Dubliner Cheddar Bacon Burger with Hungarian Potato Salad - Ceili's

Ceili's signature beef burger, maple peppered bacon, melted Dubliner cheddar, served on a Kaiser bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, mustard and barbeque bourbon aioli. Side - Hungarian Potato Salad - $15.75

Actually, that's a lie. That's from the Calgary menu, and I can't quite read the Edmonton location menu at this time. Suffice to say the burger is quite similar but the fixin's are a bit different.

***

So I went to Ceili's for lunch over the holidays for a bite to eat. Ja, ja, your regular Irish pub fare, albeit a bit pricey.

I just don't think any restaurant burger compares to a homemade burger - save those from DeLux. And that's a maybe. The net result wasn't bad - it was quick, cooked well and the cheese was very much melted. It wasn't on a Kaiser bun, but a brioche bun (very soft - with a bit of a sheen to it) that was well suited to the task of transferring it's tasty goodness to my mouth. The sauces and condiments were all quite good and appropriate.

The Hungarian Potato Salad on the other hand, was quite disappointing. All my little Sous Chefs will know that I like a good potato Salad (Russian or German), and now we have the Hungarian.

Needless to say, my expectations were high - (is that Hungarian Paprika on top???). And this potato salad failed. Not spectacularly mind you, but still failed. It was like the New Jersey Devils of the potato salad world - playing not to lose, not playing to win. Oh the potatoes were soft, and it was a creamy dish, but it just didn't have the chutzpah to make my über-palate take notice. No interesting flavours to enjoy or think about. Correction - no flavour at all... And nothing to remember it by other than the partially filled void in my stomach. I think my Warm German Potato Salad was much better. Which, as I've just noticed, I have not yet written about...

Here is the evidence:

Bah! Well the burger was good, I'd give it a 7.0 out of 10 - a pretty good score for a restaurant burger (although still over-priced). The potato salad a 5.0 out of 10. The"104th Avenue Boring Potato Salad" would have been a more apt name.

St. Patrick's Bison Burgers

4 slices French bread, crusts removed
1 cup (250 mL) Guinness Draught, room temperature
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tablespoons (30 mL) Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons (30 mL) ketchup
1 teaspoon (5 mL) salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 lb (1 kg) ground bison (I used extra-lean ground beef)
1 red onion, finely diced
1 teaspoon (5 mL) dried thyme
1 large egg
1/2 cup (125 mL) freshly chopped parsley (I used a handful of dried parsley)
kaiser buns
Cheddar cheese
bread crumbs (This is not part of the recipe but I added some in)

***

Let's be honest, shall we? We're in Alberta. We eat meat. We eat beef. This burger has got beef, and it's got beer. Nothing spells "l-o-v-e" like homemade hamburgers. And this is good stuff. It's very, very moist. I was pretty impressed with the results today. I usually use a little less than 1 kg of beef, so it's a little too 'wet' and it will fall apart in the bar-b-q. Solution: a little bid of bread crumbs to stick it all together a little better. It's a sound investment.

Again, I obtained the recipe from the Edmonton Journal's bistro/food section - it was a St. Patrick's Day writeup. I'm guessing it's from about 5 years ago, because I have a note on it from October 17, 2007: "Made at Jeff's - more bread??". I think that day it was too wet or soggy that day, so I've been trying to up the bread quotient up or at least add some bread crumbs to keep things together a little better.

You can see the burger below. It's a little small, but I think they cook a little better. And I added some cheddar on top, of course. The burger is accompanied by one lovely yam (or is it a sweet potato? whatever, it's the same thing I used in the soup from a few days ago). Speaking of yams/sweet potato, I was watching foodtv before preparing the patties and there was this show "Spice Goddess" with an attractive Indian lady who was cooking - and she had some tasty, simple dishes that I need to try. One of them being a kidney bean stew (yes, it contains sweet potato).

Net result was a tasty meal. I'd give the burger an 8.5 out of 10.


Actually, I think this is the second best use of a Guinness. Hopefully I will be able to write about the best use of a Guinness relatively soon...