Teri Tucci: Camembert-Stuffed Pork Burger served with a Potato & Bean Salad Dressed with Warm Camembert Vinaigrette

Teri Tucci, 26, of South Loop. You can find Teri @terilou6983 or @makeawhisk, or at her blog, makeawhisk.com.

When I saw the ingredients for this week's Virtual Kitchen II contest, I was excited. I absolutely hate olives (no offense to Stephanie or the olive-lovers out there!) so there was no way I was going to be able to come up with anything for last week's combo. This week, however, had some pretty great ingredients.  

I had a number of ideas incorporating all three items, but I kept coming back to one thing: a burger. I know that's sort of the obvious choice when a ground meat is part of the package, but I love a great burger, and once I got it into my head, I just couldn't get it out again.  
What I made was a rich, juicy pork burger stuffed with camembert cheese. On the side was a warm potato salad made with haricots vert and red potatoes, tossed with a camembert vinaigrette.
  
The Burger
    •    1 lb ground pork (preferably ground at home, see instructions below)
    •    4 slices of bacon or pancetta, finely diced
    •    2 cloves of garlic, minced
    •    1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
    •    1 teaspoon herbes de provence (I buy mine at The Spice House in Old Town)
    •    Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
    •    4 sandwich rolls (I used challah rolls)
    •    2 tablespoons butter
    •    8 ounces camembert cheese, divided (In the interest of buying local, chose Delice de

France's Grand Camembert, which is local to the Midwest, from Wisconsin)
    •    2 tablespoons mayonnaise
 
The Potato Salad
    •    ½ lb haricots vert, trimmed and washed
    •    1 lb red potatoes, washed and cubed
    •    1 tablespoon reserved bacon fat (from the bacon for the burger)
    •    2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
    •    4 Tablespoons balsamic vinigar
    •    2 cloves of garlic, minced
    •    ½ teaspoon herbes de provence (Still from The Spice House in Old Town)
    •    2 ounces camembert cheese, rind removed
    •    Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
 
To make sure I was getting the quality of meat that I wanted, I decided to grind my own pork. I chose two beautiful pork steaks. I like to make my burgers with a mixture that has about 20% fat content, so I made sure to choose cuts of pork with plenty of marbling. For four burgers, you need about 1 pound of pork. 
 
Chill the pork steaks in the fridge for at least 15 minutes before cutting them into 1 inch cubes for the food grinder. I laid out the individual cubes on a cookie sheet lined with parchment and placed the whole pan in the freezer for about half an hour. Meat that is fully chilled will go through the grinder much more easily and produce a better texture.
 
While the meat cubes are chilling in the freezer, take your four slices of bacon and finely dice them. In a small skillet over medium low heat, slowly cook the bacon. You want to render a good amount of fat from the frying bacon, but don't cook the bacon all the way to crisp. You really want a soft-cooked bacon here, so that some of that additional bacon fat can melt out into the burgers as they cook.  

At this point, I started to work on the potato salad while the meat continued to chill in the freezer.  
 
Place cubed potatoes in a medium sauce pan and cover with cold, salted water. Bring to a boil. The potatoes will take about 10 minutes to cook--they're done when they are fork tender, but still firm enough to stand up in the salad. Tasting one is the best way to tell. When the potatoes are done, carefully drain them and place them in the bottom of your serving bowl. Drizzle with a bit of extra virgin olive oil (about a tablespoon) and toss to coat.  
In the meantime, blanch the haricots vert in a medium-sized pot of boiling water that has been prepared with a tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar. The beans will only take about 3 or 4 minutes to cook, so watch them closely. You want them to be tender enough to eat, but still crisp. They will also turn bright green, almost neon. Again, tasting one is the best way to tell when they're done. When the beans are cooked to the right doneness, remove them immediately to a bowl of ice water, to stop the cooking process. If you skip this step, you'll end up with mushy beans. And that will be sad. After about 2 or 3 minutes, the beans will be chilled and your ice will probably have melted. This is a good time to drain the beans thoroughly, and add them to the potatoes. Toss the mixture carefully.  

To make the vinaigrette, take a small non-stick skillet and place over low heat. Add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and a tablespoon of your reserved bacon fat to the skillet. When these have warmed thoroughly, there will be the slightest bit of a shimmer on the surface and the oils will coat the pan easily if you turn the skillet. Add the garlic, balsamic, and herbes de provence and whisk to combine. Now add the cheese. Break the camembert into pieces and carefully place in the skillet. The cheese will start to melt, slowly. You don't want to go too quickly here, because if you heat the camembert too much, you'll lose a lot of the delicate flavors. As the camembert melts into the sauce, gently whisk to combine.  

When the cheese is fully incorporated into the vinaigrette, pour over the potatoes and beans and toss to combine. Finish with salt and pepper to taste and set aside. This salad is great at room temperature, so let it hang out while you finish the burgers.  

At this point, your pork cubes should be ready to grind. I used the food grinder attachment for my KitchenAid mixer. The grinding process is easier than it sounds, and didn't take longer than five minutes. Once you have your ground pork, place in a large mixing bowl. To the pork, add the bacon pieces, garlic, Worcestershire, herbes de provence, and salt and pepper.

Using your hands, stir the mixture to combine. Don't overwork the mixture, or your burgers could end up tough.  

Take four one ounce slices of camembert cheese and shape each into a small disk with your hands. (They'll end up about a half dollar in size) Divide the pork mixture into four equal parts. Take one quarter of the pork and carefully shape it around the camembert "coin" to form a patty. Repeat with the remaining burgers. I cooked the burgers in a nonstick pan on the stove, but they could be grilled, broiled--whatever you prefer. I cooked them over medium heat for a little longer than I normally would, to make sure that the camembert didn't get so hot that it melted out of the burger. While the burgers cook, lightly butter the sandwich buns and fry in a skillet, to get that crunchy toasted flavor.  

To assemble the burgers, spread a thin layer of mayonnaise over the bottom half of the bread, to help "protect" the bread from the burger juices. Top each burger with another ounce of camembert cheese. This will soften as the burger rests and melt down over the top of the entire burger. I suppose you could continue to doctor the burger up with other toppings, but I didn't think it needed it. The camembert was flavorful enough, and since the burger wasn't overwhelmed with lots of toppings, it was able to shine.  

The burgers cooked beautifully--when you take a bite, you get the warm camembert from the top of the burger immediately, but an even tastier gooey center of cheese that combines the camembert with the pork flavor from the burger. The bacon in the mixture adds an additional smoky, salty flavor and helps to keep the pork burger moist.  

Serve alongside the potato salad.