mayo’d both ends of buns, and slices of queso that I grilled on a non-stick skillet. The queso is a crumbling Mexican cheese, not the dip. It holds well in heat and once melted, then cooled, it can be gently scraped off the skillet in decent form. I placed this on the patty before anything else.
Ready to Smash
Grill up the bun with a little butter or butter-flavored coconut oil. Have fun layering all the toppings and be prepared for the juices to flow from the toppings. You will have a leaner, eclectic-themed burger at least four times from one pound of ground turkey. Congratulations. You saved $36 – $40 eating your own gourmet burgers or that you can share with friends. Enjoy!
Thanks for stopping by friends. Was I right? Don’t you have a craving for a burger?
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