Home for the holidays Burger

Pairs well with:

Merlot

Get cozy and get pouring. Our Merlot is the wine for long weekends and lengthy chats.

I grew up in Massachusetts, where cranberries are widely grown.For the holidays, when cranberries are everywhere, my mom would always make a cranberry orange relish – this is an homage to that local fruit and my childhood memories. To make the burger complete, I have also incorporated locally made blue cheese and Portuguese sweet rolls, which are local favorites!

Ingredients:

2 lbs 72/25 ground beef

2 Oranges, zested and oranges saved for juice

1/2 c. good quality dried cranberries, chopped

2 cloves garlic, pressed

1 t. Kosher Salt

5 twists fresh ground pepper

8 T Mayonnaise

6 oz Great Hill Blue Cheese (or other quality blue cheese)

1/2 t cider vinegar

pinch superfine sugar

3/4 c. toasted walnuts, chopped

1 head Boston lettuce, washed and whole leaves separated

1 vidalia onion, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds

6 Portuguese sweet rolls

Instructions:

Preheat grill.

If you don’t have pre-toasted walnuts, use either a foil packet or small skillet and put it with the walnuts right on the grill. Shake periodically until walnuts are toasted and fragrant. Remove from heat and chop. Set aside.

Put ground beef into a bowl. Sprinkle orange zest, chopped cranberries, garlic, pepper and salt over beef. Mix with hands just until ingredients are well distributed. Do not over mix. Split into 6 portions and roll into balls. Flatten each ball into a patty about 3/4″ thick.

Slice rolls in half – put cut side down onto grill away from flame about 1 minute before burgers are done. Remove from grill when lightly toasted.

Place patties on grill, over medium flame. Cook approximately 6 min on each side. Remove onto a platter and let rest for 2-3 minutes.

While patties are cooking, make blue cheese spread: Mash blue cheese in small bowl until made into a paste. Mix in mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, and 4 t of orange juice from the zested oranges. Mix until combined. Add in chopped walnuts.

To assemble, spread both cut sides of bun generously with blue cheese spread. Place leaf of lettuce (or two if needed to fit size of bun) on bottom part of roll. Place burger ontop of lettuce and 2-3 rings of vidalia onion on top of burger. Put top of bun on top of onion. Enjoy!