First Snow/Grill of the season!

We don't get much snow in Tennessee, but when we do the locals sort of freak out. They buy all the milk at the grocery store, close schools and prove that they don't know how to drive on ice and snow. I can joke about Tennesseans and the snow, because I am one. So when you are snowed in and have no place to go - to me that is the perfect invitation to start grilling. I always say that there is no "grilling season" unless you mean every season. You should never put away the grill - instead get your coat and stand a little closer to the fire. 

This is Grill Fire & Ice! Get the fire going and the snow will just get out of the way. In this case the snow got out of the way for Bobby Flay's Turkey Cobb Burger from page 69 of Bobby's Burgers, Fries and Shakes book. The snow does not get out of the way of your wine glass - but the snow is a great wine cooler!

I started with 97% fat free ground turkey and formed it into patties. I treat ground turkey burgers the same as I would ground beef burgers. Don't add a bunch of stuff to the meat when making the patties. If you start adding onions, chopped peppers, tomatoes, etc then pretty soon you are not making burgers, you are making meat loaf instead - these are char-grilled burgers, not meat loaf with some kind of tomato sauce slathered over the top! Form the patties and press a crater in one side, then season with coarse kosher salt and ground peppercorns. What's the crater for? That is one of Bobby Flay's best tips. If you push down a crater in the center of the patty then when it plumps up on the grill it will return to the proper burger shape.  Without the crater the burger will puff up in the middle and look like a flying saucer. Now there is nothing wrong with a flying saucer burger, but some lesser grillers have a tendency to press down on the burger to make it flat. When they do this they squeeze out all the flavorful juices leaving you with dry, tasteless burgers. This is why one of the Commandments of the Grill is: thou shalt not press down on a burger with a spatula. Before these turkey burgers hit the grill I brushed on some Canola Oil and I did sprinkle on some basil that I had been saving since growing it last summer. 

Canola or Olive Oil on grill meats? The best is Canola because it flames up at a much hotter temperature than Olive Oil. If you use Olive Oil the extreme heat of the grill will cause flare ups that can overly char the meat and gives a burnt (not smoked) flavor. A second Commandment of the Grill that is in use here is: Thou shalt turn a burger on the grill once and only once. Flipping burgers sounds like what teenagers do for a part time job - this is grown-up grilling not kids stuff. Turning the burger more than once just is inviting the juices to leave your burger and asking for a shoe-leather consistency. This Commandment goes for steaks as well. After the burger turn, I added Pepper-Jack cheese to the burgers and covered them with a pan - another terrific Bobby Flay tip. Use a pan over the burgers to melt the cheese. You can't have partially melted cheese on a burger - its just not done. So get a pan that is deep enough to cover the burgers without touching the burgers. Let the heat from the grill get caught in the pan so that the burger gets heat from all sides - especially the top side where the cheese is. Check out this fully melted cheese under the pan!

When the burgers came off the grill, we topped them with the ingredients that made this a "cobb" burger: tomato, bacon slices, avocado, and romaine lettuce with a dressing of red wine vinegar, lemon juice, Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce. On the side we prepared Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Potato Salad - you can find that recipe on page 225 of Boy Meets Grill.    

Once again we proved that no matter if its sunny and 90 degrees or snowing and 12 - its always the right time to fire up the grill! Happy Holidays and Grill! Grill! Grill! Paul