For dinner last night, we had one of the few things I repeat around here, a simple and humble meal we both love and call Burger Salad. And that's what it is: a salad topped with a grilled halfpounder which is topped with a slice of slice of cheese, usually Muenster. The origins of this meal are in my old single-girl/Cafeteria lunch/perennial Atkins diet days wherein I'd ask get the grill station to give me a cheeseburger without the bun and triple the lettuce and tomato. At the condiment counter, I'd sprinkle a little oil and red wine vinegar over it. Voila, a zero carb lunch. And though born of desperation, I came to adore my little lunch as there was something special about the way the juices of the grilled burger mingled with the lettuce and tomato brightened with a bit of salt and vinegar.
When I make it at home now, the meal is typically more elegant than the Fluor cafeteria's: the meat is combined with iceberg lettuce to which tons of chopped parsley has been added, a tomato is chopped and added and sometimes an avocado, and the whole is smothered in some pan-fried onions, or alternatively the meat is served on just arugula and topped with chopped roasted green chiles and red onions that have been tamed in a light oil and vinegar marinade.
Last night I asked Bob if he would enjoy this meal more if the beef were a steak. "NO!", was his immediate reaction. And I agree: there's something special about ground beef. We use extra lean. The beef is not formed into patties but the meat as it comes from the store is simply cut in half while in the package with the very spatula that then lays it onto the hot grill. The only seasoning is ample salt on each side. And it is then cooked to what is not so much the usual categorical choice of, say, medium, it is grilled until the meat forms a delectable, crispy crust on both sides. This crust is part of the "magic" referred to in my title, no steak does that. And though I prefer my steaks rare, it's more than okay with me that by the time that wonderful crust forms the patty is a good medium to medium well inside--because of the construct of the little irregular rivulets of ground meat as it came out of the grinder (it is important to not mix the meat into patties but put it straight onto the grill this way, a denser, smooth patty will not form the same crust) It will then be a good medium to medium well but still juicy inside.
Truth be told, I'd probably rather eat one of these patties than most steaks. Which, if my mother were alive today, would highly amuse her: as a child, I would not eat ground beef in any form because of my hatred for both straight forms of it I knew: meat loaf and the barbecued balls of ground beef, seasoned with hickory smoked salt and diced raw onion (something I also hated). I remember the platter that dad brought in from the grill: two huge balls (in my minds' eye, about 5" wide and 3" tall) for Dad and older brother Chris, a medium sized one for Mom, two slightly junior sizes for the kids much younger than me, and a miniature, golf ball sized one for me. I would have preferred to eat none of it, but that wasn't allowed, so this token was forced on me and I'd swallow it in one angry gulp.
I was 17 before I ate my first hamburger.
And yet now it's comfort food, and the primary ingredient in one of my go-to meals for a day when I have time to stop at the store for uber-fresh meat but no time at all to fuss in the kitchen when I get home. This dinner, start to finish, can be on the table in 20 minutes. And clean-up's a breeze: two plates, a spatula and a salad bowl. Take that, Rachel Ray!