50 Days, Kitchen Quarantine, Shrimp Burgers

Yesterday we hit day 50; local beaches are opening up for exercise only.  No sitting on the beach, observe social distancing and wear a mask.  San Diego has done a pretty good job at trying to keep the rate of infection down, testing needs to ramp up so that people can get back to work. 
Dr. C. and I headed over to Del Mar to walk the beach.  It was glorious if you ignored the red tide and dead fish on the beach.  The seagulls were taking care of the fish, but the odor from the red tide is something we can smell at our house a mile away.  Most people on the beach were observing social distancing, there were surfers and waders, and most people had a mask. 
I tend to hit a wall with cooking most days, looking for something fun, and something that will use up my freezer stash.  I had some suspect (read that kind of freezer-burned) raw shrimp in the freezer, got them out, and made some shrimp burgers which were awesome.  Add a brioche bun, and a little remoulade slaw and it was a great dinner.  I cooked the burgers in butter on the stove top, rather than grilling them, and I think they turned out really well.  My fear with grilling is that they will overcook, or fall apart, losing half of the burger in the coals. 
I think you could ramp up this recipe to feed a crowd, I just made huge burgers for two--they will not shrink, like a regular burger, so make them the size of your brioche bun. 

Day 50 Shrimp Burgers

Makes two large burgers

1 pound large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons Worcestershire
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 shakes Old Bay seasoning (this is probably 1/8 teaspoon)
1/4 cup panko crumbs
2 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
Brioche buns for serving

Put the shrimp into a bowl, add water to cover, add the lemon juice and Old Bay and allow to sit in the water for 10 minutes.  (you are brining the shrimp, in my case, I was hoping that the bits of freezer burn wouldn't affect the flavor of the burger, and they didn't---freezer burn turns parts of the shrimp white)
Drain the shrimp, put into a food processor, add the mayonnaise, Worcestershire, zest, mustard, garlic powder, Old Bay and Panko. 
Pulse on and off until the shrimp are ground up and the mixture comes together. 
Shape the mixture into patties, and refrigerate for 1 hour to firm up. 
Melt the butter and oil over medium heat, cook the burgers for about 3 minutes, until the underside is a pinkish/golden brown.  Flip the burger (you may need two spatulas to do this)  Cook another 4 minutes until the underside is pink/golden brown.  Serve on toasted brioche buns. 

Remoulade Slaw

Remoulade is one of my favorite sauces, for the burgers I made the sauce and then tossed some of it with thinly sliced romaine lettuce since I didn't have cabbage.  I served the remaining remoulade on the side.  

¾ cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup Dijon or Creole mustard
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon finely chopped cornichons or dill pickles
2 teaspoons finely chopped shallot
1 teaspoon prepared horseradish
2 teaspoons finely chopped capers
1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley
½ teaspoon sweet paprika

3 cups thinly sliced romaine or cabbage (or slaw mix)

In a mixing bowl, combine the mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, pickles, shallot, horseradish, capers, parsley, and paprika.  

Toss the romaine with some of the dressing, and serve with the shrimp burgers.  Serve the remaining sauce on the side.  

These burgers were so big, they broke when I put them on the buns

As we head into the week, I'm not sure what will be next in the kitchen, but I confess that I did get rid of the sourdough starter, as I opined this weekend, it's not for me.  Stay safe and stay well.