Burgers

We’re already past summer’s halfway point. In Montreal that means the days are already getting shorter, and soon we’ll be complaining about the snow. Still, the weather this past weekend was amazing. A lot of people took advantage and made a getaway out of the city. For us, we decided to celebrate by lighting the grill and, modestly, eating a burger from every major meat protein: fish, chicken, lamb, and of course beef.

 

It took bravery, endurance and ambition. This is that story.

 

The weekend’s work started out slowly. In fact, on Friday, we didn’t even know the scale of the adventure we’d soon undertake. Lamb was bought, buns were bought. It was only the following morning, there’s just two of us to feed, when we stared at the remaining buns and realized the opportunity we’d been given. Far be it for us to waste the leftovers, we rushed out to the store and came back with swordfish, chicken and beef to fill those lonely buns. The idea was to have a new pair of burgers ready every two hours. We failed. The part to me that still thinks he can eat as a teenager was shamed. Who knew? We finally finished the last

burger round on Sunday, with the beef, as altogether apt way to end the weekend.

 

The lamb burger, as said, was first. It consisted of lamb, roasted garlic, chopped black olives, diced and caramelized onion, feta, salt and pepper, all adjusted to taste. I grilled over indirect heat because of the fattiness of the meat. It was topped with some mayo and diced sundried tomatoes.

 

 

 

The swordfish kicked off lunch on Saturday. We don’t have a meat grinder, so the fish was just diced (slowly) until it was in the right consistency. Mixed to that was a half-cup of cooked quinoa, diced olives and sundried tomatoes, and an egg to help it all stick. Some salt and pepper, of course. I chill the burgers before grilling them, and they tend to stay together better.

 

The burgers were topped with a quick salsa of roasted green peppers, garlic and jalapeno peppers blended together into a paste, half a mango, some green onions, thinly diced, and a handful of chopped strawberries. I tossed the lot with a bit of olive oil, lime juice and some salt.

 

 

 

The chicken burger was my answer to clearing out leftovers in the fridge. While not heroic, it did seem like a good and laudable thing to do. And so under the theme “Chicken Eggplant Parmesan” I concocted a way to get rid of the last of my kale and basil pesto, as well as a half-cup of homemade garlic tomato sauce. I mixed these, some diced onions and some breadcrumbs into the ground chicken. The burger was topped with some buffalo mozzarella and some grilled eggplant.

 

I liked it in theory, but in execution I think we would have tasted the tomato more (because we only tasted the garlic, really) if I’d reserved the sauce and added it to the eggplant as a topping. Still, tasty enough overall.

 

It was at this point, maybe because of the disappointment, maybe just because of overreaching, but we took a nap, went for a walk, drank some wine, and proceeded to skip supper and fall fast asleep.

 

Finally, the beef burger. This was the simplest, actually, and the quickest. (No hand-dicing of swordfish here.) First I roasted some garlic, four bulbs total, and threw them into the beef. Then I added about two heaping tablespoons (the bottom of the jar) of spiced beer jelly, a tablespoon of beer flavored mustard, and salt and pepper.

 

I topped these guys with caramelized onions cooked in a skillet on the grill, and a slice of Griffon beer-flavored raclette cheese.

 

 

 

To be honest, I think the lamb burger was the best. And how can you go wrong with beef and beer, but the Nicoise salad-esque fish burger with salsa topping was a great, colorful summer afternoon meal.

 

We had takeout sushi for lunch on Monday.