Oh! OH OH OH, before I forget. I need to put up a disclaimer. If you don't like avocado's, you should probably leave now. I'll say 70+% of my meals in the summer have that butterysmushysoftgreen veggie in it somehow. Sorry D:
Prep time! First, I began to gather my herbs and spices for the burgers. I settled on basil, rosemary (I dropped the jar and it shattered evvvvvvvvvvvverywhere /tears), cayenne pepper, coarsely ground black pepper, sea salt and just a touch of dried mint. I tossed this all together with the ground beef along with an egg and quite a fair bit of Worcestershire Sauce. I honestly don't think I've had a burger in the last few years without it. My last ingredient was bacon grease. Ew, right? No. You're wrong. Amaaaazzziiinng. I wanted the flavor of bacon but I was too lazy to fry up an ENTIRE pan. Plus, I've been craving the spicy-sweet bacon I used in my Mother's Day brunch and I'm afraid I would have gobbled it all up. Whoops?
Anyways, weird spices and bacony-goodness added, I added a helluva lot of chopped chives and then made sure my mix was as homogeneous as possible (oh shit, was that chemistry vocabulary seeping out of my brain?!). I began shaping the meat in to patties with what I can only describe as miniature volcanoes in them. I added Sargento sharp cheddar to the center of the
-cough- I mean...
Wait. Wut? I Baddrawingjoke is bad? Yah. Sooooo, I noticed that my burgers were quite a lot smaller than the gargantuan buns I'd bought. I doubled the size of the patties and ended up with only eight massive burgers.
Seriously, that's a huge dinner plate. But check out the chivey-goodness!
I left the burgers to sit in the fridge for a few hours so all the different flavors and the ground beef could get all friendly with each other. I also made a quick avocado-Tabasco mayo, which was simply smooshied avocado with green Tabasco mixed with mayonnaise. This, too, sat in the fridge to get it's flavor-party on.
Once it was closer to dinner time, I began preparing a green salad. I've been craving arugula/ roquette since my auntie used it as a base in a salad a few weeks back. Doing my best to imitate her delicious concoction, I washed my arugula and sauteed the pine-nuts in garlic oil.
I added an avocado and a half along with two cucumbers to my salad. Everything was lightly tossed in balsamic vinegar and olive oil with just a light touch of the garlic oil and sprinkled with Parmesan cheese. Voila!
I slapped my big-bad-burgers on the grill and was very pleased that there was minimal flare-up or cheese-leak (wow that sounds a littlelotta disgusting). I also toasted the buns on the grill with just a small amount of butter on the inside of the rolls. I dressed the burgers with the mayo, red onion, tomato, and more avocado. Notice the cheese dripping just a bit out of the side. I got my nom-nom on with a chilly Red Bridge beer (:O gluten free beer!?).
What its like: The first thing to hit me besides the "AH SO HUNGGRRY!" was the "Oh shit. How do I fit this GIANT burger in my mouf? D:" Once I found a sizable area to start chomping on, the super fresh and crusty bun is the first thing to hit home. Then the crunch and slide between the varying veggies are present just before an explosion of several flavours puts the burger highest on the Tasty Chain. The Worcestershire sauce and chives are the major contenders for taste, but the hints of basil and rosemary are really brought out with the cheddar. The mayo makes itself known towards the end of a bite--sweet, tangy and salty all at once. The layering affect of the veggies and spices is very harmonious, though I was left wishing for riper tomatoes.
Verdict: Loved it! Super easy meal, easy to plate and even easier to gobble down.
Skill-Level: On the lower side of medium.
Time: Prep = 30 minutes for all. Cook = 15 minutes.
