I suck at inspiring myself at times. I’m really not that creative. I try. I try really hard, but I just don’t make the cut sometimes. So when I’m wandering the isles at Whole Foods in hopes of inspiration to flood my brain, I usually just end up calling Dom. He’s incredible. This man knows food better than anyone I know, and he thinks of the weirdest combinations of food, which all turn out wonderfully. So I trust his opinion and ideas. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he starts his own restaurant soon. The food would be epic.
So when I was wandering, aimlessly once again through Whole Foods the other day, I called him to poke his brain. He mentioned something about making a burger with a date in the middle. That didn’t thrill me at that moment in time, but dried blueberries in a burger did. So once I meandered my way to the dried fruits and found the lack of blueberries, I decided to try out currants. I had no idea what they were going to taste like, but they were cute and looked like little raisins, so I was positive they would taste delicious. And they did.
Bacon and Currant Pork Burgers with Spicy Orange Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1/4 cup dried currants
- 8 strips bacon, diced
- 1 orange, peeled and diced
- 1 8oz can green chiles
- 1/2 7oz can coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tablespoon fat of choice (I used bacon fat)
Instructions
- First, heat up your grill. If you are not using a grill, forget this step.
- Now dice up your bacon. Maybe to 1 inch long strips/rectangles and throw them in a deep frying pan over medium-high heat.
- While the bacon cooks, add your ground pork, currants, and spices to a bowl and mix together. Once the bacon is done cooking, add the cooled bacon to the mixture and mix all together.
- Form into patties, however big you would like, and throw those little suckers on your hot grill. If you are not using a grill and just want to use your frying pan, pour the excess bacon fat into a jar/can to use later and add your pork burgers directly to that hot pan. They will need to cook for about 5-6 minutes/side depending how thick you made them and where you decide to cook them.
- While the burgers cook on grill or pan, pull out a smaller saute pan, and add your fat of choice along with your minced garlic clove and heat up under medium-high heat.
- Once the garlic smell fills the air, add your coconut milk, oranges, and green chiles to the mixture.
- Add a bit of salt and pepper to the mix and stir. Turn the heat down low and let simmer for about 3-4 minutes.
- Once the burgers are cooked through*, top them off with the spicy orange dressing.
- Then eat.
Notes
*The best way to tell if a burger is cooked through is to poke it. True story. If you poke it and ur finger sinks in, it’s definitely not done. U want the burger to “bounce back” at you, kind of like a rubber band. Don’t question, just poke. No need to eat raw pork. You won’t enjoy that.
Grocery List Helper:
- Ground pork: on sale at Sunflower Market
- Bacon: on sale at Whole Foods (pre-packaged, nitrate free)
- Currants: bought in bulk at Whole Foods
- Coconut Milk: small cans on sale at Whole Foods
- Green chiles: bought at King Soopers
- Orange: bought at King Soopers
Pretty tasty! thanks for the idea. The kids even liked it!
This was a great idea starter for me. I had some ground pork from my biodynamic farmshare and wanted something different. Happened to have bacon in the fridge. So I cooked this up, and served it over mashed butternut squash. Left out the orange sauce b/c I didn’t have time. Excellent. Served with salad on the side with grated fennel w/orange slices and cranberry. Thanks for the inspiration.
Made this recipe today and was skeptical about the topping, but it turned out really good! Couldn’t find currants, so I used golden raisins. Paired it with sweet potato fries and a little spinach salad.
glad you liked it Cass!! as always, you’re a badass for cooking these super old recipes!