Burger with Mushroom and Onions

I've been eating burgers that Nick creates for more then 2 years now.  I can say with extreme confidence....that they are freaking awesome!  We like our burgers and are sad to say that most the gourmet burger joints that have popped up in Toronto in the past year or so have been very disappointing.  The only place that continue to have decent burgers is Webers (I will post review later), and that's nowhere near Toronto, and nor is it gourmet in any sense of the word.  

Nick always gets requests to make these for friends and family.  They are so popular that he get's slightly annoyed when everyone always seems to request burgers and baked potato wedges (recipe here)....but I guess that's just proof of how great his burgers are.  The addition of sauteed sweet white onions and meaty portabello just takes it over the top!  :-)

Burger with Mushroom and Onions

Serves: Makes 4 Large burgers

approx prep time: 20min

approx cook time: 15min

INGREDIENTS (Makes 4 burgers): 

- 2 1/4 lb Lean ground beef

- 6 slices of Thick Sliced Bacon (I prefer PC Old Fashioned Thick Sliced bacon), or 12 slices of the regular thin bacon.

- 1/3 of a large sweet white onion, finely diced

- 2/3 of a large sweet white onion, sliced.

-  1 large portobello mushroom, sliced

- 1/4 cup of diced sweet pickles or gherkins 

- 2 tbsp Montreal Steak Spice

-1.5 cups of shredded Cheddar Cheese (I prefer extra old)

- Toppings of choice (Pickles, Tomato, etc..)

- 4 large kaiser rolls

HOW TO MAKE IT:

- Heat up a non stick frying pan with a little dab of olive oil.

-  Add sliced onions and after a minute, add the sliced portobello mushrooms and sautee till brown, and set aside.

- Fry bacon in a cast iron pan on medium heat till crispy, set on a paper towel to drain and set aside.
- Mix ground beef, diced onion, diced pickles and steak spice thoroughly
- Shape beef mixture into 4 patties, roughly 1" thick.
- Cook patties to desired doneness in a frying pan, on an indoor grill or BBQ.
- Serve patty with bacon, shredded cheese, and topped with sauteed onion and mushrooms on a freshly sliced Kaiser of choice.

Canadian Burgers

Known as Canadian bacon in the US, in Canada, it is known as peameal bacon or back bacon.  It's delicious when made right, and like salted rubber jerky when made incorrectly.  To the rest of the world, they think back bacon is ham.  IT IS NOT HAM!  Back bacon refers to either smoked or unsmoked bacon cut from the boneless eye of pork loin.  Peameal bacon is back bacon, brined and coated in fine cornmeal.  I especially like my peameal bacon on a bun with a fried egg and cheese....however, paired with Nick's burger, it's adds a whole new dimension.

CANADIAN BURGERS

Serves: 2

approx prep time: 15min

approx cook time: 15min

INGREDIENTS (Makes 2 burgers): 

- 1lbs Lean ground beef

- 2 slices of Peameal Bacon

- 1 small white onion (or 1/2 of a large white onion)

- 1/4 cup Bacon Bits (Simulated, or small pieces of crumbled bacon)

- 3tbsp Montreal Steak Spice

- 2/3 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese

- Toppings of choice (Pickles, Tomato, etc..)

- 2 large kaiser rolls

HOW TO MAKE IT:

- Pan fry peameal bacon and set aside.
- Finely dice onion
- Mix ground beef, diced onion, bacon bits, and steak spice thoroughly
- Shape beef mixture into 2 patties, roughly 1" thick.
- Cook patties to desired doneness in a frying pan, on an indoor grill or BBQ.
- Serve patty with bacon, shredded cheese and desired toppings on fresh Kaiser roll.

Grindhouse Burger Bar Toronto

Location: 365 King Street West Toronto, ON - (416) 977-3010

 

Gourmet burgers seem to be all the rage these days.  It's the ability to up sell your typical $5 burger with lots of different toppings and charge extra for everything.  Nick loves burgers, well, he makes a mean burger and mini burger.  Most burgers served any where else then "Chez Nick's" tend to disappoint and be lacking.  He recently went to M:brgr, known for their $100 burger, and he said that place was overpriced and disappointing.  About a week after his visit, the Globe and Mail newspaper published this terrible review of M:Brgr which just confirms that we will never go to that place again.

However, this review wasn't about M:Brgr, it's about Grindhouse, located at King and Peter st, it's another of many gourmet burger joint that just popped up in the same area as of late.  My good friend Karen and I had tickets to the opera at the Four Seasons Centre.  We needed a quick meal before the show and thought we would try this place out to eat and Nick came with.  The place was decent, it had a small storefront, but the restaurant was quite deep.  We were seated and the atmosphere was relaxed.  We ordered a selection of burgers....

 

Nick ordered a Signature Beef Burger ($7) with Double smoked house bacon ($1.75) and cheddar ($1.75).  The total burger was $10.50.  The bun was just a tad too small for the burger, the bacon was flavorless, and the burger patty was too small for his liking.  He would not get this again.

Karen ordered a Wild Boar burger with mixed greens, grilled onions, mushrooms and goat cheese ($12).  She really enjoyed it.  The bun was toasted on all the burgers, which was a nice touch and added a lot more barbecue flavor to the burger.  The wild boar patty was gamey, but flavorful, and definitely the largest patty from the 3 burgers we ordered.  Which is odd, burgers should all be the same size.  If I were to come ere again, I'd definitely order the wild boar burger. 

I ordered the Kangaroo burger for $14.  It was the most expensive burger on the menu, and came with sliced beats, a slice of tomato, lettuce and a fried sunny side up egg.  The meat was well seasoned, and didn't taste that gamey, I thought the wild boar tasted more gamey.  I really enjoyed the creamy texture of the egg yolk with my very lean kangaroo burger cooked to medium.  I can't really say what kangaroo tastes like, it doesn't taste like beef, or bison, or venison, it is mild red meat.  My only complaint is that because the bun was a tad on the small side, everything kept falling out of the burger and it was a huge mess.  I had to finish this burger with a knife and fork.  So considering the entire point of a burger is to eat it with your hands, this is a slight burger fail.  However, it was so tasty I'd get this again.  Or next time I should fry an egg to put on top of our own homemade burgers.

Lastly, since we were all not too hungry, we only ordered these Onion Rings with Seasoned buttermilk batter ($4), it came with their own homemade aoili.  The dipping sauce was tasteless, it was really just liquid fat.  The onion rings were quite good though, very crispy, well seasoned, the portion was small but I would get these again.

All in all, it's not a bad gourmet burger joint.  I do like the particular game meats, the prices were decent, and as long as you don't get their signature beef burger and try the weirder stuff, I think it's worth a look.

Mini Burgers

MINI BURGERS

Serves: 6-8

approx prep time: 15min

approx cook time: 15min

INGREDIENTS (Makes 12 mini burgers): 

- 1.5lbs Lean ground beef

- 6 strips of Bacon

- 1 small white onion (or 1/2 of a large white onion)

- 5 sweet gherkin pickles

- 3tbsp Montreal Steak Spice

- 3tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

- 2/3 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese

- Toppings of choice (Pickles, Tomato, etc..)

- 12 Mini buns, or, alternately, sliced Baguette

HOW TO MAKE IT:

- Cook the bacon in half strips until crispy and set aside.

- Very finely dice onion and gherkin pickles.

- Combine ground beef, diced onion, diced gherkins, Montreal steak spice, and Parmesan cheese, mixing thoroughly.

- Form mix into patties, roughly 1.75 to 2" in diameter and 0.75" thick.

- Cook in a grill pan to desired doneness. For medium well, this should be about 4-5 minutes per side. You'll want to rotate the burgers around the pan, as the heat in different portions of the pan may be uneven.

- Once cooked, put the burgers on the bun, with all the fixings, and serve hot!

Burgers!

BURGERS

Serves: 2

approx prep time: 15min

approx cook time: 15min

INGREDIENTS: 

- 1lbs Lean ground beef

- 4 strips of Bacon

- 1 small onion (finely diced)

- 3-4 sweet gherkin pickles (finely diced)

- 2tbsp Montreal Steak Spice

- 2tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

- 1/2 cup shredded Cheddar Cheese

- Toppings of choice (Pickles, Tomato, etc..)

- Buns of choice (Kaiser rolls recommended)

HOW TO MAKE IT:

- Cook the bacon in half strips until crispy and set aside.

- Combine ground beef, diced onion, diced gherkins, Montreal steak spice, and parmesan cheese, mixing throughly.

- Form mix into patties, roughly 3 to 3.5" in diameter and 1" thick.

- Cook to desired doneness. I use either a grill pan, or a mini george foreman grill. If cooking in a frying pan or grill pan, you'll want to cook for about 5-6min per side for Medium.
- When cooked, put the burgers on the bun, with all the fixings, and serve hot!