Burger Thirteen: Banquet Burger A La Fran's

Burger Number Thirteen - The Banquet Burger a la Fran's

Page: 51

Summer is finely here!

And what better way to celebrate with a beer and a burger! Today, Vince was swinging down for the evening so we thought we would celebrate with the famous 'Banquet Burger A La Fran's'. Beware all vegetarians out there, you may find the following material upsetting. 

I picked up 2 lbs of beef and a 1 of bacon ( yep.. just a little snack for 3.. ). I cooked up [all] the bacon in Darren's favorite kitchen item, the cast iron pan. 

Once cooked, I chopped up the 1/2 the bacon and added it to the beef as well as a shovel of bone dust, a spoon or two of Worchester Sauce, diced white onion, garlic and Bacon fat ( look out slimmers world, this is a 2000 calorie burger alert!). 

I shaped the bacon, beefy meat into burgers and left to cool off in the fridge. 

After a couple of hours, Darren and Vince took the *huge* burgers down to the grill with a beer or two and watched over them while putting the word to rights ( and discussing our recent 'racoon' problem *grrrrr*)

In the meantime, I chopped up a tomato, onion, lettuce and aged cheddar and bought them, as well as some baps (rolls/ buns for our international audience) down to the grilling zone. 

Darren and Vince took the baton from there and watched over the burgers as they cooked away with Darren sporadically basting the burgers with Bacon Fat. 

Darren added the cheese and bacon to the burgers and let the cheese melt down whilst he gave the buns a quick toast with a splash of butter.

And here is the finished burger! Delicious and debauched ( not necessarily something one should eat every day, but a fabulous bacon induced treat). We were all fueled up ready for an evening of Kinect Sports and Dance Central! Love it!

** I found this fabulous snack in another of Ted's books, Everyday Gourmet Plank Grilling, http://www.amazon.ca/Napoleons-Everyday-Gourmet-Plank-Grilling/dp/1554701503

I used a soaked cedar plank and Darren got the grill ready for our cheesy treat. It was SO easy, just plank up a full brie, top with honey, fresh peach slices, blueberries and fresh thyme. Heat on the grill until the cheese melts and starts to puff up around the fruit. Delicious!