Big Bay Burger

Pairs well with:

Cabernet Sauvignon

This rich red easily complements your homemade chicken dishes, red meats, game, and mildly seasoned pastas.

This burger was inspired by the local blue crab available from the Chesapeake Bay and the Crab Imperial served at the Dobbin House in Gettysburg, PA, where I worked during college.This is burger is the ultimate Surf & Turf on a bun – it is a hearty beef burger topped with cool avocado and a creamy crab imperial baked right in the top of the bun. A bit messy, but worth every bite.

Ingredients:

6 large, deep soft buns

Burger:
2 1/2 pounds ground round
4 oz. bacon, chopped
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs (prepared from the excess bread removed from the tops of the buns)
1/4 cup Sutter Home Cabernet Sauvignon
2 tablespoons Lea & Perins Worcestershire Sauce
1 medium sweet onion, minced
2 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon mustard seed
1 tablespoon coarse ground mustard

Crab Imperial:
1/3 cup cream cheese
2/3 cup mayonnaise
2 shallots, minced
2 tablespoon Sutter Home Sauvignon Blanc
1 teaspoon Chesapeake Bay seasoning
2 egg yolks
1 pound jumbo lump crabmeat

3 ripe avocados

Instructions:

Heat gas grill on one side to medium heat. Cut buns in half. Scoop bread from the middle of the top half of the bun, leaving a half inch shell of crust. Use the excess bread from the top of the bun to make the fresh breadcrumbs. Form six rings of aluminum foil. Place on a double layer of heavy duty aluminum foil about 18 inches long.

In a large mixing bowl, place ground round, bacon, fresh breadcrumbs, Sutter Home Cabernet Sauvignon, Lea & Perins Worcestershire sauce, minced onion, sea salt, black pepper, mustard seed and mustard. Mix well and combine into 6 patties, about 4 to 5 inches wide and 1 inch thick. Set aside.

Combine cream cheese, mayonnaise, minced shallots, Sutter Home Sauvignon Blanc, and Chesapeake Bay seasoning in a deep-sided sauté pan or skillet. Heat over the grill until cream cheese is melted and the mixture is hot about 5 minutes. Fold in the egg yolks and crabmeat. Divide into the top half of each of the six buns. Place each bun with crab imperial on a ring of aluminum foil and tent with another layer of aluminum foil. Enclose the buns by folding the ends of the aluminum foil. Put the aluminum foil package of buns on the half of the grill without heat, cover and heat for 5 to 10 minutes until the crab imperial is set, rotating toward heat source at least once. Remove from heat, keeping tented.

Increase the heat of the grill to medium-high. Grill burgers over medium-high heat for about 4 to 5 minutes per side to desired doneness. Toast the bottom of the bun on the grill, about 1 minute. Slice avocado.

Assemble burgers: Toasted bottom of bun, burger, sliced avocado, and top of bun with crabmeat mixture.