Burgers de Paris

Hey, remember when I had a food blog? And then I had a baby? And I was like, dude! I can still blog -- this is CAKE. (Ha. Get it?) Well, incidentally, I was able to care for crazy toddler + lovely infant AND blog only while I had my 24-7 supportive network here, i.e. my mom and husband. Mom left almost a month ago now. (Crazy. Seems like both yesterday and an eternity ago. The good news is that she'll be back in two weeks. Yay!) MC went back to work part-time two weeks ago and full-time last week.

Plus I have a cold manifesting itself as a sore throat.

Plus I got my first super mean-spirited offensive spam comments last week which totally made me want to shut the whole site down.

Plus I have arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome or at the v. least "weak wrists" that act up every now and again, getting sore and then tingly and then numb. (Seriously that was once my diagnosis. "Weak wrists." I've never gone back to that doctor.) Recently they've been acting up worse than ever, likely because my baby is heavy but likes to be held all the time, and because, while my computer is quite sleek, ergonomic it is not. (We have added "get an ergonomic keyboard and mouse" to our family's weekend to-do list.)

So the food blogging has suffered.

BUT.

The cooking has not! I've made the burgers featured herein twice, maple-sweetened homemade grape nuts (but I need to perfect my method for those before I promote them here), a savory bread pudding, Indian-spiced sweet potato muffins, lemon-herb shirred eggs, slow cooker lime-dill chicken, whole wheat butter cookies with prune-poppyseed filling (SO GOOD), and this and this and these. So I have lots to write about, just not the time, energy and focus.

Given my new limits, I can't promise to blog more regularly than I have been despite having the v. best intentions to do so. But I can make sure that the posts I do manage to complete showcase only the v. best of what we eat around here.

Which brings us to today's burgers. Burgers de Paris! And you have to say "Paris" like the Parisiennes. (Try your best anyway.)

I'm just going to go ahead and embrace my love of superlatives (and all-caps) (and repetition as a means of emphasis) and say that this is the best burger ever. EVER. EVER.

There's a salty-sweet thing going on what with the inclusion of sun-dried tomatoes, pickles, and capers. They're unabashedly herby. They're easy, don't require a grill, and taste great on homemade Kaiser rolls if you happen to be as lucky as yours truly.

We made a shallot jam-version of a red onion jam recipe accompanying the recipe that inspired these burgers - that's what's featured in the bottom right picture in the collage above and in this post's first picture. I'm not including the recipe for the jam because I didn't think it added much. A lemon aioli or roasted garlic puree would be a better accompaniment, although we thoroughly enjoyed the burgers unadorned.

Burgers de Paris

Adapted from Around My French Table

Yield: 4 quarter-pounders

1 pound lean ground beef, at room temperature

1/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained

1/4 cup marinated artichoke hearts, drained (optional, but nice)

1/4-1/2 cup crunchy sliced dill pickles, drained and rinsed

2 tablespoons capers, drained

Small handful fresh tarragon leaves

Large handful fresh parsley or chives (I prefer the latter but made them with both and both were more than acceptable)

Salt and pepper, to taste

Grapeseed oil or butter for pan

To serve: sliced dill pickles, paper-thin slices of parmesan cheese, Kaiser rolls or English muffins

Using a mini food processor and the pulse button, or by hand, using a chef's knife, chop all the burger ingredients except the beef until finely minced and well-combined. Put the beef in a large bowl and add the tomato mixture. Mix everything with your hands and form the mixtures into 4 equally-sized patties, just less than an inch thick.

On the stove using medium-high heat, place 1-2 tablespoons grapeseed oil or butter in a heavy-bottomed skillet. Once the skillet is super hot, add the burgers. Don't press down on the burgers as that will force some of the fat (which equals flavor!) out of them. Cook for 3 minutes on each side for medium-rare. Transfer to a platter and top them with parmesan immediately, while they're still warm. Once the cheese has melted a bit, place the burgers on Kaiser rolls or English muffins, add the sliced pickles, and enjoy, preferably with someone who loves you fiercely, who doesn't mind watching burger juice dribble down your chin.