Yesterday, we seasoned it and cooked our first dinner on it. To season the griddle, we turned the griddle on high and waited until the griddle surface began to become a dark color. Once the griddle was ready, we applied a film of canola oil on every part of the griddle's surface and waited for the oil to cook off. We completed this step four times to make certain we had an excellent season on the griddle.
Our first dinner consisted of asparagus (because I had some in the fridge) and Oklahoma Fried Onion Burgers (because I had grass-fed beef on hand and plenty of sweet onions).
The Colonel, Baby Yam and I (and our cats, Tegan and Avon) moved to Oklahoma in 1992. Spud was born in the Sooner state in 1993. We were stationed at Tinker Air Force Base for six years. While living in Oklahoma, we would frequent a restaurant that made the best fried onion burgers (their hand-cut fries were excellent too). For the life of me, I cannot remember the restaurant's name.
The little town of El Reno, Oklahoma is the birthplace of Oklahoma Fried Onion Burgers. During the depression, hamburger meat was expensive and to make the burger meat go farther, the creator used onions as a filler.
Yesterday was the first time we made Oklahoma Fried Onion Burgers. I had to look up the recipe online (we wanted to do it right).
The recipe I used called for one pound of burger meat and one whole onion. As The Colonel was seasoning the griddle, I was inside preparing the asparagus and burgers.
I tossed the asparagus in olive oil and seasoned them with salt and pepper and set them aside. Next, I thinly cut the onion, placed them in a bowl and tossed them with a teaspoon of salt to sweat them for 30 minutes.
After the 30 minutes, I placed the onions in a dish towel and squeezed off the excess onion juices.
Once my onions were ready, I got the rest of my ingredients in order. I separated my hamburger meat and onions into four servings. We would grill them in butter and season them with salt and pepper.
First, The Colonel cooked the asparagus.
Next, it was time to cook the burgers. We took roughly two tablespoons of butter and coated the griddle before we put the onions down. We immediately put a ball of hamburger meat on each onion pile and smashed it flat with a metal spatula and seasoned the meat with salt and pepper.
The Colonel flipped the onion burgers after about six minutes and finished them for another three on the other side.
The fried onions were nicely caramelized and had a crispy finish. The hamburger meat was seasoned perfectly with the onions, salt and pepper. I think there will definitely be more Oklahoma Fried Onion Burgers in our future.
The 17" Tabletop Blackstone Griddle is touted as the perfect cooking implement for tail-gating and camping. The Colonel and I plan on using it when we camp on our recently purchased, 5-acre lot of Florida scrub (more on that later).
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