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Saturday, August 30, 2014

Gastronomic Interlude - Gourmet Sliders

Gourmet Sliders
Proof I am not a food photographer.

Since the arrival of our daughter, and the departure of our spare time, I have taken over most of our cooking duties. Upon hearing this, you will likely have incredible sympathies for my wife. They are not unfounded. 

Lydia and Kate
Desperate hunger masquerading as happy smiles.

Once in a while, however, a momentary mix of luck, inspiration, and necessity leads to a rare culinary breakthrough. But usually not.

During an especially harried week last month, we had planned an evening of fairly ho-hum turkey burgers. At the grocery, they were out of the ground bark and twig whole wheat buns my wife prefers. They did however, have whole wheat "slider" buns. This is the point at which that (usually unfortunate) "ding" of culinary inspiration went off in my head: Wine and beer are often offered in "flights"; small mixed samples of different tastes. Why not burgers? Long story somewhat short, I ended up making us each 4 different gourmet sliders, served as a flight.

Gourmet Sliders
Which were, of course, cooked later on. This was just the artsiest shot I had from the whole process.

 I started by seasoning each of the four varieties, then adding separate toppings, which made for a mad dash of preparation with up to 8 things cooking at the same time. 

Gourmet SlidersGourmet Sliders
Gourmet SlidersGourmet Sliders

First came the BBQ burgers....patty infused with BBQ sauce, topped with granny smith apple slices, cheddar cheese, more BBQ sauce and grilled onions. This ended up being our favorite. 

Gourmet Sliders - BBQ, cheddar, apple, onions

Next up were the sauteed mushroom and swiss burgers, seasoned with pepper sauce.

Gourmet Sliders - sauteed mushrooms and cheese

Third, the garden burgers, seasoned with green goddess dressing, topped with fresh avocado, lettuce and tomato. 

Gourmet Sliders - garden

Lastly, greek burgers stuffed with feta, and topped with feta and roasted red peppers. 

Gourmet Sliders - feta, roasted red peppers

Given that I did not plan the varieties ahead of time, and used just what we already had in the fridge, I was pretty proud of the results. My wife whipped up a corn/avacado/tomato salad, and we were in business. 

Gourmet Sliders
BBQ/apple/grilled onion burger with salad

2 comments:

Joel said...

I love the square-cut apples, but are you eating the core?

Justin Bower said...

no, the squares come from above and below the core, but still show the core pattern....it was an accidental discovery