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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Blue Cheese Burger with a Whiskey Cherry Sauce



I'm not sure if I'll be able to eat a burger with lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles again without missing this one.  Last week my husband had a craving for burgers.  I had gone to Central Market this year for grill week and tried a burger that had a grilled peach on it.  I loved it and immediately made a note to try this the next time we have burgers.  As I was getting out all the typical burger condiments, I realized we had some leftover cherry sauce that I had made to go on top of pork chops earlier that week, lavender mustard I had brought back from Paris a while ago, spinach that was starting to look droopy, and some leftover blue cheese from a wine and cheese party I hosted for my girlfriends.  Thus, the perfect burger was born!! 

Immediately after my first bite I had to text two of my friends right away to tell them how wonderful it was and beg them to make something similar SOON!  Below is how I made my burger.  Of course my husband ended up topping his burger with and egg and wouldn't come near mine with the blue cheese, so the amounts listed below are for 1 burger, except the cherry sauce (which would probably be good for about 4 burgers).  The burger ended up being opened faced because I wasn't terribly hungry, and we were out of hamburger buns so I made it on some whole grain bread we had.  I'm not sure if this would be a good pick up and eat burger anyway, so it worked out well. 

Ingredients:
 
Burger:
Ground beef, formed into patties
whole grain bread, toasted
lavender mustard, or some other kind of good mustard
2 cups spinach
1/2 peach, sliced
blue cheese
 
Whiskey Cherry Sauce:
1 tsp oil
1 shallot
1 cup cherries, pitted
1/4 cup whiskey
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 Tbs red wine vinegar
1 1/2 Tbs honey
4 Tbs water, divided
1 tsp cornstarch
salt & pepper


Directions:

Whiskey Cherry Sauce:

In a small sauce pan heat oil over medium heat and saute shallot until soft. 

Add the cherries, whiskey, vinegar, mustard, thyme, honey, 2 Tbs water, and a pinch of salt. 

Bring to a simmer and cook 15 minutes, slightly mashing the cherries a bit with a spoon. 

Separately make a slurry with the cornstarch and water and add to the cherry mixture and stir constantly until thickened.

Burger:

Grill your burgers to the doneness that you like.

Slice your peach and grill for 3-4 min per side.

Add about 1/4 of the cherry sauce, and 2 cups of spinach to a saute pan and saute until the spinach is wilted.

When the burger is almost done, I like to top it with the blue cheese before I take it off the grill so the cheese gets a little melty.  Then I top it with the grilled peach slices before placing it on a toasted slice of bread with the lavender mustard (or any other type of mustard you prefer)

Finish the burger off with the spinach and cherry sauce saute and get ready for pure bliss!


Even though I am not a huge meat/burger person, I think we will be having burgers again sometime very soon so I can make this again.  :)

Please excuse the quality of the pictures.  Someone (being myself) had all the camera's elsewhere as I made this burger so I grabbed my husband's Iphone and made do.  :)



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