Weekend Cooking: Better Burgers

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Those of you who read my blog during the week, know that I featured William Kent Krueger's Cork O'Connor mystery books for the Detectives Around the World theme week brought to us by Jen of Jen's Book Thoughts. Ex-Sheriff O'Connor runs a burger and fry shack that serves the fishermen and boaters who frequent Iron Lake near his northern Minnesota home.

In honor of Cork, I'm featuring a burger recipe today. I realize that there is no way one could order these awesome sandwiches at his burger joint, but I doubt you need a recipe for grilling up a premade beef patty.

This recipe comes from Ellie Krieger's So Easy, which I reviewed earlier this year. We really loved the flavor, but I made our burgers with ground lamb (because that's what I had in the freezer).

Better Burger with Green Olives

Makes 4 burgers

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• ½ cup coarsely chopped pitted green olives
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
  
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
  
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 hamburger buns
  
• Tomatoes, lettuce, onion, condiments as desired
  

Combine the beef, olives, parsley, cumin, and pepper in a medium bowl until well mixed. Shape into 4 burgers. Cook over medium high heat in a sprayed grill pan or on an outdoor grill for about 4 minutes per side.

Beth Fish's notes: As I said, I used ground lamb for the meat. I also added an egg to the mixture. We are thinking of topping them with feta cheese next time.