RECIPE: Burgers Aren't Boring

Forget boring burgers. At home you can use your creativity and whatever you happen to have in the fridge to make them a smorgasboard!

Ingredients:

~¼ lb ground meat per person (Ground Beef, Ground Pork, and Ground Lamb all make great burgers)
A little oil for the pan
Underpinnings- Bun or consider substituting rice noodles, riced cauliflower or greens
Toppings- limited only by your imagination: fried egg, grapes, mushrooms, bacon, caramelized onions, broiled pineapple, micro greens, fun cheeses
Sauces- mustard, pesto, BBQ sauce, fun aioli, horseradish, blue cheese, on and on...

Tools:

Meat thermometer

Instructions:

1. Thaw your ground meat.
2. Make patties. I use 100% meat (no need to add eggs, wheat or other binder as I see in other recipes).  I use a small handful for slider-sized snacks or a heaping handful for dinner.  Your patty should be flat and have the same thickness all the way across.  A patty that is thin on the ends and fat in the center like a foot ball won't cook evenly.  Additionally it will plump up as it cooks, making it more of a meat ball than a patty that fits nicely on a bun.
3. Get your pan hot with a little oil and then add the patty. Use a spatula to squish the patty relatively flat as it cooks, so it cooks all the way through.
   
4. Let it cook for a couple minutes, then flip for another couple minutes. Use the spatula to squish it flat again after each flip. Keep flipping every few minutes until the juices are clear. 
5. Cook to desired internal temperature:
Rare-- 120 to 125°F
Medium Rare-- 130 to 135°F
Medium Well-- 150 to 155°F
Well Done-- 160 to 165°F (The USDA recommends cooking ground beef, pork and lamb to this temperature for safety) 
6. Remove from heat, rest the meat for 10 minutes.
7. Dress your burger with creativity and enjoy!

With so many options for toppings, when you make your burger you get to decide if you are going to:

1) Keep it traditional

2) Make it Asian

3) Include some fruit

4) Spice it up with chili

5) Keep it dainty

6) Bury it with toppings 

(I promise there is a burger under there somewhere!)