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THROWBACK THURSDAY: Blackened Blue Burger

Throwback Thursday is the popular thing to do on all the social media sites.  But instead of torturing you with old photos of me, I thought I would share some of my favorite “old” recipes from the old RedBeansAndEric.WordPress website.  You can hopefully see my camera skills have somewhat improved along with my writing!  Hopefully!  Regardless, the recipe is still great!  

This weeks THROWBACK THURSDAY recipe is: BLACKENED BLUE BURGER!  Originally published on January 10, 2012.

A group of onlookers watch a brass band play on as a fog roles in across Jackson Square in the French Quarter.  The fog lifts off the Mississippi River as the cold water of the north runs down and out to the Gulf of Mexico.

Almost a 1000 miles north, the Hot 8 Brass Band pumps out a speaker as a fog of a different kind starts to roll across the kitchen.  The smoke fills the room and seeps out throughout the rest of the house.  Obviously the smoke detector batteries need to be changed since they can make it through this.

I almost think I may need to crawl to get around the house.  I put the ceiling fan on high.  Open the nearby windows as the stove fan blasts on high drowning out the Hot 8′s cover of “Sexual Healing”.   Surely the cold brisk January air with a cold breeze should help clear out the house.  Yes, the smoke cloud has invaded the house.

As my wife fans her way to the kitchen I quickly start flipping the hamburgers… another poof of smoke hurls out into the air.  She doesn’t need to remind me that I should have bought a grill, an out-door grill!

The joys of cooking blackened burgers… indoors!

I use my Zatarain’s brand Blackening Season every so often.  The main reason I don’t use it more is that I don’t have an outdoor grill and the smoke damage that it can cause cooking indoors, is well, disrupting to my wife.

I love a blackened hamburger or steak.  The trick is a cast iron pot.  Heat the pot on medium-high with nothing in it.  Get a little oil on the steak or chicken then cover it in the blackening seasoning.  Set the meat in the pan.  Smoke will lift!  It should take no more than 5 minutes, then flip until done.  You shouldn’t have to flip the meat any more times.  Be careful of the smoke if you do, do it indoors – make sure it’s well ventilated.

I’ve read that the process of blackening meats has only been around for about thirty years or so.  I thought it was a long time Cajun style technique.  There have been stories that have come out of people using a method of “blackening” meats throughout Louisiana further back then thirty years.  A process that’s been passed down from generations and never really documented other than it just being a family recipe maybe told only in the oral tradition.   But others say that that’s not the case, it was Chef Paul Prudhomme of K-Paul’s in New Orleans who “invented” the process.  As he made the Cajun/Creole cooking popular in the 80′s, he came up with a process to sear the meats causing it to “blacken” which gave the meats a peppery black crust.  This blackening technique quickly caught on.  Soon after everyone was blackening meats.  Anything from fish to steaks to hamburgers can be blackened.  The Creole/Cajun New Orleans style store-bought mixes got popular and all had a blackening season mix.

The ingredients are usually paprika, cayenne pepper, white pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, oregano along with salt and pepper.  But the main ingredient, besides the meat of course,  is a HOT skillet.  Again, the best is a cast iron skillet.

But as is the case with most of Creole/Cajun cooking, it’s a fuzzy history.  Chef Paul Prudhomme is credited for developing the process, perfecting the technique, and possibly inventing the concept of blackening a piece of meat.  Even if Chef Paul did not “invent” the process, he made it “known” to everyone else.  He had the means to share this information to the masses back in a time when there was no internet and mass media.   Whatever the case, it’s good.  And as my wife would tell you – it’s good… but better outdoors!

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Blackened Blue Burger

Ingredients

1 lbs ground beef

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/2 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp salt

blackened seasoning

crumbled blue cheese

buns

Instructions

Mix the ground beef with the Worcestershire sauce, garlic, pepper and salt. Mold the mixed beef into hamburger patties. This should make 4 burgers. For more hamburgers, just double the recipe.

Cover both sides of the burgers with the blackened seasoning. I use Zatarains brand seasoning.

Grill the burgers until cooked. You should only need to turn the burgers one time.

Once finished, I preheat the oven at 350 degrees, sprinkle the blue cheese onto the burgers, and with the bun I pop them in the oven for maybe a minute or two to toast the bread.

You can add sliced tomatoes, pickles and lettuce after the oven step.

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