Mmmm Burgers!

So today was another rainy day… Actually this whole month has been so rainy that it feels like I’m living in Oregon again! So despite this bad weather, I’ve decided to post a summer inspire recipe. I guess I’m hoping that it will  inspire mother nature to give us some nice weather at last!

For me, summer is truly here when we can start barbecuing! This year my husband and I had to splurge and get a new barbecue since our old one literally started falling apart (I wish I was kidding). I must say that I was not really that sad to see the old one go… On top of having a giant hot spot (even if the BBQ was on low, we would have 6 inch flames…) it was way too small. A few years back I had bought this great veggie basket and when we got home I realized that we could not even cook 2 small steaks and veggies at the same time! What a disappointment!

Anyways, after some online and in-store shopping, we finally settled on a model that we hoped would let us enjoy many years of fine barbecuing (and that would let us use the veggie basket and grill some meat at the same time). Unfortunately, after my husband spent close to 1 hour putting it together, we realized that there was a dent on the cover and within one day of using it, it started rusting. On the bright side, our store was kind enough to let us exchange the cover only so that we would not have to take it apart and start all over again!

Since then, we have cooked many copious meals on our new barbecue and one of my favorite was these giant burgers that we made the first week we had it. They were both super moist and very flavorful. I hope you enjoy them too (actually, let’s hope that the weather gets better so that you can barbecue them!)!

Early summer BBQ burgers

1 egg

½ cup of bread crumbs (more if you are not using extra-lean ground beef)

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

½ tsp Tabasco

½ teaspoon chili powder

½ tsp each salt and ground black pepper

1 lb (500 g) extra-lean ground beef

Lightly oil grill and heat barbecue to medium. In a large bowl, whisk egg with Dijon, Worcestershire, Tabasco sauce, salt and pepper.

Using your hands, gently mix together the wet ingredients and the beef, then add the bread crumbs.

Shape into 4 burgers, each about ¾ in. (2 cm) thick.

Place burgers on grill. Barbecue, with lid closed, until burgers are cooked through, 6 to 8 min. per side.

Tuck into warm crusty buns. Serve with your favorite toppings.

Makes four large burgers