How Good Can Burgers Be?

I recently returned from Colorado where I spent a few glorious days with our son Phil and his family.  He loves to cook, and on one warm summer night he made some grass fed burgers.  The twist is, he made his own potato buns, plus homemade aioli and tomato relish with currents, to top the burgers.  I wouldn't even begin to give you the recipe for the buns, nor would I ever make my own buns, but he loves to bake and experiment, so since his brioche buns had been such a big hit, he decided to try potato buns.  He is an avid reader of Cooks Illustrated, and got the bread recipe from the magazine.  I was skeptical, but honestly, they were out of this world.  The meat was 1/3 lb. grass fed beef from Whole Foods, seasoned with just salt and pepper, and cooked medium rare.  He topped the burgers with a little homemade aioli and the homemade tomato relish that he whipped up in about 20 minutes.  This relish is great on burgers, meatloaf, chicken or sandwiches.  Try it, then make some extra and keep it in the refrigerator to kick up a sandwich.

                                        Tomato Relish With Currents

Tomato Relish:

• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded, and finely diced
• 2 tomatoes, halved, seeded, and finely diced (or any tomatoes you have on hand.  Phil used sweet 100's and halved them and did not seed them.
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 T. vinegar (any kind)
• Currents to taste (Phil used about 3 T.)

Put all ingredients in a sauce pan and cook over medium heat until the ingredients meld, and form a thick consistency.  This will take about 15 minutes.  Add more or less tomatoes as you see fit.  The worcestershire gives it a nice tang, but if you don't want that, just leave it out.  The currents give the sauce a sweet taste. 

 

Hope you enjoy this, and as usual with Phil's recipes, measurements are NOT exact, so use more or less of these ingredients to suit your own taste.  Enjoy.