August 20 – 26, 2018

Monday:                   Corn and Avocado Salad with Cheese Toast

Tuesday:                   Seared Salmon with Summer Vegetables and Soy Glaze

Wednesday:            Sausage and Escarole Soup / Catalan Tomato Bread

Thursday:                 Grilled Pork Burgers / Grilled potatoes / Green Salad

Friday:                       Party for Tommy and Cait Welsh – Field Club

Saturday:                  Grilled Shrimp and Vegetable Kabobs / Three Bean Salad

Sunday:                     Cheese and Salumi Plate / Kansas City Barbecued Beef Brisket / Barbecued Beans / Cole Slaw / Ice Cream with Blackberry Sauce

In this age of healthy eating, vegetarians, Vegans, ancient grains and the eschewal of carbohydrates and red meat, burgers are, I would argue, a sign of sanity – a mark that the person eating them is neither an obsessive nor a fanatic.  If you’ve been following this blog, you probably feel the same way.  Otherwise, our rough and ready approach, not holding back on butter or bacon or anything that will enhance taste, would have sent you on a long wilderness hike with your favorite gluten-free trail mix.  But even you may have to brace yourself for the recipe for this week.

You will think, at first, that I have pushed the envelope too far.  Well, you’ll just have to trust me.  Look there were a lot of really good normal recipes to choose last week.  The corn and avocado salad was so good that I considered delivering it to several houses in the neighborhood.  We cooked a shrimp and vegetable kabob where the shrimp and the vegetables were book perfectly done – I’ve got to share that technique with you in the future.  What could be better than these crowd-pleasers?  Grilled Pork Burgers.

Now some burgers are great because they knock you over the head with the smoky taste of grilled meat.  And some are good because of the dressing or sauce that goes with them.  Well this burger is good for both of those reasons, and you will not believe how moist and savory this baby is.  It will be a new taste for you and you will wonder where it has been all of your life.  Seriously, go get some ground pork, a nice substantial bun to put it on and cook this for your family.  If you do, they may let you stay around for a while.  You might want to call it Panini Maiale until they’ve eaten it.  Once they do, they’ll be calling for pork burgers on a regular basis.

Grilled Pork Burgers

 Timing:                                                   40 minutes tops

Ingredients:                                                Serves 4

For the burgers:

1 slice of hearty white sandwich bread (we used two pieces of sourdough
with the crust cut off
1 shallot minced
2 tablespoons of milk
4 teaspoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 ¼ teaspoons minced fresh thyme (we eyeballed it – who uses 1 ¼
teaspoons of anything outside a baking recipe?)
1 teaspoon of pepper
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ pounds ground pork (the lean stuff they sell at supermarkets)
4 hamburger buns (we used what our market labels “semi-hard” rolls)
1 recipe Horseradish Burger Sauce
Sliced tomato, red onion, iceberg lettuce for serving [optional – this was
our addition]

Horseradish Burger Sauce

¼ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sour cream
1-2 tablespoons prepared horseradish (we used 2)
1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard
1 garlic clove, minced [we did not use the garlic – this has plenty of zing
without the garlic]
Pinch sugar
Salt and pepper
Hot sauce

Cook:

Light some charcoal or turn on a gas grill.  You want a hot grill, so once the coals are ready, close the grill and heat it for about 5 minutes.  Or turn a gas grill to high and let it heat up for about 15 minutes.

While charcoal (or gas grill) is heating, combine the bread, the shallot, milk, soy sauce, Worcestershire, thyme, pepper and salt in a large bowl.  Mash this to a paste with a fork – mash it up really well.

Now, using your hands, add the pork and mix until it is well-combined.

Divide the pork mixture in 4 equal balls, then flatten each into ¾ inch-thick patties.  They’ll be around 4 inches in diameter.  Press the center of the patties down on one side to create a small depression.

Make the horseradish burger sauce by whisking all the ingredients together and seasoning (with salt and pepper and hot sauce) to taste.

Clean and oil the grill grates and then grill the patties, depression-side up (the depression will rise while it cooks) until browned.  5-7 minutes (I cooked for 6).

Flip the burgers and cook 5-7 minutes longer (I cooked 7).

Grill the buns during the last 2 minutes of grilling the burgers.

Serve the burgers with the sauce and – we suggest – a slice of tomato, some red onion and a piece of iceberg lettuce.