Burger Baby

After a hiatus from posting because someone stole my laptop :(
I'm back!

This recipe is dedicated to Juan... as he has asked for it more than once and I made him wait till i had pictures.

I was inspired by the Father's Office Burger in Santa Monica... truly the most heavenly burger ive ever eaten in my life, and totally worth waiting in line outside for.
I do not make my burgers with USDA Prime ground rib eye, nor did i go and get applewood smoked bacon for my compote...
If you have a meat grinder and the resources, you should sub those in for an even more succulent burger.

Ingredients:

Carmelized Onions:
4 Slices of bacon
2 onions medium, sliced lengthwise

1 tsp sugar
2 tbsps balsamic vinegar

1 tsp ketchup

2 tsps Worcestershire sauce

salt, pepper to taste

Burgers

2 lbs good ground beef

2 tsps salt, pepper

2 tbsps butter

blue cheese
Gruyere cheese

lettuce

tomato

2 eggs (optional)

4 demi-baguettes or portugese rolls or anything thats kinda crusty on the outside and nice and chewy on the inside

DirectionsCaramelized Onions:

Start your pan at medium-high heat and put your slices of bacon - let them render up fat and when they are pretty crispy without being black, remove and drain on a paper towel.

Pour out abotu half of the fat in the pan, and with the remaining fat, throw in your onions and sugar.

Cook the onions on med-high until they are golden brown and fragrant. then crumble your bacon and add it to the pan. let that cook for another 5 minutes or so. Then add the vinegar, ketchup, worchestershire.

Let those sink into your onions and bacon combo for about 2-3 minutes. add pinches of salt and pepper.

Burgers:

I like to season my ground meat before i shape it into patties, but feel free to salt and pepper before or after.

Melt a tbsp of butter in a large skillet, over medium-high heat. Cook the burgers on each side for about 3-4 minutes. When you flip it, you should see a nice browned up side, if its not brown yet, let it cook on that side for longer.

Add the blue cheese and gruyere in a thin-ish layer on top, and cook till that gets melty.

Now to assemble the burger, toast your bread, top one side with lettuce, tomato, onion if you want (and fried egg if you are into that.... I am)

Top the other side with the patty, and some of the carmelized onion and bacon compote.

Healthy substitutions:

So the majority of my dinner guests try to keep things light if possible, which obviously means I cant serve this as is.

In order to make this a "healthier" burger, I use 1 lb ground turkey and 1 lb ground beef.

I've used turkey bacon in place of real bacon, but you have to add some oil to the pan then, because it wont render up in quite the same way.

also no egg cuts out some cholesterol.

and I have cooked my burgers in olive oil instead of butter.

Also you can cut out the cheese or sub in something like skim mozarella (though honestly I think the blue/gruyere combo is worth the fat)

Enjoy!