Weekend Cooking: Cheesy Burgers with Soy-Spiked Ketchup

 We generally try to avoid eating much red meat, but once in awhile YOU HAVE TO HAVE A BURGER!!!  It is a law of the universe.

A few years ago, I was over at my friend's house and they served me one of the best burgers I'd ever had.  The secret, my friend told me, was that you imagine everything that you would want to put ON the burger, and you put it IN the burger...ketchup, mustard, onions, relish, etc.  Whoa!!!  From that point on, whenever I threw together burgers, I used this philosophy.

This recipe has the same idea.  I quickly ripped it out of the recent June 2013 Food and Wine and made these, and they are so good.  And that soy-spiked ketchup!  Wooo!  I saved it and was dipped everything in it for a week.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plus 2 TBL ketchup
1 1/2 TBL soy sauce
1 TBL hoisin sauce
1 TBL fresh lime juice
1 1/2 tsp ancho chili powder
1 1/2 pounds ground beef chuck, preferably 80 to 85 percent
1/2 cup shredded Colby cheese
1/4 cup minced red onion
2 TBL minced kosher pickles
2 TBL dry bread crumbs
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp Tabasco
Canola oil for brushing
Kosher salt and black pepper
6 potato hamburger buns, split and toasted
Mayonnaise lettuce and sliced red onion for serving


1.  In a medium bowl, whisk 1/2 cup of ketchup with soy sauce, hoisin, lime juice and ancho chili powder.
2.  In a large bowl, combine the ground beef with the cheese, minced red onion, pickles, bread crumbs, garlic, Tabasco and remaining 2 TBL of ketchup.  Knead gently until thoroughly mixed.  Form the meat into six 4-inch patties, about 1/2 inch thick.
3.  Light a grill or preheat grill pan.  Brush the burgers with oil and season with salt and pepper.  Grill over moderately high heat, turning once, until lightly charred outside and medium-rare within, about 3 minutes.

They pair these burgers with a peppery, fruit-forward California Zinfandel.

FYI I love a bloody steak, but I prefer my burgers cooked more medium so we left these on the grill a bit longer than 3 minutes.    We also passed on the mayo.
  

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