Basil - Burger - Pesto. 
Tonight is our first night back from vacation. In an effort to not eat out and use as much of what we had at home as possible, I found a few burger patties that I had placed in the freezer a few weeks ago. I also had a few hamburger buns in the freezer. I pulled them out and started to get creative. In the morning, I stepped outside to check on our garden. A few casualties…The pole beans were chomped down along with the head lettuce and the tops of a couple of pepper plants. It definitely was a deer this time as it left perfect hoof prints in the beds!
Not quite a bounty…but I was able to pull out about 20 pea pods, parsley, lettuce, and a ton of basil and chives. The chives got chopped and dropped into the freezer with my other chives. What could I make with a burger and pea pods, parsley, basil, and lettuce. So I get to thinking….I LOVE pesto. Why not a pesto burger? Pesto made with pine nuts, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese might not work out too well on the burger. With the amount of fat in the burger, I was thinking something more creamy. I decided to make a basil burger and used mayonnaise as the vehicle. Though a fatty second to olive oil and cheese, the mayonnaise brings an acidic creaminess that absorbs and conducts the basil perfectly. I mixed the mayonnaise with a chiffonade of basil, salt, pepper, and garlic.
After grilling the burger, I spread some of the basil mayonnaise on the bun. We had the burger along side a salad of bitter greens, tarragon, champagne vinegar, and olive oil. The burger was absolutely wonderful. The only thing missing from the salad was a dice of shallot.
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