It's all about the toppings...

So today at Kev's parents house we had burgers- regular store bought frozen burgers- with store bought buns- but that is where the store bought ends....
What is most important about a burger is what you put on it- and today they were out of this world. I caramelized onions, cooked mushrooms, made my own barbecue sauce, and made home made dressing for the coleslaw and all together it made one amazing burger!

For the full effect I put a bit of everything on my burger as well as some jalapeno cheese, here are some hints for making the filling.

My BBQ sauce:

• 1/3 yellow onion chopped very finely
• 3 cloves garlic crushed
• 1 c of ketchup
• 1/3 c brown sugar
• 1 tbsp soy
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire 
• garlic powder- 1/2 tsp
• 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp basil
• 1/2 onion powder
• dash of vinegar
  
  Start with a bit of olive oil in a sauce pan- add your onions and garlic and let this go for about 2 minutes on low/medium heat. Add all ingredients and cook on low. Adjust seasonings/sugar to suit your taste!:)

Caramelized onions:

Good caramelized onions are going to take some time. I started with about 3 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of olive oil. Important that you use butter to get that brown color, and important to add oil to keep that butter from burning. I chopped 3 large white onions in thin slices, added 2-3 tbsp of sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper, 1/2 tsp dry oregano. You let the onions go for on a medium heat- stirring constantly scarping the bottom of the pan where the flavor tends to stick!!! Do not leave these alone because they will burn- but don't stir too much in the beginning in order to let the sugars caramelize the onions- if you disturb it too much it won't happen and instead they will burn. When they are golden brown and falling apart you are done:)- which takes about 20-25 minutes.

Mushrooms:

 We chopped a paper bag 3/4 full of mushrooms and added that to a heated pan with 2 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of olive oil. I added salt, pepper, oregano, and a bit of sugar. At first your mushrooms will release some moisture and you will think you added too much butter or olive oil- this is not the case- this just means you have a ways to go to cooking them fully. When they are done they will be golden, and all of the moisture will be gone. To finish them off I added 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar which will evaporate quickly and leave behind a sweet coating on the mushrooms.

Coleslaw:
I adapted a recipe I once saw on Guy Fietti's show: Guy's Big Bite.
For the dressing you will need:

• 1 tbsp of Dijon
• 2 tbsp of sugar
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 3/4 c mayo
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2-3/4 tsp pepper- fresh ground
  To this I added:
• a bit more sugar
• 1/3 tsp celery seeds
• a touch more vinegar
• 1 1/2 bags of coleslaw
  
  We used grainy Dijon which isn't as strong as a regular ground Dijon - because of that I added a bit more. If I was using regular ground Dijon I wouldn't need any extra. Toss the coleslaw 10- 15 minutes before your going to need it- if you don't the coleslaw doesn't absorb any of that good flavor- if you mix it too early the slaw will let get a lot of moisture and interfere with all of your hard work.

I put jalapeno cheddar, a bit of my BBQ sauce, mushrooms, onions, and coleslaw on top of my burger and it was the best burger I have had in a long time.
Try it out- and let me know how it goes!