Home Cookin': Big Island Burger Sauce

The Big Island Burger With Sauce

I am a firm believer that a great burger experience doesn’t necessarily mean trekking across state lines in search of some hole in the wall spot conveniently located on the one road that Google Maps hasn’t identified yet.

In fact, I tend to believe that with proper equipment and motivation, the average home cook can produce a burger that rivals any of the “big names” in terms of quality (of course, ambiance and history are hard to match, so we’ll still get in our cars and explore). To that end, where I can I’ll present some tips, tricks, techniques and recipes for the burgers we make at home. First up, a sauce recipe created on the fly and named (after-the-fact) “Big Island Burger Sauce.”

Prep time: 2 minutes

Total time: 10 minutes

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 1 cup pineapple chunks (I used frozen chunks from Trader Joes – you could use fresh or another brand of frozen chunks
• 4 tablespoons of mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce (I used low sodium, mainly out of necessity, but also because we tend to heavily salt our burgers to bring out their inherent flavor…so save sodium where you can)
• Small piece of fresh Ginger Root

In a saute pan, brown the pineapple chunks over medium heat (3-5 minutes)

Once browned, place the chunks on a cutting board and allow to cool for a minute or two. After they are cool enough to touch, rough cut them. I left a few big chunks to please to palate.

In a mixing bowl place the cut chunks, mayo and teriyaki sauce. Mix until combined into a chunky sauce. With a microplane grater, add about 2 teaspoons of fresh ginger root and then stir again to ensure all ingredients are evenly distributed.

To serve, place a generous portion of the sauce on top of your burgers. For the picture above we grilled burgers on an electric griddle with Havarti cheese served on Stern’s Kosher Hamburger Buns (if you can find these buns in your store they are amazing!!). Enjoy.   (Refrigerate unused portion for up to 24 hours)

editors note(s):

1. I am not a professional chef, not even close. This recipe worked very well for us, your results may vary (but it is hard to go wrong with this ingredient combination).
2. I have never been to Hawaii, and as such the reader should be skeptical of my naming of this sauce.
3. Why yes, bacon would be awesome with this burger! Some carmelized onions wouldn’t hurt either.
4. Havarti and Hawaii look very similar, but Havarti cheese does not come from Hawaii.
5. And finally, your cardiologist would not approve of this recipe (despite all the veggies on the plate!)

Burgers Of The Broad Street Run

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while now…forgive me if it seems somehow less timely now that it has sat in my draft queue for 2 weeks.

This past weekend I completed the Broad Street Run for the third time. I say completed rather than ran in homage to the real athletes who darn near sprint the 10 miles from North Philly to the Navy Yard. 10 miles is a long ways, and in the time it takes me to finish it (again, not using “run” here) one has a lot of time to think…and in those idle moments my brain almost always turns to burgers. How many different burgers could one get along the 10 mile race route? Which is the best burger? Would I run faster if I stopped and ate a few of them. Hmmm.

Not counting the McDonalds just behind the starting line, the first fast food joint on the journey comes just past the 1/2 mile mark. This Burger King got me immediately thinking at the complete lack of Breakfast Burgers in Philadelphia…next year I need to run a 10-miler through Queens so I can get a burger before 11am at Joe’s Best Burger (gotta love a burger with a nice runny egg on top!!!)

15 minutes into the race and the initial buzz has worn off. 20,000 people all hyped up at the starting line becomes a mass of humanity questioning why it is they signed up for this thing…the answer lies to your left…Checkers. Ok, so the Checkers isn’t open, but for me (and I am sure a large chunk of others) the reason we run is to off-set the colossal damage done to our bodies by the amazing treats offered by the fine folks at America’s favorite dual drive-thru fast food chain.

Though not a burger joint now, this Popeyes at 800 South Broad Street was once a White Castle (during the burger chain’s very short stay in the City of Brotherly Love). At 7+ miles into the race, a Slider definetly would have hit the spot!

No longer on Broad Street (though the parking lot touches Broad), the Phillies Ballpark would be the last stop for a burger on the route (if I ran slower -not sure if that is possible – they did have a game that day). The team, like others in the major’s serves the supermarket favorite “Bubba Burger” which I can’t complain about. The homestretch from here was burger-free (good thing, by this point I was busy concentrating on making my heart beat).

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