Apple Burgers

Ok, I didn’t really make apple burgers tonight.  I only sort of did.  I have been on a crusade for unique apple recipes.  I have one or two of them lying around, you see:

I came across the Washington Apple Commission’s site which has tons of interesting apple recipes. I took the following recipe and modified it slightly for tonight’s dinner.

Apple Turkey Burgers with Apple-Cranberry Chutney

For the chutney (this makes way more chutney than you need for the burgers, so feel free to halve the recipe):

• 3 apples, chopped
• 1 c. whole cranberry sauce
• Juice from 1 lemon
• 2 T rice vinegar
• 2 T sugar
• 1 onion, chopped

Recipe all-stars:

In a small saucepan heat lemon juice, sugar, and vinegar.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and add half the apples.  Simmer the apples until they are soft enough to mash with a potato masher (or the back of a spatula, if you are like me and do not have a masher.  The Roommate and I actually considered buying a potato masher at the store tonight and then, inexplicably, did not.  Ironic, isn’t it? Go sing a song about that, Alanis Morrissette.)  Add the onions and cook a little while longer until the onions soften.  Remove from the heat and add the cranberries and the rest of the apples.

Eat directly from the bowl with a large spoon Put a spoonful or two onto your turkey burger.

For the burgers:

• 1 lb. ground turkey meat
• 1 apple, grated
• Salt and pepper
• Cinnamon

In a bowl, mix the meat and apples; sprinkle a few shakes of the salt, pepper, and cinnamon and mix thoroughly.

Apparently I just use gigantor bowls — there really is a pound of meat in there, I promise.  Cook on a skillet, on the grill, or on a George Foreman.  (I used my GF to grill these just to save time, but in retrospect I recommend a real grill if you live in Florida or the stove top if you live in New York.  The GF sorta dried out the patties and for this recipe you want real juicy burgers.)  The recipe makes 4-5 burgers, depending on how big you like ‘em.

In keeping with the apple theme we enjoyed our burgers with some wine from yesterday’s trip.

The apple taste is really surprising.  The tartness takes a second to get used to — you ARE expecting grape, after all — but I really liked the flavor.

Dinner:

You can do some amazing things with an apple.

Today is National Sandwich Day (I hear) so we ate our fancy-pants sandwiches the best way we now how: pajama-clad on the couch while watching Fatal Attraction (hellooooo intense movie).  Lucky for me the only fatal attraction I have is to food.  And that is a violence-free situation.