The Canada Day long weekend is coming up and, at mealtime, many folks around our country will head outdoors and cook something on a barbecue. Burgers, of course, are a popular choice and if you want to serve something with a Canadian twist, try my tourtière-style ones.
Most, of course, recognize tourtière as being a French-Canadian meat pie served on or around Christmas, not something that’s grilled on a warm summer day.
But I accomplished the latter goal by richly seasoning a mix of ground pork and beef as I would a filling for tourtière, with onions, thyme and spices, such as cinnamon, clove and garlic powder. And, instead of putting that meat mixture in a piecrust, I formed it into burger patties, cooked them on my barbecue and put them into potato-flavoured buns.
I choose potato buns because when I make tourtière filling, I usually add small cubes of cooked potato. So, I still had a taste of potato in my tourtière-style burgers, but in this case it was in the bun, not the filling.
When I plate and serve wedges of tourtière, I’ll accompany them with condiments such as tomato relish or homemade ketchup, pickles and Dijon mustard, and serve salad greens on the side. These are things that also work well in a burger, so I added them to mine.
For my tomato-based condiment, though, I decided to, like my tourtière-style burgers, make something with a Canadian twist by simmering an easy-to-make maple whiskey mustard barbecue sauce. A sweet, tangy, full-of-flavour sauce you slather on the burger patties once grilled.
My last Canadian addition to my tourtière-style burgers was to top the patties with some sliced Canadian cheese, which in my recipe could be aged white cheddar or Quebec Oka cheese.
Tourtière-style Burgers
Rich, savoury, ground meat patties, flavoured like tourtière, grilled, topped with zesty barbecue sauce and tangy cheese, stuffed in tender potato buns with pickles and salad greens.
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 12 to 15 minutes
Makes: five servings
1 Tbsp butter
2/3 cup finely diced onion (see Note 1)
1 large egg
1/3 cup dried bread crumbs
3 Tbsp milk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp garlic powder or granulated garlic
1/8 tsp ground clove
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
2 Tbsp chopped freshly parsley or minced green onion
340 grams ground beef
340 grams ground pork
• vegetable oil for the grill
• maple whiskey mustard barbecue sauce (see recipe below)
5 potato buns or other tender hamburger buns, split and warmed (see Note 2)
• mayonnaise, to taste
• mixed salad greens, to taste
5 to 10 slices aged white Canadian cheddar cheese or Oka cheese
• sliced dill pickles or other pickles, to taste
Melt butter in a small skillet set over medium, medium-high heat. Add onions and cook until tender, four to five minutes. Remove onions from the heat and let cool.
Place egg in a mixing bowl and beat well. Add bread crumbs, milk, salt, cinnamon, thyme, garlic, clove, black pepper and parsley (or green onion) and mix well to combine. Add the ground beef and pork and mix until the meats are well combined with the ingredients in the bowl.
Moisten your hands very lightly with cold water. Divide and form meat mixture into five, 3/4-inch thick patties. Make a deep dimple in one side of each patty, which should prevent it from overly puffing during cooking.
Preheat your barbecue or indoor grill to medium, medium-high. When hot, lightly oil the bars of the grill. Grill the patties four to five minutes per side, or until entirely cooked through and the temperature reaches 165 F in the centre of the patty when tested with an instant-read meat thermometer.
Turn heat to low, top each patty with barbecue sauce and a slice or two of cheese and cook one minute or so more, or until the cheese is melted.
Spread bottom buns with mayonnaise. Set some salad greens on each bottom bun, and then top with a burger patty. Top each patty with sliced pickles, set on top buns and serve.
Note 1: Finely diced in this recipe means to cut into small, 1/8- to 1/4-inch cubes.
Note 2: The potato buns I used in this recipe were made by Saanichton-based Portofino Bakery, which sells its products at food stores around the Island. If you can’t find them, any other tender hamburger bun will also work in this recipe. You can warm the buns by setting them, cut-side-down, on the grill a minute or so while the burger patties are cooking.
Maple Whisky Mustard Barbecue Sauce
Barbecue sauce enhanced with Canadian whisky, spicy Dijon mustard and maple syrup. The vinegar, also added to the sauce, balances the sweetness of the syrup.
Preparation time: five minutes
Cooking time: about six minutes
Makes: about one cup
3/4 cup barbecue sauce (see Note)
2 Tbsp Canadian whisky (see Eric’s options)
2 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Combine barbecue sauce, whisky, syrup, vinegar, mustard, Worcestershire, soy sauce and pepper in a small pot. Set over medium heat and bring to a gentle simmer. Lower heat as needed to maintain that gentle simmer.
Simmer sauce five minutes, and it’s ready to use (see Eric’s options).
Note: Bull’s-Eye Bold Original brand barbecue sauce was used when testing this recipe. Beyond burgers, the maple whisky mustard barbecue sauce could also be used to flavour grilled chicken, sausages, pork ribs and pork chops
Eric’s options: If you can’t have or don’t wish to use whisky, replace with beef stock.
You can make the sauce many hours in advance, cool it, cover and refrigerate it until needed for the burgers.
Eric Akis is the author of eight cookbooks. His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.
