This is one fantastic recipe. The kind that if I were a swearing person I’d be saying OMG! But I don’t say that, so just take my word for it! I cannot tell you how absolutely off the charts this was. I created the recipe myself – I had fresh baby spinach – and I’d defrosted some lean ground beef. And a new favorite recipe was made.
First of all, you mix the ground beef with a few slices of very finely minced crisped bacon. In reading a recent cooking magazine it was mentioned that some East Coast chef was frustrated with his bacon burgers because the bacon slices fall off or out of the burger (this being one with buns, I suppose). So he started adding raw bacon to the raw meat. There was no recipe – it was merely mentioned in an article. That got the idea brewing in my head. I decided to try it myself, but cooked the bacon first. I mixed the bacon, some dried thyme, salt, pepper and eggs with the ground beef and made patties. I let them rest in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, then lightly they were dredged in flour before frying them in grapeseed oil.
Meanwhile I made the spinach – I sautéed some red onion finely minced up – then added the spinach just before the burgers were done – so the spinach was barely wilted. I added some salt, pepper, ground nutmeg, a tiny little drizzle of cream, a bit of feta cheese and lastly a speck of butter.
The burgers were crisped up in the pan, then removed to a heated plate. Be careful not to over cook them! I poured off all but a speck of the oil, then added some vermouth. It bubbled away until it turned to a light slurry. Then I added a little splash of sherry vinegar, cooked that for a minute or two, and off heat I added a tablespoon or so of unsalted butter. On each individual dinner plate I scooped some spinach, placed the burger on top, spooned the sauce over each one, then sprinkled the top with some additional feta cheese. Voila! If I’d wanted to serve anything else with it I’d have made mashed potatoes. Or some steamed and pureed cauliflower made to act like mashed potatoes. If so, I’d have increased the volume of sauce so there would be enough to drizzle over some of that potatoes. I think I would have placed the spinach and the potatoes side by side, put the burger right smack in the middle, and drizzled the sauce over both – but mostly it goes on the burger.
This would make a scrumptious company meal – the only problem is it must be cooked at the last minute. But the flavors were superb, if I do say so myself. Maybe I’ll try making these with ground turkey, or half turkey and half beef. Maybe it could be done with a chicken breast too. I’ll let you know how that tastes!
Some of the idea for this came from my old standby, French Hamburgers, a Julia Child recipe I’ve been making for about 45 years. At least, the sauce did. The rest of it just came to me as I was cooking along. I do hope you’ll give this a try. So very delicious!
printer-friendly PDF and MasterCook file (click link to open recie)
Beef Burgers with Bacon, Thyme and Wine Sherry Sauce on a Spinach Bed
Recipe By: My own creation.
Serving Size: 6
Notes: This can be a complete entree, but you might want a carb to go along with it. A small serving of mashed potatoes would be ideal, or heated bread. This is SO worthy of a company dinner – but the cooking must be done at the last minute. The sauce is rich and very tasty. If you like more sauce, increase the quantity of wine and sherry vinegar. It’s quite stringent at that point, but once you add butter to it in whatever quantity, it smooths it out.
2 pounds lean ground beef
4 slices bacon — smoky, very finely minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil, or light olive oil
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
WINE SAUCE:
2/3 cup vermouth
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons feta cheese — crumbled
SPINACH:
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil, or light olive oil
1 small red onion — minced
16 ounces baby spinach
1/4 cup water freshly grated nutmeg to taste
2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons feta cheese — crumbled
NOTE: If desired you can grill the burgers on an outdoor barbecue – just use an instant read thermometer so you remove them at the right point – about 135-140°F for medium. These will not be as tasty if you cook them “well done.”
1. In a large skillet, gently fry the bacon until it is nearly crispy, but not quite. Remove to a paper towel to drain.
2. In a medium sized bowl combine the ground beef, bacon salt, pepper and eggs. Mix by hand, making sure the egg has been mixed in thoroughly. Gently form the meat into 6 patties about 1/2 inch thick. Set them on a piece of waxed paper on a flat plate, cover with another piece of waxed paper and chill until ready to cook, up to 4 hours.
3. Heat a nonstick frying pan (use two if needed) to medium high and add grapeseed oil or light olive oil.
4. Dredge the meat patties in flour or use your hands to gently pat a light coating of flour on both sides. Add meat to hot pan and sear at fairly high heat until a crust forms on the one side, about 1 1/2 – 2 minutes. Turn over, reduce heat to medium and sauté the patties on the second side until a crust forms, another 2 minutes. Cook meat for another 1-2 minutes, turn back over on first side for one more minute and remove to a heated plate.
5. SPINACH: While burgers are cooking, In a large frying pan heat the grapeseed oil until shimmering. Add the minced onion, reduce heat and cook for about 5-10 minutes, until the onion is soft but not brown. Add the spinach and water and stir while the spinach wilts. Add nutmeg, salt and pepper. Add cream and butter and heat through. Spinach should be completely wilted but don’t cook any further than necessary. Add feta cheese and stir just to combine. Keep warm over very low heat until ready to serve.
5. WINE SAUCE: Meanwhile, in the burger pan, pour out all the oil, but don’t clean the pan. Add the wine. The pan should be hot enough that the wine will bubble and reduce down to about 3-4 tablespoons, and will become slightly syrupy. Add the sherry vinegar, cook for about one minute. Turn off heat, then add butter, about 2 teaspoons of it at a time. Swirl with a spatula until butter melts, then add more until all the butter is added and melted. The sauce should be smooth and will glisten.
6. Divide the spinach among the six plates, place burger on top, then spoon sauce evenly over them and sprinkle with the crumbled feta cheese. Serve immediately.
7. If you would like a more “rounded” plate of food, prepare steamed cauliflower, then whiz up in the food processor with some butter, cheese, salt and pepper and place a small mound of that on the plate and nestle the burger on top of both mounds (cauliflower and spinach) then drizzle the sauce on top and sprinkle with Feta.
Have all your ingredients ready and at hand before starting to cook.
Per Serving: 677 Calories; 549 Calories; 34g Fat (57.8% calories from fat); 42g Protein; 12g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 203mg Cholesterol; 719mg Sodium; 3g Total Sugars; 1mcg Vitamin D; 200mg Calcium; 7mg Iron; 692mg Potassium; 452mg Phosphorus.
Stacey
said on May 15th, 2011:
My mouth was watering as I read this recipe. I remember how much I loved the French Hamburgers you made for Russ and me. Can’t wait to try this one!
Our mutual friend Cherrie made these a week or so ago. She thinks the sauce wasn’t enough, but hers was too thin. So am not sure if my directions were clear enough. She couldn’t taste the bacon (well, neither could we, actually) but I assume it provides lots of moisture to the burger. Cherrie wants to come to my house and watch me make them. They’re not hard, for sure. But maybe the sauce is a little tricky. . . carolyn t