Horseradish burgers with Havarti and tomato remoulade

July 31, 2010

Horseradish burgers with havarti and tomato remoulade
Tyler Florence’s Real Kitchen, pg 172

Tomato Remoulade

2 cups mayonnaise
1 T tomato paste
2 T caper, drained
1 garlic clove, coarsely chopped
1 ½ tsps Dijon mustard
1 anchovy fillet, coarsely chopped
2 T chopped fresh parsley
1 T chopped fresh tarragon
dash of Tabasco sauce
1 dill pickle, coarsely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

In a food processor, combine all the ingredients for the remoulade. Pulse a few times to combine. Cover , refrigerate until ready to use.

Burgers

2 pounds ground chuck
¼ cup grated fresh or prepared horseradish
½ bunch chopped chives
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
canola oil
16 slices Havarti cheese
8 large hamburger buns, split
cooked bacon, lettuce, sliced tomatoes and onion for garnish

Put the beef in a large mixing bowl, add the horseradish, chives, salt and pepper. Mix with your hands, a large spatula or wooden spoon.

Preheat the grill until very hot (burgers stick to a cold grill). Grill the burgers for 8 minutes per side for medium, 7 minutes for rare.
During the last minute, add two slices of cheese to each burger.

After removing the meat from the grill. Wipe off any stuck pieces. Toast the buns cut side down for 1 minute. Serve the burgers with the remoulade and any garnishes you like.

How I did it: I messed up the remoulade. I’d been reading a couple of recipes and confused them a bit. For some reason, I thought I read that the remoulade had a piece of bread in it (no, that’s a different recipe). OOPS. I over pulsed the remoulade so it didn’t have large chunks in it. I’ve never had remoulade so I don’t know what it’s supposed to taste like, but mostly I taste the mayonnaise. Next time, I’ll pay better attention (not add things that don’t belong) and use more tomato, pickles, anchovies, mustard, etc.

The briquettes would catch fire! I had a terrible time getting the grill going. It wasn’t as hot as it should have been. Since I use a Weber, I feel compelled to cover everything. I covered the burgers, and probably shouldn’t have. They overcooked (for my taste). With the horseradish, I’d like a more pungent cheese, maybe sharp cheddar.

The burgers were very tasty, but I’d like more horseradish. And, I don’t know how much a “half bunch” of chives is. I used about 3 T.

All in all, it was good. A lot of room for experimenting. I really like the addition of horseradish to the beef.