I Know Why The Cajun Burger Sings

Season 3, Episode 16: Topsy



A sausage and beef burger stuffed with shrimp gumbo and rice, topped with collard greens. Served with crawfish and even more collard greens.



This burger probably took the most preparation out of any burger I’ve made thus far. It required making shrimp gumbo - something I, as a New England native, never thought I’d do. This photo doesn’t quite do it justice, but the gumbo was pretty good - for a Northerner. It didn’t quite turn out as I had hoped, but it was tasty. It came out more like a shrimpy soup packed with veggies. I followed this recipe, if y'all are interested.



Now on to the burger. The gumbo called for sausage, but I didn’t want to stuff a burger with sausage… that just seems silly. Instead, I mixed the sausage into the burger, along with some cajun seasoning. The ratio was about 30:70 sausage to beef, which proved to be very sticky and very fatty (also known as delicious). Using this cool little burger gizmo I got for Christmas, I tried to make a pocket in the burger to stuff the gumbo in. Results are still out on this one, the pocket was pretty tiny (I mean like girl’s pants pocket tiny). I feel like shaping a pocket by hand would’ve actually been easier - but hey it was a gift.



I stuffed the burger, added a dash of hot sauce, and closed up the pocket. The burger stoodabout 4 inches tall… definitely not something to fry in a pan. So I threw it in the oven for a bit while I boiled the crawfish and cooked the collard greens. The crawfish got no seasoning at all, but the collard greens were tossed in olive oil, salt, pepper, and a little bit of garlic.



How’d it taste? Pretty good! I mean, I wish the gumbo had come out a bit spicier, with a bit more of a potent seafood flavor - but it was my first go at gumbo. It was pretty ambitious to stuff the burger with gumbo, but it added a really nice texture, and unique flavor to the very well seasoned beef. All in all, I’d definitely try this one again… only this time, maybe I should ask a Louisiana native for some gumbo tips.



