Day 40: Bleu Burgers, Sweet Potato Fries, Steamed Broccoli

I wrote briefly about this recipe on my facebook page before I started this blog and had a good response.  So I guess it's time to turn it into a blog recipe!  I've said before that we LOVE burgers.  And it's so true.  On my second burger recipe by day 40, and there would definitely be more if I wasn't trying so hard to have recipe variation.  The first burger I featured was the breakfast burger.  That post also includes a list of things I think are "must-haves" for a really good burger.  Tonight, we're doing bleu burgers.  There's a different recipe for bleu burgers in almost every one of my recipe books.  The one I am most partial to comes from Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman.  (You'll be seeing another recipe of hers tomorrow night, too!)

To make these burgers, I start with 1 lb of meat and add about 1 TB of sour cream, 1-2 TB of dried parsley, 1-2 TB hot sauce (depending on your taste), 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp pepper.  (The sour cream serves 2 purposes: to keep the meat juicy, and add a little "coolness" so the burger won't be so spicy with the hot sauce, but will still maintain the hot sauce flavoring.)

I then mix a couple tablespoons of mayonnaise with some hot sauce, for a burger dressing.

Slice up some red onions and caramelize them with 1 TB of brown sugar.  (You can easily caramelize onions without brown sugar, but the added sweetness helps offset the heat of the burger and the tartness of the bleu cheese.  Plus, why would you WANT to do it without the sugar?!)  :)

For someone without access to a grill in winter, I use the broiler for burgers.  Stick the patties under the broiler for a couple of minutes.  Then pull them out and top them with bleu cheese and the caramelized onions.  Stick them back under the broiler for 2 more minutes.

Meanwhile, butter and grill the burger buns on the stovetop.  (I use Kaiser rolls--better than those 99 cent wimpy burger buns.)  When the burgers are done, spread the spicy mayo on the buns, add the burger patty, and top with lettuce.

Fast food chains have trained us to think that burgers need to be served with fries and coke.  It makes the idea of having burgers often seem like such an unhealthy habit.  But it doesn't have to be!  I like to mix up my sides for burgers.  Serving a burger with sweet potato fries and broccoli is delicious and healthy!  It makes me WANT to make Abby finish her fries.

For the sweet potato fries, I'm still experimenting to find my perfect recipe.  I usually bread the sweet potatoes in vegetable oil, then in a mixture of flour, cornmeal, and garlic powder.  (Seasoned with salt and pepper.)  They usually come out great and crispy.  Tonight, I thought I'd try something different.  I dipped them in an eggwash and then just in flour, salt, and pepper.  They certainly weren't as crispy, but they were still good.  Randy likes a more crispy sweet potato fry, so I think I'll stick to my original recipe.  Sometimes I quickly fry them in vegetable oil, or I drizzle oil over them and bake them in the oven.  When they're cooked, we like to dip them in barbeque sauce!