Zona-kona Burger

Pairs well with:

White Zinfandel

With strawberry and melon essences, this American original is perfectly at home with however you like to unwind.

In my fusion burger, I use the flavors of Arizona and Hawaii.The use of spicy mayo sauce, cilantro, haiwaiian honey mustard and jalapeno glazed pineapple make this a special burger.

Ingredients:

2 – cups of mayonnaise
1/2 – cup Chipotle Hot Sauce or any hot sauce.
3 – Tablespoons of Honey Mustard. (I use Kona Coast Hawaiian Style Honey Mustard. It’s really sticky like honey and has a tart taste to it.) available at Safeway
1 – Juice of 1 lemon.
2 – lbs. of ground beef. Preferrably 85% lean but 80-20 will do.
.04 – lbs. of ground pork
1 1/2 – teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
1 – teaspoon Smoked Paprika
1 – teaspoon Ground Mustard
1 – teaspoon Granulated Garlic
2 – teaspoons of Asian Sea Salt – available at Safeway
2 – teaspoons of Raw Sugar
2 – teaspoons of Liquid Smoke
2 – Tablespoons of fresh Cracked Pepper
3 – Tablespoons of fresh minced Garlic
3 – Tablespoons Worchestershire Sauce
1 – Tablespoon of Soy sauce
1 – large bunch of Cilantro
1 – whole Pineapple – Maui Gold are usually the sweetest but any will do.
1 – Egg
1 – cup of breadcrumbs – unseasoned.
6 – slice of Pepper Jack cheese
6 – Onion Rolls
1 – jar of Jalapeno Jelly – available at Safeway

Instructions:

In a small bowl, combine mayo, honey mustard, lemon juice and Chipotle hot sauce. Mix and put in fridge until ready to use.

In a large bowl, combine meat products, cayenne pepper, paprika, ground mustard, granulated garlic, Asian sea salt, raw sugar and liquid smoke. MIx until all spices are blended but don’t overmix. Overmixing can make burgers hard. Add minced garlic, worchestershire sauce and soy sauce. Mix and put into fridge to marinade for 20-30 minutes.

Finely chop cilantro and set aside in small bowl. Cut pineapple into rings about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. The easiest way I found was to lay the pineapple down and with the skin still attached, start cutting into large slices. I found it easy to use electric knife or serrated knife. Pick the nicest circles and then one by one , cut the center fibers out (something like a apple corer or pineapple corer work well if you have one). Or you can just use a knife. Pick the nicest slices and lay the slices flat and trim off the skin. After this, the pineapple slices should look more like s stop sign rather than a ring.

Add jalapeno jelly to small saucepan and under medium heat, cook until it is liquidfied.

Add 1 egg to the meat mixture which will make it look a little gooey. Add the breadcrumbs until mixture looks more ply-able. Put about 2/3 of the chopped cilantro in bowl and mix evenly into meat mixture. Loosely roll meat mixture into 6 equal size balls. Press 1 ball at a time in hand to from a nice patty (thin and wider is better. You want them the same size as pineapple if not bigger).

Put pineapple slices on large sheet of wax paper and brush both sides with jalapeno jelly.

Get gas grill up to medium high heat. Put patties on and grill on one side for 4-5 minutes. If room on grill, add the pineaplle slices. Flip over burgers and pineapple slices. After 2-3 minutes add cheese to burgers and place buns on grill if room so they can warm. Take burger off as soon as the cheese melts. Pineapple slices should have nice grill marks on them and can be flipped a few more times if needed.

Add spicy mayo suace to bottom of onion roll. Put a pinch of chopped cilantro on top mayo sauce. Put burger on top and then pineapple on top of the cheese. Top off with upper part of onion roll.