IRON CHEF RESIDENCE: Pita Burger

Several weeks ago, a man's fantasy became a reality in a form never seen before: Counter Stadium, a tiny cooking arena in the corner of a student dorm. The motivation for spending his non-existent fortune to create Counter Stadium was to encounter new and original cuisines. To realize his dream, he secretly started choosing the top chefs of various styles of cooking, and he named his men the Iron Chefs. Iron Chef Comfort Food. Iron Chef Fancy. Iron Chef Spicy. What inspiration does today's leftovers bring to the challenger? And how will the Iron Chef fight back? Whose cuisine reigns supreme? The heat will be on!

Allez Cuisine!

The challenger has chosen for today's battle: IRON CHEF COMFORT FOOD in the food battle, ground beef.

PITA BURGER
INGREDIENTS:

• ground beef (approx 1/2 pound)
• pita
• tomato
• garlic powder
• worcestershire sauce
• sweet paprika
• salt
• pepper
• liquid smoke

CONDIMENTS

• mayonnaise
• Cheeze Whiz
• ranch dressing
  

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a bowl, mix ground beef and last 6 ingredients on list, form into oval patties
2. Place patties on grill (in my case, a George Foreman grill), cook to preference
3. chop tomato
4. heat pita (over GF grill, oven, microwave etc)
5. assemble burger, place on condiments, enjoy
   

For this twist on an old American classic, I was inspired by a Bobby Flay Throwdown, where he battled for burgers with a woman who did a Greek burger using ground lamb and pitas. I liked this Mediterranean theme, but I didn't have lamb, tzatziki or the proper cheese. I only had the pita, ground beef, and a sense of imagination.

The burger itself had a lot of flavour. The liquid smoke, the paprika, the Worcestershire sauce all gave the ground beef something to sing about. I wish I had a good cheddar for the cheese, or even some feta - Cheeze Whiz just seemed too, plastic.

I also put on too much mayo and ranch for dressing - it was good, but at times masked the flavour of the burger. This is the great debate I can often have with food like burgers. I loved the taste of the meat, the seasoning, all on its own. But I also love the additions, the condiments, that which takes a good burger to bigger heights.

For comfort food, this hit the spot. I really like using the pita for buns and would consider it even with a more traditional burger. I would still love to do the Greek burger, but this was certainly an enjoyable dinner.

ICR WINNER: me