I think of these cheese-stuffed sliders as Sunny’s sliders. Sunny’s a dear friend and I created them for her. She’s had great success with the South Beach Diet so I know she’ll skip the buns; I loved them either way, especially when topped with my homemade bruschetta.
My goal was lean, delicious and moist; the problem with extra-lean ground beef is that it usually lacks the moisture and flavor that fat gives it. To solve that, I turned to brown mushrooms for their beefy taste and natural moisture. Mushrooms can also absorb liquid, though not as much as you’d think; Cook’s Illustrated concluded, after its customary exhaustive testing, that there’s no reason to avoid rinsing mushrooms to clean them, despite conventional wisdom to the contrary.
Sunny likes some ingredients associated with Greek food, so I took a little flavor inspiration from that and there’s an alternate version at the end with feta. I stuffed the sliders with semi-skim mozzarella, which will melt inside the mini-burgers as long as it’s not straight from the fridge.
I hope you like these, Sunny. I couldn’t ask for a better friend.
Sunny’s Stuffed Beef Sliders
4 cremini mushrooms, small dice
OR
1 small portabella cap, small dice
1 tsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
4 oz semi-skim mozzarella
1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped fine
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 pound extra-lean (93% lean) ground beef/sirloin
In a small bowl, toss the diced mushrooms with the lemon juice and set aside.
Cut the cheese into 4 one-ounce slices, then slice each one in half to yield 8. Set aside.
In a medium skillet, preferably non-stick, heat the olive oil over medium heat until hot. Add the onion, sprinkle with oregano and a little salt, and cook until translucent. Add the marinated mushrooms and juice and toss. Remove from the heat until cool enough to handle.
In a large bowl, add the contents of the skillet to the ground beef and combine well without over-handling or compacting. Divide the beef mixture into 16 pieces and gently form each into a small, flat patty.
Place a slice of cheese onto each of 8 patties, top with remaining patties and pinch the edges to seal. Grill, broil or saute as desired. Top as you wish and serve on slider buns or on a plate.
Alternate version: Use 3/4 tsp oregano and 4 ounces feta crumbles.
Any version: Ground buffalo/bison, which is quite lean, could be used in place of the beef.
Yield: 8 sliders
Addendum: For a recipe by Sunny, check out her fabulous noodle kugel. It’s a South Beach no-no, so when I make it, I eat enough of it for both of us!
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Ella, Thank you! Having you create a dish named after me just made my day and made me cry, both at the same time!
These burgers sound so delicious, and you’re right, I will eat them without the buns, but they will still be wonderful! I plan to try both versions, with mozarella and also with feta (or maybe a little of both??) and will let you know how they come out. After all, you’re the cook and I’m the faithful follower
Again, thank you so much for my namesake dish. You’re the best!
Love, Sunny
My pleasure, Sunny, and I do hope you like them. I know feta will “fit” between two of the little patties because I cut some mozzarella to feta size to try it, although with mozz the small slices work best. (btw, I used Polly-O, which I know is sold in your neck of the woods too. Its semi-skim melts well, as you can see from the top photo.)
Do let me know how you like your sliders! Love you to bits.
I don’t know what a slider bun is. Is it an east coast thing? These sound yummy. I wonder if they’ll work with my veggy crumble. Almost everything does. And mmm, mushrooms!
I took at look at that kugel recipe too; oh my, I love a good kugel. But not too much of one. IMO there should be NO fruit or jam anywhere near a kugel or a bagel. But that’s me.
MusEditions´s last blog ..Who needs pets when you have wildlife?
Hi, Muse! Slider buns look like regular burger buns except they’re smaller. I don’t think sliders are an east coast thing, but the buns aren’t as ubiquitous as the others.
I totally agree with you about kugel and Sunny’s (it’s so good!) almost seems like diet food compared with some of the loaded-up killer kugels I’ve seen. I will confess to occasionally putting jam on New England bagels, though — but it would be a crime to put it on fresh,soft, tasty bagels in NY. Here, it’s self-defense
!
Tried the sliders with some of your lemonade, and have come to a firm conclusion: there is a food-muse, and she’s lurking around your place.
Both were wonderful, and passed the mama test, too. Life’s getting easier all the time!
I just found slider buns in my store about two months ago. They aren’t with the bread products but tucked over at the deli counter, so it might be worth asking if someone can’t find them. I never think like product-placement managers in the stores, and usually am looking in the wrong place.
shoreacres´s last blog ..The Art of Re-Working Reality
Well, aren’t you a doll? Thanks so much for the feedback and I’m glad you and mama liked them. Sunny was the muse for the sliders, totally.
Good point about where slider buns are. The market I got them in had them on a rack in the butcher shop, handy for ground meat I suppose.
I was just at your blog about an hour ago and it locked up Firefox (what doesn’t, since version 2 whatever?) and gave me the white screen of death.
Will try again in a bit, maybe with IE.
Thanks again and give mama my best!
Well, that’s unnerving -the white screen of death biz. I’ve used Maxthon for some time w/no problems of any sort, so I’ve never used FF & have no idea what might be causing a problem. Hope it’s a glitch and not a problem.
shoreacres´s last blog ..The Art of Re-Working Reality
It was fine this time. I noticed a long spell, several seconds, where it said it was loading information from a different url. I wonder if that was it?