Bacon Bleu Cheese Tornado Burger: Happy Memorial Day!

Bacon Bleu Cheese Tornado Burger: Gluttons Unite!

I loved this week’s episode of Guy’s Grocery Games Burger challenge. Aaron May is always one of my favorite chefs on the show. And sure enough, he won!

I am going to steal one of his burger techniques, by using my square egg ring to shape the burger. I agree with using butter-side down, on a burger as well.

I got so many fresh ideas for my Memorial Day burger from that episode. I was going to grill it outside yesterday, but the heavy rain, thunderstorms and tornado warning said otherwise.

So, instead, I had to take cover in the basement for about an hour until the weather cleared up. I remembered to grab a battery-operated candle, but forgot to bring a can of beer! Do’h!

So me and my loyal cat stayed in the dusty, wet basement, dreaming of the burger I had planned to make.

Oh well, the storms made me miss the Dynasty finale and Agents of Shield too. Boo Bad weather!

Hopefully Saturday will be a great Do-Over day to get back on track with my favorite TV shows.

And I can use my grill pan, instead of my new George Foreman grill. I was looking forward to soaking hickory chips for one hour, then adding them to a foil packet with holes, for the outside grill.

I think I can make this burger just as good inside!

This burger was referenced in The Vampire Dancer Saga, Part 2, Chapter 7: Dancing Back to our Past (the 1950s). Go to page 27 in the soft cover book. Or, do a search in the audio or Kindle version.

INGREDIENTS:

Ground chuck beef, 1 pound
Bleu cheese crumbles, ½ to ¼ cup, to your taste
Bacon Pieces or Bits, ½ to ¼ cup, to your taste
Diced onions (or slice a raw onion), ½ to ¼ cup, to your taste
Worcestershire sauce, ½ teaspoon, to your taste
Liquid Smoke, ½ teaspoon, to your taste
Montreal Steak seasoning, ½ teaspoon, to your taste
Brioche Buns (or your favorite bun), 4
Aioli, Mustard and Mayo (use one on the top and one on the bottom bun)
Horseradish, dash (bring some heat!)
Butter, 4 pats
Swiss Cheese, I am using Aged, 2 per burger
Tomato, I am going to use 1/3 of a Roma
Barbecue sauce or Ketchup, what you like the best, or none
Pickles, optional
Lettuce, optional (I am having a salad, so I am skipping the lettuce on the burger tonight)
Poppy seeds (why pay more for Chicago-style buns, when you can DIY it yourself?)
Water

SUGGESTIONS:

Get beef to room temperature, then together mix with Bleu cheese, bacon pieces, diced onions, Worcestershire sauce, Liquid Smoke and Montreal Steak seasoning. Plastic disposal gloves are your best friend for this. Form into 4 patties, with a butter pan indent on the bottom side
Chef tip, you can use an Egg Ring to shape the burger round or square. I fried the bottom side with the egg ring in the pan, then removed the egg ring for the top side
Heat the grill pan for 2-3 minutes on low (or get your grill nice and hot!)
Burger, butter-side down on the grill pan, cook until 145°F for medium-rare or, if using commercial ground beef, cook it to at least medium, 160°F, this usually takes about 5 minutes per side in my grill pan. I crank the heat up a bit after I put the burgers in.
Now it is time to grill the buns and let the cheese melt. I experimented using butter to glue the poppy seeds, but that was too oily. So now I prefer to use water. So you may want to water the top side and make sure the poppy seeds stick, then grill the top and bottom bun for a few minutes. The cheese can be melting at the same time.
Remove the buns and let the burgers rest for a few minutes.
I like to put Mayo on the bottom-grilled bun and Mustard on the top bun.
The tomato and pickle add moisture to the bun, so I put the pickle on the bottom, the burger, and then the tomato on the top.

The perfect side dish?

Stay tuned for my Bacon, Bacon Cowboy Beans!

Bacon Hickory Thick-slided, 1 pound
Polish Sausage, diced
Diced onions, I use frozen to save time, about 1 ¼ cups
Garlic, I use the bag of raw with the peel off, to save time, about 2 to 3 heads
Spinach, frozen, 12 oz. bag
Butter Beans, 15.5 oz., 2 cans
Bush’s Grillin’ Beans, Bourbon & Brown Sugar, 22 Oz, 1 can
Stubb’s Hickory Bourbon Bar-B-Q Sauce, 6 oz
Beef Consommé condensed, 10.5 oz.
Cream of Bacon Soup condensed, 10.5 oz. 1 can
Cream of Celery Soup condensed, 10.5 oz. 1 can
Ice, 4-5 cubes (to prevent the slow cooker from burning the food)

Get the slow cooker ready to go

Cut and fry the bacon thick pieces, remove
Dice and fry the polish sausage
Cook 1 cup of onions and 2 heads diced garlic
I put ice in the bottom of the slow cooker, then the uncooked onion, garlic and frozen spinach
Drain the Butter Beans and add to crock pot
Polish sausage and cooked onions and garlic
Cooked bacon next
Grillin’ Beans (or your favorite Baked Beans) is next
Stir in the Bacon and Celery soup
Add some Barbecue sauce next
The Beef Consommé is last
Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours

Have a safe and Happy Memorial Day!

THE VAMPIRE DANCER SAGA 5 IS COMING!

Check out the sample and get your copy here: Audible.com The Vampire Dancer Saga Part 4 Audiobook

The Vampire Dancer Saga Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 are all Audiobooks now available at Audible.com and iTunes (click the word Audible or iTunes to open link to store).

BOOKS BY SHALIMAR ALI: