Roquefort-Bacon-Avocado Burger with Chile Onion Rings
One of the things that I miss most from Texas is fabulous Angus beef, and flavorful, juicy hamburgers. With a side of crispy fries or onion rings, it’s the ultimate comfort food.
Wait. Make that fries and onion rings.
Every time that I go home, I return to my favorite burger joints – the messy, greasy half-pounder at Angry Dog in Dallas; the one-third pound chargrilled burger at Denton Independent Hamburger Company, heaped with shredded cheddar and hickory sauce and homecut fries; and my newest haunt, Tim Love’s place, Love Shack, in the Fort Worth Stockyards, that makes burgers that taste like the ones that I grew up eating, at a walk-up place called La Salle’s. Like La Salle’s, Love Shack serves its old-school burgers wrapped in paper and stuffed into in a plain white sack. Something about that alone is reassuring.
Truth be told, I don’t eat that many hamburgers in Paris because they don’t come close to what I know a burger can be. That said, I’ve had a decent burger at Ferdi (Penelope Cruz’s favorite place for a cheeseburger), and they’re not bad at Coffee Parisien, but the fries always disappoint. Besides, there’s something about drinking a glass of Bordeaux with a burger that’s just wrong.
Until now, I’ve avoided trying to make hamburgers here, too. For one thing, it’s a beef issue; I’m an Angus beef snob. Secondly, you can’t have a grill here. (Apparently it’s a health issue with the French – you know, all of that nasty second-hand meat smoke.) But on the grill pan in the kitchen, I make a fantastic turkey burger — a mixture of ground turkey, shredded Emmental cheese, small torn bits of old bread, egg, onion and spices — and the result is a juicy, lighter alternative to the beef burger. As for the smoke, well, I just open my window and share it with my neighbors.
Today, I’m moving into unknown beef territory. Not because I was brave enough to do this on my own, but because our international foodblog group — Cheryl in New York (on Twitter as @cheryltan88), Nicole in San Diego (on Twitter as @pinchmysalt), and Karen in Atlanta (on Twitter as @geokaren) — and the rest of #BLTlunch bunch decided that we had so much fun making and posting recipes about our BLTs, we’d do it again, and this time, with burgers.
So I decided that I’d give it a try. At first, I thought about making a simple burger with cheddar cheese, which amazingly, I found at a fromagerie down the street (the only one open during August), and frying up some jalapenos and putting them on top, like they do at Angry Dog. I also thought about stuffing the cheese into the middle, or shredding it, like I do with the turkey burgers.
But in the end, in the spirit of “When in Rome…” and all of that, I thought that I’d use one of my favorite French cheeses, Roquefort, and add some bacon and avocado, and come up with a new twist on the chipotle mayo that I made for the #BLTlunch, by substituting a handful of cilantro for the chipotle. (I had to throw a cowgirl twist in there somewhere, right?)
It was damn good burger. Would have been even better with Angus beef.
I cooked my burger in a skillet, not the grill pan, which I’ll do next time, because the cheese ended up making a bit of a crust on the outside, which was not ideal. Then again, I could cut back on the cheese, couldn’t I?
As for the onion rings, well, I just couldn’t resist. For me, they stole the show. I mean, look at these babies.
Next time, I’m doubling the batch, because I want to share them with all of my new friends. What’s next, y’all?
For all of the recipes by the #letslunch group, go to Twitter and type the hashtag #letslunch in the search box.
I’m going down the street to buy some Corona.
Roquefort-Bacon-Avocado Burger
INGREDIENTS
1 ½ pounds ground beef, 20% fat
5 ounces Roquefort , broken into large crumbles
1 small onion, 1/4-inch dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large egg
sea salt
pepper
WHAT YOU DO
Mix ground beef and rest of ingredients in a bowl, form two large patties, and let rest in fridge until ready to cook. Let come to room temperature before grilling. Cook to your favorite doneness.
Chile Onion Rings
This is my attempt at trying to recreate Love Shack’s spicy onion rings, with the French chile, piment d’Espelette, based on a recipe by Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa at Home).
INGREDIENTS
2-3 large onions, sliced and separated into rings
2 cups buttermilk
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¼ cup yellow corn meal
1 quart peanut oil or vegetable oil
sea salt
pepper
1 teaspoon chile powder*
WHAT YOU DO
1. In a medium bowl, mix buttermilk with approximately one teaspoon salt, and a bit of black pepper. Add onions and let rest in buttermilk for at least 15 minutes or up to a few hours.
2. In another bowl, combine flour, cornmeal, 1 teaspoon salt and chile powder of your choice.
3. When you’re ready to fry the onions, first turn on the oven to 200F, and line a cookie sheet with paper towels.
4. Now, heat the oil in a large pot (I use a tall, deep soup pot, which helps reduce some of the splattering) to 350 degrees. Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pot to make sure the oil reaches the right temperature before you begin and doesn’t get too hot.
5. Working in batches, dredge the buttermilk-soaked onions in the flour, shake off the excess and fry. They’ll only take a couple of minutes, so watch them carefully and be sure to turn them over with tongs about halfway so they get golden brown on both sides.
6. Put each batch of onion rings on the cookie sheet and into the oven so they’ll stay crisp and warm until they’re all fried. They’ll stay crisp in the oven for 30 minutes.
*Use your favorite chile powder — ancho, chipotle, cayenne, piment d’Espelette or a smoky paprika.
