Sometimes you want a steakhouse dinner—at lunch. Or you crave the flavors of a juicy steak with the traditional spinach side, but you don’t feel like going through the whole high-end steakhouse ordeal, as pleasant as that can be. It’s a blustery, cold February weekday, and you just want to keep it casual.
Enter the N.Y. Steakhouse Burger for $11.95 at Prime 16, a craft beer bar and grill in Pelham, plus two locations in Connecticut. The 8-ounce, grass-fed, organic Angus beef is seasoned with freshly cracked black pepper, topped with melt-y crumbled blue cheese, tobacco-fried onions, and wilted spinach that has been sautéed in garlic and olive oil. It’s served on a brioche roll and a side of fries or salad.
“This is one of our bestsellers. It’s pretty basic, but very fresh and all the flavors really come through,” says Dave Marotta, one of the owners of the Pelham location.
N.Y. Steakhouse Burger
(Serves 2)
Ingredients:
16 ounces of ground beef (organic, hormone-free, antibiotic-free, grass-fed Angus)
1 Tbsp freshly cracked black pepper
5 oz fresh spinach
1 Tbsp garlic, minced (optional)
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp blue cheese
1 large yellow onion, thinly shaved
¾ cup flour
1-2 Tbsp spice blend (Theirs is secret; you can use garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper or whatever sounds good to you)
2 brioche buns
Preparation:
Mix flour and spices in a bowl. Dip the onions in the flour-spice blend.
Deep fry until golden. Drain and let rest on a paper towel-covered plate.
Heat a pan. Once warm, heat olive oil for a minute in the pan, and then add the spinach and garlic, if desired. Cook for a couple minutes, until spinach just begins to wilt and if using, until garlic becomes fragrant. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Set aside.
Make patties with the ground beef and coat with black pepper. Cook the burgers on a grill or a pan on the stovetop, a few minutes on each side, being careful not to pat too hard, which will release the meat’s juices and make it dry. During the last minute or two on the second side, place crumbled bleu cheese on top. Take the patties off the heat once the cheese starts melting.
Assemble the burgers: bottom bun, wilted spinach, meat patty topped with cheese, fried onions, and top bun.
