Sliders!

Last weekend my Aunt and Uncle were in town from England, the perfect excuse for some bountiful family barbequing. Of course, my two nephews would be in attendance and while I was picking up supplies at the store I cam across some mini-buns. Perfect for those tiny little hands = SLIDERS. Honestly, I don't see what the big deal is with these things - they are basically little burgers. I fear this is some kind of off-shoot from the cupcake craze which has been sweeping North America since Sex in the City made it trendy... But after making some for little Theo and then some more (I have a lot of leftover buns to use up) I'm starting to see the appeal - a larger variety of toppings is the idea. Why have just one burger, when you can have 5 with a bunch of different stuff on them? Yum.

I didn't include the whole hamburger recipe - but if you want one, click here. But I made 3 different kinds of sliders: (1) mushroom bacon and Brie, (2) Jalapeno relish and Goat Cheese, and (3) I thin the last one was kind of a combination of those first two... Either way, the goat cheese and relish one was easily the best!

Ted's Tip of the Week:

Your BBQ is essentially a stove/oven you use outside - so why not put it to good use? Some of my posts in the past have focused on using your BBQ as an oven (see indirect heat and almost anything that involves making desert) but this time I went for the stove option. While I was making the burgers, I put my iron skillet on the grill and fried up some mushrooms and bacon as toppings. If your grill is big enough, conceivably you could have your toppings and your burgers going at the same time.

Jalapeno Relish:

3-4 Jalapenos, seeded and diced
1 onion, diced
1 tomato, diced
vinegar
sugar
lime/lemon juice
S&P

Throw everything into a bowl, add about a 1/4 cup of the vinegar, a splash of the lemon of lime juice, a large Tbsp of sugar and any spices you think might help. don't try to drown the stuff, and taste to make sure it's not too sweet or acidic. If you like it spicy - leave some of the seeds! Let it sit so all the flavours meld together.

Curried Mayonnaise:

Mayo
Curry Paste

This is probably one of the best tricks I've ever learned: take some mayo and then add a spoonful of whatever curry paste you happen to have in your fridge to it. THAT'S IT. Simple, but brilliant. It'll make your guests ooooh and ahhhhhh over nothing. Goes great with fries by the way. They serve the stuff at my local pub and they charge a dollar for it - friggin' misers.

This little guy was definitely the winner! All hail Goat Cheese!