SRC: Brat Burgers with Drunken Onions

It's time for another Secret Recipe Club (SRC) reveal!  I can't tell you how excited I am to be a part of this club.  It has provided wonderful exposure to some new blogs for me to follow and, I'm sure I've gained a few readers myself (Hello out there!  Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think!).  Reveal day is especially delightful because you never know what someone will have chosen to make!  I love secrets :).

This month I received Debra's blog at Eliot's Eats.  I was impressed by the wide variety of recipes that I found on her blog and love how many of them were family and/or original recipes.  That's refreshing because honestly I feel like sometimes the food blog world is a bit incestuous with popular recipes making their rounds on the blogs that I follow.

I chose this particular recipe because it was one of her originals and the Summer grilling season is in full force.  Plus, I absolutely love the flavor of brats and drunken anything.  Oddly enough I don't really drink alcohol but add it to foods and I'm all about it!  This recipe did not disappoint.  It was wonderfully flavored and not unlike something you'd get at a fancy pants burger joint.  Something as simple as toasting the buns makes homemade burgers a little more special.  Since this recipe makes a lot, I'm also excited to have 4 more burgers in the freezer for when I need a quick meal in the future.

As usual a special thank you to April of the blog Angel's Homestead, our new SRC ring leader and Angela of the blog Big Bear's Wife, our Group C Hostess!

One Year Ago: Banana Sour Cream Pancakes
Three Years Ago: Chicken Gyros with Tzatziki Sauce

Brat Burgers with Drunken Onions

Ingredients

• 5 T. olive oil, divided
• 2 large red onion, cut in half and sliced thin (I used 1 red and 1 sweet yellow)
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 bottle Dunkel (Munich style) beer, or other dark German beer
• 1 T. red wine vinegar
• 2 t. Tabasco sauce
• 1 t. celery seed
• 1 t. mustard seed
• 1 1/2 t. fresh ground pepper
• 1/2 t. grey sea salt
• 1 lb. fresh Bratwurst
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 large green bell pepper, seeded and diced
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 6 Kaiser rolls, split
• 1/4 c. whole grain mustard

Directions

1. Heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil in a medium sauce pan. Cook onions and garlic for 3 minutes. Add beer, vinegar, Tobasco, celery seed, mustard seed, pepper, and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce to medium and simmer for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, prepare the brat burgers.  Take brats out of casings and mix with ground beef, bell pepper, and 1 Tablespoon of “Dunkelized” onion sauce. Form into six patties and season with salt and pepper.  (Hint: Use your fingers to make a dent in the center of the pattie to keep it flat after cooking!)
3. With preheated grill set at 350 degrees, place patties on grill and grill for about 5 minutes on each side.
4. Brush rolls with remaining olive oil and toast them the last minute of grilling burgers.
5. To assemble, place about 2 teaspoons of mustard on bottom-half of Kaiser roll. Add burger and top with cooked onions. Top with top-half of roll. Serve.

Source: Eliot's Eats