Brazilian Coffee Burger Recipe
This Brazilian coffee burger recipe never made it to my friend’s restaurant menu, Shame on him! It made it to my cookbook. Lucky me! Dig in!
It was very cold, late in the night, back in 1994. My friend, Edson, and I were small-talk brainstorming about a new possible menu makeover for his Diner here in our hometown. I must have invented at least a dozen choices of burgers and sandwiches that night. Many ideas came up, but he decided to play safe and the new menu never came out of the drawing board. I went home and wrote some of them down.
This is one of them.
(adapted to use non-Brazilian ingredients)
Ingredients
- 1.5 Tbsp ground Brazilian coffee
- 1/2 Tbsp salt
- 1/2 Tbsp paprika
- 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1/2 Tbsp pepper
- 1/2 Tbsp onion powder
- 1/2 Tbsp garlic powder
- 1/4 Tbsp coriander
- 2 Tbsp butter,
- 1/2 yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, roughly minced
- 1/2 cup ketchup
- 1 1/2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 6 oz cold Brazilian coffee brew (sweetened; leftover, ok)
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 1/2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 cup brown sugar,or to taste
- 1 tsp ancho chile powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 3 Tbsp Brazilian Guaraná soft drink, or Sprite, or Coke
- 2 lbs Angus ground beef (85/15), or any of your choice with the same amount of fat.
- 2 Tbsp BBQ sauce
- salt and pepper
- Round French bread buns
- Arugula lettuce
- 8 slices peppered bacon
- 2 Tbsp butter
- olive oil
Instructions
- Combine rub ingredients in a small bowl.
- Mix them well with a fork.
- Set aside.
- Melt butter over medium heat in a saucepan.
- Add onion and garlic.
- Sautée until soft and translucent, about 8-10 minutes.
- Add remaining sauce ingredients.
- Stir to combine.
- Bring to a low boil.
- Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, until sauce has thickened.
- Pour sauce into blender or food processor and puree.
- Set aside to cool.
- Add ground beef, salt, pepper and 2 Tbsp cooled bbq sauce to a mixing bowl.
- Mix well with your hands.
- Divide into 8 equal sections.
- Each burger will be 1/4 pound.
- Rub coffee rub seasoning mix over both sides of each burger.
- Heat a large skillet over Medium-High heat.
- Add a small pat of butter and toast the pretzel buns (sliced side down).
- Remove from pan to cool.
- Add 1 Tbsp butter, and a few drops of olive oil, to skillet.
- Cook burgers for about 3-5 minutes per side, until burger is cooked to desired point.
- Spread BBQ sauce over bottom side of pretzel bun
- Layer arugula
- Add 1 burger
- Add peppered bacon
- Add another burger
- Close sandwich with top bun.
Notes
You can add any choice of cheese to the top burger. In Brazil we use "Queijo Minas Padrão", or "Queijo Prato" (similar to Munster).
Ever since I saw the coffee shop scene in Saturday Night Fever, I have been intrigued and somewhat fascinated by the association of a burger with a coffee.
Find other recipes with coffee as an ingredient.
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