By The Hack
Is there a better way to cook asparagus than on the grill? I think not. See that stuff there next to that lamb burger? Grilled asparagus. With some leftover lime butter. And it’s stupid easy. Take your asparagus, commingled with some olive oil, and place on hot grill. Close cover for a minute. Open cover, and look. Maybe turn it, to see if they’re showing signs of grillness. Don’t wander off! It don’t take long! Few minutes, tops. Look and see when the “skin” of them suckas is starting to blister a bit, and you can see the liquid just underneath that said “skin” movin’ around. You’ll know what I’m talkin’ about when you see it. Move ‘em around so they’re grilled all around, but, obviously, not charred. They might be kinda limp, depending on their thickness, but still snappy in the mouth. Done.
Don’t have lime butter? Try blue cheese. Yum. I’ll toss that lime butter recipe on here sometime. Used it a while back for salmon.
But we’re talking asparagus here!
And that burger. Lamb.
I ain’t made a reg’lar hamburger at home in years. Nothing against hamburgers, but lamb is my fave. Take ground lamb, our butcher usually has packs at just under a pound, more than enough for two burgers, mix salt and pepper and, if you’ve got it, roasted garlic (cut the top off a garlic bulb, pour in a little olive oil, wrap in foil and place in the grill while it heats up. It don’t take long, either. Squeeze roasted cloves through a garlic press into the meat), or garlic powder if you don’t. What else goes good with lamb? I think mint and feta. Chop mint and toss in meat. Now, feta don’t sit too well on a burger. So, stuff it inside (Twin Cities folks know this as a Jucy Lucy, misspelling intentional). Make your patty into a bowl, drop some feta in there, then bring the edges together and seal ‘em up. Or, for more even distribution, make your patty into two and—you can figure it out. I cook these with indirect heat, shutting down one of the burners on the gas grill. I don’t want no flame ups to ruin little lambs. Don’t take long, neither. Couple minutes on one side, lid closed, flip, close lid couple minutes, done. Toast buns. Smear one with mint jelly. Or, toss a couple mint leaves on top. Eat.