Shallot and raclette cheeseburgers

The Goods*:

1 lb 85% lean ground beef**

2 Iggy's brand brioche buns

1 tsp clarified butter

1 shallot

1 handful fresh parsley

1 generous pour Marsala wine

6 1" x 3" slices Raclette cheese***

In a heavy sauté pan, heat the clarified butter on medium-high heat. Trim the ends from the shallot, slice it length-wise, and remove the skin. Thinly slice each shallot half. Finely mince the handful of fresh parsley. When the butter is hot, cook the shallots for a few minutes. They should cook beyond translucence into a brown color, but not burn. When the shallots are cooked, add the minced parsley. Deglaze the pan with the wine. Remove from the heat, place in a small bowl, and refrigerate covered in plastic wrap.

When the shallots are fully chilled, combine them with the ground beef in a large bowl. Season generously with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Incorporate the shallots into the ground beef with your hands; try not to over work the meat. Shape the meat into two patties, roughly 3/4" to 1" thick.

Set one portion of the grill to medium-high heat and the other portion to medium heat. Place the patties on medium high heat. Cook without moving for three minutes. Turn the patties 90 degrees (to achieve that brilliant grill mark cross-hatching), and cook without touching for three additional minutes. Flip the patties and transfer to the medium heat zone. Cook for five minutes. Slice the rolls in half and place them on the top rack over the medium heat zone to toast. Turn the patties 90 degrees. Place three slices of Raclette on each patty and cook for five more minutes. Remove the buns and patties from the grill. Allow the meat to rest for at least 10 minutes.

One may assemble the burger with any condiments/accessories one desires. I spread a thin layer of dijon mustard on the lower patty, added the burger, then stacked a few slices of yellow onion and some spring greens. Serve with roasted red potatoes and a green salad.

*It feels good to be cooking again. Last week/weekend were highly disruptive to the natural cooking rhythm (read: drunken). The combination of warm weather and my roomate's lovely gas grill sent visions of charred meats dancing in my head. Sorry, there will be pictures next time. I promise.

**I'm a firm believer that one needs some fat in the meat to retain some moisture in the finished burger. After seeing Alton's show about hamburgers and reading the Keller treatise on beef patties, I really wanted to have the butcher grind me a choice blend of sirloin, chuck, etc. Sadly, my local WF butcher informed me that they can only do that for orders of 5 lbs or more. This makes sense, I mean, they're dealing with industrial-style meat grinders. I suppose its time to invest in the KitchenAid meat grinder attachment...

***Raclette is amazing. I've found that fancy and/or delicious cheese that I discover never seem to have very good melting properties. Enter Raclette. The one down-side is that the cheese is too soft to cut very thinly, so I got by with three rectangular slices per burger.