Thai Style Burgers with Thai Aoli

I haven't been doing as much creative cooking lately as I'd like. I'm finally in a place where I feel I can spend a little more creative time in the kitchen again. YEA!!!!! So I'm thumbing through some of my old favorites and trying to decide what "fun" recipe I can do with the ingredients I have on hand. Let's see... I have ground pork, and lemongrass... hey- didn't I have an awesome Thai burger recipe somewhere? So I go digging around and strike gold! I did have to go out and buy some mushrooms and ciabatta rolls, but I had everything else on hand and it is well worth the trip to the store. lol

This recipe is an adaptation of one I found in my favorite Thai cookbook: Greatest Ever Thai, easy and delicious step-by-step recipes by Parragon Publishing, Queen Street House, 4 Queen Street, Bath BA1 1HE,UK. This is a great starter book if you’re looking to branch out in foreign foods. It has easy to follow directions with illustrations, and a description of ingredients in the front of the book to help the beginner.  If you don’t yet own a Thai cookbook I highly recommend this one. 

I used a combination of ground pork and ground chicken. I am always a little leary of buying ground chicken for some reason, so I just thaw a few boneless skinless breasts, cut them into chunks and pulse them in a food processor to grind. 

I served this with oven baked fries seasoned with Wildtree's Lime Chiptole Rub and grapeseed oil with a mixture of quartered mushrooms, onions and green pepper wedges tossed with Wildtree's garlic and Lemon grapeseed oils and baked with the fries after fries have started to soften. 

THAI STYLE BURGERS w/ THAI AOLI

BURGERS:

1 small lemongrass stem or 1 TB lemongrass paste

1 small fresh red chili, seeded (or 3 TB sweet chili sauce)

2 garlic cloves

2-4 scallions (1/3 cup sliced)

7oz closed cap mushrooms

2 lbs lean ground pork (May substitute all or part for ground chicken or turkey)

1-2 tsp Thai fish sauce (may substitute soy sauce)

3 TB chopped fresh cilantro

Ciabatta rolls or bun of your choice

AOLI:

1/3 cup mayonnaise

Juice of ½ lime

1 tsp lemongrass paste

1 TB sweet chili sauce

Place lemongrass, chili, garlic and scallions in a food processor and process to a smooth paste.

Add mushrooms and process until finely chopped.

Add pork, fish sauce, sesame oil and cilantro.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Form meat into burgers and chill until ready to cook.

Fry burgers in 1 TB oil until brown on both sides and center juices run clear. You may also bake them at 400 for 25-30 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix Aoli ingredients to use as sauce for the burgers.

Great as is or served with slices of fresh tomato, red onion and lettuce or cabbage.