Last night, celebrity BBQ chef Ted Reader came to my place to cook dinner for me and my friends. Ted is a super great guy, and everyone had an excellent time!
( <--- That's me on the left, holding a copy of Ted's cookbook Everyday Gourmet Grilling, and Ted on the right with copies of my three books of fiction, Cheeseburger Subversive, Featherless Bipeds, and Destiny's Telescope)
How, you ask, did I manage to get Ted Reader to come over to cook for us? Well, back in the summer, Toronto's NOW Magazine had a BBQ Recipe contest, and for fun I entered the recipe for the burger I had made for lunch that day. I unexpectedly won the contest, and received a Napoleon Ted Reader Signature Series Grill (upon which which I've cooked something every day since I got it), and a great all-BBQ dinner, cooked by Ted himself!
Here is my recipe - go ahead, try it at home:
Holy Trinity Hamburger
Good things come in threes – wine, women, and song, for example – and I believe this rule applies to food as well. When I cook, I like to have a bit of sweet, a bit of spice, and a “midrange” flavour to hold it all together.
Ingredients:
Medium ground beef
Small multigrain flatbreads
Minced Garlic
Black pepper
Hot Grainy Dijon Mustard
Mango Chutney
5-year-old cheddar cheese (sliced or shredded)
1. Hand-pack as many burger patties as you need. Spice the meat with minced garlic and black pepper, and put a few dollops of Dijon mustard and mango chutney in there to help bind the meat together. Go fire up the grill.
2. When the burgers are cooked to your liking on one side, flip ‘em, and toss the flatbread on the top rack. When the flatbread is toasted to your liking on one side, flip ‘em, then place a liberal amount of five-year-old Cheddar (the midrange flavour) on the burger patties. When everything is cooked and the cheese has started melting, stack each of the patties between two rounds of flatbread. Slather one flatbread with Hot Grainy Dijon Mustard (the “hot”) and the other with Mango Chutney (the “sweet”). Top with tomato, pickle, lettuce, if you must.
3. Enjoy your first burger with a Czech pilsner, the second with a British ale, and the third with a Belgian triple – a trinity of Holy Trinity Burgers, accompanied by a Holy Trinity of Beer. Enjoy!
Good things come in threes – wine, women, and song, for example – and I believe this rule applies to food as well. When I cook, I like to have a bit of sweet, a bit of spice, and a “midrange” flavour to hold it all together.
Ingredients:
Medium ground beef
Small multigrain flatbreads
Minced Garlic
Black pepper
Hot Grainy Dijon Mustard
Mango Chutney
5-year-old cheddar cheese (sliced or shredded)
1. Hand-pack as many burger patties as you need. Spice the meat with minced garlic and black pepper, and put a few dollops of Dijon mustard and mango chutney in there to help bind the meat together. Go fire up the grill.
2. When the burgers are cooked to your liking on one side, flip ‘em, and toss the flatbread on the top rack. When the flatbread is toasted to your liking on one side, flip ‘em, then place a liberal amount of five-year-old Cheddar (the midrange flavour) on the burger patties. When everything is cooked and the cheese has started melting, stack each of the patties between two rounds of flatbread. Slather one flatbread with Hot Grainy Dijon Mustard (the “hot”) and the other with Mango Chutney (the “sweet”). Top with tomato, pickle, lettuce, if you must.
3. Enjoy your first burger with a Czech pilsner, the second with a British ale, and the third with a Belgian triple – a trinity of Holy Trinity Burgers, accompanied by a Holy Trinity of Beer. Enjoy!
