Thursday, July 16, 2009

Grilled Pork Burgers Indochine





From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Ellie Mathews creates great recipes. She's won the Pillsbury Bake-Off and Build a Better Burger competitions, so her cooking credentials are well known. What you may not know is that Ellie is an established writer of fiction and memoir. I backed into my knowledge of her after reading "Ambassador to the Penguins" and "The Linden Tree," her first two books. Ellie then went on to write "The Ungarnished Truth: A Cooking Contest Memoir" which chronicled her experiences as winner of the Pillsbury Bake-Off. They are wonderful books that show the range of her writing skills as well as her honesty and the scope of her spirit. I hope you'll visit her website, Ellie Mathews. Ellie's recipes are easy to prepare, ever so slightly exotic and made with ingredients that you can pull from a grocer's shelves. This winning burger recipe is no exception. I grind the pork for these burgers myself. It's not necessary, but I prefer the texture of home-chopped pork to its commercially available equivalent. That also allows me to control the fat content of the meat. Star anise has a mild licorice flavor. If you can't find it, 1/2 teaspoon of regular anise seeds can be ground and used as a substitute. In keeping with the Asian origins of this recipe, the patties are formed into rectangles that will fit within French rolls. The patties and the sauce that's served with them take about 15 minutes to prepare. Here's Ellie's recipe.

Grilled Pork Burgers Indochine...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, courtesy of Ellie Mathews and Sutter Home Winery

Ingredients:
Dressing:
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh Thai basil
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
2 green onions, finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Patties:
1/4 cup Vietnamese fish sauce (nuoc nam)
4 teaspoons jaggery (palm sugar) or brown sugar
1 teaspoon sriracha or other Asian hot chile sauce
2 pounds freshly ground pork
1/4 cup chunky peanut butter
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon ground star anise

Vegetable oil, for brushing the grill rack
6 French rolls, split
6 interior butter lettuce leaves

Directions:
1) Prepare a medium-hot fire in a charcoal grill with a cover, or preheat a gas grill to medium high.
2) To make dressing, combine mayonnaise, basil, cilantro, green onions, and lime juice in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate.
3) To make patties, place fish sauce, jaggery, and chile sauce in a medium bowl and combine well. Add the pork, peanut butter, ginger, garlic, and star anise and blend loosely with a fork. Form into 6 equal rectangular patties to fit inside French rolls, making a slight depression in center of patties to compensate for a tendency to bulge during cooking.
4) Brush grill rack with oil. Grill patties with grill top closed for 4 minutes. Turn and grill until an instant-read thermometer inserted into center of patties registers 160 degrees F, about 4 minutes longer. During the last 2 minutes of grilling patties, place rolls, cut side down, on grill to toast.
5) To assemble burgers, spread roll bottoms with a thin layer of dressing, followed by a lettuce leaf. Add patties and top with generous dollops of the dressing. Add the roll tops. Yield: 6 burgers.

Recipe courtesy of Sutter Home Winery - Build A Better Burger 2005 and Ellie Mathews

27 comments :

Elizabeth said...

Wow - You have a great cooking blog. I really enjoy cooking. I tell ya, I was pretty sad at it when I first got married...I could make mac & cheese and maybe spiff it up with ground beef. Ha, ha. Over the years, I've learned to cook almost entirely from scratch..Now, I am trying to be a little more gourmet about it.

Well, I'll be back..You have GREAT ideas!
Thanks!

Pam said...

Now that is one FANTASTIC burger. I am loving the mayo sauce.

Selba said...

I really like the ingredients for the dressing, definitely will make it one day, thanks for sharing it :)

Sam Hoffer / My Carolina Kitchen said...

The Pillsbury Bake Off is one of the "big three." How exciting.
I'm dying to click over to her site as soon as I tell you how great this burger looks. A lot of interesting flavors here with the sugar and hot sauce. Burgers can be so boring but this one is an exception. Great photo as always.
Sam

Tanya said...

This looks fantastic - now I know what I'll be having for lunch today!

Schnitzel and the Trout said...

Mary, bless you. You do all the research and tweeking and we simply read your blog and end up with the most fascinating foods to put on the table. This sounds like a wonderful recipe--everything we love. Thanks.

Nancy Rosalina said...

HMMM! That looks good! Love your blog! I will be back to spend more time here! Nancy

Creative Classroom Core said...

How creative and tasty! Thanks for sharing!

theUngourmet said...

What an outstanding recipe! I tell you Mary, you should open a restaurant over there! I would be first in line! :0)

I've never tried Thai Basil. I'll have to find it!

The Fajdich Times said...

That is just a picture perfect burger. Sounds yummy:) Thanks for all the insite on her. I am going to visit her site as well.

La Cuisine d'Helene said...

The dressing must be so good. This is such a nice looking burger.

Marta said...

I like grinding my own meats as well, the texture is better. these looks really delicious. A winning recipe indeed!!!

The Blonde Duck said...

I didn't know they had pork burgers!

Katy ~ said...

My culinary horizons have just been broadened.

Well done!

NKP said...

That looks so good. I wish I had one here for dinner.
I have some stuff ready.. just have to wake up my griller!

Mary Bergfeld said...

Helene, I just wanted to welcome you to my hangout. I hope you'll stop by often.

Donna-FFW said...

That dressing sounds wonderful on this pork burger.

Taste of My Life said...

This burger is so yummy! I love it and I will try this for my girls. They will enjoy it!

Sasha said...

Pork burgers? Very original. And that dressing sounds lovely.

chow and chatter said...

By the way I changed my site address to https://chowandchatter.blogspot.com
To match the name ! Love Rebecca

Lyndas recipe box said...

This is a delicious looking burger and that dressing sounds wonderful!
Thanks!

Gaby said...

WOW I LOVE THIS.... burgers are the best and I love trying new ways and ideas! this one is a must!!

Olga said...

I like anything that starts with mayo!

Great combo of flavors.

Justin said...

the combination of ingredients in those patties is really exciting

test it comm said...

Those burgers look so good! I like all of the green. The dressing sounds great!

Esi said...

These burgers look great! I love alternatives to beef like pork.

Deb in Hawaii said...

Great combination of flavors in this one--it looks delicious!

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