Recipe: The Mac and Cheese burger

so good it's just plain stupid

You could call this the Mackin' Cheeseburger and it would be just as right.  Never has a burger paid such tribute to the world's most popular topping for meat.  As this burger developed, it became clear that the meat component would wind up garnishing the cheese instead of the other way around.

It was Dan's idea to do a macaroni and cheese burger.  At first I wasn't so sure as my first visions were of some crazy pasta based Sloppy Joe - we would make it tasty no doubt, but was it inspired?  After some ruminating, it came to me to stretch our definition of macaroni and cheese to include other burger friendly pastas, namely lasagna.  We could layer pasta, cheese and sauce up into a patty of its own, which would then fit nicely in a burger bun.  Since macaroni is often topped with bread crumbs, we would have to bread it and deep fry it for best results, a sacrifice both Dan and I were willing to make.

the cheese patty before breading

The construction of the cheese patty was quite the production.  We first cooked off large sections of pasta sheets and laid them out to cool.  Then rounds were cut to suit the size of the burger buns.  Layering up, we started with pasta, then jalapeno jack cheese, another pasta, brie cheese, another pasta, then smoked cheddar and finally the top layer of pasta.   Cold Alfredo sauce (so it would be thicker) was liberally brushed over every layer except for the very tops and bottoms.  The patties were frozen for better handling, then double breaded with finely ground panko bread crumbs and returned to the freezer to set.  

Now the rest of the sandwich.  Macaroni and cheese doesn't normally get that much in the way of dressing up - ketchup, maybe some hot sauce - some places might match it up with some short rib.  Since the cheese patties were now looking pretty intimidating, we felt that a saucy pulled short rib would let us ease back on the overall weight of the sandwich, and should be arranged on top of the cheese.  Our bacon and tomato jam kicks ketchup's ass any day of the week, so it would be our "ketchup" on the bottom bun.  Pickled banana peppers would throw some nice heat and very necessary acidity into the mix.  Dan also mixed up a nice Dijon Alfredo for added sauce and filling the "mustard" slot.  With all these powerful flavours going on, arugula was the only green to handle the job.  For the first time ever - EVER - the top bun got no sauce, no spread, no nothing, it just wasn't needed.  Just to be sure we didn't leave anything out, we added some crispy fried onions.

everybody in the pool!

The execution.  Any worry of cheese leakage from the patties was unfounded and they held strong.  Once they had coloured nicely, they needed a little oven time to completely heat through, but were intact and crispy.  The short rib and Dijon Alfredo were simply heat and serve,  and the rest was assembly.  Eyes began to bug out and fear filled the room as these monsters came together.  Most of the eaters were going to try their hand at half a sandwich, but I was committed to putting  a whole one away (I used do battle with the 1lb burgers at the original Save-On-Meats on Hastings).  The first burger got cut, and "oh my god" was all anyone could say - the cheese just flowed like some wonderful fountain.  I got into mine and couldn't believe how good it was - it wasn't too saucy, and the taste was incredible.  I finished mine almost without pause, then cleaned the plate.  Truly amazing.  Completely nuts.  Beyond ridiculous.

The Mac and Cheese burger:

it's ok to be afraid, but better to be brave

 - bun - brioche

 - patty - (4) rounds of sheet pasta
            - jalapeno jack cheese
            - brie cheese
            - smoked cheddar cheese
            - Alfredo sauce
            - breaded
            - deep fried (finished in oven)
 - meat - pulled short rib in red wine jus
 - sauces - bacon tomato jam
               - Dijon Alfredo
 - greens - arugula
 - pickles - banana peppers
 - garnish - crispy fried onion