Monday, December 12, 2016

Beef Burgers with Shallots and Boursin Cheese and Stuffing "Hushpuppies" - Tuesday, One Week Menu

Hello Everybody!
This meal was inspired by the television show "Bob's Burgers".  My husband and I have purchased the cookbook with recipes based on the burger of the day board that they have in the cartoon and have been trying to prepare one of the burgers each week.


I couldn't, in good conscience, do a burger from the book when I had so many items left over from Thanksgiving, but I decided that I would create my own burger of the day using leftovers.  It is not a turkey burger.  (I don't care for turkey burgers.  When my husband and I first got married, we had a month when our paychecks fell strangely and we were VERY limited on what we could purchase for food.  I got us ground turkey because you could get alot for very little cash and, added bonus, its healthier than ground beef.  So I got some and for two straight weeks its all that we ate...... in many, many, many different forms.  No matter what I made, it wasn't as good as it would have been using another meat.  It wasn't bad, it just wasn't as good.  And my husband and I haven't really eaten it since.)  But I do use the leftover scallions and the leftover cornbread stuffing that I had from Thanksgiving dinner.  That's two sides re-purposed! I know that not alot of you did the pan roasted scallions as a side.  So I am including the recipe here so that you will have an idea of what the flavor is like.

Pan Roasted Shallots

Ingredients
1 pound shallots, peeled and sliced
1 cup chicken stock, homemade is preferable
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 tbsp. unsalted butter, split
1 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
freshly ground pepper, to taste

Instructions
1.  In a large heavy bottomed skillet, place the shallots making certain that all of the shallots fit in the pan in a single layer.
2.  Pour in the chicken stock, white wine, 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, sugar, kosher salt and pepper.  The liquid should mostly cover the shallots, but it will be fine if a few poke above the liquid.
3.  Bring to a boil over high heat and then reduce heat to medium-low and bring liquid to a simmer.  Cook the shallots, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until the shallots are tender, about 10 minutes.
4.  Raise the heat to medium and cook shallots, stirring frequently, until the shallots start to brown all over and are coated in a thick syrup.
5.  Once the shallots are brown, stir in the remaining tablespoon of butter and stir until completely melted.

Note:  These should be served warm, so time your meal so that they are one of the last items to go out on the table.


Beef Burgers with Shallots and Boursin Cheese

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 egg
1 slice bread, crumbled
2 tbsp. garlic and herb bread crumbs
1 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce
Sprinkle of garlic salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup leftover pan roasted shallots
2-4 tbsp. Boursin Shallot and Chive Cheese (Or Cream Cheese)
Hamburger buns

Instructions
1.  In a large bowl, use your hands to  mix together the ground beef, egg, bread, bread crumbs, worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, and pepper.
2.  Divide the meat mixture in half.  Then divide these halves in half.  This should form four equal sections of meat.
3.  Take each section and roll into a ball, then pat and flatten until it is the shape of a hamburger patty.Over
4.  Over medium high heat, heat butter in a large skillet or grill.  Once the pan is hot, place your hamburger patties on the surface.  Cook four minutes and then turn to cook the other side and cook for another four minutes.
5.  While the burgers are cooking, put your leftover shallots in a microwave safe bowl and cook on high heat for 1 minute and 35 seconds.
6. Now we get to the fun part of assembling the burger!
Assemble your burger in the following order
bottom bun
hamburger patty
shallots
Boursin Shallot and Chive Cheese (1 tbsp. per burger, but you can put more or less as per your taste)

The warm shallots will make the soft cheese melt and your hamburger won't be dry.  So I suggest that you try it this way first before you add your usual condiments.


Bacon and Cheese Leftover Stuffing Balls

I don't know about you, but I love stuffing for the Thanksgiving meal but I hate eating it afterward.  This is why I came up with this recipe to turn the leftover stuffing into "hushpuppies".  This can work with any leftover dressing or stuffing, it does not have to be cornbread dressing.

Ingredients
2 cups leftover stuffing
1 egg
4-6 slices bacon
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Instructions
1.  In a heavy bottomed skillet, cook your bacon to desired done-ness.  I usually cook mine so that it is crispy on the outside but still a little tender on the inside, this way it won't over-cook when the stuffing balls go to the oven.  Remove the bacon from the skillet and drain on a paper towel.  Reserve your bacon grease.
2.  Once the bacon has cooled enough to handle, crumble the bacon into small crumbled pieces.
3.  In a large bowl combine the stuffing, egg, bacon, and cheese.  Mix together with your hands until all of the items start to stick together.
4.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
5.  Using a brush, brush bacon grease onto a baking pan, non-stick is best.  Roll the stuffing mixture into balls.  (The size is really up to you, but I like to use an ice cream scoop to measure out my stuffing ball size.) Place the balls onto the greased baking sheet.
6.  Put the baking sheet in the oven and bake for about 8 minutes.  This will be just long enough to set the stuffing balls.

You can eat them plain or you can dip them in the sauce/condiment of your choosing.

Well, that is it for this set of leftover recipe, I will try to post a couple more today so that we can catch up from my internet being down.  But I also want to get some Christmas posts up.  Grrr.  I hate technical difficulties-but, hopefully, I will be caught up soon.




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