Lucky for me, back in 2018, Blue Apron partnered with Bob's Burgers and put out three recipes inspired by the show, including one for a cheeseburger with caramelized shallots, aka The Absentee Shallot Burger. (Kind of timely for 2020...) Since we weren't getting the ingredients in a Blue Apron box, and since we were going to pair the burger with pre-made tots instead of making their side dish of roasted potatoes with fontina cheese, it took a little more planning to separate out all the steps in their instructions and figure out what actually related to the burger. After doing all that, I made a bunch more modifications and additions (more than I usually do), and came up with a burger plan that, at least on paper, sounded good.
The ingredients for our modified Absentee Shallot Burger were:
- 1 pint of grape tomatoes, chopped ($2.99)
- olive oil ($0.30)
- white wine vinegar ($0.07)
- 5 shallots, finely chopped ($0.54)
- 1-1/3 lb ground turkey ($4)
- a couple tsp of chopped parsley ($0.49)
- about 1 tsp honey ($0.08)
- about 2 tsp dijon mustard ($0.14)
- 1 flax egg ($0.08)
- a couple tsp of panko ($0.10)
- salt and freshly ground black pepper ($0.03)
- garlic powder ($0.05)
- about 2 tbsp goat cheese ($2, although perhaps I should count the whole $3.99 since we forgot to finish it in time)
- 1 small spoonful of garlic spread ($0.30)
- burger buns ($1.50)
The cost for the burgers was about $12.67, and the tots we ate it with were probably another dollar or so. According to various sites, the price of a Blue Apron meal comes out to about $8-9 per person (not sure when that was calculated), so if that's the case, we still came out ahead, and we probably used more of each ingredient than they'd send.
The steps for making our version of the Absentee Shallot Burger were:
1. Prep - wash and chop tomatoes, wash and chop parsley leaves, peel and finely chop shallots.
2. Make tomato relish. Combine chopped tomatoes in a bowl with about 1 tbsp of olive oil, about 1 tbsp of white wine vinegar, salt, and pepper. Season to taste and set aside.
3. In a large skillet, add some olive oil and cook the shallots until softened. Remove from heat.
4. In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground turkey, cooked shallots, parsley, honey, dijon mustard, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and flax egg. Mix until all the ingredients are well-combined. If too wet, add some panko.
5. Form the meat mixture into burgers. Heat olive oil in the large skillet, and cook the burgers until browned on each side and the internal temperature is at least 165 degrees F.
6. While burgers are cooking, make the goat cheese spread by combining the goat cheese, garlic spread, and a splash of olive oil and white wine vinegar until smooth.
7. Once burgers are done cooking, remove from heat and place burgers on paper towels.
8. Assemble burgers by spreading the goat cheese spread on a burger bun, topping it with the burger, and then adding the tomato relish on top.
Our thoughts on the burger:
- I changed the burger mix a lot from the original, which was just ground beef, shallots, salt and pepper. I added a flax egg first because I wasn't sure what was binding the whole thing together, and then added more seasonings - parsley and garlic powder - for more flavor. The Blue Apron recipe included ingredients and steps for a honey mustard, but it was supposed to be drizzled on the potatoes instead. Since it seemed like a complementary flavor, I decided to just put it in the burgers.
- Our meat mixture was so much wetter than any turkey burger I'd made before, even after adding some last minute panko, so I couldn't actually form them into burgers and just ended up dropping handfuls into the oiled pan. They stayed together really well though, so I guess it worked even if they weren't well-shaped burgers.
- We used whole wheat burger buns, and the ones we used really took away from the flavors of the rest of the recipe. All the components tasted good, but together, everything tasted a little subdued. I didn't have time, and the oil had blackened quite a bit in the existing skillet, so I didn't toast the buns, but I don't think it would have made a difference in this assessment for me. Eating the burger, goat cheese spread, and tomatoes without the bread tasted so much better than with the burger bun. I actually think putting those three components into a large lettuce leaf (protein style!) would be really good. A thought the buns we used were a little too dense and that they had too much of their own flavor, so it didn't really bring out the flavors of what I actually made. He thought a squishy white hamburger bun would have been better than these.
- Despite the five shallots turning into nearly a cup of chopped shallots, I didn't taste any shallots at all in the turkey burger. It could have been because I added more seasonings, but I think the goat cheese spread would have covered any shallot flavor even if I hadn't. We almost forgot the shallots were even in there, which wouldn't be a big deal if it weren't called the Absentee Shallot Burger.
I love turkey burgers, and I thought this one turned out well, even if I would have preferred it sans bread. I would make it again and just eat it on its own (healthier that way anyway). A wasn't a huge fan of the bun either. He said that he should have tried the components separately without it, so he can't give an accurate judgment of the burger because of that, but that the goat cheese-garlic spread was tasty. Lastly, B, unlike me, wasn't a huge fan of the turkey burger (hasn't been a huge fan of meat generally these days, or meat-tasting things like Impossible Burger, with the exception of BBQ), but he would probably give an enthusiastic thumbs-up to the tomato relish, his favorite part. In the end, planning out this recipe was a lot more fun than I thought it would be, and even if we don't ever make it again, I'm really glad I did it.
No comments:
Post a Comment