Grilled Burgers with Troublemaker Wine Sauce + Blue Cheese

Can we talk about TV? Specifically, can we talk about how goddamn amazing it is that Kristin Wiig plays young-Lucille on Arrested Development?! I think I shouted my approval at the TV, this happens when casting is just THAT good…or, you know, when the storyline throws me into a fit of tv-rage. Happens.

I, unabashedly, love TV and I will get sucked into a series and then re-watch it for eternity (i.e Arrested Development, the Office, Buffy, etc.)… Lucille Bluth was already pretty much my favorite character, Jessica Walter is ahhhh-mazing and Kristin Wiig just completes the character, full circle. I love it!

Maybe because I secretly have a sharp-tongued Lucille Bluth deep within me and maybe because the nice people at Jarvis Communications sent me some Troublemaker wine on behalf of their client, I made a wine-sauced burger. Though Lucille would never eat anything my thumb touched and to her this is probably considered pool-food, I’m pretty sure she’d ingest any booze-laced food item over anything non-boozed.

Enter this burger. That one, way up there…it was my dinner on Monday and it was amazing. Red wine and beef are known friends, and I just love ’em together. I reduced the wine with some beef stock, sautéed shallots, a ton of coarse black pepper and spooned it over these serious grilled burgers. Rachel, from Jarvis, kindly included a special burger blend (including short rib, holla!), even though when we spoke on the phone I was a total spaz and apparently forgot how to be a human being. Wine AND phone skills beget major points from this girl…

ANYWAY, I’m not a patty-forming pro, as evidenced, but the flavor did not suffer! The rich beef paired with the lush wine sauce was perfection with a sprinkled of blue cheese.  I’m no wine aficionado  but I do love a dry, smooth wine anytime. Troublemaker is exactly the kind of red I’d want to sip with a beefy burger — it’s rich, yet smooth, with lots of fruit, but still dry. I’m not a sweet wine drinker, but I do love there to be some fruit in there and this wine delivered. I could totally see myself bringing this as a host’s gift, and it doesn’t hurt that the label is cool too…I’m a sucker for a good wine label!

*Jarvis Communications provided me with both the wine and beef to try at my leisure. I was not compensated for this post, and as always all opinions are honest and my own. I do not promote products I have not tried and do not love. Cheers! [recipe]

Grilled Burgers with Wine Sauce

This wine sauce is inspired by a pan sauce I throw together anytime we have steaks–which is, like, once a year…on our anniversary. For a pan cooked burger, use the same pan to make the sauce–aka PAN SAUCE (duh!). It will rock your world, I promise. 

Makes enough wine sauce for several burgers. Refrigerate leftovers in a lidded container for 1 week.

2 teaspoons olive oil

2 shallots, sliced

1/4 cup beef stock

1 cup dry, red wine

1 Tablespoon coarsely cracked black pepper

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

2 Tablespoons butter

salt to taste

1 lb. ground beef

salt + pepper

3-4 split buns (I used store-bought brioche)

lettuce, tomato, crumbled blue cheese, sliced onions, or whatever other toppings you like.

In a skillet or saucepan over medium heat, sauté the shallots in the olive oil until tender and translucent  Add the beef stock, bring to a boil, and reduce until there is just a small amount of liquid left in the pan, add the wine, and bring back to a boil. Continue to cook until reduced by half. Whisk in the black pepper and dijon, then the butter, 1 tablespoon at a time until incorporated. Season with salt to taste. Pour into a dish and set aside until ready to serve.

Heat your grill–I have a gas grill, but you could use charcoal or a grill pan indoors. Whatever works! I like to grill burgers on a screaming hot grill for maximum crusty-bits. While your grill heats, divide the beef into 3-4 equal parts, form into patties without compacting them too much, sprinkle liberally on each side with salt and pepper, and grill, flipping only once, for desired doneness. I am a fan of a medium-rare to medium burger — but do what you like/want/desire. Top the hot burgers with blue cheese and tent with foil while you toast the buns on the grill (be sure to watch them, as they will turn into charcoal in seconds). Assemble burgers however you like, topping with a generous spoonful of the wine sauce. [/recipe]