If you’ve been around here a while, you know that we love our fancy burgers. And if you’ve been around here a really long time, you know that we love our fancy steaks.

Our favorite “fancy dinner” is Filet Oscar: beef tenderloin topped with crab, asparagus tips, and Bearnaise sauce.

“Amazing” sells it short. “Pricey” keeps it off the menu.

So rather than blow the grocery budget on filets and King Crab legs, we took a more economical approach. With a single on-sale snow crab cluster, a pound of ground beef, and a pound of asparagus, last week’s Fancy Burger Night got a surf & turf makeover with Burgers Oscar.

It’s a “plain” burger topped with juicy crab, grilled asparagus, and a generous scoop of Bearnaise sauce. “Over the top” sells it short. And the price won’t keep it off the menu.

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Burgers, Oscar Style

Burger night gets a surf & turf make-over with Oscar-style burgers.

Ingredients

• For the Bearnaise sauce:
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1/4 cup shallot or white onion, finely chopped
• 3 eggs yolks
• 1 stick butter, cut into 8 pieces
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• For the burger:
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• Salt
• Pepper
• Worcestershire sauce
• To assemble:
• 1 lb asparagus
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Meat from 1 snow crab cluster
• 3 burger buns

Instructions

1. Make the bearnaise sauce while heating the grill to medium high.
2. Boil wine, vinegar, and shallots in a small saucepan until liquid is reduced to 2 tablespoons.
3. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve set into a medium bowl, pressing on and then discarding solids.
4. Whisk the yolks into the vinegar mixture, and then set bowl over a double boiler and cook until hot, whisking constantly until yolks have thickened slightly.
5. Whisk in butter 1 piece at a time, adding each piece before previous one has melted completely.
6. Remove from heat and whisk in lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.
7. Set aside to cool so it thickens slightly, whisking occasionally.
8. To make the burgers, salt, pepper, and add a few dashes of Worcestershire to the meat and form 3 burgers.
9. Trim woody ends from the bunch of asparagus and toss with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, and pepper.
10. Transfer asparagus and burgers to the grill, cooking burgers 4-5 minutes on each side and the asparagus for ~10 minutes, rotating halfway through.
11. To assemble the burgers, top each bottom bun with a burger, trimmed tips of the asparagus (eat the rest on the side), 1/3 of the crab, and a generous scoop of Bearnaise.

Notes

Yields: 3 servings

Source: Confections of a Foodie Bride, sauce adapted from Gourmet

Estimated time: 30 minutes