Have I Arrived?: Nacho Burgers…that’s right NACHO Burgers

Kind of Offensive Yet Utterly Delicious.

The stinking coolest thing happened the other day. “What?” you ask? Okay, okay I’ll tell you.

I was sitting at my desk, minding my own business, when this email came along to shutupandcook@gmail.com inviting me (ME!) to an “intimate dinner of about 12-15 Seattle food bloggers and local food media at Spur Gastropub“. I nearly fell out of my chair…and then, being the sarcastic, hardened woman that I am, assumed it was a scam.

Turns out…it wasn’t. TexaSweet, a group that promotes assorted citrus fruits from Texas was doing a four-course chef’s dinner highlighting the versatility of grapefruit and was getting together Seattle’s food writers whose blog/cooking philosophy indicated they might enjoy Texas grapefruit. I’m pretty sure I was probably a B-List addition, but I didn’t care. Had I finally arrived so as to be considered a Seattle Food Writer? The thought was nearly too much to bear. Sadly, I couldn’t attend the event since I was going to Cavalia (which incidentally everyone who can must, must, must go see) but then this morning FedEx arrived delivering the MOST fun box of grapefruits and goodies I’ve ever seen.

Have you ever seen anything so cute?!?

Clearly figuring out something to make with grapefruit was in order

I’ll admit, I don’t normally consume a lot of grapefruit and when I asked Matt his position on the whole thing he emphatically told me in no uncertain terms that he does NOT eat grape fruit. (Apparently there was an incident when he was in his late teens and quite hungover and for whatever reason thought inhaling an entire grapefruit would help cure his Irish Flu. Turns out…it did not, unless you call full blown regurgitation of everything he’d eaten in the last 24 hours help.)

Alas, I digress. It became quickly clear that the grapefruit adventure was going to be up to me. I had some frozen rhubarb saved from this summer, so I set about to create a Grapefruit Rhubarb Martini.  The first step is creating a rhubarb syrup, which comes from slow cooking the rhubarb for hours. It’s currently on the stove, so I’d settled in for a delicious morning of reading and red wine, but lunch was quickly becoming a necessity.

Those of you that know me, know that I LOVE nachos. Seriously…I would eat them every day if I could. Even better if served with a really cold flute (okay bottle) of Veuve Clicquot. So, when I was flipping through a past issue of Food & Wine and saw they had a Nacho Burger I knew I needed to look no further. I was feeling lazy today (pants have just got put on, pretty sure I still haven’t brushed my teeth, and I’m definitely not motivated enough to put on a bra yet) so I did store bought salsa and leftover garlic mayo from those Cubanos of the other day, but holy damn, is this good.  Make it. That’s really all I can say.

And stay tuned for Grapefruit Rhubarb Martinis (unless they’re terrible and then I’ll pretend I was going to make something else all along).

Nacho Burgers –

Putting the Final Touches on the Goodness

Lifted verbatim from FoodandWine.com, but I did make a few changes in the addition of garlic mayo and caramelized onions, and copping out with the store bought mayo.

MAKE THE SALSA In a bowl, combine all of the ingredients and season with salt.

MAKE THE CHEESE SAUCE In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in the flour and cook over moderate heat for 30 seconds. Whisk in the milk and cook, whisking, until smooth and thickened, 5 minutes. Stir in the Jack cheese until melted, then stir in the pecorino; season with salt and pepper. Let the sauce cool until it is very thick and spreadable.

MAKE THE BURGERS Light a grill. Form the beef into 4 patties and brush with oil; season with salt and pepper. Grill over moderately high heat until browned outside and medium within, about 4 minutes per side.

Place the burgers on the buns. Top with the cheese sauce, salsa, pickled jalapeños and chips. Close the burgers and serve.