Home Cookin': Buffalo Bill/Dabney Coleman BBQ Bacon Cheese Burger

Sunday night is burger night around the house and this weekend’s version was inspired by a viewing of a PBS The American Experience episode about Buffalo Bill Cody, which when trying to cook and tweet at the same time somehow morphed into a reference to Dabney Coleman’s early 1980’s sitcom Buffalo Bill (see tweets here – heck, sign up to follow if you wish).

What made these burgers even more special was that the beef and bacon were procured from our local farmers market.  In most parts of the North East farmer’s market season has just kicked off and that is great news.  Within walking distance of our house are a bevy of delicious, seasonal options produced and sold by the person behind the till.  Stories, suggestions, recipes and heart are all within easy reach of the consumer and we are all a bit better for taking the time to slow down and interact on a more personal level with our food and those that grow it.  Of course these markets are famous for their veggies but we have found that many offer great quality meats as well.  Whether “farm-raised,” “grass-fed,” “organic” and/or “natural” meat, options abound and include not only beef from cows, but good quality bison and small-batch bacons.

Not so much a recipe on this one…more a parts list:

85/15 all-natural ground beef

Thick-cut all-natural bacon

Ultra-sharp cheddar cheese

Onion rings

BBQ sauce

Whole-wheat Telera rolls

Bobby Flay calls his version a Cheyenne Burger.

Carl’s Jr.’s call it a Western Bacon Cheeseburger.

Dabney Coleman Fever movie on YouTube (kiss 8 1/2 minutes of your life goodbye before clicking)

Attack Of The Leftovers: The Haroset Burger

Post holiday weekend and we’ve got an impenetrable wall of leftovers in the fridge from Saturday’s Passover Seder and Sunday’s Easter dinner.  Tons of great food prepared by family and friends and lots of late night snacking and experimenting opportunities.

This burger was pretty much inevitable after the first bite of haroset at the Seder.  On the Seder Plate haroset represents the mortar which the slaves used to build the pyramids in Egypt.  The almost too simple recipe of chopped apples, nuts and wine is available everywhere on the web (see here, here and here) and is ideally prepared by your mother/grandmother.  The version we had was just on the happy side of “too sweet” and as used here was the perfect burger topping.

The burger itself was an 80/20 mix of ground chuck and was produced using “The Great Burger” recipe from John Torode’s new book “Beef and other bovine matters.”   The secret to Torode’s recipe (and how these burgers are served at his Smiths of Smithfield restaurant in London) is his use of Chinese oyster sauce instead of salt.  His theory that salt dries out the burger too much and that this side-effect outweighs the benefits of the taste it imparts is an interesting one and I have to say I kind of agree.  We grilled the burgers and I purposely left one patty on to the point of overdoneness and it was still juicy.  More side-by-side tests are necessary, but I’m willing to buy into the logic.  The oyster sauce doesn’t overpower the burger either.  In the end it was much more subtle then the sniff from the bottle might have suggested.

At this point I am not sick of matzo…that will come soon enough though.  Sadly, as anyone who has eaten a Hillel sandwich knows, matzo is not the best sandwich delivery vehicle, but even as it crumbled to bits with the first bite it remained the only logical choice for this burger and the rare bites that did include burger, haroset and matzo were perfect.

Our pantry will be filled with matzo for months (do they sell it in anything but 5 lb. boxes?) so this dish will pop up again in our house very soon…just have to make more haroset but that is easy and is a great use for any leftover wine you might have laying about.

By the way, the perfect beverage for this burger is of course Passover Coke.  The local Genuardi’s supply was waning considerably the other day…load up while you can!

Next up is an Easter burger with cabbage roll topping on a potato roll!  Stay tuned.

Collingswood, NJ: The Pop Shop's Biloxi Blue Crab Burger

Biloxi Blue Crab Burger

856-869-0111‎

729 Haddon Ave

Collingswood, NJ

thepopshopusa.com

Biloxi Blue Crab Burger: Cajun blackened burger with seasoned crabmeat, blue and parmesan cheeses served with Louisiana fries and rémoulade sauce

Yup, you read that correctly. Crabmeat + Burger + Blue Cheese = !!!

The Pop Shop is a great example of faux retro done right and the main reason is their menu. Creativity is key and one could pretty much take a blind stab at any dish on the menu and walk away thinking they just had one terrific meal.

The burger is a one-half pound 100% Angus beef patty, served as you read above with a heaping dollop of crabmeat, blue and parmesan cheese. As you can see from the picture, this combination mixes nicely atop the burger and spreads evenly when squished down by the bun. Each bite is two treats in one, as the sweetness of the crab meets the deep beefiness of the burger.

Never in a million years would I consider combining crab meat and burgers on my own at home, but whoever came up with this one was really on to something.