My husband and I have been sitting together in our living room for the last week and a half cheering on our Canadians in the Olympics. Each medal we get we beam from ear to ear, proud to be a part of this beautiful country....especially HOCKEY. Hockey is the real deal for Canadians, even ones who don't normally watch the sport come out of the wood works for the Olympics (ummm, that would be me). A sport that brings our country together is one I like to cheer for.
The operative word being "cheer". Neither my husband or I are any type of athlete. We're both more of the emotional artistic type. But when it comes to food we could definitely compete with the best of them. Cooking Iron-Chef style would be my event but both Steve and I could win a medal in a throwdown for "who gets the last bite of food". Just last weekend we roasted up a lamb leg with friends and Steve scarfed down 7...maybe 8 pieces of meat polishing off the platter. And that was before he found out there was more lamb in the kitchen so he snuck three more pieces. And then ate two slices of chocolate tart.
Okay so yes, he may be able to beat me (hands down) in that category but I would put up a good fight for the last toasted coconut cupcake, the last buffalo chicken wing, the last cheese encrusted nacho, the last gyoza dumpling, or the last piece of Spicy Shrimp Tempura Maki from our favorite sushi place. Heck, Steve and I would even battle it out for the last piece of pickled ginger that comes with the sushi. I may not be able to devour a half a leg of lamb but I could definitely throwdown for some sweet pink pickled ginger, our chopsticks clicking together in a miniature version of plate hockey. And after (I WIN) we would revel in the uniting factor of good food.
These sweet meaty burgers are topped with the mildly pungent pink morsels of pickled ginger that we love so much and would fight for the last piece over, as well as cool crisp cucumber making these burgers totally irresistible.
I would definitely fight for the last one of these babies.
Recipe adapted from Rachael Ray
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Serves 4
1 lb ground pork
4 green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 tbsp grill seasoning, or salt and pepper
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
1 tbsp oil
1/4 cup pickled ginger
1 english cucumber, sliced
Lettuce
4 buns
In a mixing bowl mix together ground pork, green onions, garlic, grill seasoning and teriyaki sauce. Divide mixture into 4 portions and shape into burger patties.
In a frying pan or on the grill, turn heat to medium and drizzle in your oil. When hot add the burger patties. Let them cook for about 6 minutes, turn and then cook another 4-5 minutes. Make sure your heat isn't too high since the sugar in the teriyaki sauce will want to caramelize and burn. You can put a lid on your pan to speed up the cooking process without raising your heat.
Split open your buns, add the lettuce, teriyaki pork burger and top with cucumber slices and pickled ginger.
Click here for printable version of Teriyaki Pork Burgers.
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THE RESULTS?
The ease of preparation and the interesting flavor profile keep us coming back for more of these bad boys. It seems every time I have some ground pork kicking about either my husband requests these or I automatically gravitate towards cooking up these Asian-inspired gold mines. We love 'em and can't get enough of 'em.
These would be excellent prepared with ground chicken if you prefer. I choose pork because we love the flavor and ground pork is about a quarter of the price of ground chicken, making this quite a frugal meal for us.