reinventing the greenwich burger from fiddlesticks in manhattan

yesterday, i wrote something that brought me visually to greenwich street in manhattan.  which got me thinking about fiddlesticks, a great irish pub on that street.  it basically has the most perfect "irish pub" ambiance i've ever encountered; it's a great place to go for a beer before or after a meal.  it's also a great place to have a meal - they have a full menu, which contains: the most delicious burger i've ever eaten.

now, in my new york life, if i'd found myself thinking about this while writing, i probably would have emailed garret: "want to go to fiddlesticks tonight?" he probably would have answered "sure" (and i probably would have thought too far into the fact that he didn't use an exclamation point after "sure" and then wonder if he really wanted to go or not, but that's just me being a complete crazy lady even in hypothetical form).

obviously, this could not be the way these events played out yesterday.  were we to go to fiddlesticks for dinner last night due to some whim that i had while writing, we'd be insane.  but, i couldn't shake the idea of that burger...

as i recalled, the burger had some sort of sauce inside it that made the whole thing savory and juicy.  i had to have it!  which meant i had to make it.

in case you want to try this at home (wherever your home is, unless your home is NYC in which - go to fiddlesticks!) here's a pseudo recipe for my made up burgers.  i'll call it the "can't get to NYC burger".

you will need: 
-  ground beef
-  an egg
-  breadcrumbs
-  an array of sauces from your kitchen. i used worcestershire sauce, A1 sauce, a bit of honey, a bit of spicy mustard, italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper.  also, a little olive oil and balsamic
vinegar.

directions:

in a bowl, mix your ground beef, egg, and breadcrumbs.  once it's mixed, make patties.  you're going to want to make a little "cup" in each patty for the sauce, and then a "top" to each cup.  so, make a few bowl-like patties and a few flat ones as "tops".

beef "cups"

in a separate bowl, mix your random  mix of sauces.  i used the worcestershire sauce as the main base, and then mixed small amounts (1/2 a teaspoon or less) of the rest.  then, using a whisk, i mixed it all together as i would a salad dressing.

then, i took one tablespoon of this mixture and poured it into each burger "cup".  i don't have a picture of this, because my hands were all covered in burger, so you'll have to imagine it!

once the "cups" were filled with the liquid, i put the "tops" over the burgers and melded the meat with my fingers so that there were no holes.  they looked like regular burgers - you couldn't tell there was a surprise center.

then i cooked them and presto chango: a delicious and very juicy/savory burger was ready to be eaten.

we topped them with some aged cheddar and onion crunchies that i bought during my thanksgiving shopping trip even though i didn't need them for anything i was making for the holiday..... i just find them really, really delicious.

enjoy! :)