Asian Pork Burgers

Ahh.  Asian Pork Burgers.  One of my staples.  But even the best cooks can stumble once in a while.  They looked awesome and smelled delicious but as soon as I bit into one, I realized that I forgot something.  Something that would certainly send me home from a competitive cooking show.  Acid!  The pork fat was crying out for acid to balance the greasiness inherent in the ground meat. 

It started with the day I decided, on a whim, that I would write a blog about the unfamiliar foods that I find and try to cook.  I went to the market, bought the malanga coco and spent way too much time researching it and sussing out how to start a blog.  I sat and wrote until my husband came to the kitchen with stomach growling.  His offer to "help" with dinner kicked me into high gear.

I put him to work, pulling out ingredients and prepping stuff while I chopped and added things to the ground pork waiting patiently in the mixing bowl.  A pound and a half of pork, throw in three cloves of garlic that I minced.  Minced Thai bird chilis, three green onions, chopped, minced cilantro, about an inch of minced fresh ginger.  What next?  Oh, yeah.  Soy sauce, sesame oil.  What else?  I was hurrying.  I recited what had gone in and asked my husband, what's missing?  I know I usually put something else in.  He looked scared but ventured, "fish sauce"?  Yes!  Thank you!  He located the fish sauce after some coaching.  It dawned on me that I have chased him out of "my" kitchen so many times that the poor guy doesn't know where to find anything.  I'll have to work on that.

I donned a pair of evidence gloves and mixed the burgers.   I formed the patties and laid them on a sheet pan.  I sent my beloved to heat up the gas grill.  I kept thinking I had forgot something.  But we're both hungry so I shrugged off the feeling.

About six minutes per side on a hot grill.  I used my handy-dandy Thermopen instant read thermometer to check for the ideal 160 degrees for ground meat.  I pulled them off and brought them in the house and tented with foil for about 5 minutes to bring them up to the recommended 165.  Beautiful.

My husband grabbed his camera, excited about the newly created blog, and took photos.  He suggested that I cut one of the patties in half and get a photo of that too. 

I finally cut off a piece and taste.  And there's the oops!  I know now what was missing.  I forgot that I usually include some rice wine vinegar in the mix and it was glaringly obvious that it was not in there.  Luckily, I poured some right from the bottle over the patty and on the plate and it was sufficient.  Not great but not bad.  Definitely ok in a pinch because by that time, we were starving! 

My beloved is all about just eating protein so he was happy with the burgers by themselves.  I grabbed some spring mix lettuces and tossed them with an impromptu rice wine vinegar, soy sauce and canola oil dressing.  Not bad for a weeknight! 

I know that this post wasn't about strange food but I like to cook anything and I wanted to share.  Maybe you haven't tried something like this.  It's all about making good flavor!

See you next time.  And keep playing with your food!