Blue Cheese Stuffed Burger

This burger recipe blew my taste buds up. It is adapted from a recipe in Saveur Magazine. We modified it to be easier (and tastier) using our seasoning blends.

INGREDIENTS:

3 Teaspoons French Made Easy
1 Teaspoon Italiano Pronto, for pickling onions & mushrooms
2 Pounds Ground beef, organic if possible
1 Red onion, thinly sliced
6 Ounces Brown mushrooms, thinly sliced
4 Ounces Blue cheese
½ Cups Olive oil
1 Cup Red wine vinegar
4 Large hamburger buns
1 Avocado, sliced
1 Lettuce and tomato, for garnish

DIRECTIONS:

First thing you want to do is make pickled onions and mushrooms. The longer they have time to pickle, the better they get in flavor. These taste amazing and add such a great dynamic to the burger. Thinly slice the onions and mushrooms. Try to be consistent so they pickle evenly. Place in bowl large enough to hold them plus the vinegar and oil used for pickling.

Using a pot, add the olive oil, vinegar and 1 teaspoon of Italiano Pronto. Bring to a boil.

Pour the seasoned oil and vinegar over the onions and mushrooms. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge. Do the night before if you can so they have time to absorb all the flavors.

This is how they look after 1 night in the fridge. These are great to eat as is, but you can use them on a lot of other dishes too: sandwiches, pizza, salads, etc.

I used 1/4 pound of beef for each patty. Roll into a ball, and then flatten it to about 1/4" thick. Make them a bit large as they will shrink in size. Wash your hands. Time to season the burgers up.

I use about 1/2 a teaspoon of French Made Easy per patty. Sprinkle on one side and press into the meat. Top one patty with 1 oz. of blue cheese. Keep the edges free of cheese so you can seal it.

Lay the patty without cheese over the one with cheese. Gently pinch the edges around the burger. Make sure it's sealed well so the cheese doesn't ooze out on the grill. Smooth the edges then season both sides. Cover the burgers then let them chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or more. But make sure to have them at room temperature before cooking. Meat always turns out better if it's not cold when cooked.

Place your burgers on a hot grill. I like my burger more on the medium-well side so I let each side cook for 7-8 minutes.

While the burger is cooking, grab your buns and drizzle them with a little olive oil. I sprinkled a pinch or two of French Made Easy. Toast the buns on the grill.

I love a crispy crust on a burger. If your grill is really hot, the burger should get a great crust to it.

Slice some avocado, tomatoes and lettuce for garnish. Top the bun with a little dijon first then add the garnish to it. Top the burger with some of the mushrooms and onions you just pickled!

Now that's a great looking burger!

Gently push down on the top bun then cut in half. A bit messy, yes! But as they say - if it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face! I hope you enjoy this burger like I did!