All hail….

Soooo….a few weeks back, I was blearily watching TV in a Vicodin induced coma (DAMN YOU DENTAL SURGERY OW OW MOTHER F***ING OWWWW!) and saw the ubiquitous ad for A-1.  You know the one I mean, the one with the two guys dining separately, and the one guy puts A-1 on the other burger and the other guy questions him on this and then asks to borrow it and of course the one guy assumes he means the A-1, but no, of course, he meant the burger.  Comedic hijinx ensue.

That ad.  You know you’ve seen it.  Incidentally, hijinx?  Hijinks?  Hijincks?  Whatev.

So…..something about this ad, combined with the Vicodin, set off my artistic juices and I decided I wanted to create a burger.  I wanted to do something I had never seen before.  I decided to evoke the flavors of Ceasar salad in a hamburger.

I discussed this idea with my husband the chef who initially thought I was proposing to put this burger on the menu at his restaurant.  I said, “No, no, this is something I want to try myself.  For, you know, US.”  Although I told him if it worked he could certainly run it as a special.  He’s done that a lot.  Taken my dishes for his restaurant.  Few weeks back, he called me while I was at a baby shower and left a message.  Said he needed to know how I’d done the pineapple rice from the night before.  Of course, given that I was AT A BABY SHOWER!!! I didn’t get the message until after the dinner rush had started.  I called him back and he said that he’d had to come up with something else.  WELL, THAT’S WHY YOU’RE THE CHEF, ISN’T IT????

But I digress.

So after a few weeks of mulling this over, I actually made said burgers tonight and they were good.  I meant to take a picture but when it comes to anything getting between me and my dinner…well, I fail.

(Sidenote – I’ve also been failing at keeping this blog up to date.  That is going to change.  I have made a Half Year Resolution to write here everyday.)

Onward.

I decided I didn’t want to do too much to the meat itself.  When it comes to making burgers, the less you handle the meat, the better (heh heh…I said handle the meat).  So I just salt and pepper’d and mixed in a little bit of Worcestershire and lightly formed ‘em into patties.

I chiffonaded some leaf lettuce (shut up – chiffonaded is TOO a word) and set it aside.  The plan was to dress said lettuce with Caesar dressing but not until right before service.  I made up an aioli with garlic and anchovy paste (to taste).  I’d never used anchovy paste before and really had no clue what it tasted like on its own.  I was surprised.  It really added something to the mayo/garlic mixture but didn’t taste anything like itself once it was mixed in.  Neat.

So I grilled the burgers on my handy dandy grill pan and smoked up the house in the process.  I spread a little butter on the buns and toasted them up.  Then, assembly.  Bun, burger, aioli, dressed lettuce, generous grating of parmesan and fresh ground pepper, eat it up eat it up yum yum yum.

I was pleased.  Husband was pleased.  Grill pan is still smoking.  Someone call the fire department.