Conquering the grill....I hope!

Today is Sunday and it was a gorgeous day in DC. It was a grillin day and I had some big plans for it. I had been planning on trying my hand at making some bison burgers. I did the research and had a recipe that looked promising, but on Friday the Teet was out of bison meat and then I completely forgot to get some at Eastern Market. As it is sold frozen there was no chance I could buy it today and have it thawed in time, so I went ahead with some ground turkey meat and proceeded with the recipe as planned. As turkey and bison are both lean meats I figured no harm no foul.

The trick with any type of lean burger meat is that you need ingredients that will add some moisture (i.e. minced onion or apple) and not take away (i.e. breadcrumbs). For my burgers I sauteed minced onions and mushrooms, brought to room temperature, and mixed with my ground meat, some red wine, and Worcestershire sauce. My mom gave me this fun toy that I finally got to try out. It is a neat little contraption that allows you to pick the pound or ounce size of your patty and then you just plop the meat inside, level it off, and drop a perfect patty down.

Another trick that I learned when the actual grilling process came about is that you need to just let these bad boys sit. Hey, even a little turkey meat likes a day to roast in some heat, but please do not feel the need to give them sunscreen! Bad joke...I know. On to the topic at hand. Let the burgers sit there for a good 3-5 minutes before you try to flip them. You want them to really have some color. I am no food scientist, but it seemed to firm up the patty so that it was easier to flip. But when you do flip, do it carefully, as these are a little more delicate than your standard burger.

I finished off our grilling extravaganza with some potatoes wrapped in foil and thrown on the grill and brusselsprouts I roasted in the oven with some olive oil, salt and pepper. And let me tell you that those brusselsprouts were the bomb and I will not have them any other way.

The meal was a great success. I would say that my ground meat could have used a little more salt and pepper, but with a little ketchup and mustard it was all good. And the icing on the cake is that everything was healthy and fresh and you could have a sizable portion without undoing the "being good" mentality. Until next time friends, have a great work week!