Firehouse Burgers.....A little taste of Heat!!

Well we enjoyed another weekly burger night as is the custom every Wednesday night. And this week I threw down some Firehouse burgers. Of course being a firefighter had nothing to do with it.

This burger had to be hot!!! But as with anything I cook, it also had to be palatable. I mean, come on now, I am not cooking for the frat boys at the bar. So here is how I prepared and cooked this burger.

First off I use regular ground beef. I don't use lean because it is not nearly as juicy as the fattier regular ground beef. It weighed in a little over one pound. I mixed in one heaping tablespoon of Donne' Denanche (Guam Hot Pepper Paste).

I chopped up about 3/4 cup of fresh cilantro and mixed this in the ground beef. It was already looking and smelling good. 

The last addition was adding freshly ground black pepper. No measurement here. Just to my liking.

I let this sit in the refrigerator for about 4 hours. I wanted to make sure everything blended well. 

You probably noticed that I didn't add any other seasoning or salt. I usually only do this when the burger is just about done cooking. Salt has a tendency of toughening up meat. That is why I add it, if needed, just prior to removing the burger from the grill.

Come grilling time, all I had to do was insert the hot peppers into the meat. Because my wife Lupe loves her patties thin, I placed her peppers on top of her patty. On thicker patties like mine, it is easy to insert the peppers into the middle. Just use a chop stick to poke a hole into the patty and insert the pepper. Insert as many as you like.

Grill your burger and buns.

I used 100% whole wheat sesame buns for this go round. I like to change up the buns every Wednesday also.

I caramelized the onions with slices of jalapeno peppers in butter and hot chili oil. You can buy hot chili oil at the store usually in the oriental section. This was a great addition.

Now here are the fixings and condiments. Iceberg lettuce for my burger and green butter lettuce for Lupe's. Chamorro (name for the indigenous people of Guam) pickles aka Jalapeno slices, tomatoes, baby sprouts, pepper jack cheese, caramelized onions, and the usual ketchup, mayo and mustard.

This was served with onion rings and Rueben's Slaw on the side.

Onion ring batter consisted of buttermilk, buttermilk pancake mix, self rising flour, one teaspoon sugar, salt, black pepper, onion and garlic powder, cayenne pepper and smoked paprika. Of course the onion rings were dipped and deep fried to a nice golden brown.

All in all, another great burger dining experience. Well except for one thing......Lupe said the burger wasn't hot enough for her so she had to munch on some fresh hot peppers picked right off the hot pepper tree. She is my Hot Tamale!!!

Lupe wasn't doing too much talking at the dinner table.

Next Wednesday's burger.....the Chamorro burger. Chamorro is all about heat and this burger will make the Firehouse burger look like an Popsicle.

Until next time....