Thursday, November 05, 2009

Too good to feel any guilt



Maple-Barbecued Pork Burgers
The Bon Appétit Cookbook Copyright 2006

8 ounces pork sausage (preferably hot breakfast sausage) I used Bob Evans Zesty Hot
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper

2/3 cup bottled barbecue sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 1/2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

2 onion rolls, split
1/2 cup purchased coleslaw

I used 1 pound of hot breakfast sausage and 1 medium green pepper and made 4 burgers. I did NOT double the sauce - this makes plenty for 4 burgers. I used non-onion rolls and homemade coleslaw.

Gently mix sausage and green bell pepper in medium bowl. Form into two 1/2-inch-thick patties. (Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Whisk barbecue sauce, maple syrup, and vinegar in medium bowl to blend well. Reserve 1/3 cup sauce to baste patties.

Grill rolls until lightly toasted. (I didn't grill the rolls.) Transfer to 2 plates. Grill patties 5 minutes. (I used my Griddler.) Turn patties over. Brush with sauce. Grill until cooked through, brushing occasionally with sauce, about 5 minutes longer. I would wait until the burgers are completely cooked before brushing on the sauce since the sauce burns easily. Place burgers on bottom halves of rolls. Top each burger with 1/4 cup coleslaw and top half of roll. Serve, passing remaining sauce separately.
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I thought these were awesome. I loved the heat, loved the sweet. I'm a huge fan of coleslaw on sandwiches. This burger was just what I like.

They reminded me of a Rachael Ray burger but they were a bit less work. Which reminds me - it really bothers me when people lump Rachael Ray with Sandra Lee and other shortcut cooks. RR is fast but she doesn't use a lot of convenience products. She would have built the sausage from scratch and the coleslaw from scratch. I did actually make my own coleslaw since I had some cabbage in the produce bin that I needed to use up anyway. I winged it but I basically made this recipe.

This is one of those meals that you can pick up the ingredients for on the way home and have dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes. It's something a little different than your average hamburger. If I were the perusing the supermarket for a quick dinner, it wouldn't have occurred to me to pick up breakfast sausage.

Of course, this is a once-and-a-while kind of recipe. Although these didn't look that fatty when I cooked them, it is pork sausage and not something you want to make a regular part of your diet. But if you're going to eat something bad, make it something good like this.

If you're not into pork sausage, I don't see why this recipe wouldn't work with turkey breakfast sausage if you can find some in loose form or in large link form (you can remove the sausage meat from the casings). I've only seen the small links around here and it would take all the fun out of this recipe if I had to remove all those casings.

Question of the Day: What do you think of Daylight Saving Time? Do you think the person who came up with the idea had small children? I think not.

7 comments:

Rebel In Ontario said...

Nope, don't like DLST and my boys are not working out well this time change either.

The burgers look very interesting, and something that I have never had. I might just have to make them and see how they go over with my crew.
P.S. - LMAO - my word verification below is HACKED - too funny

elizabeth said...

I hate DLST!
My 13yo would love these. I agree about R.R. - I really enjoy her. I picked up Sandra Lee's cookbook (probably has a few?) - and didn;t like it at ALL! Too much pre-made stuff. I still prefer to use from scratch as much as possible.

La Pixie said...

we dont have Day Light Savings Time, but I remember as a kid wishing that we did. I thought it would be cool.

Randi said...

I love daylight saving time, but despise standard time( which is what we just switched over too). Daylight saving time ends in October which is why its darker earlier( we're not saving daylight).

Heather said...

DLST confuses dogs too :) I have been getting up an hour early to let him go morning potty.

Heather said...

I don't think I had better answer that question, considering my two year old has gotten up at 4:30 am every day since it started...

The burgers would probably go over well at my house, we love Sweet Baby Ray's too and I have some maple syrup from my BIL's farm.

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